Last weekend, we packed kit and caboodle into our little zipster, and headed northward bound for a weekend in the woods. And when I say kit and caboodle, I say it without the slightest bit of irony. I refer embarrassedly to the kind of packing that has bags filling the boot, bags on the backseat, and overflow luggage by the feet of the co-pilot (aka yours truly). It always seems like a disheartening ordeal at first, but by the time we got to our spot in the Catskills, capming seemed like the perfectest idea we'd ever had.

That is, until the thunderclouds rolled in on us like uninvited wedding crashers. WeShall, Karolyn, Delta and I had barely finished putting up our tents when the sky unleashed upon us with all gawd's fury. It was Karolyn's first time camping ever, and we'd just spent the entire car-ride telling her how it was the greatest thing one could do with one's weekend, so as you can imagine, she was rather non-plussed by the rain.

"I have just the umbrella for this occasion!" she said innocently, and pulled an umbrella out of her Mary Poppins suitcase. We all gaped at it. "S**t, F**k, Hate, B***h" was scrawled all over it. Nice. An umbrella with Tourettes.

But soon enough the rain subsided, and we managed to get a heartwarming fire started - the kind of fire that draws out our primordial instincts for warmth, security, love (and hunger). Soon enough, everyone else arrived, and our weekend kicked off full swing.

A hearty breakfast, and we took off on our day hike. About twenty minutes up the face of the mountain, and I was frankly quite ready to turn around and head back downward. As it turned out, i discovered that my body had no interest in hauling itself up the mountains, against the forces of gravity. How easy hiking would be if it was all flat. But we're not quitters, and all of us laboured doggedly on. It was the most perfect day. The sun was shining, the trees blowing gently in the breeze. There in the woods, it seemed a million miles from the chaos of the city. And finally, after an exhausting day, we returned to camp to a welcome fire, burgers, and smores.