Published! And Back From Camping!

Let me begin by saying: I'm published! I finally got my hands on a real-life paper copy of my article on Friday and it's also posted online now. You can (better!) read it here.

In other exciting news: I don't really have any. I did take a fun camping trip this past weekend, though. I took pictures of the campsite and even made some art on the trip that I'd like to share. Unfortunately, last night I was too tired *coughlazycough* from the exertion of spending a weekend reading and swimming and looking at a campfire to upload my pics. But, you know me, I have an illustration to share just the same:

These are some of the things my trip held in store for me; I used the only media I could find: Highlighter and pen on scrap paper, to illustrate them. Very advanced. Let's go over the list:

• Barking. On the first night we were lucky enough to be camping next to a couple of girls and guys who had a beagle. These campsites were on a lake; everytime the girls and guys went in the water, Mr. or Mrs. Beagle got very upset. And barked about it. To everyone. Lucky us, Girls and Guys were in the lake very late, well after it got dark at 9:00 pm. The dog barking complemented the peace and the quiet of the fire like a...well, my metaphors are still camping, apparently, I can't find them. Use your imagination.
• Fire. That's pretty standard: Anthony loves his campfires. He pokes it, prods it, talks about how great it is. I should start using this technique concerning dinner, since I cook it all the time: "That's one nice fajita, huh?", "Wow, awesome mashed potatoes, do you think anyone else around here has mashed potatoes as great as these?"
• Swimming. Well, not really. The lake was about as cold as a side of beef on the gas grill. Hey, my metaphors are back. Sick and ready to leave work, but back none the less. Anywho, the lake was kinda warm to refresh us, so we mostly looked at it.
• Corn on the Cob. Cooked on the fire. Yummy. We also cooked Portobello mushrooms over the fire, also tasty. We toasted some bread over the fire and it made our Portobello sandwiches taste kinda funny. But earthy.
• Nature. Pretty hard to escape nature when you're camping in the woods. In fact, see that tree? In the middle of the night I had to go (you know) really bad, and I didn't want to walk all the way to the bathroom. I went behind that tree and I got very in touch with nature, if you know what I mean.
• Reading. I brought a copy of WNC Woman so I read my own article about 12 times. I also read some other stuff, including some magazines and a book about health and exercise. I know, on vacation! What is wrong with me???
• Ants. Not too many, but one was on my foot tickling me. I hate to be tickled. But since I'm a vegetarian I just shooed it off me, I did not harm it. Very Buddhist of me.
• Tent. I can tell you right now that illustration is not a fair and accurate representation of our tent. First of all, ours is some dark colors, I can't remember which ones (As an artist I am very observant, as you can tell.) It's not pink. At all. Do they even sell pink camping gear? I can tell you that they sell pink Highlighters, which is how my tent ended up this shade. Also, it's BIG. I think it's advertised that you could sleep 8 or something in it, but that would be very stinky. It was kinda stinky with just two, come to think of it. It's a nice tent. There wasn't even any swearing when we put it up this time, we've gotten pretty good at it.

Tomorrow I hope to post some real pics and art from the trip, but for now you're just going to have to go read my article and pine for me.