Childhood Memory

When I was a child, in approximately sixth through tenth grade my favorite TV show was "The Facts of Life". I LOVED this show. I would watch it every day after school in re-runs, and I know I must have seen all of the episodes multiple times. After my parents purchased our first VCR player at Montgomery Wards for $400, I began taping them in earnest. When I taped these shows I would sit in the living room with the remote control and pause the taping for the commercials. So I basically did my own video editing in a very crude manner. I would watch and re-watch these episodes. I am not sure if I ever wore a tape out but I know I must have come close.

I had a full collection of them on six hour tapes that I meticulously organized. As a matter of fact my entire VHS tape collection was numbered and cataloged. I even had the tapes with multiple TV episodes logged per episode. I had a regular video store in my bedroom. I guess this is what a kid does when they have too much time on their hands.

The obsessions with TFOL lead to my obsession with boarding school. I really wanted to go. I want to remind you that my family was in no position to send me off, and I certainly didn’t have grades that would allow me a scholarship, but that didn’t hold me back. One day I went into the Junior High School counselor’s office and took all of the literature that I could find on far off boarding schools. I even applied to many of them. I don’t remember ever hearing back from any of them. But that doesn’t mean that I didn’t get a rejection, perhaps my mom filtered the mail? I will never know.

I remember babysitting for one of my mom’s friends and her having a “serious” talk with me about this topic. She had attended boarding school as an adolescent and she was trying to sway my mind and explain to me why it wouldn’t be fun. She explained that the privileged rich girls wouldn’t be nice to a little fat girl from a trailer park. I just couldn’t see it. I felt like I was “Jo”, a tough girl that could take on anything and win.

I am telling you this story because I still have crazy ideas like this as an adult and I honestly think that I can achieve them. I was doing a search for weight loss spas and camps last weekend and I ran across a website called Fat Packing. It is a company that takes the not so fit individual out for a week or two week long back-packing excursion in various state parks in American. As soon as I saw the website I immediately wanted to go. I was like, where do I sign up. It sounded like a great adventure. It combined my love of the outdoors and nature with camping, hiking and being on vacation. It is interesting to me that these are the types of vacations that I gravitate toward, when most people I know just want to go somewhere for a week and sit on a beach and be lazy. That thought never enters my mind because I always want to be active.

This trip would consist of walking approximately fifty miles in a week carrying a full fifty pound backpack across various terrains. They state on the website that it is for people who are up to fifty pounds overweight (I don’t fit into this category) and want to loose a bit of weight and have fun. They suggest that if you are unsure of your physical ability go to a sporting goods store and try on a backpack, then load it up with fifty pounds of gear, and then walk up and down the steps for fifteen minutes. After you are done you are supposed to evaluate how you feel. I think I know how it would feel but somehow it seems different to do it outside and be in the wilderness rather than in Dicks Sporting Goods. Wouldn’t it be funny to see me hiking up and down the stars at Dicks carrying a backpack ;)

Even after writing this post I still want to go on this adventure. I have already allocated all of my vacation for this year so I would like to make this a trip for the spring or summer 2010. Who wants to join me? We could sing The Facts of Life theme song as we walked.