take your head out of your ass once in a while

I was invited on a camping trip last Saturday, to celebrate the birthday of a woman in my book club. Although I don't know her very well, my first impressions were that she's kind of self-serving and rigid. But I thought, hey, I like camping and it'd be good for me to hang out with some new people, and it was nice of her to invite me, so I'll go. Hell, maybe I'll even find out that my initial impressions of this woman were off-base. Maybe she's actually an awesome person. Here's an excerpt from the save the date (italics are mine):

BYOAnythingYouNeedToCampInTheWoods. Hiking to precede and follow for those interested.

For now, just save that date. Grab your significant other's calendar and save their date too. Grab your dog and definitely save his or her date. Hopefully I'll see you in the woods!

PS. I chose a site you can drive up to so never fear if hiking isn't for you.

Husband had to work, but Dog was available, so I did some research on the park and found that Dog was prohibited from the trails and the backcountry, but permitted in the campground. Cool. So I packed up Dog, picked up my friend C, and drove 2 1/2 hours to the park. Upon arrival, we were informed that our party had a backcountry site, and that we weren't allowed to drive to it. We'd have to hike our gear in, 2.5 miles. Also, the dog was not allowed at the site.

I was prepared to give the benefit of the doubt: that the organizer hadn't been aware of these conditions when she made the arrangements. But the ranger -- who was awesome and tried his best to help us -- had personally informed her of the restrictions upon her arrival the previous evening. And since there was free wifi at the entrance where she checked in, I can think of only one explanation for her failure to send us an update: she wanted us to have driven all the way up there before we found out, so that we wouldn't back out. Instead, we were operating on the information provided in the invitation:

Call me or one of many other people to get shuttled with your stuff, or drive your things in and then hike down.

We have a backpacking tent that I could've brought, if I'd known it was a backcountry trip. I could've left Dog and the cooler at home, and packed appropriately. But after being told it was a car camping trip, I thought it might be nice to have a cooler in 90°F weather. Just, you know, a thought.

View from the park, near the campground

C phoned the birthday girl, who abjectly refused to move to a site in the main campground, which would have allowed both Dog and the car to shuttle gear. So I had no choice but to turn around and drive back home. The ranger offered to drive C's gear -- including the birthday cake she'd made for this woman -- out to the site. Knowing this, the rest of the group tried to sneak their car back out of the campground, for reasons that remain unclear to me. Of course, they got busted by the rangers. I'd sum it up as ludicrous.

What really scores me, though, beyond being deliberately misled, is that that woman hid 500 meters away on the hilltop instead of coming down with the rest of the group, and I can only conclude that it was to avoid me. She never even contacted me to say, "Gosh, I'm sorry you couldn't get in, that sucks." I didn't even need her to admit fault, I just wanted an acknowledgment that I'd tried to attend her fucking warm fuzzy center of the universe event. Nothing. Nada. Crickets.

I'm just good at reading people. If I dislike you right off the bat, it's probably because we're not compatible...or else because you're an inferior human being. So when I get the distinct impression that you're self-serving and rigid, it might be because you're the kind of person who passive-aggressively manipulates people into doing what you want, and then leaves them up shit creek without a paddle because, well, you dislike inconvenience. Personally, I can't imagine doing that to someone. Regardless of how disappointed I might feel at having to give up my preferred campsite, I think more highly of my friends than to send them chasing after wild geese.

Fortunately for me, my mom's cousin lives near the area in question, so I called her up and asked if she and her dogs would like to go to the park. I came home with a tired, happy Dog and a bag of fresh-picked figs from her backyard. So it wasn't a total waste of a day.

maybe some artists should move in

I've lived in one ghetto or another since moving out of my parents' house. Some of them were, in fact, decent places to live; I use the word ghetto in its traditional sense to refer to neighborhoods populated by minorities and plagued by crime. I've always felt they were reasonably priced places to live, and simply avoided being a lone pedestrian after dark...at least, after I got mugged and beaten up for about $25.

I've recently decided it's time to move on. I'm sick of the mentality that a neighborhood isn't worth saving, doesn't warrant investment. I'm sick of people not giving a shit.

Last week I had to scrape the contents of the recycling bin off the street after two assholes rummaged through it for cans and bottles (California has a cash redemption value for recyclables). I don't object strongly enough to their rummaging to interrupt it -- especially as there were two of them, they looked like hardasses, and I'm pretty sure they were drunk at 7 am -- even though it undercuts the ability of recycling services to cover their own costs. I object to the fact that they smeared trash all over the street, and that I had to clean up after them.

Yesterday, I picked up and disposed of the carcass of a cat that had been decaying by the side of the street for a week. It was in someone's front yard. Who the fuck leaves a rotting animal in their front yard for a week? Ghetto people. Animal control will come pick it up for free, but ghetto people are insufficiently invested in their own neighborhood to bother picking up the phone.

For over a month, the neighbors' newly adopted dog has been barking all night long. ALL. NIGHT. LONG. I've lost count of how many hours of sleep I've lost. I've gone to their house twice, all sugar and spice, let them know that their dog is disturbing the neighborhood, and asked them to please quiet it. The first time, they seemed stunned and remarked that "No one told us." Umm. Hi. This is me, your neighbor, standing here telling you about it. The second time, they told me all about other dogs in the neighborhood, who also bark. "We've had complaints!" they said, "but it's not always our dog." I smiled and replied, "Well, it's your dog right now, and I'd really appreciate it if you asked him to be quiet."

They did. But the peace is always short-lived; the following evening I called the police at midnight and asked them to please pay a visit to the neighbors, whose dog had been barking constantly for an hour and a half. I'm not exaggerating, either: I've been keeping a log at the request of county animal control, who can't take any action until one of the other neighbors makes a complaint. No one has. Even the folks next door, who complain to me every time I see them about the noise, and who scream over the fence at the dog to shut the fuck up...they won't file a complaint. It's not even about getting the dog removed from its home -- although that's the best solution I can think of in this case, since the dog isn't a part of the family but remains chained up in a walled-off portion of the yard (no wonder the poor creature barks). Animal control merely visits the residence to assist the owners in training their dog and suggesting tools that may aid in the process. But they can't do even that, since no one will register a complaint. This morning, that dog started barking at 4:36 am, and didn't stop until 6:00. Then he started back up again before 7:00. It's driving me bloody mad. I want to bust out the gate and unhook the dog from its chain. It's not registered, and if it has any sense at all it won't come back.