Cleaning up from Camp
The laundry room smells like a campfire, and the sleeping bag needs to go to the dry cleaners. I’ve heard that fellow camper Alisha can put her entire fist in her mouth up to her wrist and can cram nearly three doughnuts in at once. That bats scared the leaders out of the cabin on the last night and it was “hilarious!”
Samantha’s new best friend from camp is Eliza because she is “so cool.” Samantha’s crowining achievement: She was the only one who wasn’t scared to free fall backward into her friend’s arms during the “trust fall.” She said it was easy.
We have one happy ex-camper at our house.
“Mom! I still haven’t finished telling you about camp,” she said yesterday. Never mind that she talked non-stop for 30 minutes describing every detail. “But that was just the first few days!”
Rule #1: Never let your kids wear anything they or you care about to camp. I should know this. Case in point: jeans. Her new jeans were faded with two supposed-to-be holes in them. They came home completely soaked with a rip that extends from the bottom of the zipper to the waistline.
“How did you do this,” I asked, annoyed.
“I don’t know. It just happened,” she told me. “You know all the running around and bending down to pick things up and just messing around.” (To me, it looks like she got them caught on a tree and didn’t realize until they were practically ripped off her.) Geez. I tossed them into the trash. She yelled “No!” and begged me to patch them. She argued fearlessly when I told her they were unpatchable or unsewable. Geez.
Then I told her what every parent swears they’ll never tell their kids: “Well, next time you’ll be more careful.” I could almost hear a tape recording of all the voices who have told me that in my life. I heard grandmas, mom, aunts, dad, uncles etc. saying that to me years earlier.
So, we got over that. Except that now we need new jeans.
Today I promised I’d listen more about camp. I’ve cleared my schedule from 2:00 to 3:00 for this event. I may even type it up as she talks.
But I don’t think I can type that fast.
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