The Campout

Wednesday night, I went to a camp out hosted by Smo, attended by other folks from the night shift. We gathered to celebrate H.C. finishing nursing school. Even more great, she found out that she passed her boards today. Yay!!

Smo lives out in the boonies, just outside Belton. I love her house. It's newer, nicely decorated, modern, roomie, and most importantly, it feels like home. I could sit on her couch all day breathing, and be happy.

So, I arrive later, bringing my world famous potato salad, and some beverages. I pitch my new tent, put the new sleeping mat inside, and join the others. We grill outside, eat inside to avoid the bugs, return to their patio to sit around the fire bowl and have fireside chat. I announce I'm going to jump on the trampoline (I hadn't been on one since before I hit puberty. This should be fun!

Indy announces he's never jumped on a trampoline either, so we talk him into climbing on. I showed him a couple tricks, I think he did one. He was laughing...giddy like a young 12 year old.

After a while, Indy gave up. Tweener jumped on the trampoline and we did a game where she'd do a trick, I'd do the same. Then, I'd do a trick, and she would replicate it. At one point, she did some sort of drop-knee flip. I did it, but what I did was not exactly the same, and had me doing some twisty-movement in the air to the point Indy thought I was going to fly off the trampoline. Upon landing, I felt my lower back pop. A round of ooohs and ahhhs from the audience, and I retired from my short-lived career on the trampoline. I felt like I was going to puke.

We sat around a little fire bowl and gabbed about work, and learned new exciting phrases like "monkey ass" and "swamp titties". H.C. is such a riot, I swear if she started to do stand-up comedy, she'd find herself a lucrative career.

After a while, we moved our little party down to Smo's "Dookie Pond", where her husband had set up the makings of a big bonfire. He lit it and we sat and watched the blaze while listening to music on his truck. He also managed to hide some fireworks in the bonfire, which was a nice added touch.

The fire dying, everyone turned in for the night (sadly, the hot tub remained ignored). Indy, experiencing a big night of firsts, had never camped a day in his life. Naturally, he didn't have a tent, so I offered him a corner in mine. I had a thick blanket he could sleep on because the mat was mine.

Because I'm still dealing with insomnia, I laid awake. All. Night. Long. At one point, I just looked out the tent window and watched the full moon. Listened to the coyotes, and the occasional firecracker from the defunct bonfire. Indy, however, slept soundly, snoring. When he snores, it sounds like a motorcycle. In the morning, I made sure that everyone understood that wasn't me snoring.

After the sun had risen, and started to turn everyone's tents into little greenhouses, we packed our crap and went our separate ways. When I got home, I called my doctor's office and spoke with his office nurse, who is probably the most awesome office nurse on the planet. After whining about my severe insomnia, she called in a prescription for Ambien and a refill on mine pain meds. (On a side note, the pharmacist who was on when I picked them up was a bit of a crabby, old douche...but that's a separate post.)

Last night was the first night I had a good, solid night of sleep. The pain meds also helped with the rest of the pain my body was experiencing, courtesy of the trampoline. Lower back, abdominal muscles, and of course, the gimpy knee.

It's been years since I camped out, and I forgot about how much I liked it. It was an overall fun time, and no one got smashed to Birthday proportions.

Can't wait to do it again. Maybe a float trip somewhere down the road. I'll stay off any trampolines in the event we come across one.