schaackmobile: Post #101: Lake Weekend 2010

Over 100 random thoughts seems like kind of a lot for a fairly delinquent blogger, no? Today's post is about this year's Lake Weekend-- a holiday I now anticipate as much as Christmas, and one that has domino-like beneficial effects for my friends because of the hallowed Lake CD exchange. In addition to the all-important music swap, there was the customary tubing, water skiing, grilling, and shooting the breeze-- an entire summer's worth for me, neatly packed into one long weekend. Unlike previous years, there were (I believe) a record number of attendees, the never-before-attempted-double-handstand-on-the-tubes trick, and a spontaneous sing-a-long that would warm the cockles of even the coldest heart. Imagine, if you will, the whole gang out on the deck getting ready for the annual Lake Weekend Picture (which ends up on the wall in the condo alongside all the others from years past while simultaneously serving as log book for all Darron's past girlfriends, Steve's ex-wives, and Rodenbeck's physical feats of tube mastery). Everyone's out there-- 15 adults and 3 kids, one of whom is bawling his eyes out because, well... maybe because he lost at mini-golf or couldn't get up on one ski or something like that, we may never know. Anyway, Mr. Luesse (Darron's dad and the annual Lake Weekend picture-taker) is teetering on a deck chair trying to snap the shot while Sarah Luesse (Darron's wife and the mother of his child) tries to soothe their baby, Jude, so he does not look positively miserable in this picture that is supposed to capture the bliss of Lake Weekend for perpetuity. It's not working, and finally Mr. Luesse just wants the baby to at least look at the camera and he shouts out "Hey Jude!" To which there is only one reasonable follow-up from the group: Don't make it bad. And so the whole group erupted into a spontaneous, gentle lullaby for the baby, continuing the song (Take a sad song and make it better, remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better), then crescendoing (better, Better, BETTER, BETTER!), and then skipping ahead a little bit to the good part (Naaah, Na, Na, Na-na-Na-Naah, Na-na-Na-Naah, Hey Jude) and finishing off somehow still in near-perfect unison despite the new arrangement of the song with (Jude, Jude, Judey, Judey, Judey, Judey, WAAAHH!) All this-- while still holding the pose for the picture! Needless to say, the baby stopped crying during all of this and was looking up and around at all his (essentially) aunts and uncles. I can only guess what he was thinking, but perhaps it was "Wow, these people must have spent a lot of time at the karaoke bar singing this song because it sounds pretty good!" If so, he was right.