Spatial Reasoning Skills

I SO do not have these (spatial reasoning skills, that is). Check out this picture...

It might be hard to tell - but the item on the left is a rolled up tent, and the item on the right is a very small carrying case for it. The tent was actually in the carrying case but how the company got it in there, I will never know.

Why do I have a (sloppily) rolled up tent in the middle of my front room, you may ask? Well - let me tell you. Because I am such an outdoorsy, tough woman (hey - no snickers from the peanut gallery, guys -I can hear you out there!) -- I am going on a mother/daughter camping adventure this weekend. So....last night I put it up in the middle of our living room to make sure I knew how to set it up.

I won this tent at my last job (funny story, I used to win everything there...good karma or something) and we've never used it. It's pretty nice. I guess it's nice...actually - what do I know about tents? Nada. It could be the death tent and I'd have no idea.

I'm pretty sure that the last time I went camping (legitimate camping in a tent) was when I was three and my baby brother was an actual baby. My dad really liked camping and was excited to take the family on a genuine camping trip. Not a bad idea except for the fact that (perhaps I failed to mention this) I was three and my brother was a baby.

To be fair, I have a really great memory of sitting on a rock next to my dad, fishing. I really liked it. (It was so beautiful - we were in the mountains in New Mexico or Colorado.) Here's the deal, though. As we were sitting on the rock, I looked down and noticed that polka-dots were showing up on the rock because it started to rain. My next memory is of us treking back to the campsite where mom was cooking dinner for us (in the light rain) and I remember thinking that didn't look like much fun. I was glad I didn't get that job. And, of course, I don't think we ended up with a fish. (Sorry, Dad, if I'm forgetting some great fish...)

Anyway. The light rain turned into a seriously major mountain thunderstorm. Lightening, really loud thunder...and we're in a tent. So you really can't blame me and Mom that we weren't chomping at the bit to go live as rustic folk in the wood. Thus, there was no mother/daughter tent camping after the infamous '74 mountain adventure.

The weather this weekend is supposed to be decent and all I have to do is set up the tent. It's an organized Girl Scout thing so someone else is planning all the activities and providing the food. The downside is that they'll probably serve meat so my vegetarian diet will be shot, but at least I don't have to cook.*


*If you can't tell from this odd little post - I'm feeling much better than I was yesterday. I credit two things with my improved attitude:

1. all the nice notes I got from you guys, supporting me, and
2. tonight's kickboxing class (I totally got my game back and kicked some serious imaginary tail).