The First Day of Camp

Captain's Log -
Stardate: -317443.83 (That's the stardate for June 12, 2006)

And so our new adventure has officially began. Having a full season under our belts, and nine months rest we began our voyage this morning with the utmost confidence, although admittedly I did have a few jitters as not all of of the pre-flight checklist went as planned. Then again, it never does. Nonetheless, what follows is an hour by hour breakdown of the first day in our long, yet all too short journey.

0630-0730
I wake up at 0n 0630, surprisingly on-time and well rested. I did toss and turn some the night before, however I had managed to get to bed early enough to still get the necessary amount of rest in for a Galactic voyage. However, not all was well with those in the same housing as myself. As i arose I made my way to the bathroom, put in my contacts, turned on the shower and began to strip (oh stop it, its a basic part of human maintenance). I had come to a complete state of nudity (easy now) when I realized that nature was in fact calling my name. I sat down on the pot and did my business.

As I stood up and flushed, my almost 19-year-old brother who got his first job this spring, and began working 7:30-3:30 about two weeks ago, knocked and then opened door. So there I am, completely nude, having just used the bathroom and about to get into the shower when he opens the door a crack sticks his head with his eyes at such a squint I'm not sure any sunlight was getting to his pupils and asked very politely (seriously), "Can I have my shower now?" - the implication being he normally showers at that exact minute of the morning and was wondering if he could. Having my smart-eleck side not awake, I didnt not say anything smart about how naked I was and instead said "Naw, wait 5 I'm about to get in". to which case Mr. Hyde erupted from Dr. Jekyll. He growled (I swear to you), slammed the door. Marched to my parents bedroom next door and had the shower on before I could turn around and hop in the shower myself (which was all of one foot away).

After the shower incident my brother left about 07:00, I ate a bowl of hot oatmeal in three minutes (I know, I'm amazing), and had planned to leave about 07:10. Unfortunately I could not find my camp sweatshirt, which I know I had a few weeks ago. This dilemma caused me to forget my mug and not leave until about 07:16, clearly a huge delay in a well timed launch.

0730-0830
I arrived according to camp time, at 0742. Although I am supremely confident this was not accurate. Nonetheless, the mishaps of the mornign we corrected by wearing a white long sleeve under my camp shirt and by having my dear dear friend Miss Counselor Ashton bring my mug from my house.

The interaction with campers began by playing with the building blocks with two male campers. We all found great amusement in how high we could build tower before an "earthquake" would come shake it down (I'd merely, with my butt in place, sway side to side ever so mildly on the benches in the lunchroom. This would chase the unstable atmoshophere of the bench to shake causing the whole structure to become unstable).

I eventually then followed one of the campers out to the kickball game where a counselors vs. campers game had begun. Literally it was like 15 counselors vs. a mob of about 200 screaming 1st graders. As I told Counselor Dave, in this history of Daycamp's top ten ideas, this easily cracked the top five. A little while later, when the campers were switching from either batting to fielding or vice versa Counselor Dave made the wisely hilarious crack, as a couple hundred first graders ran around like chickens with their heads cut-off: We have a name for this, it's called CHAOS!

0830-0930
Pow-Wow time! This meant the starburst name game, which lasted all of five minutes ... followed by the ball name game, which lasted about 10 minutes ... followed my improv of Simon Says, lasting about 15 minutes ... and then a rousing game of follow the leader. I didn't think it was possible to wear out Monday Campers, but we did, if even for a brief few moments. After Follow the Leader they were wiped and begging for mid-morning nap time! YES! SCORE TWO FOR ASHLEY/JIM!!!

0930-1030
It's games!! And the opening at bat for ex-counselor Aimee who is now the games coordinator (almost making her our boss, weird!). We played many rousing games of "Backyard Clean-up". Thanks to the new counselors, it was the most competitive Monday games session I'd ever experienced ... although that also meant it got a bit out of hand. But Miss Aimee handled herself and the sitch very well and I give her an A for the morning! It also turns out that despite trying to employ multiple ways to attain victory shaking one's hips and citing Carley's voice and words by saying "ITS A STRATEGY" does not in fact work or justify many attempts to win. Sad ... maybe its just a kickball thing. (Notably Carley did not bunt in her only atbat of the morning's kickball game, although she did reach first on a blooper single).

1030-1130
For the first time in my daycamp experience morning swim was cancelled! A bit too chilly. Which Im surprised mweant anything, as last year Im fairly it could have been snowing adn we'd have gotten in the water. As a substitute we played ont he playground. Good times, but it turns out that after about 3 minutes, anyone older than 16 gets too tired of or tired from freeze tag ... yet the kids could literally play it all day.

1130-1215
Lunch! AND A NEW RECORD FOR KOOL-AID SPILLAGE! Literally the first cup given to the first girl of orange kool-aid, which was on the table for no more than 2 seconds and had been given only after a two minute lecture about drink spilling, was emptied on the table by a young girl named Sabrina, who then had a second spill at the end of lunch. At least she's consistent. This, fortunately represented 100% of our juice spillage incidents.

1215-1310
GAMES AGAIN! We got to spend an hour playing with the parachute. It wasn't bad, although it was no backyard clean-up.

1310-1405
Craft time ... I love craft time usually. Today we colored in wooden airplanes! WOOO! I whooped Counselor Aaron Gross in the seek and find, putting me at 1-0 for the year ... counselor Lindsay (she's new) proved that while she's got seek and find talent she still needs practice ... and Craft Leader Kate had the quote of the afternoon as she said: "Broken Wing?!? No problem, I can fix that. I've become a real master at aeronautical repair." And in other news I believe the United States Air Force contacted Craft Leader Kate later that day about becoming a chief mechanic on their new F-22 Raptor, a supersonic military jet.

1405-1530
Napped with the other counselors that had the hour off. To which I also took my shirt off as wel as socks and shoes. Tiffany had the quotes of hour about 20 minutes after I did this saying, "Jim what happened? You're naked." I was quite tempted to look down and WHAT? WHO STOLE MY CLOTHES?!

And that ladies and gentleman was the first day of camp.

Here's hoping tomorrow is another fine day of flight. Until then, I remain Captain James P. Boyer of the Starship Comanche. Godspeed.