Girl Scouts baseball campout

We've had a lot of fun this summer, but one event Madison and Ella had been looking forward to since May or so was last night's Girl Scout Baseball Campout at Frontier Field. The idea is to watch the Red Wings (our local AAA team, minor league team for the Minnesota Twins) play a night game, then watch the weekly Friday night fireworks display, then vacate the field while they clean, then come back onto the field and pitch tents in the outfield, watch a movie on the big screen, eat snacks, and go to sleep (and get kicked out at 7am). I mentioned in my weekly email to my Rochester KOA list (now about 6000 parents) that we were going to do this and whoever else was going to be there should stop by and say hi. I got responses to the effect that I should "take a nap, because it's going to be a late night!"

We already owned a 2-man tent; Ella and I went to Gander Mountain on Thursday to gear up with another 2-man tent (looks like a bright yellow sarcophagus), sleeping bags for David and me, and some foam pads. Yesterday, we baked brownies (of course, we couldn't actually bake Brownies) and cookies, and packed up grapes and cheese balls.

We got to the game with the back of the car all packed. Unfortunately, the game didn't start until 7:40 because of some AAA Hall of Fame ceremony, then got over at 11pm. And at the moment it got over (Red Wings beat the Scranton-Wilkes Barre PA team 6-2), the sky opened up. It was a brief shower and didn't impede the fireworks, but the announcer said that there was an air mass that was at that point over Buffalo, heading our way, with lightning and hail...so the campout would have to be postponed.

I thought I was the only one relieved, because all of the parents put on appropriate disappointed faces, but David murmured to me that he was just as happy to be going home. A nice cool house, a soft bed, a good night's sleep in advance of a 9:30am belt-testing ceremony at the girls' karate dojo...vs. a 2am humid, hot night with a bunch of giggling preteens, cranky 6-year-olds, and sugary snacks...I'd say we lucked out. Plus Ella was already wilting in my arms and it was going to be another hour before we could even set up.

Of course, I'm feeling like an old fogey for even thinking this. What kind of wet blanket am I going to be in 10 years?