(previous chapter)
At first, I loved having so much acid around. I wasn't always on it, but it was always on me, so the option was always there. I was living life how I wanted to at the time, high and in the woods.
But it wasn't sustainable.
I often needed help from friends and family to keep myself fed. When I did have money, the food I bought was mostly dry and ready to eat from the packaging; lots of peanut butter, granola, and pop tarts. My diet wasn't healthy at all, and barely kept me full.
As the weather got colder and wetter, I began relying on friends and family more for shelter, too, making me feel like a useless burden at times. Whenever I needed to shower, shave, wash clothes, or even prepare some of my meals, I needed to find a house I was allowed to do those things in.
I fell into a depression, at which point I stopped being able to hold onto acid without doing it. Between my own acid, and the acid of the friend I was effectively living with, I started to trip at least three times a week, though most weeks that number was more like five or six times. That went on for a few months as the weather got colder and colder.
I didn't sleep much during that period. Almost every night was a party that I attended for the sake of having somewhere to be for the night. I'd end up on acid, go all night, then run on coffee the next morning because I couldn't sleep once the sun was up. The triple-loaded cocktail of THC, LSD, and caffeine kept me functioning, but left me stressed and mentally exhausted.
It was only a matter of time before I started to experience health issues. Everything from trench foot to dental problems tore at my body, while the lower-left area of my stomach region would sometimes spaz out and get hard for a reason I still don't know the origin of. Maybe it was my diet. Maybe it was the acid. Maybe it was both. I began to lose faith in my life and accept that I would probably die young, if I even made it through winter. Something had to change. I had to leave the situation I had trapped myself in, but I was also afraid of leaving. That would mean facing the unknown far from home when my body felt like it was falling apart. But still, I knew I had to go.
My family is pretty big on Ohio State, so with the run they were having I decided to stay around long enough to watch them win the first ever College Football Playoff. Then, I set out for my first Rainbow gathering in Ocala.
(next chapter)
Showing posts with label psychedelics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label psychedelics. Show all posts
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Thursday, September 3, 2015
What A Ride: Into the Woods
(previous chapter)
I was still flipping burgers when I first moved into the woods. Instead of paying for rent, I bought gear and weed. It was so serene hiking into the woods at the end of the day, setting up camp, then hotboxing the tent before going to sleep.
Most nights I would stay in a cave about a half-hour's hike behind the nature center of the local college. I had attended a party at the cave earlier in the winter and decided it'd be a great shelter to live. My favorite part about the place was watching the thunderstorms from the cave, which was truly magical. Other nights I'd stay on a trail closer to town, just off the bike path. If I had to close or work late, some friends might let me stay at their house afterwords.
Now that I had work and an even less stable living situation than before, I decided to leave the editorial staff of The Oddville Press. I kept operating The Adventurous Pen for awhile, but I needed something to really stand out to promote myself as a writer - my own niche. I was always talking about psychedelics. Being introduced to LSD at the age of 13 left me open to study the chemicals with great passion from that early of an age. By this point in my story, I was 20 and had quite the knowledge of psychedelics. Even in everyday conversation, I was spouting the gospel of psychedelics, defusing myths, stating random facts, and generally raising interest and awareness of the magic chemicals. I felt like doing so was my calling in life. Even my poetry in Through Kaleidoscopes had been based on the psychedelic experience. It only felt right that I launch a website to help spread that information, thus Tea With the Captain was born.
At this point, I should probably detract a little to tell you how I got the name Captain Chucke. Having just graduated high school - just age 18 - I was at Wisteria Summer Solstice Festival 2012. One of my uncles makes mead, and he gets the honey off his neighbor that raises bees. I brought two bottles of this mead to share with people at the festival and get their feedback on it. There was a theater troupe called the Pirates of the C.U.C. Constantine that hold a 21+ only party-ritual called "Tortuga" at the summer solstice festival each year on the Friday of the event. The festival is now only a Thursday through Sunday event, but in 2012 it was a full week. I met the pirates earlier in the week at their 21+ only knot tying workshop. I walked in and the first words from my lips were, "Pirates, drink my uncle's mead."
They never questioned my age, so I never actually lied. They accepted the drink, then returned the favor by blessing me with "hilarious" lemonade - rum with lemonade powder. From that point on, the pirates and I became friends. When Tortuga rolled around, I asked them if I could borrow some pirate garb for the party and if they needed any help carrying things down to set up. They loaned me a pirate hat and had me carry a ship wheel and some thick rope, effectively sneaking myself into the party like I'm supposed to be there. I hung out in the back away from the fire at first, drinking lemonade to catch a buzz while trying to decide if I should stay hidden in the shadows, or just act like I'm supposed to be there. The decision was made for me. One of the pirates, Dirty Alice, came up to me and asked if I would do a big pirate favor; they wanted me to declare myself "Captain Chucke".
The Captain is an integral part of the Tortuga ritual. Whomever gets the title must undergo the "mutiny" game, Drink Or Drown, where the Captain is "tied" to the ship wheel I carried down with the rope I carried down (doesn't sound planed at all), before being walked around the fire a few times, then made to, essentially, beerbong some hilarious lemonade. I drank and didn't drown, thus earning me the title Captain Chucke.
At first, it was just a name close friends knew me by - a fun name with a cool story behind it. Over time, I put together my own pirate outfit to wear to parties, festivals, or even just around town when I felt like being a little odd for the fun of it. Soon, Captain Chucke became a common nickname that I'd introduce myself as. Since I was already this character, I decided to run with it as my psychonaut name when I started Tea With the Captain, thinking that an interesting character would make more people pay attention.
I left my job flipping burgers during a particularly stressful shift where the people in the back couldn't do their jobs right because they were still new, and the people in the front kept losing the sandwiches I'd make. I should have just stuck through it, but I was frustrated and left instead. From that point, Tea With the Captain became my life. I wrote articles and did videos on psychedelics, festivals, and other related things, then spent the rest of my time promoting and link building. I made it my gimmick to try to appear crazy, done up in weird costumes to mock the idea that psychedelics make you crazy.
Talking about how great psychedelics are naturally led to helping people find them, which since I no longer had a job became the deal I would make to keep myself high and fed. LSD and other psychedelics were slowly becoming more prevalent and popular in the area as people's fears from myths became alleviated and more information spread on the benefits of psychedelics and how to ID the chemical you're taking came out. With more people doing psychedelics, more people wanted to try the chemicals for themselves. I was watching, online and in the real world, the progression of a new psychedelic dawn. Zane Kesey had his father's bus, Further, out spreading family love. I got dosed by the Pranksters at the Gathering of Juggalos a couple weeks before the bus landed at Smoke Rise Ranch, at which point LSD gained more abundance and staying power than I had previously seen in my area. The renewed popularity only helped ensure it stick around.
(next chapter)
I was still flipping burgers when I first moved into the woods. Instead of paying for rent, I bought gear and weed. It was so serene hiking into the woods at the end of the day, setting up camp, then hotboxing the tent before going to sleep.
Most nights I would stay in a cave about a half-hour's hike behind the nature center of the local college. I had attended a party at the cave earlier in the winter and decided it'd be a great shelter to live. My favorite part about the place was watching the thunderstorms from the cave, which was truly magical. Other nights I'd stay on a trail closer to town, just off the bike path. If I had to close or work late, some friends might let me stay at their house afterwords.
Now that I had work and an even less stable living situation than before, I decided to leave the editorial staff of The Oddville Press. I kept operating The Adventurous Pen for awhile, but I needed something to really stand out to promote myself as a writer - my own niche. I was always talking about psychedelics. Being introduced to LSD at the age of 13 left me open to study the chemicals with great passion from that early of an age. By this point in my story, I was 20 and had quite the knowledge of psychedelics. Even in everyday conversation, I was spouting the gospel of psychedelics, defusing myths, stating random facts, and generally raising interest and awareness of the magic chemicals. I felt like doing so was my calling in life. Even my poetry in Through Kaleidoscopes had been based on the psychedelic experience. It only felt right that I launch a website to help spread that information, thus Tea With the Captain was born.
At this point, I should probably detract a little to tell you how I got the name Captain Chucke. Having just graduated high school - just age 18 - I was at Wisteria Summer Solstice Festival 2012. One of my uncles makes mead, and he gets the honey off his neighbor that raises bees. I brought two bottles of this mead to share with people at the festival and get their feedback on it. There was a theater troupe called the Pirates of the C.U.C. Constantine that hold a 21+ only party-ritual called "Tortuga" at the summer solstice festival each year on the Friday of the event. The festival is now only a Thursday through Sunday event, but in 2012 it was a full week. I met the pirates earlier in the week at their 21+ only knot tying workshop. I walked in and the first words from my lips were, "Pirates, drink my uncle's mead."
They never questioned my age, so I never actually lied. They accepted the drink, then returned the favor by blessing me with "hilarious" lemonade - rum with lemonade powder. From that point on, the pirates and I became friends. When Tortuga rolled around, I asked them if I could borrow some pirate garb for the party and if they needed any help carrying things down to set up. They loaned me a pirate hat and had me carry a ship wheel and some thick rope, effectively sneaking myself into the party like I'm supposed to be there. I hung out in the back away from the fire at first, drinking lemonade to catch a buzz while trying to decide if I should stay hidden in the shadows, or just act like I'm supposed to be there. The decision was made for me. One of the pirates, Dirty Alice, came up to me and asked if I would do a big pirate favor; they wanted me to declare myself "Captain Chucke".
The Captain is an integral part of the Tortuga ritual. Whomever gets the title must undergo the "mutiny" game, Drink Or Drown, where the Captain is "tied" to the ship wheel I carried down with the rope I carried down (doesn't sound planed at all), before being walked around the fire a few times, then made to, essentially, beerbong some hilarious lemonade. I drank and didn't drown, thus earning me the title Captain Chucke.
At first, it was just a name close friends knew me by - a fun name with a cool story behind it. Over time, I put together my own pirate outfit to wear to parties, festivals, or even just around town when I felt like being a little odd for the fun of it. Soon, Captain Chucke became a common nickname that I'd introduce myself as. Since I was already this character, I decided to run with it as my psychonaut name when I started Tea With the Captain, thinking that an interesting character would make more people pay attention.
I left my job flipping burgers during a particularly stressful shift where the people in the back couldn't do their jobs right because they were still new, and the people in the front kept losing the sandwiches I'd make. I should have just stuck through it, but I was frustrated and left instead. From that point, Tea With the Captain became my life. I wrote articles and did videos on psychedelics, festivals, and other related things, then spent the rest of my time promoting and link building. I made it my gimmick to try to appear crazy, done up in weird costumes to mock the idea that psychedelics make you crazy.
Talking about how great psychedelics are naturally led to helping people find them, which since I no longer had a job became the deal I would make to keep myself high and fed. LSD and other psychedelics were slowly becoming more prevalent and popular in the area as people's fears from myths became alleviated and more information spread on the benefits of psychedelics and how to ID the chemical you're taking came out. With more people doing psychedelics, more people wanted to try the chemicals for themselves. I was watching, online and in the real world, the progression of a new psychedelic dawn. Zane Kesey had his father's bus, Further, out spreading family love. I got dosed by the Pranksters at the Gathering of Juggalos a couple weeks before the bus landed at Smoke Rise Ranch, at which point LSD gained more abundance and staying power than I had previously seen in my area. The renewed popularity only helped ensure it stick around.
(next chapter)
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