Fresh Start

Music, boats, karaoke- Monday was a great start to the week. We quickly discovered that we now have a helper for cleaning the cabin each morning. Jim loves making beds so we obviously had no problem letting him make them all.

Next, we had music where we made and decorated maracas and kazoos. I would say Ed got the most enjoyment from this because he not only shook his maraca as much as he could during music but also during open mic night, the evening program.

I spent most of the rest period talking to Ed on the porch. He was sporting his t-shirt that said, “I’m not Ed,” which probably did not fool anyone because his nametag was right below it.  He told me a bunch of knock-knock jokes and showed me some of his physical therapy that he normally does at home. The best knock-knock joke was "knock knock (whose there?) Madam, (Madam who?) Madam foot's in the door."

Ed in a good mood

We also had boating and we were able to get both Josh and Ed on a paddleboat. Both had huge smiles on their faces when they were on them, so it was worth putting our legs in the brownish black lake.

Although I think most of Josh’s enjoyment came from having a female counselor holding him in the boat.

We had two campers from Seneca participate in open mic night. First, Steve sang, “Back in Black” by ACDC and then Ed sang a song called “You Make Me Happy.” He was not sure who sang the song, so we just found one and he went with it. He said the karaoke was the best part of the night, so it must have been good.

On Tuesday, we started the day with art. It was tie-dye Tuesday and I helped tie-dye for the first time. I made a red, yellow, and green shirt for Josh. This was the first time he did not want an art project to be green and white for Michigan State.  

For the afternoon activities, we painted and then made Hobo pies over the campfire. Then, in the spirit of Harry Potter we played Quidditch. Being the runner that I am, I was selected to be the golden snitch. For this game, it meant running around the bike path while other counselors tried to catch the gold painted ball attached to my waist. Sadly, the first two times the ball broke after only a few laps so we switched to just having them tap me. This was by far the most tired I have ever been after an evening program, but I used it as part of my run for later so it worked out well.

Josh: before and after

As we were putting campers to bed, the other counselors and I discussed Bill’s habit of shaving very often. This caused Josh to start signaling us that he wanted something. After a game of 20 questions we finally discovered he wanted to be shaved too. This is big news for Josh because at least since last year, when I met him, he has been sporting a long beard. Anyways, we kept asking him if he was sure and he kept saying yes, so Kyle cut it all off. He looks much younger now but much happier as well.