The time I went camping and left the pink sparkle watch at home.

Aside from one ill-fated campout in '95 or '96, when my cousin Hilary was scared off for good thanks to a certain notorious thunderstorm, I have been the only girl to regularly attend the Morby campouts with my dad, brother, cousins, and uncles.

I don't know why my sister or other cousins have never had any interest in joining us, or why the one night Kathy spent out there this most recent campotu was, as she put it, "my first and last campout."

What's not to love? Campfires, fishing, hiking, guns, fireworks, food
straight off the grill or camp stove, reading by the lake... These are a few of my favorite things!

Of course, there's no running water, a few bugs and snakes, and sleeping on the ground... But no, even then: what's not to love?

One thing that I noticed several times was the interesting dichotomy and warring halves of my girly and tomboy camping sides. For instance:

Yes, I did manage to wash my hair over the weekend. BUT I washed it in the lake. With some Old Spice body wash, because that's what was
there.

Okay, so I brought back some honeysuckle from the woods to put on one of the picnic tables. BUT in my other hand? I was carrying a snake skin.

Yes, I brought my comforter out to the campsite in a Nordstrom shopping bag. BUT I carried it into a tent that I OWN and set up myself, with some help from Dad, before we also set up my brother's tent. So.

Fine, I brought back more wildflowers from the field out by the power easement. I'll give you that one. BUT I hacked off the ends with a machete so they would fit in a cup of water.

BOOM.

Sound like too much fun to be had? IT WAS. Want to feel like you were there? Click play!
Previously: 2010 Morbypalooza Campout Video

Fuller Picture

One time I went to the Dead Sea. Everyone around me was laughing and screaming through the experience. They were hunting for giant chunks of salt or rocks that they could carry home and tell exciting stories about that time they swam in the Dead Sea.

I took my time watching everyone else get in. I was cold outside of the water so I knew... I knew that water was going to be mildly unpleasant.

Understatement.

Floating in the Dead Sea IS a unique and once in a lifetime experience. I'm glad I got in.

The water that kept us floating felt thick and frigid. "Look at me floating without even trying!"

We were warned that getting the water in our eyes would be painful and that drinking a cup-full would be deadly. That's so inviting.

I think my biggest mistake was shaving my legs the day I was going to get into a body of water in which 35% of it is made up of dissolved salts. Holy mother of pearl. My legs still scream out in agony when I think about it.

But when I read about the Dead Sea I now have a picture in my mind... and I am so thankful for that fuller picture.

Really painful picture - but way cool fuller picture.

Rain. Pizza. Eyeballs.

After work today I drove out to the ball fields, even though I knew full well that the game's cancellation was most likely imminent. Sure enough, five minutes after I arrived, the umpire DROVE BY the field, rolled down his window, and shouted, "Game's cancelled!"

Well.

The obvious solution at this point? PIZZA, of course! So the entire team plus the fans (hi!) loaded up and drove through the driving rain and HAIL to the best pizza joint in town (Bruno's, duh!).

We discussed auditioning for The Amazing Race, growing up with cows in the front yard (what?), and I probably talked way too much about Jimmy Fallon. But it was greatness.

Friends, laughter, and pepperoni. That's basically the three cherries lining up on the slot machine of FUN, according to Val. So shall it be written.

From there I braved a dark and rainy and lightning-y drive over to the grandparents' house, entertaining myself (and probably people in the cars stopped next to me at lights?) on the way by cranking up the radio and singing/dancing along, because sometimes you just gotta get your dance on to Cee Lo. (Or is that not a thing?)

Ginger was beat from a full day of speaking (did I already excitedly mention that SHE'S IN TEXAS???) and was working on notes for tomorrow, so the evening was pretty low-key. But just sitting in the living room with both grandparents, Mom, Dad, and sister, was enough.

We watched the end of the Lady Bears basketball game, which was MOST exciting, and even though I didn't go to college at Baylor or anything, I have enough family members who are DIE HARD FANS (and one who was there-- Hi, Aunt Kathy!) that I felt a swell of pride and ALMOST said "Sic em!" when the game ended. Almost.

Instead I just played another round of Draw Something.

Dad and I laughed about local commercials, I spent a bit too long writing a tweet about the song "Lucky", and Grandpa had just a little bit of trouble working the DVR (did I already mention that he has 139 episodes of NCIS saved up???). Mom told me about making Ginger's t-shirt quilt, Cousin Amy called, and Grandma talked about having surgery on the inside of HER EYEBALL during a discussion of phantom pains.

So that was my evening. How was yours?