I was recently at a show where up-and-coming rapper, Milo, performed. He had a nice write-up in
LA Weekly over the summer, and I was super surprised to read that he’s originally from Saco, Maine. For years, I went on this annual canoe/camp trip on the Saco River with a group of friends.
I hadn’t been in a while, but my sister, Paul and I decided to revive the Saco trip this past July with fifteen of our more adventurous friends. There were a few semi-seasoned campers, but we had a solid percentage of first-timers. I got
many emails before the trip asking me to clarify the ‘bathroom situation’. Our two born-and-bred New Yorkers didn’t even know how to swim! I can’t believe they agreed to be confined to a canoe for two days. I wish I had footage of Keisha wading in the river repeating “I’m in nature, I’m in nature…”.
It really isn’t that strenuous though. We tie our canoes together and float as a giant canoe raft for the first few hours. It’s a nice way to start, and it makes passing beers way easier. The only difficult part of the trip is carrying the canoes around the dam. Incredibly inconvenient, but pretty cute to see all these jaded New Yorkers get their camp counselor on and work together to get it done. Teamwork at its finest. At one point, even our resident smart-ass Matt was clapping his hands and saying motivational stuff like “dig your heels in, we’ve got this!”.
I had also forgotten about the frat party that is Saco. The beaches are lined with flip cup tables, people shout “SACOOOO” at every passerby, and mottos like “drink ‘em and sink ‘em” originated there. The newest bro catchphrase on the river was “dump ‘em out”. Seriously. It took us ladies a minute to figure out what that even meant. Naturally, I googled it when I got home and learned two interesting facts. One: the Saco River is in the
Urban Dictionary. Two: that charming catchphrase was another Saco River original.
Since several of our friends that went on the trip are in the rap scene, there were a good number of Saco survivors at this recent show. And we may have all shouted “dump ‘em” when Milo took the stage.
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| eighteen New Yorkers go camping |
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| hot dog on a stick, it's what's for dinner. |
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| Tasty Keish & Mo Niklz do nature |
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| Prem does too |
I hosted my annual pumpkin carving party this weekend. I have a childlike love for the holidays and all the cheesy traditions that go along with them. Since Paul has zero interest in holiday activities, I started having friends over several years ago to carve pumpkins with me. He appeases me at Christmas time, but I’m on my own for the minor holidays. It turns out I have enough friends who love holiday traditions too, cause last year I peaked at a dozen people coming over to carve pumpkins.
