My parents dropped me off for a week-long summer camp at the local college; I wasn't a little kid though. I went straight to my dorm room, which was a nice clean, white affair with just two beds and a couple desks. Turns out my labmate Steve was my roommate, though he only stopped by to drop off his stuff before he hurried out to the first day's activities. I took out my laptop and booted it up; in the meantime I took out my iPod touch and tried to get wireless. No luck. It was going to be a long week. I took out the schedule sheet, which had talks, fun stuff, and classes, though I have no idea what any of them were anymore. I headed out to the buses up front, which would take us to the various areas.

Next thing I know, I'm sneaking out of the camp along with Steve and Tim to a wedding reception nearby. It was Tyler Jack's (a cancer research bigshot), and the reception was taking place outdoors overlooking a beautifully manicured hill. We saw from the bottom of it that several other big-time researchers were chatting on top of the hill. We soon took our places on metal folding chairs just to the left of the bride and groom's table, and I saw some of my old lab members there as well. By this time, we were in a little church-like area, with two walls that was otherwise open to the air. Tyler gave a little speech thanking everyone, and I was surprised that he knew all of our names. After that, we headed over to the food, which was spread out over four enormous tables containing platter after platter of crispy, soft, buttery danishes of all flavors. I greedily piled my plate full of one of each kind, from raspberry to strawberry to cheese. I even took a bite which melted directly in my mouth. I smiled, even while thinking how awful this was for my cholesterol. As usual though, I didn't get to eat any more than that.

We hurried back to the buses, but missed ours by just a few seconds as it pulled out in front of us. We were stuck for a few more minutes, so I decided to do some window-gazing. The area looked a lot like O'Hare airport, with giant windows and seating areas abutting the bus lanes. My window looked out over a sea or ocean, and I suddenly noticed that scuba divers were coming up in a circle, holding an enourmous rope net. I quickly realized I would be seeing something unusual, and pulled out my iPod (which for some reason had a camera) and started recording. As they pulled up, it seemed that our depot was sinking down, and I could see the fish that were being caught in the net. There were gigantic fish swimming about, and I could even see them on my little camera screen at the same time. We soon reached the sea floor, and I saw an octopus and a manta ray, both larger than me. It was awe-inspiring. In the split second that I turned around to check on the buses, the view outside shot right back up to ground level, which I could tell because it bounced a bit after hitting the final layer. I frantically tried to replay the video, but I just couldn't find it. I guessed that I didn't hit the record button right.

Instead of boarding the next bus, I noticed that people from our camp were crowding around a small, but long booth that sat just to our right. It seemed that the camp leaders were giving a speech, so I squeezed into the crowd somewhere. But that's all I got to do before I woke up.

posted by Larry at 9:07 AM