Here I thought I'd been to every campground on the Eastern Seaboard but somehow my family missed that [inlink]paul,3512[/inlink] one.

My Dad is continuing the tradition by taking 5 grandkids camping on Hunting Island, SC for 3 nights. And because no family camping trip would be complete without some extended quality time in the car, after he and Jean drive to Rehoboth Beach to pick up Tyler and Connor, they'll take the scenic route back with the kids (Norfolk, Cape Hatteras) with a bonus side trip to Ocracoke Island requiring TWO ferry rides. I hope these kids know what they're in for.

Don't worry, he's going to swap the Jetta for my sister's car when he picks up her older two for the rest of the trip. I can't believe she's not letting Stephen go. She was just shy of two when we camped at Caledonia State Park.


OMG. We had to be the geekiest-looking kids in the whole campground.

As long as I have you on the edge of your seat (haha), I ran across this pic of Dad rowing me and my brother around some island in the middle of the Long Island Sound. Here we are just setting out from City Island, NY where my grandparents lived. I can't believe Mom let him do that. I guess (e:Paul)'s right about rowing. Dad does look pretty buff here.



p.s. - if you want to camp with a bunch of naked people of all ages go to Burning Man, while you still can.

p.p.s. - As San Francisco police Sgt. "Carl T." helpfully explains here, public nudity is perfectly legal as long as it's not lewd, intended to titillate, or annoying. Buffalo cops may have differing interpretations so think twice before you try it. Oh yeah, I love the way they include cup size in the quote attibutions on this article. Haha!

(e:Ajay), you are so lucky you don't live closer to me or I might have to claim special (e:Peep) privilege and insist on buying you a drink while you pretend to listen to me tell you what's been going on with me lately. Ok, I would never actually do that to you, but with the majority of the (e:Peep) population approximately 2.6k miles away, and (e:Paul) cavorting with the leeches God knows where... well, I just don't know what.

Oh wait. I have a first movie date with a complete stranger tonight. I guess it's bad form to b!tch on a first date? Which reminds me, I have to figure out what method of mass transportation I will take home after I drop off Carl's car tonight if my car is not ready.

(e:Paul), will you get your naked butt home soon, please?

I really don't know where to start. Wait a minute, yes I do. My freakin' car broke down in SF! I was rounding the final corner to drop my new-found (on craigslist, where else) friend at home, RIGHT on schedule for a pre-5PM ETA to tune into (e:DrChlorine)'s [inlink]radio,76[/inlink] Dance Party Mix-omatic 5000 with time to spare when things went horribly wrong. (Ok, it could have been a lot worse, but the only good thing about having something bad happen to you is you get to melodramatize the story.)

I push in the clutch like I have approximately 5 bazillion times before except this time it's accompanied by a slight yet ominous snapping sound and the pedal doesn't spring back when released. I coast into a mercifully lengthy parking spot thinking "anything really bad would have made more noise than that, right?" Apparently not.

So I had to abandon my car in Bernal Heights. It could have happened at way worse places and times, although somewhere on my side of the Bay and NOT on a holiday weekend would have been nice. But I guess we don't get to negotiate these things.

Anybody know a good mechanic in the city? Maybe I should treat myself to a AAA membership and kick it off with a free tow, if they still do that. Is that considered cheating?

So thank god my ex-roommate answered his phone and not only offered to rescue me but also to loan me his car for the next couple days. I am so lucky. Thanks [inlink]twisted,3[/inlink]Carl!!!

After being briefed on auto-idiosyncrasies, I raced home, tuned into (e:Radio), peed like a race horse like I'd been wanting to do for the previous hour and a half, and things instantly started looking up. Thanks (e:DrChlorine)!

So, my new friend is one of many responders to my posting for a movie watching buddy. (Apparently suggesting I provide the beer while he handles the flicks and remote control was a winning combination.) I could dedicate an entire blog to the responses on this one, and with (e:Paul) not around for the daily dish I just might have to. But not quite yet. Names will of course be changed to protect the perverted - I mean, innocent.

I feel like I'm slowly filling in the blank spots in my life (well, most of them anyway), although it's kind of weird to be segmenting it category by category. But as I wrote in response to another ad in a completely different category, I'm not out to find my "one and only" (although if it happens I'm not going to run screaming either), but I don't want to forgo some of life's pleasures in the meantime.

Uh yeah. We'll see how that one goes.

Welcome to NoCal [inlink]ajay,154[/inlink] (e:Ajay) !

I've decided as long as (e:Paul) is away I'm going to allow myself free reign blogging on (e:strip)/Eastern edition to help alleviate the separation anxiety. That only seems fair. Don't worry, it's only for another 5 days. Then (e:strip) can go back to being a crunch-free zone. haha.

So the decision to cast another line into the craigslist pool to find a movie buddy came about when I realized how much I miss my friend Steve. He's the media-holic in my old circle of friends (among other claims to fame, like staging large-production [inlink]twisted,14[/inlink] Halloween parties). Anyway, any event at Steve's ends up in front of the TV watching the latest DVD releases, some rare gem he found on laserdisc, the best of the past week's TV offerings, etc. all cued up like a video dj ready to captivate his audience into the wee hours of the night.

That was really too much of a good thing for me, to be honest. But Steve was so into it - pointing out production nuances and factoids and behind the scenes trivia. Like having your own personal extra footage host. And it was a social thing, so it seemed ok to be spending that much time on it. Unlike this blogging thing, which is not at all social for me right now. Oh crap.

The hell with it, I'll just finish this now anyway.

So I get the usual rush of responses, mostly one-liners from guys who are probably used to being ignored - possibly because they've chosen an email account name like bitchaholic. I respond to just about everyone anyway and round two begins.

Can I just interject here that I don't recommend using craigslist to meet that certain someone. Activity partner, sure. Someone with similar interests to do stuff with, yeah. You'll still have to sift through the dregs of society just looking to get laid. That's always the problem when technology makes it easy for the bottom feeders to appear to have equal footing. And the bottom feeders always seem to be the early adopters. But at least in SF, craigslist has become mainstream enough that you still have the cruft, but there are actual people in there too. I personally have met a couple.

So three or four responses stand out from the start with thoughtful, coherent points indicating they actually read my entire ad. One of them is from the guy I met yesterday - conveniently named Steve. Not that I could ever actually replace the original Steve, but still.

Ok, I really have to wrap this up so here's the condensed Reader's Digest version. I learn from the links to his blog in his email signature that Steve is a "journalist who writes about media, culture, and politics." Of course I am intrigued and since I am making judgment calls on the fly I decide to send him a link to my blogs as well. Both of them, believe it or not. Maybe that wasn't such a good idea since now I'm writing about him here, but there's no going back now.

So the other weird thing is he actually reads my blogs. All the while emailing back and forth to the point where he even explains that he was emailing me one morning when the train came and he lost his wireless connection before he could hit send and I reply that I was getting worried because I hadn't heard from him in 8 hours. So there's that weird internet connection thing that I still don't trust, but what the hell it beats a poke in the eye.

This is already too long. Maybe I'll finish it later. I have to deal with my car in the morning.

Oh - did I mention my ex is coming back again? This time for a MONTH? I am not kidding. Didn't he just leave?

Later.