2005-03-24
Everybody Camp!
This is the first time I've been able to log in and Add an Entry. All week long, I've gotten the Diaryland Purple Page Busy Signal, telling me to please keep pressing Refresh because one of the times that I press it, I am going to gain entree.
You can imagine how much I didn't like trying to get into this webpage and update it.
Needless to say.....
not much enjoying the pressing of Refresh.
I am going camping this weekend. Hide your children because I don't know how it is going to go. It's possible that I will adapt really well and that by Sunday morning, I'll be energized and earthy - ready to accept Jesus as my personal Lord and Savior.
It's more likely that I'll wake up on Sunday and smell the rotten stank of many beers, a dwindled fire pit, and the chocolate stains that mysteriously occupy my armpit.
I have not camped in a very long time and the last time I did so was with an Eagle Scout. We were bored, broke, and I had just moved here so camping made sense. He built this campsite the tiniest bit North of Phoenix, near a town called Strawberry. It was a pretty macked-out camping arrangment. He even had a make-shift gate that made it appear as if other campers would not be able to drive up the road to our spot. It was fun. It was January and I was getting some sun. I still partied a lot and so I could drink as much as I wanted to and not worry about anything. Somehow when we went camping, we got along during a time when we were both seeing the proverbial writing. UNless we were camping, I was living in a fifth-wheel trailer in a shitty part of town and he was drinking himself to shreds in his old room at his parents' about an hour away.
Camping then was pretty important.
Camping now is...
Unshaven.
I haven't ever gone camping with just girls. These girls with whom I am camping kind of rock. Okay.
Not kind of.
They rock.
Literally.
They are from San Fransisco and have been friends since, like pre-dawn.
One of them actually drove all gonzo down here from the city, just because camping seemed like a good idea. She got in this morning and in about half an hour, I'm going to go give her a hug.
The other one is a friend of mine here. She has partied with Metallica, which is kind of fucking awesome.
They listen to a lot of heavy metal but I am not overly concerned about that for now. I know I can catch a compromise by tuning in the radio or something. That, or they'll play something folky after my head explodes into a million little anti-metal pieces.
I didn't realize how excited I am to go sleep outside and to not shave my legs for 2 days but I am super-excited.
I couldn't fall asleep last night, is how excited I am.
I am so excited that I went shopping at lunch and got things organized in a big tupperware sweater-holder.
I have told everybody that I know, work with, or meet on the street or in line at Target that I am going camping and that's how excited I am about camping.
Terrified, but excited nonetheless.
It's March, so it's not really warm in the Southern Arizona sense of the word. But who knew? This is apparently a big camping weekend around here and lots of the strangers that I have met when I loudly and inappropriately proclaim like a precocious 8 year old standing in line for the bathroom at recess: "I'm going camping this weekend!", LOTS of those people have said, "Oh, me too!"
I'm not sure if they are humoring me because they think I need validation for my camping adventure (and let's face it - I do) or if they are seriously going camping just like I am. One person who is not a stranger, but a woman that I work with and someone who is never surprised at my excitment (she has small children at home) gave me some of what I thought was dish on camping this weekend. She introduced me to what I thought was sweet, sweet gossip about camping - I had no idea how many people go camping on Easter weekend here and she really drove the point home for me. She's going camping, too. For her, this means her husband, children, and friends load into the RV while she drives a truck towing ATVs to the spot that her husband and his buddy staked out last Tuesday.
Seriously?
Tuesday?
That many people go camping this weekend?
So I decide that I need to share with my friends that this is a big camping weekend around here and omigosh, like, everyone is going camping this weekend and it should totally be SO F.U.N.
!!!!!!!
I like to be first on the scene with news you can use, you know?
"Yeah Sarah. Ummmm. That's why we're going this weekend. We're going to go get the campsite Thursday while you are watching your little basketball game."
"Oh."
So I'm trying to zip it, with my random sharing and my juicy tidbits because obviously, everyone in Tucson is going camping this weekend and I was the last to know.
Last or not, I'm still excited.
arizonasarah at 3:27 p.m.