The One with my Camping Stories

I'm a low maintenance woman.

Okay, fine... scratch that! I can almost hear the hubby snicker loudly in the background.

I'm a  low medium maintenance woman. I pride myself in growing up in the farm feeding chickens, tending my parents' ampalaya garden and camping primitively when I was in high school. I'm a cowgirl, I can do anything! Or so I thought. Apparently, I failed to take into consideration what years of city life can do. It turns you into a diva!

So two weeks ago, I had the smartest idea to go on an "adventure", and take my family to join the in-laws on their yearly camping vacation in Michigan. The hubby wanted to get a cabin... but no, I was adamant that I would give my kids the primitive camping experience and rough it up! Granted that my in-laws have a completely decked-out camper that is only a few campsites away, and in which you'd probably find us most of the time, we would still be sleeping in our own tents.

The first day went great. We had a lot of fun! We set-up our tents (in record breaking 30 minutes, by the way.. woohoo!), hang out by the lake, eat fattening foods, then sat by the campfire eating more fattening foods. The kids were having the time of their life! However, when it was time to go to bed, that's when I realized I made the worst decision. How could I have insisted on sleeping in a tent?! My neighboring campers decided to let everything lose, including their couth and morals, and sat by their campfire, talking loudly until wee hours of the morning!  It didn't help that the only thing blocking their noises was a thin fabric of nylon for our tent! I was so close to loosing my sanity and doing a Mel Gibson rant, but the hubby restrained me, insisting there are no laws against loud noises. Apparently, even at 2 in the morning! And so I kept my mouth shut, and proceeded to take a 2 hour on-and-off nighttime nap. And as if that wasn't enough punishment, God decided to send the ducks and geese at 5 in the morning to delight me even more with their obnoxiously loud quacks.

But, there's a but... there's a vindictive side to this utterly sweet personality. And so the next morning, at 6:30am, when my early bird of a family woke up while the rest of the world was still sleeping, I decided to turn the music on and crank it loudly. There are no laws against loud noises, right? Revenge...oh, sweet revenge!

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the story. The following night, the same thing happened again. And to top it off, it rained on us, completely ruining my sleep. And so, as I lay there, listening to the pitter patter of raindrops, I knew it was the first and last time this medium-maintenance gal is going tent-camping again.