The Great Outdoors, And Sleeping In My Own Bed

You might be saying to yourself "What has Sandi been doing for this 4 day weekend?" And then you might say to yourself "Hey it wasn't a 4 day weekend!!! But was it?!? And what HAS she been doing???"

Let me 'splain.

Here's what happened: Mike's boss said he had 2 "floating holidays?" I don't know what that means, but basically what it means is that he had 2 vacation days that he needed to use up real real real soon. Also, the man (Mike, not his boss) has been trying to get me camping since before the dawn of time. So, I suggested taking off a Thursday and a Friday, having a nice long 4 day weekend, and then something overcame my consciousness, and I said let's go camping at some point in the midst of all that.

I know what you're thinking, and I don't know why I subject myself to these things either.

The camping gods smiled upon us and a nice little cold front moved in on Thursday, perfect weather, and we got all kinds of camping food and gear and what not (borrowed from Mike's parents) and off we went. It began as any other well meaning camping trip on "Lake" Austin (I say lake with "" because, really, it's a river people...a RIVER). Pete didn't know what to think about any of it and when we let him off of his leash to move about our campsite, he did short sprints all over the place. What a silly goose. Speaking of water fowl, a troupe of ducks said hello! It was great fun, and then we cooked dinner (burn ban = propane stove), which did not consist of said ducks.

And then it began.

So, I'd been sneezing all day long. Ever since I moved to Austin my allergies haven't known which way is up. One year they will manifest themselves in the spring, and another year they will start in the middle of the summer and then leave sometime around Easter, and other times they'll skip a year entirely? So my allergies were happening on Thursday. Isn't it such a good idea to go sit in nature and nurture one's allergies? In my very recent experience, I don't think so. I started sneezing non-stop. It got dark and cold so we got in the tent (a tent big enough for Mike's foot, but still it was fun) to play card games. The sneezing continued. Sharing close quarters with a furry animal, that is covered in nature type pollen, probably didn't help.

Oh the pain of my lungs and congested nose! I could recite a soliloquy about it! Do you want me to?

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day.

Okay, moving on.

Respiration was not happening. It was about 9 pm and we were laying there, contacts already dispatched to their respective cases, when Mike said "Do you want to go home?" (the gates closed at 10 pm) Oh people, did I EVER want to go home. So, of course I said "No." (He's been waiting YEARS to take me camping!) This went on for about 10 minutes. Generally, when a conversation of this kind happens, in which one of us wants to do something and the other one knows they want to do that something but it's the opposite of what the second person wants to do, but we love each other and so we want both of us to be happy, and so we go back and forth for a good 10-15 minutes asking "Do you want to ---?" "No...it's okay...." "Are you sure you don't want to ---?" "I'm fine..." And so on and so forth. Does this make sense?

So at about 9:10 pm, I said "Yes I do want to go home." Because at that moment, the thought of sleeping, completely congested, on the ground, in a tent too small for Ross Perot, was the LAST thing I wanted to do. My sweet husband said "Okay" and we left. Where upon I started feeling car sick on the way home, and when I got home I took one look at my bed and hugged it and we both passed out. The bed and I, I mean.

The rest of the weekend has been filled with spending ridiculously wonderful amounts of time together (I feel like we haven't had any down time, just the 2 of us, since Mike finished training in June, and so this 4 day weekend has been FANTASTIC!!!) running errands and going on haunted hayrides with cool people and seeing a movie* that I was SURE had ninjas in it at some point, but apparently it DOESN'T, even though I'm SURE I saw them in the trailer!!! The empty promises of Hollywood...

In closing, here are some pictures from the camping adventure that almost was but really wasn't.



Here are the first 3 ducks I saw. They think they are the stuff. They were way too cool for school. Here's the reason I say this:


 I am pretty much ALWAYS going to root for the underdog. In most cases. If I see a kid, adult, animal, robot, ANYONE! who is obviously being picked on or left out, my first instinct is to give them a hug and make them my own. This cannot happen in most cases. Okay, probably in all cases. Or else I would have an apartment full of children that didn't belong to me and ugly ducks like the one above. This poor little duckie was waddling along about 5 feet behind the first 3. It waddled weirder than them and, let's be honest, it doesn't look as pretty as them. I did not feel that he was being adequately included. 
But you will be a swan someday little duck!!! A SWAAAAN!!!!


Here's our propane and propane accessories. And lantern. And cooler.


Isn't he just the cutest dog ever?


Aaaand here's the tent. Object may appear smaller than they look. Or, I don't know, maybe you're getting a good idea of how small it is.





*I forgot to add my footnote initially! I was just going to say, basically, if you power through the first 10-15 minutes of "Three Musketeers" it's a good movie! Far from Oscar worthy, but still, good. And Mr. Darcy is in it. I don't know what that actor's real name is, because he is Mr. Darcy. And that's that.