The Savvy Life

Camping to me is one of those oddly satisfying activities for me. Camping for me is about switching out my stressors. Instead of getting all worked up over traffic or the ringing phone, I get worked up over whether I’ve set the tent up correctly to protect against rain or whether I’ve secured the cooler to the racoons can’t get at it. Camping is not stressless, but since it has completely different types of stress, it is refreshing.

I once spent three hours trying to get a fire going. There weren’t other options. It isn’t like I could just stop and use a different method. I had a small bic lighter, a few scrap pieces of paper, paper towels, toilet paper, and bits and pieces of almost dry wood scrounged from the forest floor. Making this fire was the task I had to accomplish if I wanted warmth and food. When I had finally hit upon the right combination of tinder and blowing and those little orange flames spiked up over the kindling I had chopped from the logs I purchased, I had a real sense of accomplishment. I had achieved something of undeniable value.

I know a few of you are saying, “Wait a minute, this blog supposed to be about urban living.” It is, but sometimes an urban dweller like myself heads for the woods and sets up camp to get away from the rat race. Getting away does mean leaving behind a lot of specific luxuries.

I choose to cut off the internet and television. No movies, either. When I was in high school, I was in a science class that took us from Montana to Idaho, Washington, and Oregon where we spent a lot of time camping. One of the rules we had to follow was no radios, cassette players (cds were just coming out), or any other device of that nature. If we could play a musical instrument, that was fine. I still follow these rules, sort of. I usually camp by myself, but I try not to replicate what I could just do at home. The whole point is to experience the world in a different way.

This does not mean that I go out into the woods to be miserable. Camping gear is improving to the point that camping really can be an escape from the ordinary. When it comes to tents and you are an urban dweller with some needs for urban luxury like light, ventilation, and iPod recharger, then you should consider the N!Ergy Tent from Eureka! It sports the E! Power system which provides 12-volt outlets for your powered gear.

For the foodies, camping provides some fun obstacles, but Coleman assists with tools that will turn your campsite into a top notch bistro. I covet the Coleman Pack-Away(tm) Kitchen. After spending time trying to prep food on a board wrapped in aluminum foil sitting on the ground, I look at this glorious set up and dream of hamburgers without dirt. Sometimes you are lucky enough to have a picnic table to use in your food preparation, but I know I tend to use the picnic table as the general storage area until it is time to eat.

The one luxury I refuse to go without when camping is coffee. I like rustic coffee, so I don’t mind the old camp pot hung over the fire percolating and brewing into a thick sludge. That’s just me though. Coleman understands that normal people like good coffee and to that end have provided the perfect camping accessory, the Coleman French Press.

This isn’t all though. PCMagazine has an article called 10 Must-Have Gadgets for the Great Outdoors. I call BS on the Must-Have part of that title, but some of these items are nifty. One of those items is the Wavebox, a portable microwave. I may scoff at those people who want to bring their portable DVD players, but I am in awe of those people who have a portable microwave. It is tantalizing imagining the multitude of cooking options this clever device provides.

One of the downsides of camping is trying to keep those foods which require refrigeration as cold as possible. Gadgetry is not a match for physics. Beore packing the food, make sure it has been refrigerated. Don’t expect to the cooler to do the work of the refrigerator. Additionally, don’t use ice. Ice creates liquid water which becomes a medium for cross contamination. Use icepacks and bottles of water that have been frozen to create the cold environment you need. Put those items that will be grabbed immediately on top and those items that will be used later all the way to the bottom. Insulation is the camper’s friend. A layer of newspapers laid on top of the cooler after it has been packed but before it has been closed will help keep the cold air trapped inside when the cooler gets opened.

If you do go camping and have special tips and tricks you’d like to share, please leave them in the comments section.

One of the most difficult aspects of dating is trying to determine if the woman you’ve exchanged a few niceties with actually wants to date you, or is just bored and using you for a few minutes of entertainment. I tend to be an overly cautious person not wanting to be ‘that guy’ who is constantly hitting on every available woman in my vincinity, so I tend to miss the signs that a woman is interested. If she does the casual touch thing, I assume it is because I had lint on me and she is a obsessive compulsive freak. If she seems to be dropping hints about movies she wants to see, I assume she just likes movies and likes talking about movies.

Of all the advice I’ve read, the article currently at MSN.com called Does She Want to Date You? has a stellar piece of advice that any single man caught on the fence about whether a woman is interested in him or not should pay attention to.

And how does a guy know if a woman isn’t interested? “If she is looking around the room while he’s talking to her and crossing her arms across her chest,” says Jess, “she’s probably not that interested. Also, if she tells the guy that he would be perfect for her sister or she suddenly brings up the fact that she’s been talking to her ex-boyfriend, there’s probably not a spark there.” The guy should just move on to a woman who is worth his time or possibly take the uninterested woman up on her sister offer.

I know it is a ‘negative’ indicator instead of a positive indicator, but since one of my personal goals is to limit rejection, I like to pick up on the negative indicators.  If she is doing things that clearly indicate a lack of interest in me in that way, then I know not to expend any romantic energy towards her.

There are other subtle ways to know if she is interested though.  Unfortunately, the following requires me to make some general statements about women.  I hope to do this in a non-demeaning sort of way, though I think the following are sort of truisms.  Women think about relationships more than men.  While they want men to make the first move, they will make easy for the man.  The first sign she is interested is she is there.  She is available to be asked out.  If a man finds himself seeking out the woman, she could possibly be avoiding him.  If she is available, then she might be interested.  Let me stress the might part of that sentence.  MIGHT be interested.

Another verbal clue she is interested is if she talks about possible future plans that she and the man could do together.  “Oh, you like sushi? We should go to that sushi bar in Wicker Park sometime.”  At this point, she really is setting the ball for it to be spiked.  For a lot of women, this is as close as they will get to asking a man out.  She has taken the big risk by indicating she would indeed like to spend time with this man in the future.

The real lesson on ‘reading women’ is to pay attention.  If it seems difficult to even talk with her, she is probably deftly avoiding the awkwardness.  On the other hand, if she makes herself available, and in general easily engages in conversation with the man, she is most likely willing to go on a date with him.

Whether she will sleep with him is an entirely different subject.