being type a pays off sometimes

We are planning to go camping with a huge group of families in a few weeks and I am feeling some trepidation about it (why would I sleep outside on the ground? I spent the first 5 years of my life in a camper, BTDT, I have an ACTUAL HOUSE that I can sleep in). My reluctance is slightly mitigated by the possibility that our air mattress will fit inside our REI Taj 3 tent that we got as a wedding gift from the lovely ladies from my Chicago book group (and the promise of the company of friends and great photo ops).

So today we tried to set it up and wouldn't you know, the elastic in the poles was completely shot, totally unusable (why do I think of panties when I hear about shot elastic?). When I called REI customer service they said we were welcome to mail them the poles and tell them why we were wanting them covered by the warranty. That sounded like a total hassle and like maybe we wouldn't get them back in time so we decided to head over to the retail store, which is about 6 miles from our house. Sure, they said, we can put new elastic in and have them back to you by Wednesday. Awesome. They also asked me if my poles had been smoking up to much and that's why they weren't functional (huh? but funny, I appreciate someone who can just bust out with totally random crap to a complete stranger). It won't be covered by warranty but for the convenience I'm willing to pay (12$ per pole). I'm so glad we didn't get to our campsite and then try to set up a dysfunctional tent. It totally pays to plan ahead.

Oh, and we almost had to drag Nina out of REI kicking and screaming. She totally could have spent at least another hour or two trying on shoes.