Daniel's Summer Blog

Week 9: Family camp went on as it always does. My shmirot proved to be very easy and good company. The first night, Warwoman and I hung out then were dismissed early, and the second I watched the Reno 911 movie with SBB, both times only babysitting for one family. Shabbat was peaceful, even with the looming threat of packing and leaving. I spent a fun afternoon at the Menks' babysitting, playing set and hanging out. Motzash I packed everything up so it would be ready to load into the car the next morning, when I was due out of the room at 9 AM. Naturally, I woke up with the Oss at 7:30 to load up and then drive down (no point in going back up to an empty room). I watched the US storm back into a soccer game, only to have it tied in the 92nd minute, before putting in my last two hours of work. Unfortunately, I left camp in something of a hurry to beat the bus, and as a result, I missed saying goodbye to a few people who deserved better (sorry!). The drive home with Max was uneventful, minus watching him tip a huge pixie stick into his mouth every five minutes and stopping at Denny's for grub.
The first thing I noticed when I got home was how dim the stars seemed in comparison to camp's sky. This began my process of truly realizing the depression of thinking that I might never return to camp.
Over Shabbat I saw a very old friend of mine from Seminar who was in with her fiance for a local simcha. It was quite a throwback to think about the last time I was a camper for Ramah, and how things have changed in eight years.
Moving was an adventure. First I though I could bring everything in the vans. Wrong. Then I decided to rent an U-haul cargo van. After all, I was just moving two heavy couches plus some boxes. Wrong. First I changed the date, then I upgraded from the van to the 14-foot truck. While this was volume overkill and goes against everything I have ever taught or learned about packing, I needed the three-seater to get my helpers home and the 10-footer only seats two. In the end I also took a desk, a hutch, a full bed and assorted things from friends. I could have easily fit two of everything into the truck, but it was simpler not to layer. Originally, I had feared that we would have to carry everything down one flight of stairs, and then up three. Thankfully, the building I had in mind was not my own, and we parked such that the truck's ramp could be wedged straight across into the hill, skipping over a small flight of stairs. From there it was just one mercifully wide stairway to the apartment.
The apartment itself was as expected, though not quite complete. The kitchen is completely new (score! for less kashering) but was missing some covers between appliances and counters, as well as drywall on the arch into the kitchen. Some more small flaws that I recorded for my new friend Tad, but nothing serious. The outlets work, the windows work, who could ask for anything more. Well, there are no outlets in the bathroom, so I am not sure how I am going to dry my hair. Also grilling is forbidden on the porch, which is standard, but a shame. The door sticks. I have a decent view off the porch, mostly parking lot, but a big old tree that blocks out the other rows of the complex and a treeline off to the left. I believe I face southwest, which will be nice for incoming weather. Time to continue with apartment setup.

As camp closes today (8/4) I feel that it is a shame that I have to leave at the end of camp instead of sometime in the middle. The end of camp is often an accumulation of bad feelings, whereas the midst of camp is often less reminiscent of irritation. While the end of camp brings the elation of another successfully completed summer, I feel the novelty of that has worn off for me.
As I was in the salad bar line at dinner last night, I was informed that not only was I loading bags onto a bus early the next morning (expected), but I was also taking some bags and staff members to the airport (unexpected). When we did load up the bus (6:30ish) it was discovered that all the bags fit nicely (despite an ornery driver). This did not preclude me from going to the airport, as I was still charged with bringing myself and three other luggage schleppers. The only change was that now instead of forcing the 15-passenger van down the highway, we could take the slightly zippier rented Chevy Cobalt.
Once the there, we roughed up the Delta ticket counter until we got all the gate passes, boarding passes and unaccompanied minor fees waived that we needed. We also helped to unload the bus and the U-haul and then high-tailed it out of there, as we were no longer needed. We made our regular truck stop, met up with Avi for lunch, and headed back up to camp.
The next day, after swearing up and down that I would never lift another bag, I had to repack incompetents' bags on the bus, and then when they did not all fit, I had to put them into seats on the bus.
When the airport bus left, Max, Koko, LoSad, J-Po and I decided to use our time off to go to the Fun Factory, an arcade north of camp. 45 humid minutes later, we pulled in and discovered a great deal. Instead of tokens, the FF uses cards with stored amounts of money that you simply swipe. They were running a promotion that if you bought 25 "funbux" (or something similarly ridonkulous) you got another 25 free. As there were five of us, this divided up quite nicely, we each put in a Lincoln and we had $10 to spend (though we had to share the card). We played air hockey, Deal or No Deal, soccer, shooting gallery, Mario Kart, Hoops, and the usual variety of money-swindling arcade button-pushers. We even had enough money for 30 frames of bowling. We then went to the Cupboard Cafe, which no longer serves its delicious Veggie Burger, skipped Wal-Mart and then headed back to camp, exhausted and sweaty. It was a pleasant change from the usual day off, and quite the throwback to the early days of staff.
Later that day...
I saw Greta giggling about something. I knew what it could have been, but I had to go confirm. Indeed, the moment we had been waiting for all summer (and some of us all year) had finally arrived. Two of my oldest friends, SSS and JJ, who had been dating since our GHS days, got engaged on the hill in front of the camp director's house, under a beautiful starry sky. If you have not already, stop whatever you are doing and wish them Mazal Tov. We spent the next three hours spreading the good news around camp, singing and dancing. That was almost exactly 48 hours ago as I write this, and it is by far the most phenomenal thing to have happened at camp this summer, possibly ever.
Family Camp started today, it is about the same as always, but I have yet to do shmirah, so that will be the real test.