Best Halloween costume

This year I won't be celebrating Halloween. And by celebrating, I mean dressing up as anything. Instead, I'll be up at camp, helping close up for the year, surrounded by lots of camp friends and hopefully some beautiful foliage.

But if I was going to dress up, it would be as this:

Very impractical for getting the most candy, however.

..you know...since I still trick-or-treat and all..

Talon

Meet our fourth roommate, Talon. Talon enjoys crawling up your pant leg and nibbling on gourmet food, like arugula and craisins. And while he hates baths, he loves being swaddled in a towel afterward. He used to have a facebook, but it was deactivated because he had too many friend requests. He is also highly skilled! Check him out:

the one where i went to ikea

[disclaimer: if you've been to IKEA, this may bore you] 

I recently made my first trip to IKEA. I have wanted to go to one ever since Tyler Durden's obsession with IKEA sparked my curiosity. How can a store be that great? Is it really like what they show in 500 days of summer??! I MUST FIND OUT.

So find out I did. That first trip was exceedingly overwhelming. The store is deceptively large. And the sunday crowd was unexpected. I could not fathom how people effectively shopped there. I was fortunate enough to have my roommate with me for support. She's part swedish, so that counted for extra. (extra what? i don't know.) When I finally decided what I wanted, we headed to the pickup section, which was IMPOSSIBLY HUGE. THERE IS NO WAY THAT BUILDING HAD BOTH THE STORE AND THE PICKUP WAREHOUSE. no way. 

And there were multiple aisles that were miles long. Well, we successfully navigated this vast expanse of neatly boxed up furniture. I picked up my bed in a box, along with a mattress in a tightly bound roll, and headed to checkout with my cart that kept veering right..right into displays..right into little kids... And let me just say, if it wasn't for the smell of the cinnamon rolls just on the other side of the checkout, I don't know if I would have made it. Of course, I didn't even buy a stupid cinnamon roll because I just wanted to get out there.

BUT I LOVED IT! SO I WENT BACK TWO MORE TIMES!

Fall

It's fall. I'm sure many of you are like me in wondering when this happened. But at the same time, welcoming it with open arms? Yes, fall, you can stay for a while. Whenever a new season rolls around, I say to myself - self, THIS is my favorite season. (okay maybe this happens a little less with winter) But I'm starting to think that fall is my favoriteEST of favorite seasons. The cool air is perfect for runs after work. The leaves are juusst lovely. Fall food, okay squash, is mah favorite. And, of course, college football.
But enjoying all that fall brings will be hard because I have acquired myself a busy schedule. Since I haven't blogged in a while, here is a brief rundown, in words and pictures!, of my life now:

the majority of my first few days back in dc

was spent putting together IKEA furniture

i'm baking my own bread

i have 3 great roommates.

one is a rat.

and i have an awesome internship

in downtown DC

i'm also studying for the LSAT.

but nothing associated with that warrants a picture.

Summertime done...

..come and gone, my oh my

Summer's over. That means a couple things. One - i'm back from camp. Two - i'm updating my blog. Thinking back to the summer and my lack of blogging, one topic I meant to blog about was the title of my blog and where it came from. I reference it on the left hand column, but it's a long essay, and there's a lot more meaning to it for me.

My camp is divided up into multiple sessions, 3 of them being "senior" sessions. Our camp director begins each of these senior sessions with a reading from the foreword of A Sand County Almanac, which is a discussion of the value of wild things. On the final night of each session we have a "final ceremony". During this final ceremony, staff members share poems or songs, we give out "awards" (ex: Commander Salamander or Helter Skelter in a Summer Shelter or King of the Ant Hill ...thank you nature camp), and our director does another reading. This final reading is parts of Loren Eiseley's "The Bird and Machine". Because she has read it at the end of every senior session, I've heard it more times than I can count. No, that's not true, I can probably count the times. But it's really a wonderful essay if you have not read it.

To me it means more than just what the essay provides. It also means camp, which has been my home for many a summer. And it means an end, the end of a session or the end of a summer. Not a bad end, but a reflective one. How has my summer reflected what is written in this essay? This is often not a hard answer to come by, given life at nature camp.

So that is why... it's life I believe in!

[ ps, that there is a bald eagle! ]

Birthdays

Birthdays here at camp are always fun and momentous occasions. For campers, it's a day of cake and skipping around the room. For us staff members, it's that and more. We generally target something defining of that staff member at that moment in time, be it hedonism or just outright embarrassing them because they do not like to be the center of attention. For my 21st two years ago, we had something equivalent to a toga party.

My 23rd birthday this year was very low key, however, because as Blink 182 says: Nobody likes you when you're 23! For one of our more recent birthdays, I made a rat cake. The recipient of the cake/birthday boy has been chasing down a giant rat that is living in our dark room and has been evading us for some time now. So it was only appropriate that he received a rat cake (red velvet cake covered in gray fondant) along with a rat pinata ..among other things.

Who knows what the next birthday will bring.

Oh wait, that's today.

(happy birthday rachel!!)

A day in my life at camp

Long time, no post. My life has been consumed by my job as assistant director at a summer camp. I'll make up for lack of posts somehow. For now, I present to you a day at camp.

Wake up. Often to the most obnoxious bell. ever. Or, on occasions such as July 4th, to Bruce Springsteen serenading us with Born in the USA.

At mealtime we have "family style" meals. We all fit around 6 tables. And the cooks often join us. Straws are clearly a necessity.

In the mornings, we either offer workshops for campers so they can learn about butterflies, birds, etc. Or the campers get an opportunity to work on specific projects... Catching butterflies for instance (Mourning Cloak pictured here)

At lunch we present the inspection report of the camper's dorms to make sure they keep up with cleaning! This is clearly taken very seriously...

After lunch and a little rest/free time, we have afternoon options which can vary from hikes, to nature focused arts and crafts, to mermaid boot camp.

During dinner we have the bird list. The bird list is a daily tally of all the birds we have seen or heard. This is a highlight of my day since I LOVE BIRDS.

Evening program time provides a lot of flexibility for activity offerings. Since it is one of the coolest times (literally and figuratively) of the day, we can do hikes, more active programs, or just quiet reflective time inside or out.

Hopefully that provides a glimpse into what I've been up to these past few weeks. Over these next few days, I hope to have the opportunity to make a few more posts. Adios!