It has been such an unbelievably dull couple of days here in the land of Andrew. The better part of this holiday weekend has been spent inside the confines of my home, mostly catching up on correspondences and annoying my neighbors with my drumming during daylight hours. In fact, if it weren’t for a Saturday springing to go watch a friend of mine wrestle out in Jackson I would have been a captive of my house the entire time.
Of course that shall change with this upcoming week. I am fast approaching the departure date for the fifth annual “No-Maam” camping trip, a tradition among my friends and I where we waste a weekend in front of camp fire in the wilds of Jim Thorpe, PA. This guys only retreat is treated somewhat as a great escape for those with significant others, but seeing how I’m single and all this is just a great excuse for me to go hang out with my friends, drink beer and eat red meat cooked over an open flame, among other things.
When we started this traditional trip none of us ever imaged that it would last this long. We’ve had the cast of attendees change from year to year, but there has always been a steady core group always attending (of which I proudly count myself as on) and so long as that core group always has the desire to make the trip, there will always be a No-Maam.
Now some might hear about this little tradition and think “Why those misogynistic fuckers!”, but they couldn’t be more wrong. This has little to do with woman hating, unlike the organization portrayed in Married With Children from which the name was derived. It’s simply an escape that gives us a chance to renew the bonds of friendship that we’ve built over the years. As young as I may still be in the grand scale of things, I see time passing faster and faster and the circle I once knew changing in ways I never expected.
I have friends who are married and engaged. Others now have children. Some are starting businesses. In so many different ways we are becoming full fledged adults and society is charging us to act that way. At the same time personal choices are pulling us to the far corners of this country and I see more and more that my life could be heading in that direction in the near future. We don’t hang out like we used to, or talk as often. None of it is on purpose or due to any ill will; it’s just time and life pulling us down separate paths.
So this is our annual chance to catch up and make up for time lost to living. Some in the group have known each other since our freshman year in high school and to this day it still amazes me all we’ve managed to survive through and yet we’re all still together. That is why I look forward to this trip so much and why I plan to never miss a single one so long as I can help it.
The day we let this tradition die will certainly be a low point in my life. Here’s hoping that day never comes….
Tags: Personal