On Saturday June 7 I rested alongside the edges of Lady Bird Lake at a little past midnight. During the day you can see the very same area filled with joggers and paddle boarders. At this moment, I was surrounded by darkness and solitude. I could see some stars but nothing compared to the previous weekend at Inks Lake State Park. As the moon moved through the sky, once again, stars vanished, but the sky seemed lighter. At around 2 am, the moon disappeared behind myself and the trees that covered me. The sky was much darker, and the lack of stars only made it look more lonely.
As expected, I was not lonely. I felt my leg starting to itch, which were the direct result of ants. I used my phone’s light to brighten my surroundings. Ants were everywhere, especially moving up and down the tree I was next to. Flies or mosquitos began bothering me shortly after, I was not sure since I could not see; however, the bites on my arms would make me suggest they were mosquitos. My arm began itching and I decided I would move down the edges of the lake towards another spot.
As I moved down the edges of the lake, I realized I could see more clearly in the darkness than I did before. The lake seemed much more clear and I could see a steady movement. I am not sure if I began to see things because of my sleepiness, but I though I was looking at some fish jumping out of the lake. My reason convinced me it was reality because in the two hours I was there, I saw some birds flying pretty low to the water. One of the more prominent reasons for the low flight of birds is for predation; therefore, I arrived at the conclusion that I was actually watching birds jumping out of the water.
At the new spot, I laid down. I shut my eyes. I nodded off to sleep for about 10 minutes without even noticing. I woke up with a jump and scared off two raccoons that were getting close to me. They jumped as I jumped and ran off about 5 meters when they stopped to look at me. I stood up as to leave the spot for good, and the jumped and ran behind a tree. I lost sight of them, but I was intrigued by what they would do next. I walked off into a flight of stairs that would take me up to Holly Street, but I stopped half way to look down and see if the raccoons would come out of hiding. They did not, but about three squirrels ran down the tree I was laying next to and began to run around where I laid. It looked like they were looking for something I had left, but they were not successful. One of the raccoons followed my trace up to the stairs where it stopped and looked around. I am not sure if it was looking at me or something else. I stood up and scared it away; consequently, scaring the rest of them too.
