From 9 to 6

I started out with 9 counselors in my 3 bunks--3 for each. I have 6 original counselors left. I guess losing 3 isn't that bad of a number, but sheesh...it's the most that I've ever lost in one summer. One of them was moved from the bunk into another cabin in the same age group, one was moved from the bunk into a different age group, and now one has quit/been fired. I'm not sure what you would call it--perhaps a bit of both? Remember the counselor I was so afraid to have that talk with, the one I was sure didn't like me? She had some unfortunate pictures in the bunk and the girls saw them. Coupled with some personal problems, it was enough for her to no longer be with us. Bunk 15 will be getting a new counselor starting Sunday, a former camper who is super-excited to be doing this for the last 2 weeks of camp. I feel...torn about the situation. On the one hand, the counselor in question and I had achieved a really good working relationship. We were getting along just great and I think it was a battle hard-fought and won for me. So it is sad to see her go now, after everything we've gone through. And yet, I also am glad that one source of drama has been removed from my summer. I no longer have to hold her hand constantly.

On an up note, today is my day off and when I went into lunch I was absolutely BOMBARDED with girls, both mine and Tina's, who were so excited to see me and had missed me all morning. We sat together and had a great lunch, laughing and joking. I really do love my girls this summer. I don't even want to think about leaving them all in 2 weeks.

I Said LOOK!!

Superhero Posse in action, with two of our Super Villains--Erica, Tina, Meredith, Yari, me, Rachel, Heather, Jess and Danielle in the front. Or our Superhero names: Flash, The Tidalwave, The Cannonballer, The Dancer, The Balancer, The Charming Enigma, and The Morpher. I don't remember the two Super Villain's names.

Random 4th of July photo--I think it was during Olympics--Erica, me, Tina, and Jess

MC, Hike, JCSD, Movie Night

Superhero Final Fight pose!

So much has been going on the past couple days and I haven't even gotten a chance to write it all down! I also have pictures.

On Sunday night I hosted the Junior Camp Trash Bag Fashion show--which I renamed the Trashion show, and Drew liked, so I think it has officially been renamed. Anyway, it was fun. The girls had a good time. That one never gets old. They always make something new, and some of the outfits they come up with really look cute. My Bunk 14 made the best little formal dress ever.

After hosting the Trashion Show, my co-host Jess and I with the judges.

Then Drew told me I would get to do morning announcements for Tuesday, because he was on a trip and it was going to be JCSD. So I was super-excited about that and I some time putting together a superhero script. Drew helped me pick music and then showed me how to do the morning announcements--there are a lot of steps involved.

On Monday the entire Upper Juniors went on a hike to the Promised Lands, which is a small area in the Delaware National Forest. We didn't leave PA, but it was about 40 minutes from camp. It was fun, not very long at all--not really a hike, more of a nature walk. But for these girls I guess it was a hike. They sure complained enough. Then after the hike we took them to a park on the lake and grilled for lunch. The problem with that was that the adventure and trek boys are used to grilling for 20, not 50...we started at 12 and I didn't get to eat until 2:30. And even then we ran out of most condiments and buns and all the potatoes. We wrapped veggies and either hamburgers or hotdogs in tinfoil packets and put them on the grill that way. It was very good, just extremely long. The girls did pretty well with the wait, considering they are used to being fed on time and they aren't used to waiting for other people whatsoever. Gil set up the slackline while we were there and we got to do that for a bit--of course the girls all wanted to try, so we spent most of our time walking them across. I didn't get back from that until snack time and then immediately had a bunk meeting, so I was pretty much tired afterwards.

On Monday night we broke JCSD. The theme this summer was Camp Superhero--which basically means that we were all superheroes and since the Super Villians were attacking Bryn Mawr, we had to train the Junior Campers to defend. The video that Matt put together for the break was amazing! I will have a way for you to watch that later. I was the Cannonballer, able to reach the speed of both light and sound if properly propelled from my cannon. It was a good break and it led to an even better Junior Camp Special Day. I did the announcements and that went really well. It was freaking hot that day, and the morning started out badly by Danielle and I having a disagreement over something stupid--basically, we were both in the wrong but she overreacted very badly and when I tried to make it right she didn't want to have anything to do with me. So I walked away and she found me at breakfast and apologized for taking out her bad day on me. Yikes. After that things went much smoother and we had an awesome final fight in the gym against the Super Villains.

Last night I happened to be on, so I got to accompany my girls to the movies. We watched G-Force, which for those of you who don't know is about a trio of Guinea Pigs who are trained to be FBI agents. Yeah. You heard me correctly. However, what made it even better was that it was in 3-D! Yes, we wore the glasses and had things leap out at us. My favorite part, actually? Going up into the projection booth with Bill and the owner of the theater while he showed us how the 3-D part was done. It was pretty trippy up there.

I was really tired after all of that, and then I had to sit OD until after 11. Consequently, this morning I am dragging.

Tubing and Awesomeness

I went tubing yesterday with my girls in 14. We had an Explorer and although she wasn't too sure she wanted to try tubing, she eventually decided that if I was her partner and we went really slow, she was game. It was a good time. Gary Brown made sure we didn't almost fall out and the Explorer enjoyed herself. And then of course we had to dock jump. I do love the dock jump.

Last night on OD I had this surge of complete and utter happiness. I have been struggling with something all summer and last night I felt it snap back into place--of course I had to do some joyous airkicks! I probably looked pretty special on cabin row doing some utterly ungraceful hops up and down, but whatever. I was feeling it at the moment. And THEN Charlotte brought us cookies and Puchi gave us soda and then I saw a huge FROG in the middle of the road that made me smile.

And today was late sleep!!!! I am at the point of my summer where I am starting to get extremely tired. All I do on any time off now is sleep or sit around. There is no more fun trips planned at this point, just what can I do to ensure I'm in bed early on my time off...And once I do get home, I think I sleep and do nothing for at least a week. But I am not ready to think about coming home yet! Camp has flown by and I am having too much fun with my girls.

Last night I had so much fun walking around with them and laughing about anything and everything. We have really bonded this summer and I enjoy all of them.

Times

I went to Philly to pick up Explorers yesterday--there were 4 of them, not that hard a job. The drive up was long and I didn't really enjoy it. You know how sometimes you can have a good conversation with people you've just met, and sometimes you know there won't be much of one at all? Yeah, that was pretty much the drive up. I knew within the first 3 seconds that the driver and I were not going to be conversing well. We still could have, I guess, but it definitely would have been a stilted, limping conversation that would take more effort than it was worth. So as soon as she got on her phone, I plugged in my Ipod. And enjoyed every second I got to listen to my music. Picking up the girls was good. The parents were very pleasant and very interested to hear what was going to happen with their girls this weekend. The drive back was extremely short--the girls fell asleep, I fell asleep, and we all woke up near Honesdale.

JCSD is fast approaching. I am excited for it and a little bit anxious as to how the day is going to go down. We are still working out some logistical things right now.

My lip is feeling better--still blistered and gross, but the swelling has gone down and it doesn't hurt as bad. I will be doing a happy dance when it eventually is gone completely! I think a dock jump is in order!

I played in the lake on the surfboards with 14 yesterday. We have an Explorer in our bunk and they were pulling out the stops to show her a good time. We had some fun times. I stood on my surfboard 3 times and then had to abandon further attempts because my girls like to try to dunk me too much.

Everything else is going well--I won't even say how many days left we have, because I will cry.

Sunburn

My lips are sunburned! Ok, just the bottom one...remember I said I had a sunburn from Visiting Day? Well, that included my lips and they are now blistered. Gross, huh? And it hurts sooooo bad! The first day the blisters made their oh-so-welcome appearance, it hurt so bad to talk that I tried not to all day long. And today they are feeling a teeny bit better, but they still look very gross. I am extremely unhappy with this situation. :( :( :(

More Pics and A List

Gold Rush!

I really like this poster

List time!

1. Gold Rush happened, as you can see from the above photos. Last summer it got cancelled due to weather and I was completely ok with that. This summer, I enjoyed myself. I was in the final Shoot-Out, and although I only lasted until about 30 seconds in, Jacque and I had a great duel and killed each other. Then I got to just lie on the grass for another 5 minutes until the Shoot-Out was over. It was a good spot to watch from, provided I didn't get stepped on.

2. I am picking up Explorers on Friday in Philly! I am so excited! More on that when it happens.

3. Today is Hershey, which means I am on my day off. I had to wake up with the girls and make sure they made it on the bus, but after that I went straight back to bed at 8:30 and slept until almost 11, when I put my laundry in.

4. I talked to my family last night, including my two very favorite boys in the whole world and they completely made my day! Kameron talked and laughed into the phone and Kaelan told me all about his bike and said I needed to come home and see him ride it. It made me homesick for them.

5. JCSD is in full-throttle planning mode. I think it is going to be amazing this summer. I'm excited.

6. Visiting Day went by in a blur of sun and wayyyy too many cookies from the cookie tent. Ok, I only ate 5 this summer, but the fact that I ate pretty continuously up to that point makes it more serious. And yes, I once again got sunburned...see the picture of Drew and I if you really want to see the evidence. But all my girls were good and no one cried too hard and I didn't get ambushed by any parents.

7. Male Beauty was fun. No pictures this summer yet again--except of us GLs dressed like the guys. We decided that it would be fun to dress up like the male staff that was our Male Beauty. Mine was Drew--I wore a button to campaign for him with my girls, and we won!--and I just basically borrowed everything he had, including his socks, shoes, and watch. I also wore his crazy wig to make it a little bit more clear who I was supposed to be. I think I more looked like Ronald McDonald in the wig, but oh well.

8. In the land of my job, I have been handling more and more friendship issues. They haven't been too overwhelming for me--or maybe I'm actually getting better at this?? Perhaps. But I never used to know what to say to these kids, and now I feel as though it is getting so much easier and working better. Bob Ditter is amazing. It could also be that I have been here for 4 summers and have learned a thing or two along the way.