Lazy Posting

That love your spouse challenge is going around facebook right now. I'm enjoying all the cute pictures that I get to see of my friends and at some point I was nominated by a friend. I'll pass on nominating other people but decided to dedicate a blog post to the challenge instead. Looking through pictures was fun and I set myself the additional challenge of trying to find as many photos of myself and my husband as I could that show us but not necessarily our faces. Somehow, to me, those can convey all the emotion in the world, often more honestly than when someone asks us to smile for the camera. There were a great deal more that I could have chosen from but these seven span our first summer of dating all the way to last fall. We're in all of the them, I promise!

Eleven months

Eleven months makes a huge difference. Give or take eleven months ago, I was camping on my own up in Copper Harbor, MI. The weather was fantastic- all except for that last day when it poured and I discovered that 20 year old tents cannot necessarily be successfully re-waterproofed anymore. Aside from when I was mountain biking, it never felt particularly hot and there was Lake Superior just a stones throw away to cool off in afterward.

Fast forward eleven months to my husband and I camping with two of our close friends outside of Austin, TX. Just take a minute to mull that concept over. Camping. In July. In Texas.

I'll start off by saying that the weekend was fantastic! I returned happier and calmer for having been outdoors so much (and not the kind of being outdoors that involves weeding, mowing, tree trimming, or any other form of house maintenance). But wow was it hot. It was the kind of hot where you purposefully take a cold shower and feel better for all of two minutes afterwards. I was entirely unprepared for this type of camping. My trusty sleeping bag, which has weathered November nights in the Blue Ridge Mountains without a sleeping pad was 100% useless in the Texas heat. My little tent, which is great for staying warm, suddenly felt like a sauna. Our friends were a lot more prepared.

I was, admittedly, baffled when it was suggested that we drive two cars. I looked at our pile of gear, taking up barely half of my car trunk, and wondered what on earth I was forgetting. My first ever camping trip (way back when I was maybe 8) was a backpacking trip and, while lots of my trips since then have been car-camping, I still tend to pack like I'm backpacking. Because why not? Texas summer is why not.

Our well prepared friends pulled out extension cords (the campsite had power), portable air conditioning units, and fans. I was torn between laughing hysterically and being incredibly jealous. Their much larger tent could fit an entire queen size air mattress and, when you're sleeping in 95 deg F heat, that has to be more comfortable than sleeping bags. This kind of camping was something I had trouble wrapping my head around and I bemoaned the fact that my husband will never ever want to go camping "my way" again. That said, that cup of freshly ground coffee before our early morning hike tasted delicious and we did not turn down the offer to borrow a fan for our tent. It's safe to say that I got a little spoiled too as I traded my usual camping food (oatmeal, GORP, PB&J, apples) for the containers of fresh cut fruit and vegetables that our friends were thoughtful enough to bring along and share.

Eleven months makes a big difference. I'm already looking forward to our next camping trip with our friends though and we brought back books of the Texas state parks to start our planning with. Maybe the next time it will even be cool, or, as cool as it seems to get in Texas.

Someone Else

A few weeks ago I was talking to my Aunt and mentioned that sometimes I wished that I had a different personality, that my hopes and dreams for life were different ones. I'm not sure what answer I expected but the one that she gave rang so true that it has been bouncing around in my mind in the weeks since. Be who you are.

Jenn, she reminded me, if you are the class clown then that's who you are. If you aren't that person and you try to be them anyway, you will just end up unhappy. We talked about plenty of other examples too but that one example stuck with me. I thought back on my attempts to be someone I wasn't when I was younger. I wanted to be the class clown, the kid who was goofy and could get away with it. That just wasn't me though. Adults knew that I knew better and I usually ended up embarrassed for my own attempts.

The advice was so simple. I can always keep improving as a person, as a friend, as a wife, as a daughter but, at the end of it all, I am who I am. And apparently that person is a little quirky. My Aunt told me something else that resonated as well. When you are being the person you are supposed to be, you are a happier person and other people can tell. Maybe I knew that already but sometimes you need to be reminded.

Happy July Fourth all!