I'm Back, Smellier But Smilier

Well, yes, I guess you can say I've been away for awhile. Seventeen days, 2 hours, and 45 min. to be exact. A lifetime in a blogger's world.

Oh, and I lost four followers. What's up with that?

Basically, I needed a wee break. I apologize, to all those of you who sent me sweet messages worrying about me, hoping I would again post and show my ugly little face to the world once again. Here I am!

Apart from needing a break, I also didn't have much of substance to say, to tell you the honest truth. No funny anecdotes, no interesting photos, no sad stories. Nothing. At. All.

I was at the point in my life, after my last post, where I needed to just breathe, let go of all my duties and responsibilities, and just do nothing. And that included letting go of my blog for just a little bit.

I thought about it everyday, for sure. In the back of my mind, I was perpetually aware of the need for blog topics, posts, photos, anything. And yet...nothing. Nada. Rien. Zilcho. Zip. Which made me feel all the more like NOT doing it, or anything else.

And so, I decided not to. Do it, that is. The blog.

But now I'm back, still without much to say, but at least I'm back.

Right?

During this time of my unravelling creativity and motivation, we (the family) went camping into the great wilderness known as Algonquin Park, for eight days of bugs, wind, sleepless nights, and no tan to show for any of it, because, alas, it was never warm enough for The Blogging Goddess to shed her five layers of fleece and winter outerwear.

Nevertheless, it was one of our more enjoyable camping trips, because the rain was sporadic, and, although it could have been a tad warmer, it was warm enough. And those are two of my main criteria. That, and the amount of absolute quiet at our campsite. This year, although we had some noisier-than-I-would-have-liked neighbours spewing loud voices at 7 a.m., our children were relatively quiet and self-sufficient, for the first time ever, and for that, I am eternally grateful. Dee found himself a little friend a couple of days into our trip, and so most of his days were spent playing tag, getting very dirty, catching frogs and turtles, and playing Ninja with his buddy, which meant he wasn't around a lot to cause any problems with Em, who had decided early on to sulk for most of the trip. Boy, 14 sure changes a girl! Now, apparently, the water is too cold for her to jump in swimming at every opportunity (aka 24 hours a day, every day, regardless of the weather), the tent is too uncomfortable, hiking sucks, and who ever thought of camping anyway?

Her mood lightened somewhat when her friend came down for a few days with her family. Hallelujah!

What we also realized when her friend came down to join us was that 14-year-old girls must be somehow genetically identical, because that is the only way we could explain these girls' moods, retorts, stances and perpetual texting, all identical in every way. If you closed your eyes and just listened, you would not know which girl was talking.

Yes, Em and her friend both brought their cell phones camping, and both were found texting their friends.

I have no words.

The trip was pretty uneventful, all in all, except for a black bear coming through our campsite two nights in a row (ah, but we didn't get a momma moose and her baby this year), seeing a moose on the side of the road eating (what else?), watching as a beautiful doe loped across the highway right in front of us, listening to the loons every day, and having Gryphon, our faithful standard poodle, puke for three days straight all over our campsite, as well as the occasional run of leaky poop that we would find happenstance as we walked to a chair. Oh, and he puked again in the four-hour car ride home, partially on Em's lap.

He's feeling better now.

I am, however, particularly proud to say that I won the prize for dirtiest and smelliest person at the campsite, and probably the entire campground. Nay, all of Algonquin Park, I dare say. I showered only once, and changed both my underwear and socks only twice. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

For I am the Camping Queen of the Universe.

And I have returned.