The fantastic four go on holiday

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a tiny..... tent?  I'm just kidding, the tent was huge.


While New Yorkers have the Hamptons and Southerners have Hilton Head Island when they want to go on a "holiday, "Chicagoans have, well, I guess Wisconsin.  What better way for four city girls to enjoy a weekend while proving their badass-ness, than to go camping up in the dangerous wilderness?!  If you ask me, there is nothing more terrifying than entering a state of Packer fans and staying the night just outside of the Dells.  For the entire week before our trip, we planned our menu (yes, camping can be gourmet), who would bring our gear and whatever else we would need.  While I think Ally's ideas may have been a bit more rational, a few days before, I sat at the kitchen table with Amy and stated, matter of factly, "Well, we're going to need a jug of liquor... And dryer lint."  It proved to be true.  Our jug of liquor came in the form of "Jarvis," a good-natured, mild-mannered and delicious watermelon that we filled with vodka.  Try transporting that guy!  It takes skill.  The dryer lint?  Well, I think that goes without saying.  It was for the fire FYI.

At 4:00 A.M., two morning girls bounced around the apartment drinking coffee, making breakfast, packing the car with goodies and listening to music, while I (not a morning person) gave dirty looks to anything possible: the lamp for making my eyes hurt, the speaker for playing music and hurting my head, my phone for waking me up, myself in the mirror for being awake... told you, anything.

But sure enough, 5:30 A.M. after picking up Miss Tiffany, the fab four were bright eyed and wilderness bound. 5:35 A.M., all but Ally, who was driving, were sleeping.  Sorry girl.  Upon arrival, we set up our tent, and it started to rain.  So, we passed the afternoon playing cards and making drinks in the tent.  Once it stopped, we decided to go on a nature walk and explore the grounds.  Also, to see who we would be keeping awake all night with our ridiculous antics.  I never would have guessed that there would be a trail name the "time warp" trail.  To be honest, it was like stepping into one!  No, Frankenfurter and the rest of the Rocky Horror crew weren't there.  But, on one side of the sign, everything was flowering and green, then immediately on the other side of it, it was like land of the dead trees.  It was like a horror movie for nature lovers and tree-huggers. 

Snacking on chips and guac (and of course Jarvis) we prepared our gourmet meal.  Green chili with pork tenderloin and purple jasmine rice.  It simmered all day to make it perfectly spicy and delicious!  Plus, what could be more fun than purple rice!  Completely stuffed, there could only be one thing left to do.  Eat smores and drink champagne!  Ok, I guess thats two.  We decided to go with the monster size jumbo marshmallows, probably the size of our heads.  What can I say, bigger is always better ;) I'm talking about marshmallows of course!  Creeps.

Anyway, a few bottles of champagne, an extremely well planned game of charades that was never actually played and a couple of goofy stories and pictures later, we were snoring in the tent.  The girls seemed to think it was me, but if I didn't hear it, it never happened.  I'm just going to go ahead and blame some sort of animal for that.  Dogs snore right?  So why can't raccoons?  Or the ticks maybe....

The next afternoon, we decided to spend the 90 degree sunny day on the lake and try our hand at canoe-ing.  In case you didn't know, canoes are not meant to go straight down the river, but rather to zig-zag from bank to bank at an extremely high speed.  Amy and I could give you a demonstration if you are under the impression that this is not correct.  I assure you, it is.  It was sad to leave, and I'm sure we could have all stayed for another day or eight, but we had to come home and work, like real grown ups.  Lame.  I'm sure we will go again towards the end of the summer.  Stay tuned for updates.

Oh crap, I think I grew up!

  As of last Thursday, I officially entered my mid-twenties.  Scary thought!  When I was a kid, I had this timeline that I thought I was supposed to follow, and despite knowing that a life plan according to my eight-year-old former self is pretty unrealistic, it sent me into a bit of a panic right around my birthday.  I basically canceled my birthday party and kept it to just my close friends, because I was so stressed.  I didn't see the point of celebrating a year that was so crappy.  I was very overwhelmed by life and extremely underwhelmed by people.  As it turnes out, I'm still underwhelmed and disappointed in people, but I'll survive.  And once I looked at it as celebrating the END of 24, I cheered up.  My girlies were great!  They candled and tinfoiled my cake for the second year in a row, I danced to reggae music with a creepy African man (much like last year) and was asked where I got my butt.  Answer: target?  I can ask for nothing more in a birthday party!

 

However, Sarah Knight: export documentation specialist, single, sassy and 25, though it sounds very interesting on paper, goes against said plan (except for the sassy part).  I used to tell my parents that I wanted to get married around 26, ha!  With 26 just one short year away, eight-year-old me is going to be very disappointed.  Not that I would want to next year anyway.  With my dating repertoire of the past year, I'd just assume stay single forever!  Or at least for the summer ;)  Which I plan to.  Although, looking back, I wonder if all of that wedding/life/girlie crap planning wasn't just a ploy to look more girlie.  My sister, I'm convinced, was born with pom poms in her hand and was a cheerleader her whole life.  I wanted to be just like her (I even asked for glasses and braces on my Christmas list when she got them).  But while she was at cheer practice, I was playing softball, climbing trees with the neighbor boys and looking under rocks for a rolly polly bug to be my friend for the day.  Tom boy, what can I say.

Living in an African hut, waging war against evil goats and trapping giant spiders (they terrify me to this day) under tupperware for my brothers to kill was definitely not in the life plan.  Regardless, I wouldn't change that experience for the world.  But, I would have thought that volunteering for two years would have helped me to start my career upon returning and embrace my passion for human rights.  I feel almost behind other mid-twenty somethings sometimes.  And yes I know, all comes to those who wait, and I should just be patient.  But, for any of you who know me, patience is not my strong suit.  Thats putting it lightly.  In reality though, I've discovered that Chicago just does not offer the career path that I am looking for, which is okay, I will continue looking.  I did apply to a job in New York that would be absolutely amazing and embrace everything that I am passionate about.  So keep your fingers, toes, eyes, legs and whatever else crossed for me.  Hell, just make yourself a pretzel!  In the meantime though, I keep myself busy, and relatively happy, by volunteering and planning benefits for non-profits.

Anyway, I'm looking at this year as a new start (phew!) and letting go of all the BS from last year.  Wish me luck!

"I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." - Marilyn Monroe.