Everyone has their own interests. As far as girls go, I lean away from tomboy and more towards girly. I am in no way in love with fashion, but I'll go out in public without make up on. I do enjoy modern conveniences, so camping has never really been high on the list of "Things I Love to Do." That being said, it was a surprise to myself that, when offered the opportunity to go to the ranch with the guys, I said, "That sounds like fun!"

Friday after work, my friend, Blake, and I headed out to the ranch with his best friend, James, and James' nephew. The ranch isn't in the middle of nowhere, but it's certainly not in the city either. We took very specific directions - down to the tenths of miles - and gave them to our friend, Brian, who still managed to get lost on his way out to the ranch despite our specifics. (Poor Brian - he always gets lost.) We spent the evening sitting around, just hanging out by the fire, and honestly - it's one of the best evenings I've had in a really long time.

We ended up sleeping in the beds of pickup trucks which seemed like a smart idea until early morning when we realized the toolbox that was holding 18 bags of ice and our beer had leaked everywhere and that we were laying on a really cold, wet blanket.

That minor setback aside, early in the morning, I said, "Someone's coming." Blake sat straight up, looked around and laid back down. "Cows." I kept laying there thinking, "Cows? Like - coming this direction? To see us? Really?" No lie - about ten cows wandered right up to the truck and sniffed our things. One was particularly brave and ended up about two feet from Blake's head. It was really quite incredible to me - these huge, powerful animals, grazing only a few feet from us.

What did I learn?

1. Make sure to put the beer in a cooler, not the toolbox.
2. Peeing in the woods is really not that bad.
3. Being open minded about some things can end up yielding surprising and pleasant results
4. The humor in a situation can double or triple when a twelve year old is involved.

Has there ever been anything that you didn't think you'd really like, but you did it anyway and turned out loving it?