Month: July 2017

I had a LOVELY weekend. I guess weekends like this one are why people love summer – it was not humid, it didn’t get above 90*, and the water kept a breeze flowing through the area.

We went to Paris Landing State Park, which was a bit different from some parks, mainly because it has a marina and a restaurant, and only one or two trails. You can see the marina from the campground, which I was happy to discover. The park is on Kentucky Lake, which is basically the Tennessee River, and had a little beach area as well as a swimming pool (we swam in the dirty river water, not the pool, in case anyone wonders). Was DELIGHTFUL.

We got in on Friday night and had some roasted veggies plus sausage for dinner. Next morning for breakfast (which wasn’t done until lunch time) we had dutch oven biscuits, plus bacon and fried eggs. For dinner that night, we made a new recipe from a dutch oven cookbook I got — garlic lemon chicken. It was a one-pot meal which called for instant rice; we used couscous instead because I forgot to put rice on the grocery list. Honestly I like couscous better than rice anyway, so it all worked out and was absolutely delicious. Breakfast the next morning (also done around lunch time) was a breakfast casserole consisting of some leftovers (bacon, biscuits, veggies, etc). As always, food cooked over a campfire just tastes better.

The reason that we didn’t get breakfast cooked until around noon both days is that we got a new tent and it made summer sleeping so much more comfortable than I’d been anticipating. Before, we had a Coleman 2 person tent, which worked best for cool weather camping; when it’s hot outside, the tent isn’t as well-ventilated as we’d like, and isn’t big enough for us to not have to struggle to not actually touch each other. Nothing like sleeping in an incubator next to a hot body. When it’s hot outside. Having flashbacks to trying to sleep in Mississippi – thought I was going to die.

So anyway, new tent was $30 at Aldi of all places, and is a 4-sleeper. Which basically means that we have SO MUCH ROOM now. Like, room to put our stuff at the end of the tent and still have space to stretch out without touching it. AND also at Aldi (amazing grocery store that it is), we got a tent fan! With two speeds, and a light! Didn’t even need it the second night because the breeze was so strong, in fact.

I haven’t mentioned the hammock that I splurged on, and won’t gush too much, but let me just say that it was a DREAM to be able to relax and read in that hammock all afternoon. The breeze was pretty steady, and the shade was cool, and it was just lovely. You should all go buy hammocks.

So Sunday we packed up the campsite and did one/two/three? of the little inter-mingling trails they have. Ended up being about 2.5 miles. After, we were hungry and stopped by Sherry’s Bar & Grill in Big Rock, TN. It was off the main road and Stephen found it on Yelp. I was pleasantly surprised – they had very tasty food, and everything was clean (I mean, you could smoke indoors, but otherwise everything was clean), and  everyone was friendly. Not going to promise that everyone would have been friendly if we weren’t white (saw at least one stars and bars bandanna, and they had a “2nd Amendment” plaque hanging from the wall). But as it was (or as we were anyway), it was a nice little bar.

And now I’m back at work, and feeling lighter. The atmosphere feels less oppressive today. It’s nice. 🙂

I remembered that I had a blog this morning when I received an email asking me to renew my domain name. I figured that as long as I’m paying for this….I maybe should update it now and then. I’ve been scratching my writing itch for the last several months by using an actual physical journal; I’ve always enjoyed nice pens, plus using a paper journal means that I don’t have to pay attention to proper sentence structure or, you know, making sense.

But does it really matter if I make sense? Meh.

Because I haven’t posted in a long time, I’ll make this entry into a list so that I don’t get overwhelmed and delete it before I finish.

1. Lately, I’ve been reading the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. Had heard a lot of good stuff about it but didn’t want to spend $80 for the series on Amazon, and could not find all the books at McKays ever, so I finally started reading this when I remembered that Nashville has a library and I have a library card. It’s sooooo deliciously good. I haven’t been so engrossed in a book series since the Ender’s Game books, about 4 years ago. I’m going to the library today to see if they have book #6 ready for me to pick up yet…..
2. Also lately, I finally started playing Elder Scrolls Online. Had held out for a while because it’s an MMO (massively multiplayer online) and I’ve never played that kind of game before. I haven’t spent much time playing the game yet, but so far I don’t hate it but also don’t love it. The quests (SO FAR) are suuuuper easy and I don’t really know how to do anything yet. But I’m hoping to learn some stuff over the weekend. May or may not update you later.
3. Probably anyone reading this has seen pictures (or heard me go on about) our pool this year. It’s a blow-up kiddie pool. But it is PERFECT for cooling your body temperature down and just relaxing. Make fun of me all you want, I don’t even care. This year we bought some chlorine tablets and a little floaty dispenser thing, and it’s been helping A LOT to keep the water clean and clear. Highly recommend.
4. I’m also reading this book called THE DANCE OF ANGER by Harriet Lerner. My therapist recommended that I read it, because she thinks I’ve had a lot of stuff in my life that should have made me angry, and she thinks I probably am a “bottler.” I have a lot of thoughts on this but am not sharing any until I finish reading the book and have a better mental grasp on everything.
5. We’re tentatively planning a trip to Boston this fall! I’m hoping that it works out, although I also would not mind just spending a week at home – doing stuff like cleaning the house, baking bread, going to coffee shops in the middle of the day, maybe going to bars in the middle of the day, etc etc. ESPECIALLY since it’ll be fall. But the Boston idea sounds appealing too; I’m pushing hard for camping near a beach if we do go. Because that would be amazing. And day trip to Salem would also be amazing.
6. Have been majorly slacking on creative endeavors lately. Heh. It happens, don’t judge. Or do, whatever. Last creative thing I did was painting a picture for a coworker (about a month ago). Or maybe making a glasses case for my sunglasses. But I’m not sure that counts since it just took about an hour. I keep meaning to make a silverware roll-up case for our camping cutlery, but I keep not doing that. It might be my next project though because I’ve been really wanting to go camping again.
7. Which leads me to my seventh point – we just found a 4-person tent at Aldi for $30!!!! Have not actually used it yet, but need to try it out. We ALSO found a tent fan at Aldi – clips to the top of the tent and has two (I think?) speeds, plus a light. Is exciting and I want to use it.
8. We’re (fingers crossed) going to see Roxane Gay tonight! I’m crossing my fingers because she’s a popular author, and the seats are first come first serve. And I’m curious about her new book and what she has to say about it. So, we’ll see, but I’m looking forward to it anyway!

I’m actually having a hard time coming up with more to say. I’ll leave it at this anyway, and kudos if you read through all this.