Shelter Neck
We got there Friday evening and settled in. There are three buildings there: the schoolhouse, the farmhouse, and the chapel. In the schoolhouse I led a very loosely-structured circle worship about friends, which just involved a brief chalice lighting, inviting everyone to say what they think a friend is, and singing "Come come whoever you are...". Friday night all the middle schoolers tried to stay up as late as they could. Mike and I took the 12-3am shift, trying to get everyone to be quiet but were not very successful. John the Quaker showed us a bunch of "magic" card tricks which really impressed Marshall. I crawled into bed at 3 and fell promptly asleep.

Saturday morning we had eggs and pancakes and bacon for breakfast (mmmm), then most of us went canoeing on the Cape Fear River. Canoeing was amaaaaazing. The weather was absolutely perfect for it, sunny and warm with a slight breeze. Mike and I stayed in the back of the procession of canoes, making sure all the kids stayed in front of us. This meant we hardly moved at all, because right before us were Abby and Stephanie and Carter, who just kept zig-zagging across the river and banging into the trees and the banks on the side. Hilarious. We made fun of them but helped them too. Then we all got ice cream and came back to camp. We ate some yummy sandwiches and then embarked on some hardcore shrinky-dinky-ing and tie-dye-ing. I made three shrinky-dinks: one was a pretty turtle that I traced from a drawing; the second was another tracing, of a boy modeling the shrinky-dinks in the catalogue with a really funny look on his face that I can't describe, and I gave him an elephant body on a skateboard from another tracing, and Sarah wrote "tip your servers 20%" down the side; number three was just "WHAT TIME IS IT? HORSE PARTY TIME!!" in big blue letters. They all look so good--I am so proud. Then I tie-dyed a shirt. It was my first time tie-dyeing and I was a little bit scared of messing up--I know, how can you mess up tie-dyeing? But trust me, if anyone can, I can. I don't know how it turned out yet because I have to take it out of its plate-holder and wash it a couple times but all I know is I gave up on being artsy and delicate and just threw every single dye color we had all over the damn thing and it had better be beautiful.

Then we had an amazing couple of games of Capture the Flag, in which I walked aimlessly back and forth across the two teams' territories, laid down in the gazebo and squatted mosquitoes, and petted the random dogs roaming through the field. I'm very good at Capture the Flag! Then we had a super delicious dinner of spaghetti and salad and garlic toast, followed by the high schoolers' worship out at the campfire. Also, s'mores. "Please sir, can I have s'more?" "S'MORE?!?!" Mike roasted an orange peel; not sure why.

Then we went back to the schoolhouse to spend another long night playing all kinds of games. The kids were a little bit more tired after staying up the night before, therefore they were a little bit easier to manage. We played the question game, the teapot game, the famous names game, and a game that Steph B taught us which basically involved standing in a circle and running into as many people as you can as fast as you can. Also, the two Stephanies got married and I let them borrow my ring for the ceremony. Mike and I went to sleep at 3am again, so exhausted.

This morning after breakfast the middle schoolers did their worship service (some skit about sisters who are looking for the meaning of life and find it in themselves or something), then everybody cleaned up and went home. I had to stay later than anyone else, with Marion and John and the McNealys, because Marion was my ride back. So I had to do a lot more cleaning :(. Pfffwhatever.

Anyway, it was a very fun weekend and I would do it all again right now if I had gotten more than 10 total hours of sleep.

Other things that I couldn't remember where they fit in: someone stole Pete's boxers and strung them up on the flagpole. Lennon's things also got stolen and sparked a whole big drama that everyone wanted to act out in the courthouse. Maria had some trouble pronouncing "reguritate" in the teapot game, and also some trouble understanding how to actually play the game, which was endlessly amusing and very cute. John and Pete and Nick somehow managed to end up waist deep in the river after an "ocean liner" (see also: motorboat) passed through and created "huuuuge waves!" that knocked over their canoe. Sarah and Abby sang "El Scorcho" with me, a capella, which made me very happy because no one else ever seems to know the song or want to sing it, but we had fun with it; can't say the same for anyone else who happened to be in the room at the time. Mike is really good at bocce, apparently. Ryn made her own mashup! It was on her iPod but I didn't get a chance to hear it.

Stephanie and Abby took lots of pictures that I will hopefully get a hold of soon and show some of the better ones here.

I need sleep.


Unrelated: I made a new playlist out of the following bands, because I got tired of "la madre," and I am enjoying it so much. Architecture In Helsinki, Belle and Sebastian, CAKE, Clor, Dismemberment Plan, Franz Ferdinand, The Futureheads, The Hold Steady, The Hush Sound, Land of the Loops, Led Zeppelin, The Lovely Feathers, Modest Mouse, Murder By Death, Of Montreal, Pavement, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, and Weezer. I reallyreallyreally like The Lovely Feathers.