be prepared – or over prepared

who knew that a week of camping required so many things? you would have thought we were preparing for a nine month climb of everest or k2. and yet, if one took that much stuff on a climb, you’d need a small army to carry it. i keep saying, i don’t even use that at home, why would we need to take it camping? and someone else would say, but what if we need it? and finally i decided it was just better to shut up and let the massive packing effort go on around me like i was invisible. pots and pans, camp stove, folding camp kitchen, gas grill, charcoal grill, gallons and gallons of bottles water, coffee maker, camping chairs, food, food, food and more food. and did i mention the nine dozen cookies? the supplies never end. on onlooker would think we are staying at the the state park for at least a month. i mean seriously, can you say over prepared?

preparing for the adventure

in three days i will be going to california for a week long camping trip. everyone i mention this to says, “wow that sounds like a lot of fun.” i will be camping in central california, in morro bay, right by the beach. it is 4 miles from where i spent the first 18 years of my life, a miles or so from my high school – it should muster up every horrible memory from my teenage years.

but besides that, there is the camping thing. people around here seem to have such fond feelings toward camping. yet when i think of camping i think of dirt, cooking outside with mosquitoes and other bugs, walking to the bathroom in the middle of the night and not sleeping night after night because of either the sleeping surface or the crazy drunk people in the next campsite over who were loud all night. oh, and did i forget the cold, mildewy showers, how did i not mention those first? it’s just unpleasant no matter how you look at it. how is that something to get excited about or look forward to? i am so clearly missing something.

and so i am preparing for my camping adventure. what do you take to wear for such an adventure. i know after that cold shower i’m just going to get dirty from walking around in the dirty campsite all day. and i’ll smell like smoke from the campfire or butane from cooking at the camp stove. i’ll spend the week dirty and stinky – what color goes best with that? fashionably filthy seems like the only way to go.

i guess i have packing to do.

big mystery

the world of blogging is very strange to me.  people write about their life and people they don’t know – and a few they might know – read it.  who wants to read about your life if they don’t even know you.  it’s very odd.  it feels like spying on someone’s life, trying to figure out the mystery behind the written words.  and yet we write, and yet i decided some time ago i should begin a blog.  it took about a year before i finally sat down and created it and here it is.

so we’ll see what happens here.  i’ll share about my wanderings, whether they be around the world or in my own mind.  i suspect both will equally crazy.