So as promised, here is a long blog! Where did we leave off? I guess it was Holiday Day and the Social on Saturday night.
So I came out of my cabin Saturday afternoon and there was a group of campers doing line dances on the rec. hall porch with noisemakers in their mouths. It was the Holiday Day New Year’s party – one of the activities they could opt to sign up for for the afternoon. It felt so random, seeing a bunch of people having a dance party in the sun. I passed some people on their way to the Cinco De Mayo tortilla wars where, apparently, they were throwing real tortillas.
There was a bigger dance Saturday night: the Valentine’s social. Lots of people had dates. Some people had six dates. Some people had dates that they never talked to except to ask them to be their dates. You know the drill. With the exception of a couple of slow songs, the DJ played the usual peppy camp favorites. Little Ethan Weinstein busted out a line dance and pretty soon the whole camp was doing it. We don’t know if he made it up or if he learned it somewhere. That kind of thing happened a lot. Everyone would look around and then someone else would start doing something random with their elbow or some kind of clapping move and soon the whole camp was doing it – every single person. Camper Joe Gillette showed me a crazy kicky dance.The whole thing was great.
The next morning was the Leadership One hike. Counselor Steve and I had campers Theresa Brecker, G’Burg, and Camille Horan in the jeep on the drive to Shenandoah National Forest. The girls gave Steve a quiz from one of their magazines on how good he was at interpreting the flirting signals of boys. Impressively, he was deemed “Master Interpreter.” We talked about other deep things on the drive, like what it would be like if we could all read each other’s minds, and whether we’d rather lose our hearing or our sight.
The hike was beautiful. We ate at the top of the mountain and several of the campers spotted a baby buzzard that they named Candace Cameron. We also saw a giant beetle that someone named Brian. We stopped at Pack’s on the way back for ice cream and Molly Shay had a sundae, a snow cone, and a root beer. On the car ride back the girls played their ipod over the car speakers and sang a few. We got back just in time for dinner.
Murder Mystery Night started early, with a performance by Counselor Ryan Hertlein in the dining hall, pretending he’d been poisoned. The campers started whispering that it was murder mystery night, and a few minutes later, after Ryan was ‘taken up to the nurse’, counselor Staci announced that it was. The campers went from station to station all over camp, finding clues about who had done it. In the end, it was discovered that counselor Jason was the culprit, poisoning Ryan because of camp’s Baltimore/Houston rivalry. Afterwards, the campers were taken to the rec. hall to watch a movie while the counselors secretly prepared for Ghost Court. They ran into the rec. hall in their ghost costumes and gathered up the campers to bring them up the hill above the golf course, where a campfire had already been started.
Judge Mookie (Mike Hertlein), who is from the underworld, presided as usual, announcing that anyone who did not do their punishments would be taken to “Judge Mookie’s punishing lair.” At one point several campers rushed the judge’s bench and Mookie chastised the ghosts, whom he calls his ‘children’ and who are supposed to protect him.
Some of the crimes and punishments that were handed out are as follows:
The girls of Cabin G were convicted of asking too many questions. At lunch today they’ll have to give their answer to the ultimate question: “What is the meaning of life?”
Jakeable was convicted of always being the last camper out of his cabin for breakfast. He had to get up this morning and stand outside the dining hall, giving everyone who walked in a “sincere, unique” compliment.
The girls of Cabin H were convicted of continually nagging to be ‘ghost courted’. They have to dress like ghosts all day today.
Alex Fang and A.J. were convicted of waking up the tent boys each morning in different annoying ways. They had to wake up and do dippies this morning.
The boys of Cabin 3 were convicted of being too cute and getting along too well. They had to dress and act like gangsters all day.
The boys Cabin 4 were convicted of going to the nurse for every little thing. Today, they each have to give a present to the nurse.
Jordan Kovalsky was convicted of using a word she made up, “nam,” all the time. Today at lunch, she has to give us a definition of “nam”, it’s origin, and has to use it in a sentence.
Julie Clark and Lauren Friedman were convicted of getting along too well with their siblings, and they must ignore them all day today.
Counselor Brownie wasn’t convicted of anything, but he is still being punished. Today he has to finish all his sentences with the words “Texas Toast.” He will also be covered in shaving cream so that the campers can throw water balloons at him.
But wait, there’s more…
Yesterday was King’s Dominion. I ran into the camper/counselor groups throughout the day and everyone looked like they were having a good time. I faced off against Glenn in a water gun race and lost. We rode the Dominator three times. On my way out, I played a quarter toss game and won a humongous stuffed dragon. Jakeable won a huge stuffed frog at the same game. Emma won a big pink fish at bowling, and brought it back for Ethan Weinstein, who spent the day with the doctor because he was feeling under the weather, but is feeling better this morning.
I made sure to get my compliment from Jakeable at breakfast. It’s a normal activity day today, which is kind of nice. All sorts of secret plans happen in the last week of camp – so it’s nice to have a couple of regular days before things get really exciting.