i'd started writing something yesterday, [be glad i didn't,] but had to be off as one of me mates proposed the idea of going camping for a night, and i'd agreed to it. our main reason for going was to try out certain dutch oven recipes. [one of which was a "jerk" marinade, (jerk being well defined as: "strongly flavored and spicy: made with strongly flavored spices, including hot peppers and allspice,") which was as spicy and tasty as we'd hoped it would be.] as i believe i've recounted at least once at this point, last night i slept a total of about ninety or a hundred minutes (this is a blind guess), none of which were very consecutive. the sleeping arrangements [tent, pad, bag] were more than comfortable enough [though my lower back is firmly disagreeing], but after having stuffed ourselves full of said lovely cookery, we lamely fell asleep at around ten. my body, for some reason, threw itself into powernap-mode, and in about thirty minutes i was wide awake with no hope of getting to sleep any time soon. many many hours later, i did return to sleep only to be woken up for raccoon hi-jinx. [that link amuses me for several reasons, none of which i'll dispense here.] anyway, the small mammal couldn't be bothered to leave until it'd gotten enough sugar wafers to take the edge off his heroin withdrawal symptoms. [i hate to gossip, but i saw the tracks..] it was fine with me, because the wafers he was pilfering were low-grade at best. besides which, i had these superb fig bars in my car. [see what i mean about eating habits? but i swear dinner was real food.] yeah and by that time it was light and we got up and cooked a lame breakfast and cleaned camp, and skedaddled. i had to wash my hair twice to rid it of the smoke/jerk stench [it was good eating, but ten consecutive hours of carribean cooking odour is a bit much], and i fear the interior of my car will require much more than that.

that was my weekend. even though it was only one night, and even though there is still sunday to go. and i'm back at university on wednesday, so i'm seven sorts of discontented. [if i knew why there were seven, or what they were, i would say.]

it's times like these [general, not specific] that i wish my standards weren't so high, or that i could justify them with my rapier wit, dashing good looks, and charm [-out the yin-yang]. none of these being the case, i'll just not settle. [not that i even get the chance to settle often.] i just don't think i should be expecting so much when they will have to settle with me. it's the same thing with a cold room. if it's summer, and the room is cold because the a/c is on too high, people tend to get cranky, snippy even. but a cold room in the winter is just another chance to grab a large, thick blanket and cuddle up with that person [whom you're not merely settling with] and watch a movie, or take a nap. both are opportunities, but one is easily controllable and fake and reality does not back it up.

i want winter naps all the time, because i'm usually warm enough, but lately i've been freezing. [i used to love winter because of the cold, and the grey, and the crushing romance of it all. at this point i'm just looking forward to being room temperature again.]

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