July 28, 2006
I’m going camping. Well not camping exactly but we’re heading to a cottage for the weekend that my brother in law rented. I had my nails done yesterday just for the occassion. Because that’s what you do when you find out you’re roughing it for 3 days, you get your nails pretty.
My daughter has talked about ‘the adventure’ (that’s how I’m labeling it as opposed to disaster) non stop for days now. “I can’t believe I’m really going to a real beach”. That’s the line I’ve heard most. She’s gone to a real beach before,that was back in NB, which there are lots of beaches but here in Cowtown, well not so much.
I’ve got most of the packing done and I was warned to pack light. Now by light do you mean we won’t take the kitchen sink? Because that’s how I take it. We’re leaving around noon-ish and will get there around 3pm and stay until Sunday around suppertime. So really not even there for 3 days. More like 2 and a half, yet I’ve packed enough clothes to outfit a small army and then some. My feeling is you never know what ‘clothing mood’ you’ll be in. You know, like do I really want to wear the black capris and pink tee today or do I feel like wearing the cute jeans and a green tank top? That’s the dilemma of my daily life. Hard I know.
I even bought new clothes for ‘the adventure’, because, well, when you’re sitting on a wet, dirty, pebbley beach and your kids are throwing sand pies at you, you wanna look nice. Plus you don’t want people, you know, strangers, looking at you and thinking, ‘omg that bathing suit looks like something from 2004′. That is just unacceptable to me. Speaking of bathing suits, I packed my daughter 4 of them. And it killed me not to put another couple in the bag. I know what you’re thinking……how could she NOT put at least 2 more in the bag, but I didn’t. What kind of mother am I? Oh the shame.
It’s funny, my husband said to me that he only wanted 2 shirts, 2 pairs of underwear, one pair of shorts, one pair of jeans and one pair of swimming shorts. That’s it. That’s not normal. How can you pack like that? I mean, what if, you get to the cottage, and you want to change your clothes? Well then you’re in a dilemma because all you’ve got is the clothes you have for Saturday and Sunday. Nothing extra, you know (as we discussed earlier) if you get in a ‘clothing mood’ and want to change into something different. Well you can’t, you’re screwed. So I snuck in a couple extra shirts, another pair of pants, about 5 pair of underwear, a long sleeved shirt incase of cold weather, a flashlight, batteries, a wrench, bandaids, extra soap, pens, crackers, water bottles, spoons (hey don’t try to figure out the logic), nail clippers, paper, lightbulbs, soup and just about any other thing you can think of, except the kitchen sink. I did restrain from putting in the kitchen sink. I deserve praise for that.
And you know what’s funny? The cottage comes equipped with everything one needs except clothes and food, yet I still packed extra stuff. It’s a sickness I think. But it could be worse right? I could have the kind of sickness that makes me punch clowns in the face or throw poo from rooftops. Nope don’t have that kind of sickness. I just have the kind of sickness that makes you want to over pack but in my mind I don’t see it as over packing. I see it as being prepared. Big freakin’ difference. Anyhoo, I must finish my obsessive over packing packing and get showered. Wish me luck on our disaster adventure and I will see you on Monday.
Happy Happy weekend to all. *Note to self……..gosh my nails look pretty while I’m typing* Blink Blink Blink.
