I was asked to be a part of this education committee for the ELCA camps...a pretty great honor. That means that I help plan the school for camp professionals that happens just before the national conference in November. The committee is made of all the big names of camping, and somehow they thought I was qualified to help, so I'm pretty honored to be here. The only down fall is that I have to come to Wisconsin in January...bad planning! It's been a lot of work so far, but it's been a ton of fun too. Right now my face hurts from all the laughing and smiling. Let me tell you about my night....
We're staying at one of our ELCA camps in a small town of 2800 people, so after dinner we decide we want to go celebrate one of the guy's birthdays, we'll call him J. (I've lately realized just how public things are online, so I'm trying not to name names or places or anything so we'll go with initials! I might go to a locked blog in a bit, but I'm not that worried...yet). Two of the ladies here are pregnant, E and B, so they asked to go to a non-smoking place. We asked someone who lives here where we should go, and she suggests this Mexican place. Turns out they have happy hour from 7 to 9 which is perfect! We walk in and go to the bar area, and there's a giant tv that happens to be tuned to the bachelor. I guess this story will make more sense if I tell you who I've been hanging out with.
J just turned 48. B and E are about 38 and pregnant. H is a mother of 3, her oldest being 8. P has 3 kids, the oldest is 19. N has a son who's my age, and the male B has a daughter that is 17. So basically, I'm obviously the youngest by a few years.
So, we walk into the bar, and the bachelor is on. It's very obvious to me that it's the bachelor because 1. it's abc, 2. it's monday night, 3. there's a ton of girls wearing skimpy bathing suites and only one guy. I've watched other episodes of the bachelor, so I know all the rules and games and such. Everyone is just appauled that this is on TV, and they make a big deal about "oh I can't believe this is on TV!" and "I"m going to sit with my back to the TV so I don't have to watch," all in good fun of course. Pretty soon, they can't keep their eyes off the TV and they keep asking me questions about what's happening like "why is she crying?" and "why is she holding a rose?" and silly questions like that. Then the questions get a little racier, and the 7th grade jokes start flying. After a while, everyone is riveted to the TV and they make jokes like "it's like a car crash, I just can't NOT watch!"
Then, before we get to the rose ceremony, they start picking their favorites and saying things like "that one looks like she'd like camp" and "that one looks like my cabbage patch doll I had when I was little!" and "instead of roses, they should get squirted with squirt guns and then their makeup would run off their faces and they'd scream 'I'M MELTING!!!'" Oh my goodness, you have to meet these people. They're amazing.
I'm realizing this is probably one of those stories that's going to end with "guess you had to be there" so I'll just quit now. It was a fun night! Too bad you missed it.
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