Bless Those Boy Scouts and Their Rules

Before the scout camp trip could happen, a trip permit had to be filed at the scout office.  Adam enlisted me to drop it off.  The scout office sort of scares me, kind of like going to Big A Auto Parts used to scare me when I was in high school and my dad needed me to pick up a part.

I don't belong there.  The people are frightening.  It has a Twilight Zone vibe.  Stuff like that.

A persnickety woman (in a scout uniform) checked over the trip permit with a clucking tongue.  She made x marks with a red pen where there were errors.  She said she'd "let it slide".  Oh thank you scout office baroness.  Your benevolence is only matched by the attractiveness of that outfit.

Maybe I'm bitter because she asked me how old my husband was (one of the omitted items on the form...more tongue clicking and head shaking).  I said 37.  She said, "Oh, I would have guessed over 40."

The only basis she had for this assumption was looking at me.  Thanks a lot.

Anyway.  Scouts and their rules.  They don't mess around.  All the i's must be dotted and the t's crossed.  Or else.

Yesterday Adam joined Braeden at scout camp.  And although I was trying (really I was) to be happy, I was struggling.  I had experienced a hit to my pride.  And which is worse, wounded pride or the self loathing that follows when you realize you have wounded pride?  This shouldn't matter to me.  I hate that this matters to me.

I really needed Adam.  He is the voice of reason when my mind ventures over into the irrational.  He is the stabilizer.  Always.  And he was gone.

Last night at 10:45, the phone rang.  I don't like it when the phone rings that late.  It's never a pleasant social call.  It was Adam.  Adam who was supposedly four hours away and in a place with zero cell phone coverage.

He said, "Don't worry.  Everything's OK."  (He knows how I feel about phone calls late at night.)

"I am leaving the emergency room though," he said.  My heart started to stutter in its beat and he told me it was one of the scouts (not Braeden) with a sprained wrist.  "I'm bringing him home.  And Braeden.  We'll go back tomorrow."

The scouts have this rule that a leader can't be with a boy alone (unless the boy is the leader's son).  So Braeden got to come along.  They got home at 1:30 a.m.  I'd moved all the stuff Mark had stacked on Braeden's bed.  I dismantled Braeden's pillows from the fort Mark had made in the family room.   I would have put a mint on his pillow if I'd had one.  I was happy to see my boy.  And Adam.  This morning I got to have a catch up session with Braeden.  He told me all about his week thus far.  I hugged him and kissed him and told him to stop scratching his mosquito bites. 

I told Adam all about Everything.  He made me feel better.  Of course.

I sent them off this morning.  More kisses and hugs.  See you Saturday.  This time I mean it.