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.

Time really just seems to fly and stand still all at the same time.  We say it all the time at camp (and I probably say it here a bunch as well): “The days are really long, but the weeks go by fast!”  Days like today (though most days at camp) just seem to go on and on and on.  I suppose the fact that this morning started at least an hour earlier than normal was probably a contributing factor.  I had to get up early to go down to the river and meet the riding staff and a bunch of kids to go swimming on horseback.  They do this a few times every summer, and this week we are doing it twice.  This morning started pretty grey, but it wasn’t bad, and it cleared pretty nicely.

It is hard to believe that we are halfway through the summer already.  We have been at camp for twenty-some-odd days and there are only twenty-some-odd days left of camp.  Next weekend is Parent’s Weekend.  That is always the most exciting weekend of the summer (I say that in quite a facetious tone).  Some of us look forward to the prospect of getting gifts from parents as tipping is not allowed.  Some think that it is a great time to network with parents many of these parents are pretty prominent people.

No matter how you spin it though, Parent’s weekend is the biggest show that camp puts on.  We start buttering up the kids a week in advance.  This past Sunday it all started with a breakfast of waffles and ice cream.  Oh, we also finally got a protein at breakfast that wasn’t eggs this week as well.  I don’t know if it really works, maybe on some kids, but most I think are smarter than that.  It is just interesting that we allow Parent’s Weekend to be as disruptive to the program as it is.  We can’t really, in one week, make the summer any better than it is.  I think we are pretty much in the groove.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a good summer.  It seems like the kids are having a good time.  The staff is having a better time than they should (or something like that).  The oldest boys seem to be having a ball most nights, running around pulling pranks.  I hope they come up with some creative stuff.  They have managed to not be destructive which is good.  That is what camp is about, so I hope that they continue to find creative things to do.  I have some ideas that would take a little bit of work, but would be amusing.  Gotta keep things exciting.

This is the point in the summer though where everything speeds up.  It is like being in a car with no brakes and a stuck accelerator going downhill.  We will be at the end and it will seem like we just started and yet it will seem like we have been here forever.  It is like living in a timewarp, the best one there is.

It is a rainy summer afternoon, no thunder and lighting, just rain.  What would you rather do: sit in a hot sweaty gym and watch a movie, sit in your cabin reading or playing card games, or get out on the field and play an amazingly disorganized game of flag football?  Even if you think you are an “indoor” kid, if you answered yes to either of the first two options, you should be ashamed of yourself.  It doesn’t matter if you are 10 or 26 (or older), or if you are a buy or a girl.  It is much more fun to get out and do something, don’t you think?

That was my afternoon today.  Upon unloading my gear at the girls camp (FA) the heavens decided to open up and it started to rain.  I was sitting in the office while they were trying to figure out what to do with the girls and I said that we should get them out to play in the rain, not just sit and watch movies.  While at first the idea was met with some trepidation, when I got the athletic on board with the idea, it turned into a reality.  We collected a good number of girls, most of whom didn’t really know how to play football at all, and ran around on the field in a crazy attempt to play.  Needless to say, there was slipping and sliding and hyjinx and lots of fun to be had!

After an amazingly low scoring game of three “touchdowns” total between the two teams, someone decided that it would be a good time to go for a river swim.  Over to the river we went, and in typical FA style the girls lined up on the docks and all jumped in together.  I really had no intention of going in as I wasn’t dressed for the occasion.  I wasn’t really dressed for muddy football either, but that was very spontaneous on account of the rain.  In any event, I was thankful that I had the presence of mind to remove such items from my pockets as my cell phone, wallet, and video tapes before even playing football.

Why was I thankful?  Well, once we got down on the docks, the girls decided that it would be a good idea to push me into the river.  Keep in mind that I like to swim and I would have been the first one in if I had been wearing a bathing suit.  The only real bummer about ending up in the river was that I didn’t even have a towel with me and I had to drive back to IA to go to my cabin to change.  There are certainly worse things than that though!

For some reason, whenever I am in the water, kinds think that I am a human jungle-gym.  Of course our intrepid athletic director was quite the instigator of this as she told the kids they could have chicken fights on our shoulders (since we were the only ones who could stand up in the middle of the river).  Well, I had girls jumping and diving off my shoulders and we just had a general raucous time.  These kids are crazy hyper, especially after an extended rest hour.  Sometimes it seems like you just can’t tire them out!

This is the kind of thing that reminds me of why I am here and why I love this though.  The spontaneity and general enjoyment of doing something out of the ordinary is what camp is all about.  Running around and getting muddy and slipping and sliding around the field is just so much fun.  I would choose that over a movie any day, it is just so much more exciting.  Plus, as a staff member, seeing the kids get excited and have fun with an activity/afternoon like this is so rewarding.  That is why we do this.  That is why you have to have at least a touch of crazy in you to be a good camp counselor.

There are photos of this extravaganza, at least the river part, so when i get them I will post them.