Ignorant Chess, Water Spiders and Pranks!

Today's tales and life lessons from Daycamp as told by Jungle Jim:

-The re-occuring theme for the day was: Just because we have 10 zillion markers doesn't mean any of them remotely work.

-In the AM, before first period, I spy a couple of kids playing chess so I walk on over to check out the game. The pieces are all well scattered across the board and the two kids were staring very intently at the game, seemingly really into it. By all accounts these were a couple of second graders playing a riveting game of chess. As I first get there it all seems to normal to me, except both sides queen and king are busted at the top so you can't tell which is which. This is actually quite common and generally kids have some ingenius ways of marking which is a king or a queen.

So I inquire, which is the king? They both shurg their shoulders and one says I don't know... A few minutes later I notice that one of the just moved their rook (the castle looking pieces) diagonally. This is a major n0-no. So I ask, have you guys ever played chess before? One says, and as non-chalantly as possible, "Nope" while the other pipes up, "I've played checkers before ... once" ... Hahaha, I about lost it. So there ya have it, you don't have to have any clue of how to play chess to actually play and enjoy the game.

-Everyone, but my coco ordered hot dogs for lunch. Proof that there is something kids unanimously likew more than PBJ's...

-It turns out the pool is an excellent place to be at 9am on a day when the heat index nears or tops 100...

-SPIDER STORY TIME: So in the pool the cutest little girl at all of Tuesday camp (and from my tribe!) comes up to me and asks me to fix her goggles. So I sit up on the drain that run around the pool to work on fixing the little plastic pain in the rears ... when Emma (the little girl) yells SPIDER! So I hope off that drain as fast as anyone's hopped off anything and turn around, half expecting her to tell me it's on me (it should be noted here that I definitely have an irrational fear of Spiders!!!) ... When I see this spider sitting below the half-inch deep water in the drain. It's a nasty looking bugger that's prolly half-dollar sized (like including legs, it's legs would touch the outer edge of a half-dolllar). It's white with weird black spots, looks kinda hairy, and is like no other spider I've ever seen. I make the comment to Emma and another kid next to me, "Hm, I didn't know that Spiders could live in water."

At this point, Emma seems more fascinated than scared. She's really getting her face pretty close as she peers and I could just see this thing jumping at her nose or something. It started to move some in the water so I look down the pool wall and demand that a girl about 6 feet away whose not paying attention give me her kickboard. I had to ask twice to get her attention and I am sure she thinks I am mean cause I was agitated, but like I said not a fan of spiders so I was trying to deal with the situation calmly and quickly.

I take the kickboard and go to smash the spider, but the little bugger was bright and right as I attacked like jumped out of the water and onto the side of the board and began climbing up it. Emma and the other kid both kind of jumped and naturally I dropped the board as I jumped back. So I picki t back up and the spider is back in the drain. I go to smash it again and this time I got the SOB. Naturally I pulled the board away and the spider was just a black little ball, not even recognizable as a spider anymore, just another dead black bug. At this point I am all good and the other kid seems much cooler, but out of nowhere Emma, who had been the coolest out of us all and was totally interested literally turned 180 degrees and ran/swam as fast as she could across and out of the pool while yelling/screaming "EEEWWWWWWW" at the top of her lungs. You'd have thought someone had just smashed a booger on her face or something the way she was hollering. I couldn't help but crack up. Why that little girl had no problems with the real spider (which really was gross) and not the dead ball u could hardly see is beyond my ability to reason .... but it was sooooo funny!

-For 2nd period POW WOW, Kimbo and I played Bingo with our campers (a great idea!) ... except we forgot prizes, which is crucial to Bingo's success, so we told them their prizes were their daily granola bar snack. They wouldn't get it until they got a BINGO. An interesting idea ... next time we bring prizes!

-For third period games we played mystery kickball where I told some kid to stop feeling sorry for himself and to just get out there and just do it. I gave him the suck it up, quit trying to get attention and play the game (he thought he was too short and slow ...).

-T-Ball is a blast at any age.

-Lunch at the check-in/out shelter was a disaster! We seriously had like 18 juice spills or something.

-Tuesday campers are such little S***S!! They whine about everything...

-Kinberly is the best Co-counselor ever!

-So for my break I lay down and take a nap. After like 10 minutes I fell asleep and begin having this intesne dream. I don;t remember anything exept it was waaaaay intense and I am pretty sure it was about camp. I am also napping a few feet from Kelly and shirtless because it was sooo muggy and I was too sweaty. In the middle of this intense dream I come charging back to life like someone coming up for air after being partially drowned. Kyle Lawton, in cohort with Aaron Gross, decided it would be funny to wake Jim up with cold water. So Kyle ran over, took her mug full of ice cold water and dumped it on me while napping ... which is what brought me out of my intense dream. My heart was racing soooo fast for like 20 minutes after. It scared the living heck out of me (and woke Kelly up and scared her I might add!) Apparently my face when I woke up was beyond priceless and their only regret was that theiy were the only two who got to see it. I can only imagine ... those two have no idea what's coming to them one day! Haha, what a great prank!

-For games this afternoon we watched an hour of Looney Tunes in the basement because of the heat. While this started out to be good times, 40 minutes or an hour of RoadRunner/Coyote cartoons get really old really fast! I was worried I was going to gouge my eyes out and I love Roadrunner/coyote cartoons!

-During craft time I raced Kimbo in the new seek and find ... she took a big advantage early and seemed destined to win,b ut I had a huge come from behind victory and remain the uncontested seek and find champ of the day!

-OOOH, and at pool time Kyle Matthews joined Kimberly and I in making the towels our capes when we dry off. We were the superfriends ... Kyle was Superman, I was Batman and Kyle told Kimbo she was Robin ... haha, naturally I used this against her later when she tried to me make me make a decision for the tribe. Haha...

And it was Adam (and Jason's!) 22nd birthday, which we are celebrating. SO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ADAM AND JASON!