And Now For Something Completely Different

Did I tell y'all I'm going camping this weekend? No?

I am.

By myself.

Well, by myself and with a bunch of other Brownie moms.

But without the kids and without The Man. And without anyone else I even really know. Because somehow I became camping mom for Munchkin's troop. Therefore I must complete Basic Troop Camp training and therefore will be spending all of Saturday and half of Sunday (and the night in between) camping at my old girl scout camp from back when I was a girl.

Ahhh... Camp Welaka, how I loved you so.

I loved you so much that I wrote letters home nearly every day of my hot, humid, sticky, dirty, buggy summers that read something like this:

Dear Mom,

Please come get me. I am dying here. I hate it. It is hot. I want to go home. I am covered with mosquito bites and may have malaria. I think one of my bunk mates is a lesbian and has been trying to sneak a peek at me in the shower.

They have been trying to feed us something called Girl Scout Stew and pretending it's great to eat, but I know it's really just everything from last nights leftovers shoved into a big pot. It is slop. If I have to hike up that hill to that lodge one more time I think I might keel over and die.

Please, mother, have a heart. Retrieve me from hell.

Love,
Me

The last summer I spent there I remember wanting to go home so badly that when I spotted my sister there to pick me up on the last day I burst into tears at the very sight of her. It was as if she was retrieving me from the site of a battle I had just barely survived.

And now?

I'm camping mom.

I'm going back to that place of my own accord. Willingly. I think I can hear the bugs mocking me already.

Stay tuned for a report on Monday. If I survive.