Ok folks, it has been quite the long stint since I last posted here.  Every blogger says it on a regular basis, but life has just been totally crazy.  My last post was in May, before I went to camp, before I got married, and before the current season at the theatre.  It was almost before the summer really started and now winter is starting.  I have been kind of bad about lots of things in the digital world of communication though.  I have been very slow at responding to emails, I have been behind on processing and sorting photos, and apparantly I am behind on getting videos together from the summer to go online.  Then there are the actual things that I havent been doing, like going to the gym.  Great.

So, will this just be a feeble attempt to try to get things moving on the blog again? I have no idea, but it doesn’t hurt to try.

So, if you got through that first paragraph and didn’t have a “wait, what?!” moment, you probably either already knew that I got married this summer, or you just missed that part.  Yes, since August 25 I have been happily married to Ruth and life is pretty good.  The wedding was beautiful, and everything seemd to go smoothly despite being out of the state at camp for the two months leading up to it.  We held the ceremony and reception at the Alta Lodge and we were happy to celebrate with friends and family.  Good times were definately had by all.  The weather was beautiful, the montains were beautiful, and the over atmosphere was great.  With a ceremony that we wrote ourselves, we were married by a mutual friend in one of the most beautiful places I can think of.  Don’t believe me? Here, see for yourself:

Here we are standing under the canopy that was built by Ruth's father, with our friend Warren officiating our wedding.

Working backwards in time from the wedding, the summer at camp was not one of the best.  Maybe that is why I refrained from writing during it.  I don’t know that I will say too much, though there is plenty to say about it.  The camps were under new ownership as of this past summer, and for some that transition was not so easy.  Suffice it to say, I saw some good friends mistreated in a very public manner and it got dragged out for the better part of the summer.  While I managed to spend the summer flying under the radar, there were grumblings about me as well.  Camp can be strange like that, it is just unfortunate and really hard when friends get hurt.

So let’s not dwell on the ugly past.  The theatre season is in full swing so life has been very busy.  Getting Annie up and open was a killer, but now there is a little room to breathe.  So in the mean time I have been prepping a bunch of my photos for my first ever gallery display!  I will be showing photos at the JCC in SLC for the month of January.  This is pretty darn exciting.  I have the prints on order and should get them soon and I am really excited to see them.  I am having all the prints done on metal with float mounts.  The test prints I had made earlier look amazing, it is a really cool finished product.  It would be hard to show what the prints look like in a photo, so any of you who find yourself in the Salt Lake area during January should stop by and see the gallery!

With that, I think that I need to stop staring at this computer screen. I have spent a lot of time in front of it in the past couple days. Besides being warm in bed sound much nicer!

Ever summer since 1994 save for three I have been at summer camp.  I have blogged plenty about camp in the past so it shouldn’t be hard to tell that I love camp.   I was a camper at one camp (Yavneh), and a counselor at two (Micah then Indian/Forest Acres).  This summer I am heading back to IA/FA as I had planned all year despite the fact that we have an extra month of work at the theatre and I won’t get to camp until a little bit late.  It is a bummer, but it isn’t the end of the world.

The interesting thing is that just this past weekend Indian and Forest Acres changed owners.  For the past couple years the camp was owned by friends of my family who have now sold the camp back to one of the previous owners.  This of course is a very interesting set of conditions.  I know the “new” owner as I worked with him the first summer I was at IA/FA.  I even played guitar with him at campfire.  He is a good guy and I am sure that camp will do well back under his direction.  At the same time I am sad that our friend is leaving this camp.  I am sure there are mixed feelings about the change in command throughout the camp community.

In some ways, it seems like an odd time to make a move like this, only a few short weeks before camp starts.  It shouldn’t really affect anything like staffing or enrollment for this summer as that should mostly be finalized.  It will affect the day-to-day operation of camp over the summer, hopefully in a good way.  IA/FA had deep rooted traditions in their 85+ year history and as long as there is someone at the helm that understands those traditions camp will be great.  The new owner certainly is someone who understand the nature of camp.

The most important thing of course is the kids.  The younger kids who didn’t know the “new” owner before probably won’t really know the difference.  In some ways the owner director doesn’t matter as much to the younger kids. The older kids who have been at camp for more than four years will probably see/feel more of an impact.  However, as long as the staff gives them a great summer with lots of great activities, it will be great for them.  While I am there for the kids, it is good to know that the good friends that I have on the staff will almost all be back for another summer so it should be great for everyone.

No matter what it will be a busy summer.  Between the extra show, camp, and planning a wedding I am sure that I will not want for something to do!

Well, it has been quite a while since I posted anything.  Life got really exciting and hectic at the end of the summer.  The end of camp is always a bigger deal than you ever remember it to be, and this summer was no exception.  I had more things on my plate in the last week of camp than I anticipated, and I still have some unfinished ones that I really need to get around to, especially now that my hard drives are back in town.

Getting home from camp, I had the worst travel day that I have ever had.  It started with bad omens in that we missed being able to go to the post office to mail home one last box of stuff.  Why the post office closes early on Saturdays, who knows.  However, from there, things only went downhill.  On the drive down to the airport I managed to get in a car accident that basically totaled my parent’s truck.  Thankfully everyone was OK, but it was not a good situation (not that any car accident is).  It all started because i had to slam on the brakes as there was another accident that had occurred, and everyone was stopping.  It is probably good that I hit the car in front of me as opposed to going around it as the embankment was very steep and the probability of rolling the truck would have been high.

So, I call my parents, who rush down to pick us up and get us to the airport.  Amazingly, we get there with a little time to spare, which is a good thing.  Why?  Well, when going through security, I got stopped because something showed up when they put my carry-on through the X-ray.  Turns out that I had one of Ruth’s bags in my carry-on and it had her pocket knife in it.  Needless to say, the knife got tossed.

After getting on the first plane, things seemed to smooth out, and for the first time that I had done any major travel with Ruth, it was good.  On our connecting flight from MDW to SLC we managed to snag our own row, with no third person, so we were very happy.  However, upon our arrival back in SLC, there had to be one more thing that would go wrong.  One of our bags decided to take an extended trip around the country, so it didn’t make it to SLC that night.  In fact, when I walked into the baggage office and showed them the claim ticket, they already knew about it.  The good news is that they knew where the bag was and they managed to get it to us the next day.  For that we got a $50 travel voucher which is pretty nice.

That weekend did get better though because we had tickets to see The Lion King on Sunday night.  The Lion King is quite possibly one of my most favorite musicals ever.  The music is great, the costumes and head-pieces are spectacular, and it is just a fun show to see.  If you have never seen it, you should.  I had been lucky enough to have seen it on Broadway back when it was new, and I had always wanted to see it again and see how they would get it on tour.  Well, even slightly scaled back to fit in trucks and in smaller theatres, it was a great show.  I still have the music stuck in my head.

Come Monday it was back to work.  Possibly the first thing that my boss said after “hello” was something to the effect of: “Can you push your schedule up a week and hang the show early so we can fly our scenery?”  What was my response?  Well, in traditional me style I just said: “Of course.”  So now I had to round up a crew and get to work to be able to start a week earlier than I had planned.  That is life at the theatre, always unexpected.

So, things are finally starting to settle down and get back to a normal rhythm.  I have plans to go camping on Labor Day Weekend, and then I am helping to lead services for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and then we are doing the show.  I have to figure out my ski-pass situation and all the mundane things that come with being back in the swing of things.  Now that things are normalizing, life is pretty good.

The other thing that happened that is a major time suck is Words With Friends.  It is a iapp for iphone, ipod touch, etc. that is kinda like scrabble, and I love scrabble.  So I am totally hooked.  If you play or want to play, you can get if for free, and then look me up: Icewolf08!

On a side note, I did drop the ball on organizing Bloggerstock for August due to all that stuff I just mentioned.  So, we have pushed the August topic to September for anyone who is interested.  You can get the full scoop at the Bloggerstock Site.

Mmmm I want to linger
Mmmm A little longer
Mmmm A little longer here with you
Mmmm It’s such a perfect night
Mmmm It doesn’t seem quite right
Mmmm This is goodnight and not goodbye

For all we know
We may never meet again
Before you go
Make this moment sweet again

We won’t say goodnight
Until the last minute
I’ll hold out my hand
And my heart will be in it

For all we know
This may only be a dream
We come and we go
Like the ripple on a stream

So love me, love me tonight
Tomorrow was meant for some
Tomorrow may never come
For all we know

Every camp probably has some version of this song or at least most camps.  I am always intrigued by the people I find who I would never expect to know bits and pieces of it.  The above is our camp’s version of the song, which I discovered is actually a conglomeration of two songs, but hey, it’s camp!

Last night was the final Friday night services at camp.  Mind you we are not actually at a religious camp, it is a tradition from the past that has been kept alive and is now a time to reflect on the past week and the weeks or days to come.  Over at the girls camp it is a special time that I think people really enjoy, though the final services generally tend to end in a sob-fest as the oldest girls pass the flame on to the youngest girls and reflect on their years here.  it is sad that another summer is drawing to a close.

After services we went down to the field for the final campfire of the summer.  Ironically, this is the time that the girls come out of the woodwork with skits and songs to do.  It isn’t a bad thing, it is nice that they want to get involved, it just makes a campfire that started late on account of the slideshow at services run even longer.  It was a beautiful night though, and hopefully there were plenty of kids who turned their eyes towards the skies to really appreciate how special it is to sit around the campfire together in such a wonderful place.

It was a perfectly clear night, and laying back with all the girls, listening to people perform and watching the sky was pretty magical.  We saw a host of satellites fly by overhead and I caught two shooting stars.  It is so fun to point them out to the girls and watch the wonder in their eyes as they look up at the sky.

After carrying a sleeping junior up the hill to her cabin I cam back down to get my guitar and the older girls were sitting around the remnants of the fire.  It was the last campfire they would have together as campers.  They asked me to sit and play a few songs with them so I did.  Having such a connection to camp and the kids is so wonderful.  That they think enough of me as part of their camp experience to have me sit with them on their last campfire night is pretty cool.  It made a beautiful night even better.

It isn’t very often that I get to sit in the office while not much happens at camp.  I do it when I need to, which isn’t such a regular occurrence, and in the long run, I don’t really mind doing it.  In the wake of parent’s weekend there isn’t really a lot going on in the office anyway as kids don’t have phone times for a few days since they just saw their parents.  So really all I am doing is answering the phone if it rings and playing the last couple bugle calls of the evening.  It is really exciting!

Camp is pretty quiet now after parent’s weekend.  We had a fairly significant decrease in the number of campers and we have a group of 11 out on a six day trip to Canada, so there aren’t too many people in camp.  It is kind of a double edged sword in that it is easier to deal with fewer kids, but it is harder to get some activities really going.  It is noticeable during the day that there are fewer kids, and today we had a bunch of kids out at a football game, so this week we are running a condensed schedule with fewer choices so that the activities that are open have enough kids.  I think that it helps.

We have also been having some of the most beautiful weather over the past few days.  This is the kind of Northern New England Summer that I really love.  While we have had a few hot and humid days, for the most part it is been very nice.  Last night was one of the most beautiful nights of the summer.  We had a nice sunset over campfire and then the moon was just spectacular.  I believe that tonight is the full moon, but last night the moon was so bright you could have pretty much done any outdoor activity.

When you live in a city you probably don’t really take the time to notice or it may not even be possible to notice how beautiful the world is under the glow of the full moon.  Out here we send out overnight hikes on and around the full moon, just to do something different and exciting.  Co-Ed Naked Full Moon Night Hikes – shoes and socks required…. Well, not really, but it sounds good (but hey, don’t you remember that t-shirt line?).

I am still sad to say that it seems like no one has taken me up on my postcards project idea.  My mailbox here at camp has been particularly empty save for a few random bills that have been forwarded from home.  I had hoped that I would be writing to a few of you and have some postcards to decorate the plain walls of my cabin, but alas, it seems that the art of handwritten mail is fading.  At least I have had some people to write to who I knew about before.  There are at least two people who hopefully received postcards from me (one may not have made it due to being a couple pennies short on postage).

So that is the extent of my thinking.  I get distracted easily here at camp.  As much as it seems like not much is going on, lots of things are really going on and the days are pretty darn full.  It is nice to have time to think every now and then, but it doesn’t come all that often.