This past weekend I went camping with a group of friends. As it grew colder and darker, we gathered around the campfire. The conversation took many random twists and turns until we settled on the topic of prostates. One of our friends had to leave early the next morning to help check people in for the free prostate exams her urology office was sponsoring at Dick’s Sporting Goods. My mom always said, “Never let them know how smart you are”, so I kept all my really smart comments concerning prostates to myself. For some reason the intelligent comments don’t come spewing out of my mouth with the same frequency as my ridiculous ones. Exhibit A-

Me with all seriousness: Well, thank goodness I don’t have to worry about that for awhile. Isn’t that something they recommend when you are in your forties?

Silence from the group. I sure know how to put a halt to a conversation.

Very helpful friend: Lauren, you do know you don’t have a prostate, right? Prostate exams are for men.

Me: Errr, of course. I mean, no. Well, yes. I mean, I guess I knew that. I must have just forgotten. I got caught-up in the moment. (I really should think before I speak)

At this point, the prostate conversation was up and running again. Granted a lot of the laughs were at my expense, but it was all in good fun. And within a few minutes, I redeemed myself by announcing that “Friends don’t let friends go unexamined”. After my earlier comments, this sounded downright genius.