Dry Face, Moist Eyes

Summary of trip -- cons:
- it was windy and cold nearly the entire time (except, of course, for the last day, when we had gorgeous weather for packing up);
- by Monday I was filthy (there's a big difference between two and three days' dirt);
- and it's really not as relaxing as it sounds -- even though I slept reasonably well every night, I still felt tired when I got home.
Summary of trip -- pros:
- we camped by a gorgeous lake, with pine trees all around;
- I didn't forget anything too vital and I accidentally brought hat and gloves which *did* turn out to be vital;
- the fishermen of our group were superbly successful and we had enough trout to grill for everyone (there's something wonderful about sharing a meal like that);
- the people I go with are really nice, though oddly enough I didn't talk as much with the people I know well, and talked more with people I don't know as well.
Even though it was partly cloudy most of the trip, I got enough sun to give me a very slight burn and dry my skin out. I keep applying chapstick and moisturizer in the hopes it will stop feeling funny. The underside of my nose is really dry for some reason. That usually happens when you get sun reflected off water, but I didn't spend that much time right by the lake. [shrug]
When I got back, I took a shower and rested a bit, then went to a Memorial Day BBQ of some friends of mine. They are Scottish, and had a friend visiting from Scotland, as well as an English friend, so I just sat and listened. Very nice couple.
Then I watched a very good, but very sad film by Steven Spielburg called "Empire of the Sun." It was about an English boy who gets separated from his parents when the Japanese invade Shanghai (WWII) and how he survives until the end of the war. It depicted everything very realistically (except, perhaps, the Americans seemed a little stereotypical) and the boy who played the main character was amazing. I think it was supposed to be inspirational, but I felt mostly terribly sad.
And lastly, the other tear-enducing event -- today I applied to my immediate boss for a half day of personal time for a meeting for a volunteer cause (more on that in a different post) on Friday, and he said, don't worry about it, just list it as unbillable time. The cynic might suppose that it would end up being charged to the company as unbillable anyway and this just elimnates paperwork, or something to that effect. I just felt like it was a sign of them valuing me and the volunteer cause I'm doing this for. It's definitely a sign of how stressed I am about this job that I can get a little teary about this one expression of trust and value.