Girls' Camp Recap

I go to our church's girls' camp annually and just have a total blast every year! For the fourth year in a row I have been able to work with the 16-18 year olds. My FAVORITE! I just love giggling and goofing off. Here are some of my favorite moments from the week:

• I love dogs. I have always been a dog person, which usually means cats are not on my list of priority animals. Actually... I kind of hate cats. Not like I would hurt a cat, but I just suppose I have too much of a self esteem issue to like a pet that hates me. When I went to the craft shack to make a little something for Kaitlin, the craft leader and very good friend of mine came to me laughing. She started by apologizing to me. Apologizing for not sticking up for me in the exchange that had just occurred. You see, two of the girls in my unit (group I was a leader of) came to the shack looking for a gift for me. While the craft assistant, another good friend of mine, was sifting through buttons she made a sarcastic comment about a hideous cat pin. The girls took the sarcasm as truth and were convinced that I loved cats, especially when on an enameled pin circa 1986. They excitedly snatched the pin and decided to make a ring for me out of it. My loathing for cats nearly matches my inability to wear a poker face. So my friends who worked in the shack knew there was no way I could receive a gift without looking ungrateful and appalled at quite possibly the ugliest ring ever. Their warning was fair- my reaction was not. I spent the week jumpy just waiting for the presentation of a gift that I knew would require a fake-genuine smile. I practiced every night in the mirror. On the final day of camp, the moment had come. Two of the sweetest girls came to me with a darling little gift all wrapped up for me. I cringed (I think only on the inside) "Well," I thought, "here goes nothing..." and I cautiously opened the gift. Inside the carefully wrapped package was a huge, amazing, perfect for me ring. It was so beautiful! Those girls had set up the story from the very beginning! They had the craft girls tell me about the pin so I would be surprised. I had no idea and that is was made the gift even better.
• One morning, I woke up groggy and stumbled my way into the kitchen in our lodge. Everyone else was sleeping soundly, so I quietly grabbed a croissant and sat among the snoring girls to enjoy a moment of semi peace and quiet. As I was silently putting pieces of the croissant in my mouth, I noticed that it smelled terrible. I kept sniffing at it, but the smell was faint. Then I noticed it was not the croissant the stunk, but my hand. As I put my hand to my nose I took a perplexed and lengthy sniff wondering how it come to this point. Then the previous night's sleep dawned on me... I had slept fearful of keeping my bunk mate awake. Rather than let out loud and copious gas from the heavy meals I had been eating, I would hold my cheeks open every time I felt the urge to let one go. So, instead of a loud noise to accompany my rumblings, there would be a near silent whoosh! Once I came to the realization I had indeed been eating a fart croissant, I did three things in this order: 1) Laughed very loud, 2) Ran to the kitchen to wash my hands, 3) Sat down and ate the rest of my croissant.
• Some how, I had let it slip that I am terrified of aliens. I am truly afraid of alien movies and those silly fair trinkets with the alien heads on them seriously freak me out. One night, I walked out to the car to go get a cd with one of the girls. When we came back to the lodge, the lights were all out and I heard a strange clicking noise. Out from behind the the table came a thing crawling at me with a glowing, freaky head. I got so scared that I pushed the girl I was with in front of me and was ready to book it. She started screaming and I was ready for the little green monsters to take me away. After a few more moments the girls finally turned on the light and I saw that the alien was really just glow sticks and a head lamp on someone crawling all over the ground. I was really shaken up, but I felt really bad for the girl I pushed in front of me. I am sure that if I had the ability to speak I would've yelled, "Take her!"

p.s.- they got it on video... just waiting for that one to pop up on youtube.

I think I'll save the spiritual stories for tomorrow.