kiwords

Took Tre to his first den meeting tonight. No, he did not get a pocket knife. He did, however, get to rampage around with five other cub scouts and do projects. Achievements, I’m told. They learned about safety. What they learned about safety I’m not sure, but that seems like a good thing to learn about, right? They also made truffles and trail mix and popcorn – “the old fashioned way.” When he said that I pictured them shaking wire baskets over an open fire ala Little House on the Prairie. No, apparently the old fashioned process of making popcorn goes like this: You take a pan and put it on the stove, then you add the popcorn and put some oil in there…
Old fashioned. Ooookayyy. Apparently my childhood is the good old days. Sigh.
I’m pretty sure the whole scouting thing is a cult. I finally got to sit down with the den leaders and have them go over what I need to go buy for Tre, the patches and shirt and scarf and slide and book…and it all means something. As I was furiously scribbling down instructions one of them reassured me that the people at the Scout Store would be more than happy to help me. “Well that’s good,” I said, smart-mouthed as ever, “because I’m beginning to think I’ve stumbled into a cult and it may take me some time to get up to speed on everything.”
*crickets*
Ooookaaay, not a cult with a great sense of humor. But nice people, nonetheless. I suspect that spending a great deal of time in this particular cult gives them special powers. The other week at the Pack meeting, someone was giving a plea for a volunteer to take over the Awards Coordinator position. He explained what it entailed (getting a list of awards needed by the various pack leaders, picking them up from the Scout Store, organizing and delivering them at the pack meeting), and I sat there, thinking, hmm. I could do that. But I decided not to jump in and commit myself. My life is pretty full…wah, wah, wah.
The next week I got a call. Steve, the Pack leader, called to say he understood I was interested in the Awards Coordinator position, and he thought that was just great…
I said “no, Steve. I didn’t say that to anyone.” He said, “hmm. Are you sure? I have your name down here…”
Um, long story short, I’m now the Awards Coordinator. And I do my best not to think anything that would offend those people. Not when they’re around.