"Hey guys, watch this!"

First a video, to put you in the right frame of mind...

It is fair to say that the premise of this entire blog is celebrating and recording past adventures…but this post is especially dedicated to a nagging homesickness for the past. Decadence does not dwell on the past, whether good or bad. The past has happened and now it is no more. The fleeting nature of the past is why Decadence has learned to live with urgency in the present. 

All of this aside, at times Decadence cannot help but think longingly of the friends she has had to move away from in recent times. Having these thoughts only strengthens the need to tell stories, hopefully making the events of the past come to life where they can be enjoyed again and again.

Okay-that was the spiel addressing homesickness--hopefully you are a captive enough audience to have made it through that.

The last X amount of posts have been a bit long. This one will attempt to stay on the side of brevity, but alas this has been promised before...

This is the story of how BarbKiller and Decadence became friends...


While in college, there was a house that, at times-usually beginning in the fall months, kept a massive leland cypress (think Christmas tree) standing in their front yard. Sometimes it stood up straight, sometimes it leaned to one side. It was never decorated. It was simply too big for a bunch of college students to have the money, resources, or desire to obtain enough decorations and/or spend the time to decorate it appropriately.

Decadence's junior year: The tree was more crooked than ever. 

Think Leaning Tower of Pisa-but leaning more

It leaned to such an extent that college-girl Decadence began to think it was teasing her and her sporadic need for order. 

One night Decadence took it especially hard as an affront to her. An aggressive move, if you will. As if the tree had pushed Decadence square in the shoulders and then stood back as if to say "What're you gonna do about it, girl?!"

Stop looking at me like that, Tree.

Young Decadence was sick of this tree flaunting its presence day after day. One spring night, she decided it was time to take this tree down.

An old friend stood by watching, while a few new acquaintances walked past the scene. As fate would have it, one of these people was BarbKiller and the other was also a future SAA, HarpStar. 


In true style, (and what has since been identified officially as "A redneck's last words") Decadence yelled to the little known passers-by: "Hey guys, watch this!"

As soon as those words were uttered, Decadence ran full speed at the tree. Sprint would be the appropriate term.

Just as she reached the tree, she jumped. 

This is the exact jumping stance Decadence used, except she was fully clothed while doing so.

She jumped high and with the ultimate confidence of someone who knew that they were taking down Goliath.


Immediately after leaving her feet, she was fully engulfed by the branches and endless needles of the tree. For a split second, Decadence disappeared into the middle of the tree.

Visual likeness of Decadence lost amongst the tree branches.

Where she thought she would feel the tree give way to her brut force and thus tumbling to the ground; in the next second Decadence ricocheted away from the tree in the same direction from which she approached it. She was rejected fully and thrown clear of the tree as if she had jumped face-first into a vertical trampoline. Engulfed one second, thrown back to the ground in the next.

For a split second, Decadence laid on the ground in a daze. Laying flat on her back, she heard cackles of laughter. Decadence looked around and jumped up. 


She looked at the tree. it was still standing as if nothing had happened. BarbKiller, HarpStar and the other bystander guffawed and nearly soiled their pantaloons while Decadence shook off the shock that her maneuver had not handled the tree. 


Momentarily she entertained the idea of trying again. 

This display was enough for BarbKiller to decide that she and Decadence must join forces, and forces they joined. Case and point? SAAs.

In times of true unity, please refer to these two SAAs as "LAAurBAArb"

Many days later...it was determined that the tree was cemented into the earth, several feet below the surface of the ground. This is still Decadence's only known unsuccessful tackle to date.

Lessons of Birthdays Past

On the day of the birth of Decadence, there exists the need to revisit lessons learned during past birthday celebrations in order to prevent history from repeating itself...

Decadence was born three days after Christmas. This was eight days later than the projected arrival, which is how Decadence justifies her need to arrive to an event "fashionably late." Celebrating a birthday during this time of year takes persistence, patience, and creativity as people are always out of town or having family time or hungover from other celebrations occurring around the big day. This alternately means that the people that are available to celebrate the most magical of days are usually fully ready and willing to make it an event to end all events. This endeavor is always successful.
While briefly recounting a few memories that remain of celebratory occasions, this post will also present lessons learned in association with a sort of photo montage of people and things that may or may not have been involved...

The person pictured here (sometimes referred to as Diesel or BranFlakes) missed one of said birthday festivities due to a suspicious "illness." It should however be noted that in this picture, she had the right mindset.
Lesson learned: Careful mental and physical preparation should begin weeks before the birthday celebration so as not to fall ill just before or during said celebration, this will result in regret.

These two were present for one of the wilder celebrations: Lindsey ClAArk and BAArbKiller (shown here in full SAAdom). During their presence at one birthday celebration they brought a birthday cake and then while Decadence was outside talking to another party attendee, they ate most of the cake before others could enjoy it. Then due to their overindulgence, one became ill in the night.
Lesson learned: If someone brings a birthday cake, hide it or the assholes will eat it.

Cats dressed like lobsters are never involved...actually cats in general are never involved unless they run in front of the party crew as they roam the streets.
Lesson learned: Don't bring your cat to the party, he/she is not invited.

During one celebration many years ago, one nameless guest was seen peeing on cars much like these. Luckily the officers patrolling the streets did not witness this, but the same guest was later arrested for other reasons that did not include peeing on or attempting to drive a car. 
When these events are in the planning stages, transportation is always arranged whether this means a van cab is arranged for the night, a designated driver is chosen, or the party never leaves the place where it began. At times this system has failed and Decadence could think of no better option than attempting to make a 2 mile trek home (two separate attempts) after being left by party attendees for undetermined reasons.
Lesson learned: Stay away from cars during Decadence birthday celebrations unless a responsible person is driving and that person is not an officer of the law.
Lesson learned addendum: Do not leave Decadence alone on her birthday without transportation, she will make new friends but refuse their offers to provide her with ride home.

Occasionally it rains on the day of Decadence's birth, however this sort of weather will not be tolerated. This man had an appropriate response to ill-willed rain.
Lesson learned: Always have an appropriate response.

In the aftermath of such occasions, there is pain of various sorts. Headaches, inexplicable bruises and cuts, broken finger nails, stubbed toes, missing patches of skin, indigestion, upset stomachs, periods of chills and/or hot flashes, and sore stomach muscles from laughing are on par for an aftermath episode. During one aftermath bruise inventory session, Decadence complained of a sore shoulder. When BarbKiller was asked to inspect this spot, it was discovered that Decadence had been bitten. Vampire? No. This was a human bite, a human with straight, even teeth who had such biting power that they left top and bottom teeth marks, many teeth even breaking the skin. Determining the culprit of this misdeed became the great mystery of 2007 (you may have read/heard about this in the major news outlets). An official report was never filed, but the SAAs on the case felt quite certain that they found the violator.
Lesson learned: Do not bite Decadence.
Additional lesson learned: Plan for the aftermath.

Reviewing these lessons learned from past events helped Decadence successfully navigate through this year's birthday celebration with ease. There is the aftermath to contend with, but such is life.

Rico-Free Gang Formation

In order to truly maximize one's time on earth and/or with other human beings with which one finds a connection, one must form clubs (or groups, gangs, posses, crews, etc.). It has been said that the formation of gangs or groups creates a stronger bond between members, and in the case of the example gangs to be discussed here this notion was fully supported.
The gangs suggested and spoken of here do not endorse or take part in fear mongering or hate, they do not have needs to commit illegal acts; they are merely for the purposes of furthering the enjoyment of life. Both were formed during periods of time that had a definite end in the near future, aka college and graduate school, which perhaps served to further the feeling of urgency felt by the members to "live it up" while they had the freedom to do so.
Starting from the beginning...well before Decadence was discovered, she was a gang/club former. It seems Decadence has always been able to find individuals who share her affinity for adventure, wildness, and for "laugh-cries" (which is exactly what it sounds like-laughing so hard, tears stream down the face). Upon finding such individuals, the natural order of events takes place and inevitably a gang is formed. The formation of said gangs takes careful planning among the willing members, or simply many escalating conversations about logistics, rules, events, creeds, etc. At the official formation, the members come together as a stronger unit for the greater good of the gang versus the individual needs of the members (this concept sounds familiar...).
Strictly speaking of the gangs Decadence has been affiliated with, once formed new membership was near impossible. The original gang members knew and understood that this would be a lifelong commitment and such a commitment is unwavering.
Names of members cannot be revealed for obvious reasons, but the names of such gangs will now be released publicly.
The SAAs:

The SAAs or the Self-Appointed Assholes was the brainchild of Decadence and a nameless (for now) co-creator. This gang is the more organized gang of the two discussed in this post. It was formed with a creed which essentially stated that the members would "be the entertainers of self and others" an open-ended creed that the members took seriously in promising each other that each would never again be bored. The members of this gang all had birthdays that fell in the same month, a month that is now referred to as DeSAAmber. DeSAAmber is a month dedicated to the SAAs, SAAlebration, and AAdventure. As one might guess, when in full SAA-mode, members replaced each plain lowercase a with a double capitol AA. Act of defiance? Perhaps.
This gang also established a new understanding that one should not work too hard. In the aim of enjoying every minute left (what was then time as an undergrad student and has now become working adult) the SAA member knew that at any time, they might be called upon for adventure, responsibility be damned.
One might say that when together, the members of either gang experience "flashes of Decadence" which can be defined as a few minutes to upwards of several hours of Decadence-style daring-ness. Now when forming a gang, one should come up with their own activities because from an outside vantage point the gang activities of the SAAs may seem under-whelming, but this list lacks details of actual events (so as to stay out of reach of prosecution). SAA activities include organized and made-up games, "tagging", pranks, sticker sticking, heckling, beverage and/or food consumption, running/chasing, yelling, bike riding--sometimes in formation (sometimes trying to avoid running into things, other times SAAs were asked to vacate premises for safety concerns), roller skating, and the list could go on...

 Tagging via Defacement of national currency...(see upper right corner)

DEWG:
The newest gang to be formed is DEWG or the Destiny Express Wheel Gang. Also known for its shenanigans and havoc-wreaking, this gang was formed along the same lines, that living and experiencing life fully encompasses a certain amount of urgency, this urgency drives the adventure. Employing many of the same activities as the SAAs, DEWG members understand that just around the corner is serious responsibility. With this knowledge, the DEWG member fights to hold onto every last moment as a free soul. Many times grasping onto the moments one has leads to escalating situations, and situation escalation is what DEWG (and the SAAs) are all about.



Both gangs still exist and at times have been known to wreak havoc on establishments, homes, streets, and cities. Gang formation is a favorite past time of Decadence (and pre-Decadence). These examples go hand-in-hand with the examples serving to define Decadence.