roughin it

I just did 10 loads of laundry, no joke. And the heaping pile on the floor seems none the smaller for it.
This is the sacrifice I make to go camping.

We upgraded our campstyle this year with a new-to-us 1990 Starcraft Popup, the lightest one we could find as our tow vehicle is a Subaru Forester. And we just gutted out all the upholstery to desanitize the 21 years of camping that may or may not have occured by some unknown family. HOT CYCLE!

We took that badboy for a spin this weekend. Wanting to see all of the capabilities it had we looked for RV camping. Being 4th of July weekend our pickings were slim, and we ended up at an RV resort 30 miles west of the city. There's wasn't a ton to do. Normally we would go hiking but we forgot our child carrier so we just moseyed around and explored. There were a lot of people out enjoying the great outdoors, having some crazy good times. Neither one of us said it but I think we were both kind of wishing we had OTHER people we were sharing the camping experience with. Not that going to the playground 30 times to go down the "lide" isn't fun. It's just not a frosty margarita around a campfire is all.

What I learned about this experience is that it is AWESOME to have a popup. The little patterings of rain in the middle of the night only made me smile as I was all snuggled up with my family on the king sized bed. Plugging in the portable DVD player and putting on an episode of Callilou only made me smirk to my former, backpacking snob, because NA NA NA we COULD. We just plugged it in.

It felt luxurious.

But as I lay to sleep to the sweet sounds of the KARAOKE MACHINE that the plot next door brought with them I couldn't help but wonder if all of the luxuries were worth it. I couldn't help but miss the sweet sound of crickets that my former backpacking self would be sleeping to. But then I got off my perch and thought "Hey, that lady can sing". And so I listened to the Latina family matriarch bust out Patsy Cline tunes with her over emphasized vibrato as I lay under the stars. Admittedly feeling a little jealous of the fun they were having. Knowing there was no way we could crash the party and leave our popup with our sleeping angel inside of it, not now at least.

And when that other bitch started singing "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" in her drunken stupor I busted out the earplugs. DAMN that electricity!!!!

Well that was (somewhat) fun.

It's kind of frustrating sometimes being a nurse, with a nurse schedule, and being married to a man who is only off two days a week. I get all these glorious weekdays and nights off, and no daddy to share them with. And doing things with Ellie, well it's so nice to get the extra help. So very nice. But when my next door neighbor Sue told me she was going to go camping with her 11 year old niece for the night I thought well why the hell not???

So Ellie and I ventured into the woods, and let me just say though it surely does not need to be said, doing anything with a toddler is a challenge. Having said that, it is truly amazing how much you can accomplish with one hand. With one hand, I packed all the gear, loaded up the car, unloaded the car and brought  all the insane amounts of gear to our campsite, all the while holding my precious 23ish pound weight in the other. Fortunately I had the peace to set it all up with two hands when Ellie realized how very cool our home for the night was.

Once all of that was through it was great. We were in nature! She loved the open space and her new found ability to walk. She was picking up rocks. Giving me pine cones. Putting pebbles in our tent. Exploring. She was on fire and truly she was the entertainment for the night (a fact that she was very well aware of). She really was adorable to watch and I fully acknowledge my mama bias, but seriously, it was kind of over the top with the cuteness. And that cuteness goes along way. She wants to play near the fire. Mama comes swooping in to pick her up. She wants to climb on the cooler. Mama comes swooping in to pick her up. She wants to put dirt in her mouth. Mama comes swooping in to pick her up. She wants to tip her dinner plate over on the ground. Mama comes swooping in to pick it up. It was quite the effort to keep little miss cutie pie out of mischief. But like I said, she had the cuteness thing going for her.

I remember my friend Sue said to me "Summer didn't you bring your guitar?"  I've been rockin out on that thing for years and nothing is more fun than a campsite jam. I didn't and frankly it hadn't even occurred to me this time. And in that moment I realized something: I will not be bringing my guitar with me for a long time, at least not without Mike there. It is humanly not possible with a child at this age, at least my child. Truthfully I was so busy wrangling her, her clothes and all our gear that right before I left the door I grabbed a small handful of clothes for me. My guitar! Hahahaha!

Our biggest mistake in this very lesson filled camping trip was that no matter how tempting it might be to forego the extra hassle, the child needs her pack and play. She needs containment. She gets so excited when she realizes that I'm sleeping right next to her. She's constantly flopping onto me in all sorts of directions, wacking me with her head and then crying about it. And the child sleeps in 360 degrees. One direction for a few hours. Another direction a little later. Completely turned around on the opposite side of the tent by morning. And in the end, she really slept like crap.

When she woke up around 6am I said screw this and I packed our gear and one handedly sherpa'ed it back to the car. I high tailed it for home and put her in her glorious and beautiful crib where right at this moment she remains sleeping.

We will keep trying. Processes will get better. The gear will be better assembled. And she will continue to love it. And that's the kind of mom I want to be. The kind of mom that takes her daughter in to nature so she can grow up appreciating it. It's worth the effort. I remind myself of this as I'm looking at our big pile of stuff that needs to be unpacked. And I'll remember it as I smell this on our laundry.

sleepless

I have switched my schedule to nights. Now my sleep/wake cycles are completely reversed. My body hasn't figured this out yet. Though I've got a dark sheet over my bedroom window, a/c, and earplugs, apparently I do not have the capability of sleeping more than 4 hours. This is day 3 of 4 hours sleep or less. I'm guessing this is probably going to catch up with me.


I'm apparently trying to assuage this inability by watching nonstop episodes of The Office on Netflix.

Today we are off to go camping. "Camping" this weekend means parking at a camping site and sleeping on the perfectly placed futon in my truck, complete with egg crate foam pad, down comforter, and pillows. Here's to hoping for some Zzzz's!