Seriously, though, it was a good time.

It was Yahn, Alice, D., Dante, Vincent, Nages and me. We didn't drop until 4.

The stuff was on sugar cubes, which was a new experience for me.

It was a very mellow trip. An hour in, I was like, "NO way is this a double dip." I was feeling something, but it was only as intense as the time I took a half. And, I never felt sick. Every other time, even with the half, I'd had kind of a lowgrade queasiness going on the whole time. Also, even when I was having fun, there was always a feeling in the back of my head that I was only inches away from The Edge, and things were going to spin out of control any minute. That didn't happen either.

It was just a Pile game. An action-packed, hilarious Pile game, with numerous breaks for spontaneous silliness.

Dante: See, D. and Vincent are at war, here, and I'm just trying to get them to mellow out. Stop the Insanity, people. All I'm saying is, Give Peace a Chance. I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness....

D: *sigh* Again with the Spire Owl?

Ana: Wow. This is the best lighter in the entire world. It looks like it's made out of wood.

Yahn: It's not ours. I don't know where it came from. You can have it.

Ana: Really???

Dante: *plays something that lets him determine the order of the next few spell cards to be picked* Hmm. I definitely don't want Yahn to get this one, so I'll put it here where Ana will draw it instead...

Ana:Um...excuse me?

Dante:Well, in Yahn's hands this card would just be terrifying, but with you...

Ana:I wouldn't know how to use it?

Dante:Well, not exactly. It's just...

Ana: Well, fuck you. Lemme tell you something. I am going to draw that card, and I am going to destroy you with it.

Dante:...

Ana: You, my friend, are going down.

Dante:...

Ana:Oh, no. Ana's too stupid to use the cool card effectively. Fuck you. Fuck. You. *Ana draws from the land pile, instead of the spell pile.* Aw, shit.

Ana:*finds a cat toy that looks like a giant rubber jack* Wow. This is the best thing ever.

Yahn:Remember? You gave that to Twiggy, because George didn't ever play with it. Twiggy doesn't like it much either, though.

Ana: But it's so cool! Look what I can do with it! *spins the jack on one of its points like a top.*

Yahn:Um, yeah. She tried to get it spinning like that once, but you see, all she has is paws. No thumb.

Dante: *finds the cat toy again* Wow. Ana's right. This thing really is pretty cool.

D: Gimme that.

Dante: But, but...

D: Gimme. *snatches the toy away* Now, I'm attacking you here, and--

Dante:Of course, I'm tripping right now. Everything is a toy. Ooh, look. A ten-sider.

D:Gimme that! *takes the die*

Dante:Ooh, look. A counter bead.

D:OK, now you're being silly.

Dante: But it's so blue, and shiny, and...wow. OK, I was messing with you, but this bead really is pretty amazing.

***

Finally, the game ended. We decided it was Time To Go Outside. Nages chose to stay at Alice's and watch cartoons. Vincent got outside, and realized he would only want to make one walk, so he was going to go home and stay there. The rest of us set off, vaguely in the direction of the House. The stars were incredible.

When we got to the House, everyone else wussed out, and decided to go around to the path. I was cold, and went straight down the hill. I went in the lounge, and the first thing I saw was ten-foot tall naked people. The Taus were watching some sort of softcore porn on the bigscreen TV. That was a little more than my reality was ready to deal with. I turned right around and walked out. When I saw the others coming, I explained things to them. "Help. They're...they're watching this movie, and...."

We maybe stayed in the lounge 10 minutes. It was so strange. I could almost see the gap that separated us from the lounge. We were FUCKED UP and they were stone cold sober. We were ready for any kind of action, the louder and freakier the better, and the only thing they could offer us was a shitty R-rated movie. It was like dealing with aliens. No communication was even possible.

So, we walked again. We stopped at Dante's to pick up some movies. I really wanted a Miniature Snickers. After much shouting at Bob, it turned out they were actually my Snickers, that D. had brought over a few days ago. I distributed Miniature Snickerses to everyone. We almost lost D. to Diablo, but then he agreed to come along with us. Vincent decided to stay.

When we got back to Alice's, we talked for maybe an hour. I doodled something that Nages said looked like an evil Big Bird, and Dante swore was a Picasso. We watched Dr. Strangelove and then I knew I had to get to bed.

George had other ideas. He wanted to play. I ended up putting one of his jingly balls on the bed, and covering it with a layer of blanket. For maybe an hour, all I had to do was move my foot, and make the ball jingle, and he'd come running, and pounce on me. Then, he'd go away, but come leaping back again the next time I moved. Finally, I wore him out, with almost no movement on my part, and he stayed on the bed and went to sleep on my feet. That was fairly clever of me, actually. I hope he doesn't get bored with that game any time soon. It's a recurring problem we have. When Ana is in bed, that means it's time to go to the front door and start crying. But, finally, under the influence of psychotropic drugs, I've found a way to outsmart him. Go, psychotropics. Drugs rule.

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