Buried Hopes

Since we aren't exactly supposed to talk much about PovSim, so as to not ruin the experience for others, I'll just post about a few of the highlights of the weekend. For those of you who will one day partake of this weekend, I'm sorry if I ruin anything for you :) Sleeping outside on Friday night, in the pouring rain -- It was quite the experience. 60 people huddled together on hard concrete under a small covering. I lucked out and was given a spot on a table(with it's legs folded under) because the area was already getting wet. It turned out that, a few hours later, the whole area was wet, and everyone's sleeping bag was soaked except for mine. I felt blessed, guilty and dry. Kenneth -- he was the dirtiest man I have ever seen. And the sweetest. He was also insanely smart, explaining to my husband in great detail the fact that ice vaporizes when the vapor pressure is greater than the atmospheric pressure. I don't understand how someone that smart can live like ...

When I was younger, we had a huge, unfinished basement. The walls were unpainted and covered in childish murals that my brother and I had created in markers and crayon. The floor was a cold, grey cement, with half of it covered in an old piece of orange carpet. Old, odds-and-end pieces furniture were placed on the carpet, and the room was scattered with toys, old blankets, dress up clothes and the like. I played many games in that basement, but one of my favorite games was the "lets pretend we're poor" game. We would lay old pieces of foam mattresses in the corner, cover them in the old blankets, and pretend that they were our beds. We pretended that we had nothing but the junk that the basement held, and we had to sleep every night on the old foam mattresses, with our bodies pressed against the cold, cement floor. I loved to pretend that my life was simple and rugged like that, that I could create a home for myself with just a few odds and ends and a blanket, that I coul...