I make it no secret that I could never be a contestant on “Survivor.” The idea of going 39 days with no showers, no toilets, no personal hygiene opportunities, no good food AND having to do it all outside, in all weather, with no decent shelter, AND having to do it with a bunch of people you may/may not like…well, that doesn’t sound like fun no matter what the prize money is.
“The Amazing Race,” on the other hand, I could get into – traveling to exotic locations, with the availability of amenities almost every 24-36 hours. THAT I could handle.
But this post is about “Survivor.” Well, not “Survivor,” per se, but rather the fact that the Cooties are going camping this weekend. More specifically, JAYNEE is going CAMPING. In the woods. In a tent. Outside. On the ground. With no bathrooms available other than portajons. For the whole weekend. Which consists of Friday night to Sunday morning.
Quelle horror!
We’re going as part of a Cub Scouts thing for CootieBoy. We bought our tent from a friend of mine whose son is no longer in Scouts. I spent money on really good sleeping bags (they keep you warm down to 0* temperatures) for all four of us. We have stocked up on basic camping gear (a tent light, a tarp, air mattress, a rope to hang our food from a tree to keep the mice and bears away (yes, you read that right)). Five other kids from CB’s den are going, and I’m the only MOM that has agreed to go. Another friend of mine, whose son is also in Scouts but a little older, laughed at me (via Facebook) when she saw I was going.
I’ve already decided to come home Saturday morning to take a shower. I’ll also need to come home to let out Cooper the Dog, so it has to be done even if I WASN’T running home to get clean and feel civilized for an hour. Or three.
I’ve already decided to make sure that my Blackberry, MP3 player, Amazon Kindle, and portable DVD player are all fully charged so that when bedtime arrives at 8 p.m. I’ll have something to keep me occupied. Because staring at stars, while awesome, gets kind of boring after about 15 minutes. So do campfire songs. And the idea of mice gnawing into our tent in the middle of the night because CootieGirl snuck a granola bar into the tent and left a wrapper behind that had mice running to us like we were Pied Pipers.
We will be responsible for breakfast both Saturday and Sunday morning. We’ll be serving a cold breakfast on Saturday (cereal, muffins, juice) and a hot breakfast on Sunday (pancakes, eggs, bacon). Last time I made pancakes at camp I was 11 years old and we were on a beach and someone accidently kicked sand into the batter. So we had VERY gritty pancakes that morning.
Let’s hope that doesn’t happen on Sunday. And also the thing with the mice.