No really

Now the summer has started in earnest, and it's not half bad! Smirkling camp was just the hellish "let's get it out of the way" first part of the summer, and now that I have six darling little nine-year olds (including one who can't be taller than 3 feet but has been to India and Nepal and has a bigger vocabulary than I do), things are looking up. The days are starting to fall into their regular pattern. There's the groggy wake-up at 7, and hopefully getting everyone to the dining hall with shoes and pants and brushed teeth and all that by 7:30. Then the amazing counselor meeting at breakfast, which gives us a chance to wake up without being surrounded by children, bitch about and swoon over our kids, swap tips and concerns, then finally breathe, swear, and set out on the morning run, which is basically a quarter mile of encouraging the campers. Then warm-ups, morning rotations for the kids (acro, performance, aerials, and juggling), during which we help out however we can, be it consoling a homesick camper, spotting them on the tightwire, keeping them relatively calm in aerials while waiting for their turn... Then strengthening (love those push-ups!), lunch, rest time! Except not for us: for us it's making sure the campers are resting-time. Then back down to the tents for more rotations: counselors get one or two of these rotation times off per day, a good time for a nap or a movie, checking e-mail, taking a walk or a shower, basically the only "me-time" we get. Then afternoon activity (capture the flag, CATCH time (camper activity total craziness hour :), which is where counselors offer a selection of activities from which the kids choose, etc.), dressing up for dinner according to the theme of the night, anything from pirates (arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) to "infectious diseases" or "it came from under the bed." Those last two are lots of fun... And then evening activity (tag games, dutch auction, etc. etc.), getting ready for bed, and lights out at 9 (or 8:30 for this session, since they're 7-12 year olds). And after lights-out... time for the staff to play! Usually everyone ends up in either the tents or the kitchen, where we make milkshakes out of ice cream bars, pop popcorn, hang out on the counters swapping horror stories about our campers, and generally have a fine old time. And of course in the tents we train, though I'm often too exhausted to do much: but tonight there's a special aerials class, so I'll be down there and up in the air!!! And then midnight curfew, and up again at 7... as you can see, it's a busy life, full of questions and boo-boos and giggles and later in the summer lots of teen angst, without time for much of anything besides the kids. Sometimes I think, "Thank goodness this is my last year for awhile!": the routine can get to you, and after six years of the same thing, it's getting kind of old. But then a camper will run up and give me a hug and flash me a beautiful toothless grin, as much as if to say, "You're the reason I'm so happy," and I remember why I love this job. :)