fun fun fun weekend

Oh man I'm tired. Not really 'tired tired' but more like 'looking around my apartment with eyes at half-mast wondering where all this crap came from and where to put it all and OMG the laundry is spilling out of the basket and blocking the entire kitchen/hallway and I've already washed three loads of it and I still have to unpack the cooler and take my camping things and costume bins down to the storage room and I have to finish critiquing an article today and do my clinical log at some point and gah Bowie threw up in my beach glass....'

Anyhow. This weekend was REALLY FUN. I was happy to be out of the city and in an area with open spaces/trees. And then I arrived at the campground and spent the weekend having picnics, swimming, lounging, listening to fantastic live music, and wearing costumes. Basically a bunch of my favorite things to do all in one weekend: FUN.

Here are the things I ended up packing. I'm posting this because I'd like to have it written down somewhere and also I've never been what might be considered a 'light' or 'efficient' packer-- I usually tend to bring OPTIONS of different outfits, even if I'm just going somewhere overnight-- but THIS time I actually did a pretty efficient job of packing. It was still a ridiculous amount of stuff, but there were only a very few things we didn't end up needing/wanting.

Camping things
- tent
- sleeping bags, blankies, pillows- last year I was FREEZING at night but this year I was actually okay, probably due to the combination of the different camp site, sleeping bags, and this blanket.
- air mattress- the one I ended up getting was kind of ridiculous because it was so high up it looked like a full sized bed. But it was the first air mattress I've slept on that was actually comfortable.
- bug repellent lotion
- sunscreen lotion- spray things tend to bother other people.
- flashlight

Clothes and such
- 1 skirt- I felt like maybe I should have brought more than one after I spilled coconut milk goo on it while I was helping out in the kitchen but, meh, camping.
- 4 pairs of pants (capri lounge pants, regular lounge pants, sweatpants, purple leggings). I should have skipped the sweatpants but, again, I was anticipating being COLD at night. Also, I generally don't like the idea of wearing regular clothes as jammies but I neglected to remember that when I'm camping I ALREADY feel/am grungy so wearing my clothes to bed probably isn't any more gross.
- 4 shirts
- 2 undertanks
- socks, underoos- I was particularly happy I brought THESE:

Toe socks! For wearing to bed and getting up in the middle of the night to pee and stepping out of the tent and into my flip flops with ease!

- swimsuit, towel
- hat- I just renewed my driver's license and now I must wear corrective lenses when I drive so I've been doing a lot of driving with my glasses plus a billed cap.
- sunglasses
- 1 pair boots, 1 pair sneakers, 1 pair flip flops- I'm sure this sounds like a ridiculous amount of shoes but for ME that is actually a pretty conservative number. I wanted to bring another pair of boots to go with my costumes, but I decided to just wear the boots that fit in my duffel bag since they would actually go with both costumes (western AND cosmic). I also thought about bringing a pair of slidey-on sneakers for getting up in the middle of the night to pee, and that's how I came up with the awesome toe sock ideer.
- clothes for swap- I actually brought more clothes to donate to the swap than I took home. Success!

Snacks
- beef jerky, cheetos puffs, PB&J fixins, cookies- breakfast and dinner were provided but lunches were on our own.
- cooler with ice, beer, sodas, string cheese.

Kitchen
- lemons- one of the main kitchen people had sent out an email that they needed lemons and my parents have a lemon tree so I volunteered to bring some.
- potatoes- everyone is supposed to bring a vegetable so I brought potatoes.
- cups, plates, bowls, utensils
- water bottle- there was a filling station.

Toiletries
- toothbrushes, toothpaste
- baby wipes- very useful, particularly since I didn't shower....
- hairbands, hairbrush
- deodorant
- benadryl
- makeup & glitter

Costumes and Accessories
- western outfit- long skirt, western looking sweater

 The boys had pretty great interpretations of western wear.

- cowboy hat
- orange outfit- I needed an orange outfit for Saturday afternoon so I bought an orange skirt and some tall orange socks and a scarf at a thrift store.
- cosmic outfit- a zodiac print skirt, pink tube top, sparkly leg warmers, and colorful arm warmers.

- glowsticks- I brought six tubes of glowsticks. I didn't realize there were FIFTEEN glow bracelets in each tube so we had enough for both nights and plenty to share.
- magic wand
- earrings
One thing that I was really happy I did was figure out my exact costumes ahead of time and pack them in ziploc bags. Like I said, I usually like to have options, so this was a BIG DEAL.

I also brought a few things that were interchangeable. Like the purple leggings I took would work with the one regular skirt (for either driving or lounging around if it hadn't been super hot like it was) and they could go under my long western skirt or under my zodiac skirt to keep me warmer at night. I also wore my orange head scarf a lot. In fact, I'm wearing it right now.

Yes, I have showered since I've been back. I just haven't washed my hair yet....

I should have brought- a couple cloth napkins or an extra towel, hairspray or hair goo of some kind. I went for a swim on Saturday so my hair was pretty coarse from the chlorine and stuck together nicely when I put it up in my crazy cosmic hairdo.
I didn't need- so many dang jackets, book, earplugs, spray sunscreen.

Did I mention it was a lot of fun?

Sunny is moving across the country in about a week (WAAAAH) to get married and start her big grownup professional life but she said that she'll keep going to S0up, so I can look forward to seeing her again next year!