"Good morning, angels"

Last night, David defeated me in a game of scrabble.  In my defense, I was distracted by a Charlie's Angels marathon (in honor of Farrah Fawcett).  We also watched about five or six of Michael Jackson's music videos (and then the Weird Al parodies of those videos).  And just as I was starting to feel a little less depressed about everyone dying, a news reporter announced that Billy Mays had died at the age of fifty.  And I proclaimed to the heavens, "OxiClean!  Noooo!"  My mom and I were such big fans, with all of his products in our cupboards.  

But now, refreshingly, I'm home in Maryland.  My room has been re-arranged and I feel like I'm staying in a hotel (in a good way).  The food in the refrigerator does not even feel like part of my territory, so I've placed a bag of melted whoppers from my car on one of the shelves.  I'm slowly moving back in, you see.

Week 3 and Week 4

My camper from last week, the sudoku wiz

Finally an update...

Week 3 has passed and week 4 (12-17 yrs. old) is just about to.  Today is my day off and, after having a full night's sleep on night duty (the chillens were well-behaved), here I am. 

I really miss my camper from last week, a lethal combination of cute and cuddly, but my camper this week is quickly becoming the love of my life.  He is a slow-walker, non-verbal and functions cognitively at 2 months.  Therefore, he is a big baby and I love helping him around camp.  He is cutest when drinking from his water bottle and when floating awkwardly in the pool (his swirling motions remind me of a sea lion or otter).  The best thing about him, and also the most confusing thing about him, is that he will stare into my eyes for extended periods of time.  He kind of drops is head down, gets in your face and then locks eyes.  It is cute because I know he wants something from me but I also have no real way of knowing what it is.  

Today he is with a floating counselor, but as is with any day off, I can't help but think about my camper.  To distract me from longing for him, I'm thinking of running some errands of the Target variety*.  I also might find it in myself to drive to Elon and clean my fish tank.  The drive isn't that long and if I do decide to go, I will probably get to see Jenna (who was abroad Spring semester).  It's been a very long time and she'll have lots of London stories to tell.  Jenna would also be able to catch me up on the episodes of True Blood that I have missed (no cable, not even TV, at camp).  

In the afternoon, I will probably meet up with David.  He taped an episode of Chopped, which is our guilty pleasure on food network (among many other guilty pleasures on food network).  It's basically like three short Iron Chef competitions (one for appetizer, main dish and dessert) and involves four competitors instead of just two.

I should probably get going now.  I need to shower and plan my day.  

Love,

Monica

P.S. My week off is next week (starting on Friday) and I will be going home to MD for the first time since March!  Can I just say, I miss seeing (and smelling) cows each and every day.

*My "water-proof" watch filled up with water yesterday evening while in the pool.  It stopped working completely minutes later (though I'm not sure of how many minutes).  I'll need to get a new one as soon as possible because you can't live at camp without knowing what time it is and I need to cover up this horrendous watch-tan.  Speaking of tans, take a look at this ring tan I've developed:

Awkward Family Photos

I promise to update soon (meaning in 1-2 days) about...stuff.  For now, I leave you with:

from here

Funny motions

David and a caterpillar (I just had to share it)

I had night duty last night which means today is my day off.  However, all I can think about today is how much I miss my camper!  He is THE CUTEST KID I've ever seen before in my life (and I mean, c'mon, I work at a nursery full of cutie pies during the school year).  Anyway, he could do commercials or model.  He is the epitome of what it means to be eight years old and cuddly cute.

My favorite part about him is that he is a natural comedian.  You see, whenever we go to the pool we like to show each other funny faces and funny "motions" underwater.  I started with "the pizza eater" face (me motioning eating pizza underwater) and he offered back things like "the sleeper" (pretending to sleep on the pool floor) and "the accident" (his mimicry of a boy who had pooped in the pool earlier that day).  And while "the accident" is always a crowd pleaser, nothing can beat these next few that I will explain:

1) The frightened man: He goes underwater and pretends to run away.

2) The angry woman:  Underwater, he screams and motions pulling out his hair.

3) The cement mixer: He swirls around in a circle underwater.

4) The pig in the mud: He swirls around in a circle underwater.

...at which point I told him that it was funny that "the cement mixer" and "the pig in the mud" were the exact same move.  He agreed with me and suggested that we do:

5) The pig in the cementer mixer: He swirls around in a circle underwater, while oinking.

I wish I could post a picture of me and my camper, but I can't...yet.  I need proper permission first and I hope to acquire it (but my blog, with the addition of said picture, will probably cease to exist due to an explosion of cuteness)!

So, for the rest of the day, I need to write my daily notes for yesterday.  I need to shower and get dressed up (because David is coming to take me to dinner or something).  And for the meantime and in between time, Andy and I need to figure out what to do for our day off (he had night duty last night also).  

Love,

Monica

Weekend in Wilmington

This past weekend, David came to camp to see the talent show.  My camper did a fashion show and was awarded the "Long walks on the beach" award (because of the slow, yet romantic, pace at which he walked around camp for the week).  My friend Jean had a friend in Wilmington with a house about 5 minutes away from the beach.  So, after the talent show ended on Friday, David, Me, Jean, Andy and Elisabeth drove there.  

Highlight of the weekend: Skinny-dipping in the ocean with Elisabeth

ooo, i forgot

to mention that david comes back today from europa!  oh, how i have missed him.

Hello Kitty Thief

On Friday, Jean, Jordan, Elisabeth and I went to Carrboro to eat dinner.  We went to Elmo's Diner and had everything from salmon cakes to pecan pancakes.  It was very delicious, but something happened that will bother me forever...

Before we went to dinner, we browsed a comic shop.  I did more than just browse, however.  I bought a hello kitty cellphone charm.  It was one that Elisabeth had lost long ago, and since she didn't want it, I got it to remind me of her whenever I saw it.  I also bought some kiwi gummies.  Our friend, Andy, had tried to buy this variety of gummy candy in the kiwi flavor the night prior, and since he wasn't with us, we decided it was a good idea to surprise him with the kiwi gummies.  So, comic book shop purchase: hello kitty phone charm and kiwi gummies.  Remember that.

I distinctly remember going into the booth at Elmo's Diner with the comic book shop bag containing my purchases.  I also remember putting it on the right side of my body, resting it on the booth.  When I had finished my meal, I told everyone that I was going to the bathroom to wash up (then I used both of my hands to mimic the act of washing one's hands).  Telling them that I would meet up with them outside, I left (without my bag of stuff).

Then, as we were singing songs from camp on the streets of Carrboro (I was using both of my hands wildly to carry out the motions in "boddidly man" and "the moose from canada" song), I suddenly remembered that I left something at Elmo's!  We ran back (it was annoyingly close but far away) and I talked to the host.  I told him "Hi, I ate there and left a paper bag filled with a hello kitty phone charm and some japanese kiwi gummies that are just deee-vine.  Could you check your lost and found?"  The guy looked peeved, but I saw him go over to the booth and look under it and then talk to a few people.  While he was gone, a hostess came by and asked me if I needed help.  Since I figured it could only help things, I told her the entire story too.  She was sad for me and looked more thoroughly than the host had and at the end when she couldn't find it, offered to have me write down my name and phone number incase she found it later that night.  I gave her my email address too.

After all that, I felt good.  I had asked them to look for it, but I also ended up looking for it too (I went over to the booth myself and also checked the bathroom).  The case had gone seemingly cold until I remembered that I didn't have my cell phone with me.  We went back a third time to give Elmo's Diner Elisabeth's number.  However, we didn't get to talk to the nice hostess, we had to talk to the evil host man.  I knew something was fishy the moment he took down Elisabeth's number; he illegibly scribbled it down at the bottom of the reservations list (he might as well have drawn a hand puppet on himself).  When we got outside I theorized that due to his quiet demeanor and blatant unwillingness to be friendly and helpful like his hostess counterpart, that he was the hello kitty thief.  What was even more suspicious was that Elisabeth never got a call from them on her phone and that when I got back to the cabin, I had a message from the hostess on my phone.  It's elementary my dear Watson:  the host did not give the number to the hostess like we asked him to and for this he is the number one suspect in the Hello Kitty murder!

Now to end this entry with a happier, funnier story.  Saturday night, Andy, Elisabeth and I went to the movies (I will not tell you which movie we saw for fear of embarrassment).  The movie was at 9:45 pm and we decided to enter Subway at 9:43 pm.  Andy assured us that we would be able to bring the subs into the movies because he had done it all the time.  So, when we got into the movie theatre, approaching the ticket booth with our tickets and our subs, slightly hidden behind our thighs, a man shouted across the room "SORRY YOU CANNOT BRING FOREIGN FOODS INTO THE MOVIE!"  This teenage boy, rather, was acting very odd and Andy pointed out that it was because his manager was standing right there.  

Okay.  So that was fine.  I didn't really expect to get in with a footlong by my side.  I did, however, ask the manager if he could hold them for us, instead of confiscating them with no promise of return.  For a split second I felt like I was in middle school again.  But the manager was nice enough to save them for us and he even put my soda in the fridge.  

Now I have to go learn some more sign language.  My second camper comes today.  He is nonverbal and I need to brush up on my nonverbal skills.

Love,

Monica