Drama

Last night my older son had a Boy Scout Troop meeting, his second since bridging from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts a couple of weeks ago. The troop met at a local recreation facility to complete a swim test, which is a requirement of all the boys who wish to participate in an upcoming campout/rafting trip.

Of course I'm thrilled to be going to the recreation center because we've already been to baseball practice for my other kid for an hour and a half, now it's 7:30pm and this swim test is supposed to last until 9pm. Oh joy! And the reason I'm there and not at home is because my husband is out of town again this week. Really, I'm going to have to have a talk with the military powers that be and tell them that this hectic TDY schedule is seriously cramping my style and something needs to be done about it. Yeah, I know, I'm not actually going to do that. I'm going to suck it up like any other self-respecting military spouse and I'm going to take my kid to Boy Scouts.

Upon arriving at the recreation center, I quickly realized there was NO parking to be found. The place was absolutely crawling with people. Oh joy! I dropped off the big man at the door, told him to go in and try to find out where he was supposed to go and that his brother and I would catch up to him. Then I went to search for parking, finally choosing to park in the field where others had blazed a trail before me.

Okay, did I mention this place was CRAWLING with people? The Scouts were there, and boy howdy, were there LOTS of them! Then there were the numerous people on hand for various classes - water aerobics, kids' swim class, free swimmers, a music class, people on treadmills.... You get the picture. You couldn't stir the people with a stick because there were so many of them! I'm glad I'm not claustrophic.

My son found a couple of former Cub Scout buddies and waited in the registration line with them. Things seemed somewhat unorganized. No one appeared to know what was going on. Registration was finally finished and my younger son and I joined a group of parents waiting in the bleacher section of the pool area. Obviously it's an indoor pool and it's hot and humid in there. My hair and makeup quickly began to take a nasty turn for the worse. Trust me, it wasn't pretty.

I was sitting in the bleachers, making small talk with some other parents, when a couple of my son's friends came running up the stairs, showing us their bandaged fingers, telling us they'd been cut while using a bamboo pole to simulate aiding a drowning swimmer. They tell me that my son got the worst cut of all, that his whole hand was sliced open and I was needed at the front desk, as were all of the parents whose kids had been cut. Evidently an incident report had to be to filled out for each boy and they were required to inform the parents.

My son's hand was all bandaged by the time I made it to the front desk. The young girl taking care of him said it was a long cut, but not deep, therefore he wouldn't require stitches. However, it was still bleeding a little when he made it to the office for first aid. She didn't think it wise for him to get back in the pool at that point. The chlorine would only aggravate the wound she said. One of the other parents asked if the folks conducting the swim test were still using the same bamboo pole and the consensus was yes, they were in fact still using the same bamboo pole. HELLO! People, three kids have been cut with this thing. Don't you think you might want to discontinue use of it for the remainder of the night?

At least we didn't have to make a trip to the ER at 9pm last night, and for that I'm grateful. When we finally got into our truck and were heading home, my older son was quite preoccuped with his injured hand while the younger one was very concerned about how his brother was going to manage to take a shower in this delicate condition. I explained that we'd use a rubber glove with a rubber band around the wrist to keep the water out, after having been told not to get the bandage wet. Well... the bandage got wet and we ended up having to redo everything.

So I missed American Idol last night due to our trip to the pool, but I figure it's all for the best. I don't think I could have handled more drama.