Have you ever noticed that the sunset is usually significantly more exciting and colorful on an evening after a storm?  I suppose I could just be making that up or dreaming it, but I think that it is true.  When the clouds break up and the sun gets low in the sky the golden color really shows through.  Summer evenings here in Maine are almost always pretty spectacular, but on a night like tonight, after two days of bad weather, it seems like there is nothing better.

Here at camp the light streams through over the mountains in the distance and the river, then through the tall pine trees that line the high bank, and across the field.  I don’t think you could ask for a better backdrop and lighting when we walk out of dinner and then as it gets later in the evening and taps get played.  The silence and stillness during those moments when everyone in camp stops to listen to the bugle is quite magical.  If you have never had the opportunity to stop each evening, reflect on the day and listen to the floating melody of taps on the bugle (especially when played by a great camper) then you should.  I suppose it is kind of an American thing, but I would imagine that anyone from anywhere would appreciate it.

The evening after a day or more of rain is also special because kinds want to be out and enjoy the remnants of the day.  We take advantage of every moment of daylight that we can get, but the games and activities that get played are much more interesting than those during the course of a regular day.  Little pickup games of anything as long as the equipment is out and available.  It is a tim when everyone is actually in camp together and there are enough people around to get a decent game going.

Evenings are always a peaceful time.  Sure, sometimes we get a little hyper, or we have a dance night, but for the most part, it is one of the best times of day.  The world cools off (most of the time), people relax, and this is when the bonds of great friendships show.  Everyone has a friend and everyone hangs out together.  It is a beautiful time that hopefully everyone stops to appreciate sometimes.  You don’t have to be in a special place like camp to stop and appreciate the summer evenings.  It might have a slightly different effect if you live in a city, but I would imaging that if you stop and reflect, it is pretty similar.

All things considered, it is kind of hard to follow my last post.  Needless to say, it has been quite along week.  We have a saying at camp: “The days are very long but the weeks go by too fast!”  It is so true.  Sometimes I wonder if shows like 24 could really happen in the span of a single day, but when I look back at all the things that happened some of the days this week, it seems a little more plausible.  We seem to really be able to pack a day full of things to do, especially when you wake up at 7AM and go to bed at 1AM.  Which by the way, I am still not sure how I manages that most of the summer.

Last Monday seems so far away, heck, so does yesterday.  I know that I went on the camping trip on Monday, but that seems like years ago.  In the span of a week I have driven hundreds of miles, gone camping, scuba diving, played guitar at two campfires, wrote a tribute to a dear friend, got signed up to play camp-counselor 2-on-2 beach volley ball, and so much more.  I was actually very happy that for the most part today, my services were only required for the setup of the big screen so that our Spanish “mafia” could watch the World Cup finals.  It was actually a relaxing day and the heat wave has mostly broken it seems.

All these things have gone on, and while I was sitting at campfire, watching the embers drift in the thermals I was thinking that tonight would be a great night to write.  Well, here I am getting back to my computer and I feel like I have just hit a block.  I don’t really know why, other than the fact that I feel like I should be writing more than just the summation of the things that have happened over the past week.  There is something so mesmerizing about watching the embers from the fire dance up into the sky.  That is probably what made me think that it would be a good night to write.  Watching that always reminds me of the scene in the movie The Right Stuff where the embers from the aboriginal fire seem to fly up into space.

Today was just one of those days, all the best intentions, none of the motivation.  I have a list of things that should get done, and I probably could have checked a bunch of them off today, but I didn’t.  In truth, I didn’t really do much of anything besides play guitar and eat today.  It seems like all we do on Sundays is eat.  Mostly because we have a late breakfast, but lunch is at a normal time.  The sad thing is that we manage to have both one of the best meals and the worst meal of the week on Sunday.  I am sorry, cold-cuts on rolls that are not big enough for a sandwich just does not a dinner make.

Unfortunately, while it sounds like many of the thoughts and ideas that I put down on last week’s comment card were applauded, odds are nothing will change.  I missed most of the staff meeting this week because I was setting up for the World Cup.  I heard through the grapevine that some of the admin liked my ideas for making the daily schedule better, but often times this is one of those organizations that won’t change because they think the way things are is tradition.  Well, it could be better and I wish that we could get it there.

Life is good though.  Camp is fun.  Maybe if I play my cards right I will get to go on another trip.  That would be a lot of fun.  It is just nice to do something different as the day-to-day routine here can get old fast and when you have lots of kids out of camp on trips, hiking, at competitions and at the lake, it can be like a ghost town.  In some ways, it makes the job easier, but it can also make it less fun, especially for the campers.  It seems though that for the most part people are in good spirits, so that is good.

So, my blog has been a little quiet for the past couple days and that is because I was on a camping trip with some of the kids from camp.  I love camping and I love getting out in the outdoors even more than we do on the campus, so when they asked me to go on the trip I was happy to get out of here for a couple days.  This particular trip happened to be with a great group of campers, but I am sure that any of the trips that we run would be fun to go on.

This trip was to Boothbay Harbor and the surrounding area.  Now, when I say that we were camping, this is pretty posh camping in that we stay at a nice campground with most of the amenities you could ask for.  There was a lake where they had all kinds of water toys and craft for rental, showers, bathrooms, pool, hot-tubs, store, snack-bar, laundromat, the works.  This is car-camping at it’s finest, which is fine with me, but I think that it is important to mention that we were not doing any hiking and real hardcore camping.  We did sleep in tents though and cook meals over the fire and eat outside.

For some of us (namely those of us over the age of 15), there were many points of interest on this excursion.  We got to do things like go fishing on the Miss Boothbay, a small fishing boat that leaves from Pier 8 every couple hours to take people mackerel fishing.  Unfortunately, my shift on the boat didn’t catch any fish, but we had fun, and it was a lot cooler out on the water than it was walking around town.  Fortunately for the second group that went fishing they actually caught something, so we ended up with nine fish to have for dinner.  This did make my personal fish tally on these trips a big fat zero.

We also spent our first afternoon out there at the lake in the campground.  We rented a bunch of water toys like kayaks and water-tricycles.  I think the kids enjoyed this, I know that I certainly did.  Beating the heat of the day on the lake was a lot of fun.  This was followed, of course, by the obligatory lobster dinner at the lobster pier.  While I am not a lobster person, fresh fish is always good and most of the kids seem to really enjoy the lobster.

The real highlight for the boys though, was crusing for girls at the campground.  This was one of those big campgrounds where people stay for the whole summer or for extended periods of time, so there are a lot of people there.  I was actually very impressed at the success rate that our boys had.  Within the first evening we were there they managed to make some strong connections with a number of young ladies.  I don’t think that we went on any trips like this when I was a camper, and besides, I went to a co-ed camp so all of our trips were co-ed anyway.  To tell the truth, I don’t think that I ever really went cruising for girls like these boys did.  Probably because I thought that I was the awkward, dorky, geeky kid that wasn’t “hot” or something like that.  The strange thing is that part of me, I think, was a little jealous of these boys that they could do this and be successful.  Not that I am looking for girls, I have a wonderful girlfriend, more that it is something that I never really did for whatever the reason.

Needless to say, with hormones running rampant, I managed to stumble over at least two of our campers “making out” with girls from the campground.  Personally, I don’t care and I left them to their own business, most of the time not even acknowledging them.  Boys should be boys, and it isn’t like they are not doing the same thing at camp!  In fact I bet some of them are worse at camp.

The boys managed to invite and receive a fair number of young ladies at our campfire on our second night of camping.  While I tended the fire the boys made and shared s’mores with the girls and everyone sat around and chatted (and probably sucked some face).  I don’t think that any of our boys actually snuck out at night to go visit any of the girls, which is something that I totally would have done when I was a camper (actually, I did…).  I mean, at least at the campground it wasn’t a two mile walk like it is at camp!  Though I have to say, if any of our boys actually walked the four mile round trip from IA to FA and back to visit a girl at night, I would let them because you have to be determined if you are going to spend an hour walking in the middle of the night!

It is just so interesting to watch these kids, especially the ones that I have developed rapports with over the past couple years.  It is funny when kids ask me for advice because I never knew what to do, and it is also interesting to just watch what they do.  It seems to work, and then they get embarrassed and don’t want you to talk about it, but when you get back to camp, everyone knows what was going on during the trip before you even get back to your cabin.  It is great to be young!

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And by-the-by, my postcard offer still stands.  I picked up some new postcards on the trip, so if you write to me, you will get one!

So I had this idea last night as I was writing letters.  I actually write real handwritten letters to people all summer because when I am at camp it really seems like the thing to do.  That mentality probably comes from when I was a camper and the only form of communication that we had was letters.  I like writing, and writing letters at the end of the day is a great way to decompress (especially after a day like today).

I suppose though, that you are wondering what the idea actually is.  Along with writing letters I also like to get mail, also, the walls of my cabin are kind of bare.  So, I thought that I would put out a proposal for post cards.  I don’t really know how many people read my blog, but if any of you out there write me a postcard from wherever you live or are spending your summer then I will send you back a nice handwritten postcard from Maine or New Hampshire.  I will even sweeten the offer and say that if you write more than one postcard this summer I will send you back more than one.

Now I suppose you are going to ask why I would do this.  As I said, I like to write and I am happy to write to anyone who writes to me.  I also think that writing by hand is a dying art and I would like to keep it alive for as long as possible.  It is also fun to get mail from other places.  This certainly is not the most expensive of summer opportunities and it is cool to get neat post cards.  Maybe if I get postcards from any of you I will scan them and post them on my blog.

If you want to send me a postcard and participate in my summer postcard swap, you can find my address below.  I made it a graphic just for a little sense of security.  Of course, in order to write you back I will need your address, and I figure the best way to do that is to either email me or use my contact form here.  If you don’t care then i suppose you could just leave your address in a comment.  In any event, let’s have some fun with this!

No, I am not “Sick and Tired” in the sense that I don’t like what I am doing, I am actually sick with a little head cold and very tired.  I am thankful that tomorrow is Sunday and that means we get to sleep in and have a pretty relaxing day.  I do have to say though, I would rather be sick now, at the beginning of the summer rather than in the middle like last summer.  I am sure that once I kick the “camp crud” that everyone gets at some point each summer, I will be fine.  I am sure that it is just the adjustment to the schedule and demands that wear on you here and I know that I will bounce back strong.

One of our little games has begun for the summer.  Being part of the IA/FA media services team or “Geek Squad” (we even have t-shirts) means that you get to play fun photo games.  Rich (the staff photographer) and I are often on the lookout for funny “bubble” pictures.  Last year we had quite a few and the games have begun anew this season with this photo:

Um, so yeah, that is me on the horse with Rich's thought bubble...

Yes, we love to make fun of eachother.  I just thought it would be fun to have a photo of me on a horse in my duster.  I wanted to have my hat as well, but rules are rules and CJ won’t have any photos of people not following the rules, so a helmet it was.  Funny thing was, that while I don’t really know much about riding, I have ridden before (though I don’t know if I have ever ridden English Saddle, or if that is even the correct term), but I think that I surprised CJ in that I knew something about what I was doing.  Of course in Rich’s eight years at camp he has yet to get on a horse so I won’t have any funny shots of him riding…

Beyond that, it is the second day of camp and we (Rich and I) are already running around like crazy.  I have racked up like 70 miles of driving for camp business, and most of that is just going back and forth the 2.2 miles between camps.  I made at least four trips today I think.  The problem is that both camps had big events that needed our services at the same time.  We have decided that we actually proved tonight that we are interchangeable.  Rich is supposed to be the photo guy and I am supposed to be the video guy, but we both can do both and did do both tonight because there was no way that we could both cover both events. (let’s seem how many time i can use “both” in one sentence)

For the most part the boys don’t really pay us any mind, but when either of us walk into the girls camp with a camera on, we are the most popular people in camp.  Every ten steps there is another gaggle of girls asking us to take their photo or to film something they made up.  Almost every girl in camp stops to say hi to us, it is quite amusing.  Some of them seem to think that I am a jungle gym, but there are worse things.  Needless to say, they run us ragged here and it is only day 2!  At least I can usually go to bed at a reasonable hour whereas Rich stays up sorting photos and uploading them for the parents to see.  If Rich misses a daily upload people call in asking about their kids and sometimes they even ask if Rich is OK.

My first video of the summer was shown this evening, but I don’t think that I can really share it on the tubes.  I am not sure that the people in it would appreciate that.  It was a fun project and the campers enjoyed it.  I will have other videos that I can share as the summer goes on.

Just another day in one of the best places to spend the summer.  Even if I am sick, tired and over-worked, it is still fun.  Don’t ask me how that can be, just know that it is!