Things I'm Going to Miss About Sky Ranch 2008

This is a reprint from what I wrote in my journal on August 7, 2008:

In Absolutely no particular order...

*CM and ZW telling me everything about their love lives because of some inner voice that compels them to do so

*Inside jokes with MB

*Having my "own" room (AH slept there on the weekends) and getting to share it as I saw fit - BR, RC and Katie for a week each

*RC and my after-lunch siestas from 12:30 to 1:00 every day

*APR's Charlie Brown dance

*Cath-face :)

*Never ONCE fighting with Courtney - or Jeff! Shocking!!

*DB: "I damn near concussed myself." :)

*NJ being the whale - and then the bush - in our SONdance Jonah skit

*Being the perfect height to hug RC

*ALL of the things I carried in my Marmot Walkabout at any given time: H2O, friendship bracelets, radio, sunscreen, headlamp, keys, markers, gum, chapstick, pocket knife, lighter, moisturizer, sunglasses, camera, two Bibles, a book, my journal & my trusty little black Moleskin book

*Worship on the hill; getting to be Jesus; my voice echoing off Golgotha

*The writing on my windows

*The "Hot Chicks Dig Obama" button MB gave me

*The time MB pushed me from the lodge all the way out to Wilderness in a wheelbarrow

*Doing work projects with MG . . . and dropping my radio in a giant puddle from the top of the truck

*The first day of staff training - and meeting all the new staff

*Our affirmation bags

*Leadership staff meetings with AS - especially the time he brought us ice cream

*Making fish bracelets for EVERYONE!

*The time MB "rescued" me from the office to drive the Ranger around to pick up woodchips

*Driving Big Bertha to Sleepy Owl & then Fort Collins with NJ

*Taking my "driving test" with AS & NJ - when NJ backed up Bertha and ALMOST knocked over the fence by the meadow because he didn't know it was there

*Our "anti-social running club" - me, RC, MB, LH, MG & sometimes KB, all running together . . . with our iPods

*SWIMMING in Beaver Creek with RC, Courto, CJ, AW and (sort of) NJ. (He fell in, fully clothed.) SB, KW & CB watched and took pictures for us.

*Learning to play "real songs" on my guitar

*The ridiculous band - troop? - of kids from Fort Collins who came traipsing out of the woods into camp during Week 3

*Awesome, awesome weekends, every last one of them. Always hanging out with camp kids. Sleeping on the tramp with MB; watching movies & drinking beer on the porch. Text-message flirting with JW from across the table. Chipotle . . . perpetually.

*Seeing campers and sponsors whom I love and who love me - my own little camp family, relatives I get to see but once a year.

And of course, there are infinitely more . . . but this list will, at least, do the summer justice. I loved it. And I'm sad to see it go.