Thursday, August 20, 2009

dear diary, i love my tent

it took me forever to find a decent cup of coffee this morning! i was way too lazy and lame to make a pot this morning before i left the house, and the hospital coffee is cheap but is just so bad that i can't drink it anymore. i'm fairly sure it's not made of beans, but instead from old socks. old, burnt, crusty socks. i shudder to think. coming back to work from five days off is hard, y'all. getting up early because i have to get dressed and take a shower and be civilized is not as much fun as sleeping in late, living in a tent and being slightly dirty all the time. granted, our most recent sojourn to jim creek was a short one, but we got into the swing of things by not really unpacking from our last trip out. work today is nice and quiet and a good way to ease back into things, but i'd prefer to be crashed on the couch watching tv with the kids. they got a whole summer, why can't i?!

jim creek was gorgeous! the big downside to it is you have to be military or be related to someone in the military to go, the other downside is that you aren't actually allowed anywhere in or near the creek itself (it's protected for salmon and freshwater mussels). all that water, but no wading! they have some lakes and boats you can rent for fishing, but you can't swim in them, which is also sort of lame. especially if it's hot. you'd think maybe they'd have a pool or something there as an alternative, but they don't. the campsites themselves were really nice; they had privacy hedges between sites, and the RV's were in a seperate part of the campground. i have nothing against people to camp in RV's per se, i mean, people should vacation and camp any way they like, however, when we were out at prineville we were right by two big RV's and campers who stayed up all night long watching tv and movies. their camping was noisy and bright and irritating if you were living next door in a tent. i think having campers in vans and RVs out on their own turf is just a reasonable thing, as well as polite. jim creek also had some cute as hell cabins out there, which i really wanted to stay at. my little family scoffs at the idea of this as "camping" but i don't care. living in a tiny, rustic cabin (or yurt! don't forget my favorite!) for just a few days makes me feel all laura ingalls wilder, and i love it. plus, sometimes when i camp i'm less all about hiking and hanging out outside, and more about just taking some quiet time "off" from the rest of the world. doing some thinking, reading, writing or whatever away from TVs, radios, and the rest of the world is just a nice thing to do sometimes. it's refreshing. i don't always need to be out doing stuff, especially considering i'm one of the laziest people i know. i'm all about getting my sloth on at times!
we had a great time on our both camping trips, and last night before drifting off to sleep D and i talked about how much fun we had and how excited we are to take more trips. we'd like a bigger tent so we can all sleep in there (the boychik right now prefers to sleep in the car; he gets a bit of privacy and a bit more room to stretch out), or at least have more wiggle room. we're getting better at camping all together, although on both trips we forgot stuff. once it was silverware, once it was fire, and i kept talking about yogurt and granola for breakfast and then forgot the granola! nothing huge or life-shattering has ever been left behind, though, so i think we're doing okay. i know it's late in the camping season, but the best thing about the pacific northwest is that we often get our best weather starting in september, so we probably have at least one more trip in us. i'm hoping for two, but we'll see! first we have to attack the mountain of laundry and get kids ready for school (ASB cards are $30 at the high school. can you say WTF?!). they go back in a little less than two weeks, and while it's been great having them around, i'm kind of looking forward to having my monday's back. monday was always the day i had off by myself, and i got a lot done on that day, and enjoyed a bit of quiet alone time. i'm a much nicer person and more pleasant all around when i get a bit of alone time, trust me.

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