My post-camping post

Ok, so the camping adventure wasn't so bad. Either the militant homeschool moms have learned to chill out or I have, probably a little bit of both.

Upon arriving, we swam for a couple of hours. The M.'s had a blast. Lunch was sitting out at the pool house and everyone was in a lazy mood. The tie-dying had been postponed until later in the week and we had gotten there late enough to miss out on the Monopoly tournament...which made us happy. The weather was fantastic, so why schedule an indoor activity like Monopoly on a day like that? Judging from the conversations going on around us, the adults partied hard the night before and none of them were feeling up to chaperoning activities, which was fine with us. Dinner even ended up being a rather relaxed affair.

I'm not particularly happy with how our Spanish rice turned out. We used the right amount of all the ingredients, but I think because it was such a gigantic quantity and was so hard to stir, it just didn't turn out right. Fortunately, it looked like most people were putting the rice on their burritos rather than on the side, so the dry and sticky quality was not as evident. There wasn't much left in the pot when we cleaned up, so either they were fooled or they fed it to the many dogs hanging around. I don't care one way or the other, since I didn't end up having to drag the leftovers home.

Throughout the day, I started to notice an itchy feeling in the back of my throat. By evening, my nose was running and then I started sneezing uncontrollably. Mr. EM made a couple of comments about how I didn't sound good, I just chalked it up to some allergens in the air. Big M. was having a ball riding his bike around with the other kids and he even ran off at one point to do some night-swimming, which thrilled him to no end. ("I've never gone swimming at night. This is SO COOL!") Little M. was exhausted, though fighting sleep, so he stayed with us by the fire and had some marshmallows before falling asleep in my arms. Mr. EM and I nursed a couple of beers in our camping chairs and had some nice conversations with a few people we hadn't seen in a long time. My throat started aching...

Around 12:30, Big M. finally surrendered to his own exhaustion and I decided I had better get to bed as well. Mr. EM drove us to the cabin, again commenting on how bad I was starting to sound. "Are you ok?", I told him I didn't know, but at that moment my highest priority was getting some sleep. He gave me a kiss and said he'd be back "in just a little while". He then proceeded to go back to fire and get shit-faced drunk with Mr. Granola for the next 4 hours. And I know that it was 4 hours because even though I was tired, my allergies were so bad that I could not fall asleep. Those cots are not the most comfortable sleeping arrangements, but I've slept fine on them before. It was the stifling sinus congestion that kept me awake.

Man, was I pissed when he finally showed up at the cabin reeking of beer.

Here's the thing, he's not much of a drinker. Usually when he goes out with his buddies, he ends up being the designated driver because he might have one beer, but then he sticks to soda the rest of the night. However, every once in a blue moon, he gets in a mood to throw back his weight in beer...which doesn't really bother me. But that night, it bothered me. I wasn't feeling well, I couldn't sleep and as he laid there next to me snoring like a chainsaw and stinking like a brewery, all I could think was, "Great, now I'm going to be flying solo with the kids tomorrow, while he nurses a hangover." Once the sun came up I just got out of bed, rinsed off in the pool house shower and walked up to the lodge. I knew there'd be some people up and some coffee brewing. I ate a bagel, had a cup of coffee and walked back to the cabin, just as he was rising. (Our cabin had no shutters on the windows, so the sunlight was streaming in right over him...and I have to admit, I rather enjoyed that.)

The M.'s were still asleep, as was the couple we were sharing the cabin with, so we sat together at the picnic table outside. He asked me how I was feeling, and I honestly answered, "Like crap." We started packing up what we could to leave and I bit my tongue not to make snide comments about his night of debauchery. I knew it was just sour grapes on my part and didn't want to start an unnecessary argument. Once the boys got up, we finished packing and drove up to the lodge for breakfast. Mr. EM found he couldn't stomach anything, and admitted at that point that he was not feeling well due a large consumption of beer. I just nodded my head and said, "Let's get out of here ASAP." He didn't disagree.

On the way home, we talked Big M. into keeping an eye on Little M. while we napped in the afternoon. He happily agreed with dollar signs flashing in his eyes. Once home, Mr. EM said, "Just leave all that stuff in the truck. We can take care of it later." He flopped on the couch and promptly fell asleep, again snoring like a chainsaw and suddenly, my dander was up.

I dragged everything but Big M.'s bike out of the truck, got all the dirty clothes separated, put away all the camping equipment and food, filled out Big M.'s football registration forms and got clothes out and coffee ready for this morning. Big M. helped me get some lunch together for him and his brother and then I got on the computer while I waited for the Benadryl I took to kick in. When it finally did, I roused Mr. EM to come upstairs to sleep in our bed and put Big M. "in charge" for the afternoon.

Little M. did not make this whole process easy...he popped into our room at least 5 times to report the abuse that Big M. was inflicting upon him. "Mom, Big M. won't let me pour my own milk," and "Mom, Big M. says I can't ride my tricycle in the street," and "Mom, I need to go potty in your bathroom but Big M. says I have to go downstairs." That's just a sampling of my nap interruptions and as you can see, Big M. was not exactly being a tyrant. I know that Little M. was probably just missing me and I know it's not my finest parenting moment to be napping while my children are left to their own devices, but give me a break! What do you think Mr. EM did through all of this? Slept, people. He didn't wake up once. Yeah, I was so turned on by that...what a guy!

I finally just dragged my butt out of bed, it was clear that napping was not in the cards for me. Mr. EM continued to sleep for another hour after that and woke up refreshed and feeling great...the jerk. I sat like a snotty lump on the couch and he had the cajones to aske me, "What's wrong?" when he came down the stairs. Suddenly he was feeling very bad for me. "I'll just order a pizza for dinner and don't worry about that laundry, I'll get it folded. Hey...did you unload everything from the truck? Cool!"

The evening carried on like a normal Sunday evening. The boys bathed and went to bed at their regular time. As I came down the stairs from putting Little M. down, Mr. EM seemed to think that was a good time to pick a fight with me. "You know, I don't why you got so bent out of shape about me partying a little bit last night. What's the big deal?"

Oh, yes he did.

I tried to explain my side of it, that it wasn't the partying that bothered me so much as the fact that while he nursed a hangover I had to hold the fort down while not feeling well. His side of it was that if I didn't tell him I wasn't feeling well, how was he supposed to know? (Never mind that he was the one who kept making the comments at the campground about how bad I sounded and asking me if I felt ok.) Plus, he'd told me to just leave all that stuff in the truck and he'd take care of it later. To be honest, we were both feeling tired and nit-picky and that was really not the best time for us to be trying to have a mature discussion about what was bothering us. After a little yelling, which surprises me now that I think about it because we have never been yellers when we argue, we both seemed to realize the fruitlessness of the argument and let it drop.

I took some more Benadryl and went to bed soon after that. This morning I'm still feeling lousy and took the day off work. Mr. EM has recovered just fine from his good times. We were both a little on the silent side with each other this morning. I feel a little bad for being bitchy to him, but at the same time I think he also handled the situation rather immaturely.

And so this time around, it wasn't the militant homeschool moms who ruined the camping weekend for us...it was Mr. EM and I who ruined it for ourselves. Nice.