Monday
Nap Time
This is the first oppurtunity I've had to write since getting here. I'm in boys cabin 1 again. I have two of the same kids from last year, Chris and Lyle. Andy McDowell is my co-counselor. Having cabin one is kind of tough, but Spaz has cabin 6 with a bunch of kids from Weathersfield giving him a hard time. They got in a ton of trouble last night and had to do chores during 11 freetime today. Chris Sirois reprimanded them at lunch and they just cheered. They were singing out of tune at vespers too.
My kids are playing this ball game, and I keep telling them to be quiet, and Dutton pops in and tells them to keep quiet, and bam, they're quiet. A camper asked me if I was 18 today, I guess counselors do haev quiet a bit of prestiege over campers.
We counselors tried to sing the shark song at dinner yesterday, but somehow we started at swimming and skipped all the shark stuff.
Good, they added a rule that talking in the ball game is an out
Chris Dutton seemingly has taken the public face of Chris Sirois's job. Somebody left two weeks ago; Dutton wasn't even supposed to be here this summer. I'm glad he is though, the staff is what makes camp what it is. I've only gone three years, but the staff are what make it for me.
Now they're arguing about who's out. Little kids really get each other going
My counselor activities are Rockets, Canoeing, and Low Ropes; I'm a Mohegan. Juliet, who does my ropes and is a Mohegan leader, got mad at me first dinner. I asked her to get dessert, but I had to keep repeating myself because it was so loud. And so now she jokes 'get the dessert get the dessert".
4H camp is so different. Sirois to Dutton. Diane to Mary, and my personal least favorite: new tables. Because the tables are new, we can't bang on them, and that neuters so many things. Elbow, little teapot, 'we got spirit', the countdown even! Stomping just isn't nearly as loud :-/.
I didn't put on sunscreen today for my activities, I hope I don't burn. gotta get ready for tribe though.
Monday, staff/counselor hunt.
or: Why Instantaneous Posistioning and Communication Between Trusted Parties Will Revolutionize Human Interaction.
Here they come.
What I envision in the near future is that cell phones (which already have the ability to track GPS + communicate) will allow you to quickly see where your friends are. The security of the thing is the only thing really holding it back. Knowing that somebody could hack the system to get my location is a rather disconcerting though. But at the same time, thinking that I could flip open a device and see the location of all the other counselors is a rather incredible system.
Here's something else I want: ad-hoc cell phones. Cells can talk to towers, and towers to cells. Why can't I get a cell to call another cell without paying anyone? I mean... if we're in range.
I guess my hiding spot is pretty poor, tons of kids are finding me. My signature is pretty poor too. Everyone is complaining about how I'm hiding behind sticks, but you know what? Everyone has faught their way through them, and for what? I won staff/counselor hunt my one year as a camper, you know what I got? An orange push-up pop. So why do these kids do it? I'll tell you why, and it's what makes camp great. They're going to go back to their cabins and be like "well I got stuck in the woods and I still managed to find 20 people." 4H is about people and interactions and it rocks.
DEET is hardly doing the trick, and I didn't put on sunscreen for my morning activities, I just hope I come out of all this in one piece. I sort of sliced a bit of my thumb off last night and washing it didn't stop the bleeding so I got a bandaid from Nursey. I love the shirts with the names because she was like "here you go, Greg" and I was like WOW. They're right, using someone's name DOES make them feel important.
A girl says its 3:45. Good; I'm getting bored.
Monday, Before taps
Tribe night was 12x better than I remember. We made banners (splattered paint) and had offerings for Chris Sirois and Mary. (I offer you Donald Robert Muson and Kasey Woolam (Granddaughter of the wisest chieftest in the land, Elsie Woolam (smooch the pooch))).
Progression: Sunday: Kasey's surname is Woolam. Sunday: My cabin's name is Woolam (and it has a plaque I'd NEVER noticed before). Sunday: The equestrian park is named Woolam. Monday: Kasey's relatives = equestrian park name and Grant house is named after one. Monday: Kasey refers to Elsie in the third person as Grandma. Monday: While introducing some benefactors, Elsie's last name is Woolam. Monday: Tribe night confirms, Kasey is Elsie's granddaughter.
Odd how what you learn always manifests itself quickly.
Wednesday
Wednesday, Extended nap time
No time to write yesterday, I had to get them working on their skit for skit night, plus naptime was shortened for the tribe meeting for color wars.
Color wars was pretty tough, you needed to run with the kid and be able to figure out who was in the next leg. I was dead tired when I passed it off to Vanessa. She didn't really know who thge kids were or anything and our Grass Whistler didn't show up and out last runner (dustin) wasn't easily found. 8th.
We got second in the tug of war and the counselors beat the staff. My hands hurt so much, severe knuckle pain.
Then, during the 1:30 tribe meeting, skit night and luau got switched. Our tribe got 5th in the coconut relay, 1st in the hula, and 2nd in chugging. Counselors lost to staff, damn Garrett is fast. I narrowed the gap swimming against Monty (Matt), but I couldn't sprint the whole distance and got tired on the way back.
So my kids are all near age 10. That means going into 5th grade mostly. These kids have short fuses, fight, and are totally worried about finding dates to the dance. I don't know, but going into 5th I was not worried about girls.
Don Munson was a sweet luau queen, he won hands down. Julianna and Stephan didn't have to do the Persian Goodbye from Oaklahoma though. But show choir had to do a Grease medley. My parents sent me another too-lame-to-be-picked entertainment mail ("Say Mary has a Little Lamb") and I got 2 letters from Becca.
Little kids want rules, but they want to be exempt from them. Playing a game and they mess up? Redo. Someone else messes up? OUT! -_-'
I had a fun story for counselor meeting last night. One of my campers was homesick and had a total anxiety attack at 11:40 PM monday. We tried talking to him, but it wasn't working so I got Kitt and Kitt worked it out. I think the whole thing was set off by a letter from home with letters from his little brothers, but he seems to be doing better. He's written two letters home, but can't send the second because the humidity sealed the envelopes.
Water Polo is soon, and my kids are demotivated. They think that they're never going to get passed to because they're small :-/
Hike was today. Singing at the river crossing was most fun (Your momma don't wear no socks). Sarah and Scottie traded some insults, and Alan got ranked on (hair + not locking door and nursey walking in on him showering). Ally and I held it down walking 2x2 and being party of the counselor wall was pretty fun. Me, Ally, and Monty went ahead to clear the beach (a fisher was there) and Elsie was like "You might be in for a suprise; there's two pairs of clothes on the other bank."
I brought a camera, but I have to remember to bring it somewhere. I'll take it to Gender Bender tonite.
Oversight: You cannot eat while wearing an alien mask.
Wednesday, Before Taps
Camper Water Polo went way long so counselor/staff was way short. We lost boys and girls 14 to 13 making it the closest game I've ever been in. Counselor vs Staff was 0 to 4. You could jump on Mary's husband and he could keep going, he was a tank. Henrich came back for the barbeque and stuff which was cool.
Gender Bender was a riot, have to see how the pictures from it come out. I learned a womens size 4 = a mens size 32, so I am wicked thin. I did store, and we moved people. There was an old thing of push up pops in the bottom of the freezer, and Peach Fruit2O rocks.
The movie was Stuart Little. AGHH. Becky and I talked with Mike and a female counselor whose name I don't know about sounselor skit. [it was chrissy]
-- Taps
Thursday
Thursday, 5:27
Will walks Caleb toward Red Shepard talking about Mary. Evidently a threat, they quickly come back. Camper: "Is he leaving? (eagerly)"
Sam left :(. He seemed to be doing good, maybe because he knew. But all his stuff is gone except what he forgot (sleeping bag and pillow and stuff on the lines). So close to finishing the week too. Only 9 though.
They're playing the bottle game in cabin 6 again. That explains all the noise.
ARG. My 10 year olds and relationships. Kids in tears because their 'date' bitched them out for something trivial.
Thursday, Before Taps
Skit night was mostly excellent. I played prisonball for sports medley. Memorable skits: The Jen and Trish skit. Lyle singing "Pieces of Me" for our AI skit. Monty in a high pitched voice. Oh it was such a good skit night, except for the counselor skit which sucked. Poorly planned, poorly explained, 24 people of nothing.
I was the first to counselor swim, swam my lap to the dock and back, Rachel was like "Greg why do you come to swim laps?" I suggested renaming it Greg Swim. Some other people came, we told jokes with Pat and Henrich (olde staffe). Then I pushed Becky and Nikki in.
Friday
Friday, 11 AM freetime
Last night Dutton told us Spazzarini. It was pretty scary, but it didn't really freak me out too much. Good scary stories have a "that could happen to me" effect that I just didn't get.
More Boys cabins in trouble, it was outpost night too. I had three kids.
Inside jokes make poor entertainment mail. Katie sent me a letter making me reenact the Rachel thing and it was bad. Noone knew it except like 3 counselors. Katie, I expected better from you. I'll have to see if I get any more letters tonite. I'd never really gotten mail at camp, so I never knew how good it feels.
Must... Take... 21... Pictures...
[edit] I just want to say how in Rockets a rocket's parachute didn't deploy and Ben was yelling at Allen's football class to get out of the way and they didn't and a rocket landed twenty feet from a group of kids and stuck three inches into the ground. [/edit]
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