Cheers!

I met Carla at a random, three day weekend getaway to Lake Tahoe. I had just endured my first week of classes after winter break, and again I needed more than ever to escape the fast paced monotony of college life. True, I was a straggler – merely “going along for the ride” with my friend Matt. Out of the twelve people on the mountain hiatus he was the only one I knew, as the trip was the design of his distant cousin. I didn’t even have the time or the money to put into the excursion because my private school (and private school tuition) had devised to pick up its slave driver mentality within the first three days back, thus leaving me with a bombardment of papers to write and important articles to read. But I didn’t care. This provided me even more incentive to get away and live under the disillusionment that break could last just a little bit longer.

After enduring a sore, crowded, six hour drive through winding roads, I piled out of the car with the rest of my travel cohorts in Stateline, Nevada. The distant cousin had rented a charming mountain cabin, and I was more than ready to indulge in the night’s debauchery. We quickly piled into the house, set up camp, and whipped out the alcohol that our token 21-year-old had purchased for the trip.

Shot one: As we entered our ceremonial circular formation, on the brink of screaming “Cheers!” a girl to my left turned to me. “Hi, I’m Carla!” “Oh hey…my name’s Kaitlin.” “Cool. So how’s it going?” “Pretty good – just excited to get this weekend started.” “I know, seriously! This is going to be a lot of fun. Whelp, cheers!”

Shot two: Carla and I carried on a light-hearted conversation, quickly getting to know each other. She lived in Vista, California, liked to take lots of pictures with her digital camera, and enjoyed meeting new people to party and have a good time with. She fluctuated between extremes, smiling and laughing as she described her friends back home, and frowning and rolling her eyes while she lamented about the snobby girls that attended school with her. Best of all though, she was a huge classic rock fan, a lot like me. This was ample cause to “cheers” for.

Shot three: Seven minutes into my Tahoe vacation had me playing air guitar for my enthusiastic new friend. We loudly “da na na na’d” to the legendary solos of The Doors, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and even a little Guns ‘N Roses. Carla danced along and burst into uncontrollable, shrill laughter as I busted out with the famous windmill strumming and played behind my back. It wasn’t long before we were singing “Cheers!” between invisible riffs.

Shot four: By this time I had smashed the guitar and Carla and I were on to more important things, such as telling dirty stories. She mischievously relayed to me the latest Vista gossip while donning a huge smile between her chubby cheeks. We playfully flirted with the guys in the room, bouncing jokes off of each other as though we had been friends for years. Soon we started to feel like big, bad 19-year-olds, playing house in the middle of nowhere for the weekend, and decided to “cheers” with the boys to an exciting few days.

Shot five: Carla decided she loved me. “I love this girl,” she cried, “I really do love her!” It’s amazing the bonds that underage drinking often facilitates. It’s fun breaking the rules and it’s fun having someone to break them with. Better yet, Carla and I had become fast friends and I had found my partner in crime for the next few days. Cheers to that!