Well, I am sitting on my bed in my great cabin – which is breezy and simple and has a sweeping view of the main field where all the action is – wondering how to start my blog. I started writing about the anticipation of camp: how exciting it is on the days leading up to it and how Greg Lessans, a former counselor, was recently telling me that as a kid he never slept the night before camp because he was too excited. I tried a different beginning, starting with how great it felt to pull down the drive and see my friends, and to arrive on a breezy day with a ton of birds chirping and kids running around. But maybe the coolest part of arriving and starting at camp again is how quickly it feels familiar and how fast you become a part of the action.
Last night was cabin night, when the kids go with their separate cabin groups to a different area of camp and sleep out. It’s a bonding time, a real quiet, laid back night, and more about talking and just being together than about any specific activity. The main field is quiet and serene on cabin nights so Emma Hully (who most of you know, and may know as Emma Bean) and I pitched our two tents on the big sprawl of grass and drank some English tea called Typhoo with counselors Nicole and Karina, who are wonderful and who were waiting on the tent girls to get back from their theater trip. I lay down with the flap open, so that I could just see stars and nothing else, and fell asleep for awhile. This morning, I woke up to the birds chirping and that was it, it felt like I’d been at camp for weeks.
So lunch. The lunch traditions started coming back to me pretty quickly and may come back to those of you who read the blog last year. Things like the loomster. The loomster is the biggest french fry found on a french fry day in the dining hall. And today, Emma made history by being the first person at the admin table ever to have the loomster. A few people challenged her with some pretty intimidating fries, but none of them measured up. Quote by Emma in reference to other people’s loomster challenges: ‘Rubbish’.
There are so many meal announcements that there’s no way I can record them all, but here are a few. Bear with me as I learn the names I don’t know yet! Alli Jaffe caught her first fish today (a sunfish). She named it Roger. Not to be outdone, her sister Emily also caught her first fish, a croppy named Nantucket. In golf, Jose hit the top target. Noah hit a bullseye in archery and Melissa Rifkin got a balloon and a bullseye in one shot. The campers earned a well-deserved victory against the counselors in the apache relay. The mountain biking crew found a turtle and will be caring for him until Saturday, when there will be turtle races. A protest against turtle racing is being organized. I think most of Saturday is supposed to be a surprise so I will keep it under wraps for now.
At rest hour, Sydney, Courtney, and Emily from cabin B came to sit on my porch for a knitting circle, which I’ll be hosting every day for anyone who wants to join in. We’re going to work on scarves, because that is just the obvious thing to do when it’s July. Now it’s just time to get ready to start teaching yoga and writing, and to administer the exciting yoga challenge of the session (which is hard to explain, but involves balancing on your hands). Been daydreaming about where to hang my hammock. I’m a lucky, lucky girl.
The people who weren’t able to make it back this year — kids and counselors alike — are much missed, so if you are out there reading this, we miss you, and send us adults some hot sauce (because you can never have too much). 😉 For all those coming second session – old and new — can’t wait to see you!
Ooh, and p.s., Winchester Royals game tonight with fireworks. While we don’t hold out hope for the Royals to win this year, we like to eat the Ring Pops.
Jodi