Let me just start by saying, "I AM SOOOO TIRED!!!" I just got back from camping and I am pooped. Alicia and I were sharing a double site with my girlfriend, her hubby and their son. My tent happens to be very easy to set up, and with my new pump, my air mattress was a cinch to inflate. Sadly, when we stumbled through the dark with our flashlight and climbed in for a cozy sleep, my butt sunk down to the cold, lumpy earth. In a few short hours a tiny hole somewhere in our queen sized mattress had let out our only hope of a good night's sleep. My friends heard the commotion from their trailer and offered us their couches for the night. As generous as this was, the couch I was on was about a foot shorter than the length of my body, so as you can well imagine, I didn't wake up singing with the birds the next morning. In fact, at about 6:00 am, I fumbled my way outside. Shortly after, Alicia followed. She didn't sleep either. Wrapped in blankets, sitting in lounge chairs, Alicia read her book, and I tried to slip into some kind of nap-land. The problem was that I wasn't very hungry the night before, and the rye and cokes I drank didn't agree with my empty tummy. I wasn't nauseated, but every time I closed my eyes, the planet seemed to spin a lot faster than usual. Later that day, the fresh air put the spring back in my step. In all of the neighboring campsites, were several of my buddies' friends, so we all met up at the beach where we swam and floated around on inflatables. It was awesome. Alicia and I slept like angels that night after we put all of our gear in the tent and made a very comfy bed in the back of my mom's van. (she lent it to us for the trip.)

Now does that look like a happy camper, or what? My favorite part of the camping trip was seeing Alicia sit in front of thirty people she hardly knows singing and playing guitar. I was really impressed with her guts, not to mention her talent.

The pics are kind of dark, but I had to show off, anyway.