War of the Lillies

I wanna war.

Living outside for 9 months on the Great Peace March has pretty much cured me of complaining about amenities. Don't get me wrong. I loves me some comfort, but tents, porta-potties, food lines, etc? I fear them not.

In fact, I'm something of a porta-john afficionado. The ones used for DC events are pretty damn nice, comparitively.

It's wonderful how a relatively brief period of 'deprivation' (in this case, completely voluntary) can show one just how much one can live without and still be quite happy.

my mom, sister and I usde to watch the Tomorrow people . It dissappeared off our tv. this made us sad.

One of the great memories of my childhood was the family vacation we took to Lake Ouachita. We rented a motor boat and headed ot to an island where we camped for a week. Totally primitive and no other people. It was great, even with the tent that my sister and I shared that was really not waterproof. Though I do wonder if I would enjoy it as much now.

It's wonderful how a relatively brief period of 'deprivation' (in this case, completely voluntary) can show one just how much one can live without and still be quite happy.

And also which things are really really important. Like heat. We nearly froze our toes off last Pennsic.

I will say that for my first two Pennsics (and most of my third) I got to sleep in canvas tents on beds, which kind of spoiled me. Going back to nylon and sleeping bags wasn't nice.

sleeping bags wasn't nice.

But, there was an air bed!

ETA: Erin, cool, maybe we could email to see if we could meet while I'm in the area. The war is a fairly primitive kind of setup, but I can bring a celphone.

That would be fun. My profile addy is good; I can email you my number.

I love camping, although last year I did take an Aerobed with me, for my friend's outdoor 4 day wedding, and it was AWESOME. My ridgerest got eaten, but for car camping, I just take my yoga mat and my body pillow and I'm fine. Frankly, when I'm camping, I usually hit the grouns tired from hiking and swimming (and drinking and smoking) so merely being horizontal is blissfully wonderful.

I HATE portapotties with a vengeance. I have no compunctions about peeing in the bushes while camping, only using portapotties in, er, dire need. I have some girlfriends though who are incapable of peeing in the outdoors, and I feel so bad for them trekking up to the bathrooms i the middle of the night. I scout behind my tent for poison ivy before it's darks and just stumble out and squat. But I grew up in the woods, so I've never had a problem at all with it.

I have to say, given the choice between camping in a place with an outhouse and backpacking with a trowel, I'd pick the backpacking option.

One of our best trips was backpacking in the North Cascades one summer. Yellow violets everywhere and snow at the top with very few sightings of other people. It was lovely.

Going back to nylon and sleeping bags wasn't nice.

I'm ruined for that too, now, I fear. I have one of those roman wall tents from fcsutler. A couple hundred bucks and perfectly serviceable and nice inside, plus the above mentioned bed. [link]

Of course, with all the camping stuff, plus armour, etc, this mandates being able to tote it, so that requires either a minivan or a trailer and as trailers are Instruments of the Devil (tm), I have an unsexy, but comfy and much stuff-totey vehicle.

ETA: Erin, insent from my stuffy work addy

When Hubby started in the SCA around A.S. VI, he was of the "Oh, I'll just bundle up in my cloak and sleep in the middle of the battlefield, it's a nice night." Now, I'm not letting him near a campground if he doesn't get some sort of substantial mattress.

Kids shows I miss:

Today's Special
Polka Dot Door
Kids Incorporated

I have decided NOT to go to the spa thing. If she (or anyone) offers to pay for me, I'm going to say, "B, you are my best friend and I love you and I love that you are so generous, but I don't want to feel like I owe people when I do things I can't afford. I need to not do them. I am so sorry I have to miss it, but let's schedule our day at Burke Williams for right before you go to Michigan for the wedding." And then I'll give her a small LUSH basket for her to take to the hotel for when she has her pre-wedding bath.