We took off yesterday and drove to the family camput... 3 Nations all in one campground (for those of you non suburban parents, each nation has multiple tribes which means there were like 1000 people or something)... Most of the people there are all people in my neighborhood but I've never met any of them. All with their own life story and stuff. I always feel somewhat on the outside in these circles. Always the crazy one "Last time I saw you you weren't eating any cooked food!" or "Oh, you're letting your kids eat that..WOW..." following be a small question mark that I Used to be so "good" about that stuff. Whatever that means. I never feel like anyone is actually asking me "Hey hows it going in your lives?" like I hear them with each other, who's kid is going to what class, baseball, etc. To me it's always "let's identify all the ways I'm "different" than you are." It's a wierd feeling. I sometimes think that is how I've gotten to this point... where I've totally found myself actually taking NyQuil. If you didn't know me 7 years ago, that would absolutely NEVER have happened... I used to eat freakin' cloves of raw garlic if I felt sick... whole raw cloves. This campout I got asked about yoga a few times. It's always wierd to get asked about yoga in those situations. Not like I don't talk about yoga all the time but I always feel like I have to sorta censor my passion about it because, well, I already got the wierd designation, might as well just complete it. I'm the girl that my husband and I always point out as "You know the one that is just out there." Let's face it, we're no different in our judgments, it's just hard to be so confronted with them if you know what I mean. Lots of think about there.

The kids had a blast and I'm happy to have toughed out The Cold (which seems to be going nowhere). The Daughter is going to be so happy when she starts Indian Princesses. We had the conversation on the trip about how The Son has just one more year. He is so excited because The Husband has agreed to be chief of the tribe... yes, I am the chief's wife. The Son had to get up on stage and agree to withhold the 6 Aims (moms, we all already know about the 7th aim, we'll just pretend it's cool with us) with his father.. there was a passing of the rainstick. I actually got teary. When we were telling The Daughter that after next hear, The Husband and she will start Indian Princesses and they'll have four years of campouts. Whereas The Son never had to "wait out" being old enough for something, as the second child, The Daughter is always waiting something out "to be old enough." It starts to make sense the different personality types of sibling ranking.

I really really like the YMCA program. I know it isn't called Indian Gudies anymore but that's what we call it. Picture a group of families camping together. Usually just dads and sons... the moms pull in and we immediately see all the things we'd "never allow" and we get to check ourselves, find our peace on the manly turf... it's fun. But more than personally, it is amazing to watch the kids.. the girls went down to the creek and collected tadpoles. The boys caught frogs, caught a fish with their bare hands... That idylllic...

L.A. tomorrow... my hamstrings may split in half and I fought every urging itch to stretch this way or that at the campout (you know, the self consciousness). I hope some of the congestion is gone tomorrow; otherwise the train is gonna be *real* fun.