Bounce. I knew I would remember this moment above so many others. Bounce. It was a sudden depression. �Bounce,� says the ball. I had reason to be depressed, yet, I shouldn�t have been. It�s too cold to play basketball. I had no school for a week...I was on vacation. It�s even too cold to play by myself.
It got colder as the week progressed. But that didn�t take anything away from the week.
�Alright, guys, dress with layers,� I or Chad said when all the guys came out to shoot some baskets. It was the third day. Not more than five minutes before this, I was upstairs with Chad. He had just talked to Hannah, and said �I love you� before hanging up. They�re only best friends. Then he called his mom. I had been sharing my Apple Jacks with Chad, but not right now. Right now, after giving myself and mouthful, I watched Chad turn around...for privacy...to talk to his mom. Then he told her he loved her. It�s not that I wish I could say that to my mom, but I wish I had someone I could say that to. I had to get out of the cabin. Not only to give Chad the privacy he said he didn�t need, but to...get some air. I think. Or something. It�s not like I was gonna cry, but it was just one of those moments.
Stuff happened everynight. Not with cabin leaders, we didn�t sneak out once...we were lame, I guess. I would have, and was always ready to, but I wasn�t gonna go without Chad, and lets face it, everyone wanted sleep.
Chad was a good �bad cop.� I mean, he didn�t yell at anyone, although I think, on the third night, he wanted to...but he could make them shut up. He could make them stop what they shouldn�t have been doing. My one regret that week was that I didn�t wake Chad up Tuesday night to have him shut the kids up. The kids were making these awful nicknames for each other...so bad that one kid was brought to tears. And I couldn�t do anything about it. I mean, if they didn�t listen to me that night, they weren�t going to listen to me ever again...so I didn�t want to chance it. That�s no excuse. Now that I think about it, there are plenty of things you can say. �Does that make you feel good about yourself?� sounds like a good question. But they�re seventh graders. Whatever.
I feel bad about it now...
But after that night, and this was the second night, there were stories. First of all, Chad slept through a huge storm. I so wanted that storm to come. I love thunder, and my kids (there were ten of them in the small downstairs) got quiet just before the storm started. I loved it. And then a clap of thunder shook the cabin. Chad slept through that, yet he did moan a little. I wonder what he was dreaming.
The next morning, there were stories. One cabin leader was missing a kid. He had to go out in the rain to find him...and he found him standing by a tree. I don�t know if that�s when he woke him up, but the child was sleep walking. In his sleepwalk, he talked. He said �I got up to take a shower,� or something of that nature...but he also said something about being out there for ten minutes. And that�s how long he was outside. Creepy?
I told the cabin leader, who is a Junior in high school, �I wished one of my kids did that.� Mine really weren�t that cool. They were the quiet jocks...who got wild at night. And raped each other. I�m only exaggerating a little. They�d wrap their arms around someone and hump the hell out of them. One guy, Justin, molested Chad�s pillow multiple times. One night, and this was the same night, the kids all thought it�d be a good idea to take our stuff. Chad and I would play a real-life version of...that game in the arcade where you bonk the heads of alligators with a hammer. And we�d stop them from getting our stuff. I don�t know how, but one got my sleeping bag. And that took down my backpack and my flashlight and my pillow. Oh. Hell. No. I got it back quickly and reorganized my bed.
Chad had gone out to the bathroom. Justin, the midget pillow molester, had taken a trashbag full of Chad�s clothes and passed it around. I got Chad�s striped shirt back, but the rest, Chad got to see when he entered the room. I forget how many clothes they had, but they had some. Chad walks in as I announce �Yeah, you got these from Chad�s trashbag. That�d be Chad�s dirty laundry.�
They screamed and ran away.
Rhythmic beating was heard the first night...coming from inside someone�s sleeping bag. Of course, this hilarious event also didn�t happen in my cabin. It was just another story I heard, so I can�t be too sure on the details. But the kid got out of his sleeping bag to...do something...like clean up. I�m guessing. The rest of the cabin has to know. They look in his sleeping bag...to see a silver stream stretch. The kids in my cabin knew the nickname as well as most of the people at camp...and would pass him yelling �Hey, Silverhands!�
The kids these days are so sexually aware. I didn�t even know I had the equipment back then. Laugh out loud only because I just didn�t know my stuff back then. However, Justin has told the story multiple times about what happened in his cabin in seventh grade camp. Scott wasn�t feeling very well that day...and Scott is just a name, we need not know who he is, and if you do know who I�m talking about, I�m sorry...but Scott wasn�t feeling very well and stayed in his cabin for an entire activity. When his cabin group (including Justin) came back to the cabin...Scott was lying in his sleeping bag...in the middle of the room...nude.
That same kid ran around our cabin one night. Remember, this is 5 years ago when I was in seventh grade. We wondering who the sneaky bastard was, running around in the snow (it didn�t snow this year). We could see him, throwing snow balls at our cabin, and our cabin leader walked out to get back at him...so the sneaky bastard ran away. It was Scott. How did we know? He had his football jersey on.
Also, my cabin went into another�s...my cabin group, which consisted of McB, RyMo, and Zach (who were some of my best friends back then)...and we snuck over into a cabin while they were out. We took their underwear...dipped them in the lake...and hung them on the metal stairs outside their cabin. Frozen undershorts. Brilliant?
Years later, I would find out that it was Doug�s cabin that we did that to. Hilarious.
Fast forward even more years later, same time of the year, around my birthday. Chad and I lead a group of ten seventh graders to their next class. The best time may have been Low Ropes class. Erica, Scotty, Chad, and I sat around under the beautiful clouds...and played patty cake. Yeah. That�s right. It was so much fun. We played with the hoola hoops, too. I don�t know why I thought it was so much fun, but it was like being a kid again. I was awful at the patty cake (and I really am hating to use that word) games. I mind have turned retarded. I was much better when I was younger. Obviously. I think this moment sticks out because, looking at the clouds, the most beautiful rainbow expanded and disappeared many times. It wasn�t raining, it was just an enormous, truly the biggest I have ever seen, rainbow.
The food was definitely not bad. I never got sick of it. Three meals a day? Better than cafeteria food, which you almost can�t expect because it�s SO much food made at the same time. But it was better. I like food. But three meals a day puts you on a schedule...which sucks to get off of. Now I�m feeling hungry...and feeling like I ate too much that week. Zero food waste...can�t waste any food.
It was an awesome week...and I know I�m leaving some stories out...but I just can�t think of them. My creaky-spring bed wasn�t very nice, but I had a backpack with Cosmopolitan Confessions and Apple Jacks and Pizza flavored Goldfish. I would have shared, and did...but the bastards were just too awful that second night. Going upstairs each time smelling the kids on either side of the staircase...yeah, I don�t think them being by the door of the cabin was a coincidence. They smelled. But I�m not complaining. It�s all part of the experience.
No, getting up every morning to change into a swimsuit in my sleeping bag was an experience. Walking to a shower in the freezing cold and taking half a shower...and then realizing I forgot shampoo...deodorant...and...oh shit...a friggin towel...was an experience. That was the most painful walk I have ever experienced in the great outdoors...with only a swimsuit on...and wet...it was freezing. I think Chad laughed at me, but it was a welcomed laugh.
The week ended. I got home...then put all of my stuff in the garage...to air it out. The only reason I could not have taken another day...was the smell. I�m not complaining, I mean, smells don�t bother me...usually...but I dared myself to stick my head in my suitcase, something that should not have smelled...but reeked. It got bad.
I had food in there, but that wasn�t the problem. I still don�t understand the smell. I blame Stinky Slink...the nickname for the smelly kid who would throw a slinky at you just to have it spring back to him. Another kid broke the slinky on the last night...or second to last...but I allowed it. He should not have been dinkin� around with it. Yes, dinkin�.
The day we left was a great day...I got a picture of myself with Angela (Chels took it)...she was one of the Camp Staff who worked there...I dunno why I had a crush on her...I thought she was hot. Maybe it�s a thing I have...girls who talk to me. Haha, waitresses, clothes-store ladies, camp counselors (this one laughed for me)...they�re so awesome.
~~
And then Saturday was my birthday. I got �Crash� on DVD, finally. God, I love that movie...but I�ve only seen it once. It was so good. Possibly my favorite movie...all-time. Maybe. And that night I hung out with Byrdman, and we had an awesome time. We went to East Lansing (I think) and celebrated being 18 by losing track of time. Lots of memories. Thanks, Byrdman.
Over and out.
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