(no subject)
I'm back!! YAY FOR INDOOR PLUMBING AND A LACK OF MOSQUITOS!!
Soooooooooo it's time to spill all about camp. For everyone who doesn't know (which is all of you), I was at Ascend, which is a Catholic youth leadership camp for high schoolers. I left on Friday and came back Tuesday.
Okay, first off, there was an inordinate amount of total hotties at Ascend. Who knew that there were that many hot Catholic guys? Plus, they were all basically REALLY NICE. REALLY.
I tried not to get caught up in the whole "boys boys boys" thing because it was only camp, after all. I mean, I can't exactly build a long-lasting realtionship in five days and then expect it to continue while the guy lives back in Seattle. Unrealistic, my friends. Combined with the facts that the first day was over ninety degrees, there were hordes of mosquitos and biting flies (which lead to untold of amounts of insect repellent) and that nature in general hates me... I gave up on looking cute or even attempting to apply makeup on the second day. I just threw my hands in the air, said "What the fuzzy", splashed on some ever-fragrant OFF, applied liberal amounts of deodorant and set my jaw.
This was complicated by the fact that this REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY nice, reasonably cute guy named Peter was there, and he knew me. See, my sister, Peter, a girl named Martha and I all arrived about an hour late to camp. Peter and Martha already knew Katie from a group she's in called ACCY (Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Youth), so I was introduced. I'm a junior, Katie and Peter are seniors, and Martha is a sophomore.
Sooooo anyways, we were hiking to camp from the parking lot together. We had left most of our stuff in the parking lot, but I was carrying my guitar (didn't want it banged up) and my purse (didn't want it lost). Peter kept on offering to carry my guitar; I kept grunting "No - I got it". Finally I caved and let him carry my purse.
Since our cabins were on opposite sides of camp and we weren't in the same Small Group (everyone in camp was broken into 10 Small Groups, named after intruments - I was a Ukelele) I didn't see much of Peter. However, our groups suddenly crossed paths during the day on a trail. I barely noticed Peter (we were in a hurry), but then we made eye contact and he was all "Hi Carrie!" I kind of said "Oh! Hi!" and we left. So that made me feel special. I mean, he noticed me AND he remembered my name. He was doing better than most guys.
Skip forward. On the second-to-last night of camp, everyone leaves the cozy cabins (by cozy I mean bug-infested and roasting) and goes on the Overnighter, where we cook on a campfire and sleep on a tarp. 2-3 Small Groups go to one campsite. It JUST SO HAPPENED that Peter's group was with mine. I naturally had a bit of trouble on the VERTICAL HILL we had to scale to get to our campsite. When I got up there, I took a good chug of water and tried not to pant too much. Peter immediately came over, put his arm around me and asked how I was feeling. I lied and said I was good. Inside I was going "OMG THERE IS CONTACT GOING ON HERE DOES HE DO THIS TO EVERYONE WHAT DOES THIS MEAAAAAN?!?!"
Later on, we sat around the unlit campfire (it was still light out) and played logic games. We were playing one game called Black Magic, where there are two people "in" on it and everyone tries to figure out how they're doing it. One person goes away, and the group picks an object. The person comes back, and their "assistant" asks "Is it this object? Is it this object?" until they come to the right one, to which the person replies "yes". There can be any number of objects asked, and any object can be picked.
Well, the person who went away (who is called Cheesy by everyone) was playing with his eyes closed (by request of the befuddled group). I was sitting kind of near Cheesy, and Peter was standing kind of off to the side and behind us. As Cheesy guessed, Peter kept clicking his fingers- until the assistant came to the right object. For a minute I thought, "Wait, is Peter secretly in on it? Is he part of the game?" I looked up at him and for some reason he looked down at me and he just had this odd look; not necessarily bad, just not familiar to me. Probably he was wondering why I was looking at him funny. Suddenly he sat down next to me and started whispering, "I think I have it almost figured out..." And since Cheesy started guessing again without him clicking again, I realized that Peter must have been unconsciously clicking his fingers.
I'm not gonna tell you how the game actually works unless you really want to spoil it, and you can't possibly get the answer from my description here. Ha ha.
Even later, I was on the cooking crew. We were making foil dinners, which consists of spreading Bisquik on foil, putting veggies, cheese, meat, and Johnny Seasoning on it, rolling it up and putting it in the fire. Erin kept calling them Hobo Meals. "Enjoy your Hobo Meal!" I was in charge of spreading butter on the foil so the Bisquik wouldn't burn. Peter came over for his after everyone else had gone, and I didn't notice him at first. Then I saw his legs standing there (I was sitting on the ground using a plastic bin as a table) and I looked up. Again, the same strange look. I just kind of half-laughed and asked if he'd like some butter. At this point, I was really hoping the look did not mean "Gee this chick is really weird".
Finally, even LATER, this other girl named Carrie who was at our campsite who ALSO has red hair (redder than mine) and who was in ACCY with Peter started hanging out with him. A LOT. And pretty soon I overheard him telling her about the girl who he asked to a dance once who turned him down, and she was going, "Oh, that's so sad." And eventually he was putting his arm around her and KEEPING IT THERE.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't know Carrie very well, but I really liked her the times I talked to her. She's funny and nice, and of course has a FABULOUS name, lol. But I was JEALOUS. I didn't really realize that I'd been crushing on Peter until that point. I was just like, "GRR!! I AM CONSUMED WITH ENVY AND RAGE!!" Of course I didn't show it.
But that's when I made a decision. I said to myself, "You know what? It's not like I had any claims to Peter anyways. I am not going to spend the precious little time I have left at camp making myself miserable over some guy that I probably won't even see again til fall, if then. If he sees the person I am and wants to be friends with me, than he can come to me on his own time. I WILL NOT obsess over this."
And I didn't! I mean, Carrie and Peter spent the last two days of camp basically near each other, but I was surprisingly relaxed. It was a refreshing change. On the last day, as I was leaving, I wanted to say goodbye to Peter, but we hadn't spent enough time together for me to go directly over to him and be like "I'm leaving so bye". Thus I shouted "BYE!!!" in his direction, so that if he didn't notice I could pretend I was talking to someone else. But he did notice, and we made eye contact, so at least I said goodbye. Hopefully I'll see him in the fall at Convention, because I do want to be his friend at least. He's a really nice guy.
Believe it or not, other things happened at camp besides BOYS. There was the whole God thing, which went well, and the leadership thing, which went well also. On the second-to-last day, we have what is called the Coffeehouse - basically, an informal open-mike talent show. Anyone can sign up to do anything. Last year, I had thought about doing something, but I chickened out. I promised myself that I would do something this year, so I brought my guitar and sang a song that I wrote (not the same song as the talent show at my school, for those of you who went).
It was kind of crazy and amazing what happened. I got a standing ovation. Everyone came up to me afterwards and told me how wonderful it was, how beautiful my voice was, how great the lyrics were, how it almost made them cry (in some cases DID make them cry), how I had a gift, how they wanted it on their iPods... Two memorable moments: first, a woman there who had a music major told me that I should get formal voice lessons and formal guitar lessons (I told everyone that I've taught myself guitar for a couple of years). Second, a senior girl I know came up to me later and asked if I'd ever recorded my song. I said no. She told me that her school (Holy Names Academy) just got a new state-of-the-art recording studio and that part of the final project for students in the music recording class is to get an artist to come in and record. The artist gets the deal, because it's free. She asked if I would be interested when the time rolled around. I said, "HECK YEAH!!" Free is my favorite word.
So basically, I rocked. LOVED IT!!!
Oh, and I also have to mention that my sister wrote a poem, and she's written a poem and read it at Coffehouse for the four years she's gone to Ascend (it's a high school camp). Everyone loves her poems and she's quasi-famous, especially with the counselors. So she rocks too. BUT NOT AS MUCH AS MEEEE WOOHOOO!!!
It hasn't gone to my head at all.
So that's basically the highlights of camp. I have to get to sleep now. See ya soon!!
Soooooooooo it's time to spill all about camp. For everyone who doesn't know (which is all of you), I was at Ascend, which is a Catholic youth leadership camp for high schoolers. I left on Friday and came back Tuesday.
Okay, first off, there was an inordinate amount of total hotties at Ascend. Who knew that there were that many hot Catholic guys? Plus, they were all basically REALLY NICE. REALLY.
I tried not to get caught up in the whole "boys boys boys" thing because it was only camp, after all. I mean, I can't exactly build a long-lasting realtionship in five days and then expect it to continue while the guy lives back in Seattle. Unrealistic, my friends. Combined with the facts that the first day was over ninety degrees, there were hordes of mosquitos and biting flies (which lead to untold of amounts of insect repellent) and that nature in general hates me... I gave up on looking cute or even attempting to apply makeup on the second day. I just threw my hands in the air, said "What the fuzzy", splashed on some ever-fragrant OFF, applied liberal amounts of deodorant and set my jaw.
This was complicated by the fact that this REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY nice, reasonably cute guy named Peter was there, and he knew me. See, my sister, Peter, a girl named Martha and I all arrived about an hour late to camp. Peter and Martha already knew Katie from a group she's in called ACCY (Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Youth), so I was introduced. I'm a junior, Katie and Peter are seniors, and Martha is a sophomore.
Sooooo anyways, we were hiking to camp from the parking lot together. We had left most of our stuff in the parking lot, but I was carrying my guitar (didn't want it banged up) and my purse (didn't want it lost). Peter kept on offering to carry my guitar; I kept grunting "No - I got it". Finally I caved and let him carry my purse.
Since our cabins were on opposite sides of camp and we weren't in the same Small Group (everyone in camp was broken into 10 Small Groups, named after intruments - I was a Ukelele) I didn't see much of Peter. However, our groups suddenly crossed paths during the day on a trail. I barely noticed Peter (we were in a hurry), but then we made eye contact and he was all "Hi Carrie!" I kind of said "Oh! Hi!" and we left. So that made me feel special. I mean, he noticed me AND he remembered my name. He was doing better than most guys.
Skip forward. On the second-to-last night of camp, everyone leaves the cozy cabins (by cozy I mean bug-infested and roasting) and goes on the Overnighter, where we cook on a campfire and sleep on a tarp. 2-3 Small Groups go to one campsite. It JUST SO HAPPENED that Peter's group was with mine. I naturally had a bit of trouble on the VERTICAL HILL we had to scale to get to our campsite. When I got up there, I took a good chug of water and tried not to pant too much. Peter immediately came over, put his arm around me and asked how I was feeling. I lied and said I was good. Inside I was going "OMG THERE IS CONTACT GOING ON HERE DOES HE DO THIS TO EVERYONE WHAT DOES THIS MEAAAAAN?!?!"
Later on, we sat around the unlit campfire (it was still light out) and played logic games. We were playing one game called Black Magic, where there are two people "in" on it and everyone tries to figure out how they're doing it. One person goes away, and the group picks an object. The person comes back, and their "assistant" asks "Is it this object? Is it this object?" until they come to the right one, to which the person replies "yes". There can be any number of objects asked, and any object can be picked.
Well, the person who went away (who is called Cheesy by everyone) was playing with his eyes closed (by request of the befuddled group). I was sitting kind of near Cheesy, and Peter was standing kind of off to the side and behind us. As Cheesy guessed, Peter kept clicking his fingers- until the assistant came to the right object. For a minute I thought, "Wait, is Peter secretly in on it? Is he part of the game?" I looked up at him and for some reason he looked down at me and he just had this odd look; not necessarily bad, just not familiar to me. Probably he was wondering why I was looking at him funny. Suddenly he sat down next to me and started whispering, "I think I have it almost figured out..." And since Cheesy started guessing again without him clicking again, I realized that Peter must have been unconsciously clicking his fingers.
I'm not gonna tell you how the game actually works unless you really want to spoil it, and you can't possibly get the answer from my description here. Ha ha.
Even later, I was on the cooking crew. We were making foil dinners, which consists of spreading Bisquik on foil, putting veggies, cheese, meat, and Johnny Seasoning on it, rolling it up and putting it in the fire. Erin kept calling them Hobo Meals. "Enjoy your Hobo Meal!" I was in charge of spreading butter on the foil so the Bisquik wouldn't burn. Peter came over for his after everyone else had gone, and I didn't notice him at first. Then I saw his legs standing there (I was sitting on the ground using a plastic bin as a table) and I looked up. Again, the same strange look. I just kind of half-laughed and asked if he'd like some butter. At this point, I was really hoping the look did not mean "Gee this chick is really weird".
Finally, even LATER, this other girl named Carrie who was at our campsite who ALSO has red hair (redder than mine) and who was in ACCY with Peter started hanging out with him. A LOT. And pretty soon I overheard him telling her about the girl who he asked to a dance once who turned him down, and she was going, "Oh, that's so sad." And eventually he was putting his arm around her and KEEPING IT THERE.
Now, don't get me wrong. I don't know Carrie very well, but I really liked her the times I talked to her. She's funny and nice, and of course has a FABULOUS name, lol. But I was JEALOUS. I didn't really realize that I'd been crushing on Peter until that point. I was just like, "GRR!! I AM CONSUMED WITH ENVY AND RAGE!!" Of course I didn't show it.
But that's when I made a decision. I said to myself, "You know what? It's not like I had any claims to Peter anyways. I am not going to spend the precious little time I have left at camp making myself miserable over some guy that I probably won't even see again til fall, if then. If he sees the person I am and wants to be friends with me, than he can come to me on his own time. I WILL NOT obsess over this."
And I didn't! I mean, Carrie and Peter spent the last two days of camp basically near each other, but I was surprisingly relaxed. It was a refreshing change. On the last day, as I was leaving, I wanted to say goodbye to Peter, but we hadn't spent enough time together for me to go directly over to him and be like "I'm leaving so bye". Thus I shouted "BYE!!!" in his direction, so that if he didn't notice I could pretend I was talking to someone else. But he did notice, and we made eye contact, so at least I said goodbye. Hopefully I'll see him in the fall at Convention, because I do want to be his friend at least. He's a really nice guy.
Believe it or not, other things happened at camp besides BOYS. There was the whole God thing, which went well, and the leadership thing, which went well also. On the second-to-last day, we have what is called the Coffeehouse - basically, an informal open-mike talent show. Anyone can sign up to do anything. Last year, I had thought about doing something, but I chickened out. I promised myself that I would do something this year, so I brought my guitar and sang a song that I wrote (not the same song as the talent show at my school, for those of you who went).
It was kind of crazy and amazing what happened. I got a standing ovation. Everyone came up to me afterwards and told me how wonderful it was, how beautiful my voice was, how great the lyrics were, how it almost made them cry (in some cases DID make them cry), how I had a gift, how they wanted it on their iPods... Two memorable moments: first, a woman there who had a music major told me that I should get formal voice lessons and formal guitar lessons (I told everyone that I've taught myself guitar for a couple of years). Second, a senior girl I know came up to me later and asked if I'd ever recorded my song. I said no. She told me that her school (Holy Names Academy) just got a new state-of-the-art recording studio and that part of the final project for students in the music recording class is to get an artist to come in and record. The artist gets the deal, because it's free. She asked if I would be interested when the time rolled around. I said, "HECK YEAH!!" Free is my favorite word.
So basically, I rocked. LOVED IT!!!
Oh, and I also have to mention that my sister wrote a poem, and she's written a poem and read it at Coffehouse for the four years she's gone to Ascend (it's a high school camp). Everyone loves her poems and she's quasi-famous, especially with the counselors. So she rocks too. BUT NOT AS MUCH AS MEEEE WOOHOOO!!!
It hasn't gone to my head at all.
So that's basically the highlights of camp. I have to get to sleep now. See ya soon!!