Man 0, Wild 1

This past weekend, I went camping with some friends I’ve made at the Village. We went up to Turner Falls in Oklahoma and had a great time.

Here’s a little recap of the weekend:

Saturday
12:45 p.m. Sarah, Lindsay, Johnny and I meet up to load our CRV and drive to Oklahoma. I’m sad to learn that my camping cot won’t fit in the car, and I have to leave it behind. My motto in camping is, why sleep on the ground when you don’t have to, so I was disappointed to sacrifice my cot for the sake of our cooler with food. I had to take one for the team.
3 p.m. Arrive in Turner Falls and meet up with our friends in the second car. They had already picked our campsite, which was in the perfect secluded spot. We actually had to cross a creek to get to our campsite, and we all fell into the water at some point or another during the weekend. It’s hard to carry a cooler across the creek while trying to balance and hop from slippery stone to slippery stone. Note: It’s also hard to do that in the dark when you’ve got some wine in you.
4 p.m. Finished setting up our tents and decide to do some hiking. We walked over the falls and did some rock climbing and exploring in caves. The boys leave the girls behind to go be “mountain men” and do some exploring on their own, but we finally met back up and went back to the campsite.
7 p.m. Walked up a hill behind our campsite and sit on a ledge overlooking the “mountains” and watch the sun set.
8 p.m. Lindsay and I begin to set up and start our fire. It was difficult because everything was wet from the morning rain. After about an hour of frustration, we finally got it going. We made hobo packs and cooked them on the fire. Food always tastes better outdoors.
11 p.m. We all decided to go craw-dadding in the creek by our campsite. We managed to catch 8 and boiled them and tried them out.

Sunday
1 a.m. Finally begin to turn in for the night.
3 a.m. Still awake. I’m missing my cot.
5 a.m. Rustling outside the tent begins. Hissing and scratching and roaring at the tent next to us begins. All of the girls in my sit up and stare at each other wide-eyed. We decide the animal outside must be a raccoon. The raccoon is going to town on the tent that is holding our food and supplies. Stephanie pulls out her iPhone and starts tweeting so our family and friends will know what happens to us if we die. I think at some point one of us says, “At least we have boys with us to protect us.”
5:45 a.m. The raccoon finally leaves.
7:30 a.m. Tired of lying down and not being able to sleep, I’m the first one out of the tent, eager to inspect the work of the raccoon. I discover he had clawed a hole in the fabric of the tent next to us and pulled out and ate our hotdog buns and marshmallows.
8 a.m. The girls’ tent is up and cooking breakfast.
10:30 a.m. The boys emerge from their tent. We ask them if they heard the raccoon last night, and they have no idea what we’re talking about. So much for having boys around for protection.
1 p.m. Take down the campsite and head home.

Best quote of the trip:
Jesse (to Sarah, who is staying by herself at the campsite while we go hiking) – Want to take a gun with you?
Sarah – Nope, I got these. (Flexes biceps.)

Job Hunt

I applied for a job in DC yesterday. And I didn't apply because it was in DC but because it's a job that I would really like and think I would be good at. It would also be a good step up in my career. Now I'm telling myself to just live my life and try to pretend that I'm not playing the waiting game.