Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to camp I go........

That's me, the tired lady in the back row .... blue t-shirt....

My head is consumed with girls camp today and it's been hard to think about much else. Somehow last year I got talked into becoming the Ward Camp Specialist.....little did I know that wouldn't be a one time thing! I enjoy the Young Women and really, I enjoy camp. It's like a vacation, ... kind of.....at least I don't have to cook, clean or answer phones. I do, however, have to sleep rarely, sweat profusely, get bitten by bugs, and lie on the cold hard ground at night..........yeah, like I said "kind of" a vacation.

The camp we went to last year was really quite nice, platform tent cabins for the girls and .... NOT for the leaders (we slept in regular old tents but that's okay, they were clean and no mice had set up permanent residence in them). I was one of the counselors for first year girls and as any of you who have served that time know, this calling has it's own "special" rewards.

To begin with First Year is known for being noisy so they put us in the most remote part of the "resort" which we came to fondly call "outer darkness". This really had more to do with the 1/2 mile hike through dense forest from the main camp than the atmosphere. It really was a very long, very dark, walk from the dining hall to lst year cabins. We figured we walked no less than 6 miles a day and that was ONLY if no one left some necessary item back at camp that we needed to go get. The rule for lst years is that they always have to travel in twos and preferably WITH a leader, this required me to make many a trip back and forth in my role as "leader/chaperone/protector from all things scary in the dark" (and I had to do it all without the aid of super powers or cape).

There were the usual problems, girls who were homesick, girls who were annoying to cabinmates, girls who were shy, girls who were not, girls who refused to shower, girls who had to shower twice a day as well as do their hair and makeup every day, girls who were allergic to morning, girls who went to bed when it was still light and complained because everyone was too loud....you know the usual.

Our little lst year camp received the award for "most dramatic evening in an outdoor setting" the night the wolves attacked. We had all gone to the main campfire for a wonderfully spiritual experience when one of the girls asked me if she could leave and go to the bathroom....I asked her to stay till we were done but....it was an eeeeemergenceeeee!....so I gave her and her "buddy" permission to go to the bathroom.

They didn't return in a reasonable length of time so I sent one of the YCL's to look for them, she returned and said they weren't at the bathrooms but that someone told her that they went back to lst year. I really found that improbable since, at any other time, they whined about walking that far and we hadn't even had evening snacks yet but I left anyway and went to look for them.

I hadn't made it 10 steps into the forest before I met another girl running toward me crying and saying the "two" were at lst year camp, hysterical.....because they'd been growled at by wolves. Now, I've never revealed what state I live in because of the whole "internet safety" thing but you'll have to take my word for it....we don't have wolves here.....we don't have any large predators here unless you count people.

When I arrived sure enough they were huddled on a bed in one of the tent cabins crying their eyes out and completely hysterical. To make a VERY long story short(er), they decided to walk back to lst year alone, in the dark, no flashlights, instead of returning to the main campfire because....... they were bored. It appeared they had found a solution to boredom......abject terror.

I'm still not sure what happened, their explanations included things like "We heard growling and bone crunching and blood spurting noises" (I'm not sure how they know what spurting blood sounds like but oh well.....) So we pretty much determined that anything they told us was not going to help in the least. A few days later we did see a couple of the neighbor dogs running around chasing critters in the woods so perhaps they did hear some growling......I'm not sure about the "other" noises.

At any rate, this year I'm with 3rd year girls and instead of 28 of them I'll have 10.....I'm hoping they've worked out their night terrors and we'll get, if not a decent night's sleep, at least a decent night's fun.

Tomorrow I'll be at a meeting with my co-counselor so I probably won't be posting much, if at all....(well, since I'm addicted to this particular form of catharsis perhaps I'll post very late! : ) )

Wish me luck and send me all your good ideas for fun camp pranks!