Writer's Workshop: Stuck

This week I'm following the prompt: 3.) A time somebody got stuck.

I'd like to say thank you to Mama Kat for the shout out last week; I was so surprised and humbled to be one of your favorite entries! I'm so glad that people liked my limerick. (Maybe my 7th grade teacher wasn't full of it when she said I should send in some of my poems for a contest. I probably should have done that.) And sorry I was a slacker and skipped class last week. I was busy packing for a spa weekend. Life is tough, eh? Anyway, the story...

I had the best group of friends in high school. As a matter of fact, we all still get together every couple of months or so to share dinner and catch up on each others' lives. One of my favorite memories from high school is of going up to New Hampshire with those girls. We went once a year on Columbus Day weekend, prime leaf-peeping season. It fell around one girl's birthday, and her mother would rent a condo up there for us all to stay (she came, too, of course). We would take turns making dinner (I'm pretty sure I just cut things up for people), slept in bunk beds, explored local stores, hiked, went to church at the top of a mountain (outside), and laughed... a lot. I especially laughed when I had too much soy sauce. I'm still not sure why it used to make me hyper. But while my friends were teasing for me that and for eating one pea at a time with my chopsticks, there was a time on our senior year trip when the birthday girl made us laugh much harder.

We had gone to the Polar Caves and were maneuvering through some of the small openings in the caves (claustrophobics need not apply). All was well until we heard a cry for help. I turned around. It was the birthday girl, and she was stuck in the rocks! Apparently her, um, chest was a bit too large. I didn't have this problem.

It took us a little while, but we were able to help get her get out of her predicament. Of course, it probably took longer than it should have because we probably spent about 10 minutes laughing first. And ever the photojournalist, I had to document it. Don't worry; she was OK. She'd probably kill me if she knew I was sharing this, but hey -- it was funny! And since we were all on the yearbook staff, I am pretty sure this and the whole album of embarrassing photos from that weekend are already immortalized in our senior yearbook.

Those were the days.

And I don't know no friends like the old friends

I never seem to laugh now like I did with them

- David Nail, "Turning Home"