Sunday, April 20, 2008

if you're a bug lover, don't read this

Don't have much time? Skip to the end of this post. That's the summary!

I enjoy being outside. I also enjoy camping. Summer camp was the highlight of my summers when I was growing up. I didn't mind being dirty, surrounded by nature and all that comes with it...bugs, spiders, smelly tents. I loved sleeping in tents! Several sleepovers at Laura's included sleeping in the backyard in a tent. It was just so much fun. It still is, right Matt? ;) Here's a picture of our teeny tiny tent...it cracks me up. It's amazing Matt can actually sit up in it. The bulging sides are definitely from our air mattress. We sure know how to rough it!



Tangent: When I worked at the summer camp in Pennsylvania, we even took the campers out to sleep under the stars once a week. To be honest, I was a little nervous about that one because there was a known mama bear and cubs that lived right in that wooded area...and we had a huge group of kids, LOTS of marshmallows, hershey bars, and graham crackers. We had not cleaned up well at all...so I was envisioning waking up to bears licking my face or well, I'm sure you can imagine. Thankfully, I woke up safe (the campers too) but had a camper's marshmallow sticky stick stuck to my sleeping bag next to my pillow...eww. Thanks camper! We also had an incident of a camper flinging me in the head with a flamed stick on accident. A camper and I also almost got attacked by a dog on one of our runs. I thought one of the directors was joking when he asked if I wanted to run with a blow horn! I guess not! Oh how we were protected that particular summer!

So anyways, I enjoy the outdoors, especially for camping. Alas, there comes a time in every young woman's life (at least THIS young woman's life), when she takes down the tent and comes inside to sleep in a cozy bed at home... to get away from the dirt and bugs. However, the bugs are not staying out in the lush green grass with blooming flowers, flowing wind that blows through their tentacles or hairs, and of course where the "good eats" are for them. No, they have decided to trek through my walls, the door, wherever to join me in our cozy, but truthfully basement, apartment. I'm thinking of setting up our tent in our apartment these days, so I can zip myself off from them! Maybe I'll just get some of that misquito netting for around the main parts of the rooms I spend the most time in. The spiders have been pretty outrageous lately and the millipedes are back...dun dun dun. I recommend for everyone to take stock in Raid because I keep it in business. Yes, Raid is for the millipedes and flip flops for the rest.

Tangent 2, sort of: I remember Matt telling me he wondered how I would handle taking care of the millipedes myself while he's gone. (Of course that was his job, I mean area of expertise, before he left.) I honestly didn't take him seriously when he said he didn't think I would be able to squish them. Come on, a little bug? Don't you remember I'm tough, Matt? The first one I saw after he left was probably a day after. I picked it up in a napkin and squeezed. Oh, then I squeezed harder. Oh, then I squeezed with all my might! Nothing! They curl up in a ball and turn into rocks or something. So, I set the napkin on the floor folded over so I didn't get millipeded juice on my shoes and stepped on it, checked it, still in-tact. Ok, then I stomped on it with heeled shoes as hard as I thought I could, and I checked it. I broke off a tenticle. Are you for real? So, I started jumping on it and yelling... finally taking care of the task. I felt ridiculous but at the same time, I did it! I told the story, a little bit exaggerated to my dad (and to Matt later). I got to the end of my long story and my dad said, "Why didn't you just flush it?" ...a slightly perturbed chuckle came out of my mouth...oh, yeah, flush it. Well, I don't want crazy huge ones growing in my toilet so I use Raid and then discard.

The point or "summary": I'm not a bug hater. I actually don't even really mind bugs, spiders, whatever, BUT, not in our home!!



Matt and I camping at Letchworth State Park last summer.

*I love you! Let's go camping...outside of our apartment!

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