I got in so much trouble all the time, and all my travel was church sponsored! My favorite one was when I and my two girlfriends had snuck off during a main session at a convention to clandestinely meet up with our boyfriends. We then went to McDonalds, as one does on your clandestine outings when you're thirteen. And...at the McDonalds were our sponsors. Who had snuck off from the main session since we were putatively under other supervision at the time.

Ha! We both agreed to just drop the matter and we all had a nice lunch together.

When I snuck off from camp (I was supposed to be helping to *lead* the camp at this point, obviously still not to that level of maturity yet) in the jungle in Venezuela, I was the one who got us all caught. There were four of us who were coupled up, although we weren't allowed to date on the trip. But seriously, people, hot Venezuelan guys taught us how to merengue. We were powerless against it!

Anyway, one of the girls stayed back, because she was smart, and never got in trouble. Two of the girls had already made it to the meetup spot, where there was lots of booze (again, legal for the kids that age there, but not for us.) and dancing and general fun. I had left and rendezvoused with my boy, but he was more straight-laced than the other kids and was arguing with me to go back to camp. I was going with or without him. But apparently I can't argue in Spanish without raising my voice and we all got caught. I got in the least trouble of the girls who went, but I was still pretty busted.

So.

When it was my turn to sponsor, my kids were so screwed. They didn't have a chance, because I knew all their tricks.

I had never heard of this taping thing.

I was part of the ski team in school and all our meets were coed. We were good friends with the guys and so all our overnight meets meant sleeping in each others rooms and watching scary movies. I know some were having sex but I never saw alcohol or drugs. Maybe because we were such serious athletes?

My mother attended a boarding school in Sydney run by nuns. She and a group of her friends got in trouble once for climbing down a cliff by the school to go and pick lemons (which apparently grew at the base of the cliff). They didn't get in any trouble for the risks they took climbing the clifff; the nuns thought they were off meeting boys.

I have never heard of taping the doors, either. Of course, my one school trip (to London) was chaperoned by a teacher we called Wild Bill, so my experience definitely varies.

The only non-family overnight trips I took before college were to church camps, where we all slept in bunkhouse type things, with a monitor/matron/supervisor/guard sleeping in with us. It was a co-ed camp, but I have no idea if anyone slipped out. I wasn't invited, in any case, and it would never have occurred to me. I probably would have said "Why?" if someone had suggested sneaking out.

Morning, all. WOW -- THUNDER!!!!

No yardwork for me today; I think I shall clean my office, organize my closet and do some laundry.

After coffee, of course.

Sounds like a good plan for my day, too. Plus Avengers.

I think it's finally time to swap out my winter clothes for summer.

Buffistas, I have a a problem I'm wrestling with and I was hoping for some hivemind wisdom. Last year, I reconnected with an old friend from college. She is in her late 50s and founded a small company in her 30s which allows her to travel and so she leads a very peripatetic life--I see her when she's in L.A.

She just discovered she had cancer (stage 1, luckily) and needs a hysterectomy. She doesn't have insurance and has asked her friends to donate to cover the cost--she suggested $1,000 per person. This weirds me out a little. Partly, I guess, because I have been tied down to a corporate job for 10 years, mostly for the insurance. Partly because I have seen her maybe 6 times in the last two years--although they were six really nice times.

I don't think she's pulling a scam or anything--she's very honest. We could scrape together the money, I think, but the DH is pretty strongly against it. I don't know. I'm really struggling with this.

She doesn't have insurance and has asked her friends to donate to cover the cost--she suggested $1,000 per person.

Uh, no. I think it's one thing to ask for help, and another thing to "suggest" a donation level. It makes it sound like public radio, not a friendship.

Scrappy, no. Donate some money if you can spare it and you want to, just don't feel like you have to come up with money you really don't have. I'm all for people pooling their resources to help each other out, but she shouldn't tell you how much to give.