Just over one month ago, I accepted a challenge of sorts. While celebrating Cream Of Tartar’s birthday, we (Cream Of Tartar, Opreggano, BioMom and Chauffeur) discussed going camping. It has been some time since I have camped. I’ve ‘slept’ in hammocks, chaise lounges, on the lawn of a train station, and on a concrete block in Times Square, but I haven’t purposely gone camping for many, many years.
As a result, Chauffeur and Cream Of Tartar were convinced I wouldn’t actually go. Opreggano, however, had faith in me and created a contract which we all signed. If I didn’t go, I owed them a bottle of scotch. Outside of their company – which is a major perk, I don’t believe they owed me anything if I went.
Being a woman of my word, I pulled my backpack out from under my bed – leaving the inch of dust on it, grabbed Boggle and MiniMe’s mummy’s sleeping bag, and was ready to go when BioMom and Opreggano arrived. Being that it was early in the morning, we were all very ready for some food and coffee. We stopped at the drive-thru and, as I handed the cashier my debit card, BioMom handed us advice, “Always have them slide it inside.” “A little early for sexual comments, don’t you think?” I asked as I handed her a coffee. She giggled, took the coffee and preceded to pour it into her coffee thermos. “Do you want cream or sugar?” I asked. “I creamed at home,” she replied. “Wow,” Opreggano commented.
We arrived to find Chauffeur actually sawing logs while Cream Of Tartar was in the tent, also sawing logs. I pulled out my camera and Chauffeur quickly instructed, “No action shots and no posting these on facebook.” “Right,” I replied and took a picture. Chauffeur and BioMom were sleeping in a small cabin, Oreggano and Cream Of Tartar in their tent and, if needed, Chauffeur had brought a tent for me. “Would you like an action shot of me pitching a tent? Ba da boom!” he said and returned to sawing logs.
Several hours later, it began to rain, so we all (five adults and three dogs) retreated to the small cabin and played Boggle. BioMom was killing us with words we had never heard, like ‘lek’ and ‘lout.’ “I’ve got a dictionary. I’m checking these out,” Chauffeur told her and ran out to the truck to retrieve a dictionary. “I can’t believe he has a dictionary in the car,” I stated. “It was on the list of things to bring,” Cream Of Tartar advised us. One of the words BioMom had played was not in the dictionary. “Your dictionary is too small,” she informed Chauffeur. “You may be right,” Chauffeur replied and continued, “but it is not in the official dictionary of the cabin game, so you can’t count it.”
Later, after the rain stopped, Chauffeur and Cream Of Tartar returned to being sawyers (a two point Boggle word and someone who saws wood), and Opreggano, BioMom and I did what we do best – stationed our lawn chairs in the dirt next to the fire pit and watched.