List #678: Favorite Initiatives

List #678: Favorite Initiatives

1. The Birthday Log

2. FOTAY

3. Group Juggling

4. The one with the blindfold and the hidden chicken

5. The River of Coke

6. The hula-hoop run

7. Toxic Waste

8. The Human Knot

9. The other Human Knot

10. All the games we made up with the Toobeez

11. A lot of other ones

List #677: Horses Are...

List #677: Horses Are... (Facts about Horses (according to a poem I wrote circa 1994))

1. Big

2. Stupid

3. Smelly

4. You get on one's back and your but turns to jelly

Bonus List: Uses for Horses (according to same poem)

1. Baseballs

2. Zoo Food

3. Glue

List #591: 5 Cool Things about 1991

List #591: 5 Cool Things about 1991

1. The Twins won the World Series (including the 2nd Greatest Game of the modern era)

2. I got to go to World Series, Game 2

3. I went to A Summer Camp for the first time

4. We moved to Northfield St.

5. Pearl Jam's "Ten" released (also Nirvana's "Nevermind", RHCP's "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" AND A Tribe Called Quest's "Low End Theory," the three of which were released on the same day)

List #525: 5 Things I Still Miss About Camp Life

List #525: 5 of the many Things I Still Miss About Camp Life (even though I pretend not to)

1. Staff Training

2. Monday morning Bocce

3. Prisoner's Base

4. Opening Campfire

5. Working with former Campers.

List #461: Pranks I Have Been Involved In

List #461: Pranks I Have Been Involved In (or at least witnessed)

1. Convincing my Mom, Dad and Band Director that I had to drop band to take Biology 2nd semester of senior year or I wouldn't graduate.

2. Rearranging Jal's CDs

3. Freezing a bucket of underwear

4. Victimized far too many times to mention.

List #338: Excerpts from pages in my Journal circa 1992-1993

List #338: Excerpts from pages in my Journal circa 1992-1993 {I left out a lot of the Juicy bits}

1. Jan 7, 1992: Pretty boring day not much happened {first entry}

2. May 23, 1992: I saw Marisa today and Beth anher [sic] weird friends too... I Freaked nat about the Punisher today. It was funny. T.F.T.D. Smile :)

3. August 1, 1992: ...I want to be in the olympics but I know I won't but I'm going to try any way. {during the Barcelona summer games. This also talked about Basketball, Swimming and Gymnastics...weird}

4. Jan 28, 1993: ...Today I missed algebra and homeroom to go swimming w/Paul and dave. It was really fun. We played deep water water polo... Monday is my Birthday.

5. June 26, 1993: ... Campfire was sad. "Flicker" is a good song. Jeremy is funny. He's writing My letter. I'll always remember this week and everything in it. I wish I could stay another week -Get'm in the Mind... {this was the end of my last week as a camper. I do remember quite a bit about that week}

6. Aug 5, 1993: Nat sang last night. It was great. Saw Chad from camp. {not that Chad, though. I didn't know him yet}

7. Oct 8, 1993: Debate will be neat. Spam named Ed. Hans is cool. I like school. Drawing is fun. {"drawing" was an Art elective. Hans is still cool}

8. Oct 31, 1993: Halloween. Tami came over. It was nice to see her. Trick or treating was good. I still have Chicken Pox but I might have a mild case thats almost gone. its weird.

9. Nov 20, 1993: ... I'm 23-18 (24-17?). Whole team did well. Dave lettered. Dave and Jeremy are sick people. {this was about Debate}

10. Dec 18, 1993: Moundsview was the Best Tourney yet [.] Stayed at the Hyatt with fountains and credit card keys... Alison and Sarah V. killed Melanie's fish...
{this was a rather epic length entry... a lot of stuff happened that weekend}

List #235: Things I don't have in my wallet

List #235: Things I don't have in my wallet

1. hen
2. ducks
3. squawking geese
4. limerick oysters
5. corpulent porpoises
6. pairs of don alverzo's tweezers (ouch!)
7. thousand macedonians in full battle array
8. brass monkeys from the ancient sacred crypts of eeeeeegypt
9. sympathetic, apathetic, diabetic old men on rollerskates with a marked propensity towards procrastination and sloth
10. lyrical, spherical, diabolical denizens of the deep who hall quay around the corner of the quill and the quivey and quiver all at the very same time.
11. cash money

List #191: Favorite Summer Camp related Media

List #191: Favorite Summer Camp related Media

1. "I Want to Go Home" Gordon Korman (book)
2. "Paul has a Summer Job" Michel Rabagliati (comic)
3. "Wet Hot American Summer" (movie)
4. "Salute Your Shorts" (TV)
5. "Meatballs" (movie)

List #171: Great Camp Skit Performances I have seen or been part of

List #171: Great Camp Skit Performances (as requested by Chadbob, and assisted by Gumball) (in no order after the first one)

1. The Forrest Gump ILAC (1995: "I shoulda died Forrest!" --- ILAC= I'd Like a Choc'lit... Still the greatest campfire skit performance of all time)

2. The Thug version of the Gunfighter (Flower and NateDawg)
3. Tula botching the Gunfighter (on the Broken Campfire)
4. Bee skit: the Musical
5. Bee Skit: the fake backwards version
6. Bee Skit: fast, furious and as few words as possible
7. Travis messing up the Lunch break
8. Cousins (the first time at miller)
9. The Worm Skit (GNails with ND&Flower)
10. The Worm Skit (Molly Spang!)
11. Bee Skit: (123 No, 456 Yes... muffin loses it)
12. Any time Scott did the Undertaker in "If I weren't a"
13. The Severe Beating of a High School Janitor (BANNED!)
14. The Jerry Maguire/Bee Skit/Camper in a Box/that's all I remember
15. Any Reversed "Lemme"s
16. Pencils (can't think of a specific one)
17. Bee Skit: The slip
18. Bee Skit: Muffin's Revenge

List #166 Things I've really enjoyed so far this week at Camp Alexander

List #166: Things I really enjoyed this week at Camp Alexander

1. Being a Camp Counselor for the 15th consecutive summer
2. Working with super great bosses
3. Meeting cool new camp staff and realizing the universality of counselor coolness
4. Playing with new daycampers and realizing the universality of daycamper coolness
5. follwoing 3&4: realizing that it's now only the physical grounds of Camp Miller that I'm really still missing this summer.
6. learning that the correct response to "everybody stand up" is "I love to stand up, it's my favorite thing to do."
7. Singing all my camp songs and teaching all my camp games to kids to whom they were new, original and exciting
8. Shooting an arrow from a bow
9. My daycamp group (the Agents of Orange) and their rhyming names
10. Losing to Gumball in ping-pong
11. Another cool co-counselor (it's like I'm a magnet for them)
12. Remembering that, yes, in fact, despite what the Duluth Y people thought, I am actually pretty dadgum good at what I do.
13. Dinner with the Fountaines and talking to Summer and Gavin about books.
14. Doing the Bee Skit
15. Running around and Yelling and Singing things with reckless abandon
16. Getting a size Medium Staff Shirt
17. Initiatives
18. Learning some new songs (I hope I remember them)
19. living in a ridiculously posh cabin

and most importantly

20. Getting to be freaking MUFFIN (or Mr. Muffin, which "Say Goodnight" Gracie called me (though I missed little Alex a bit when she did)) again!

List #149: Things I loved about Being CiLT director

List #149: Things I loved about Being CiLT director for the 5 years I did it (general or specific)

1. Working with former CiLTs that became awesome Counselors
2. Monday Morning Bocce / Koob
3. Toobeez Core Values games
4. Kick the Can night
5. Awesome Co-Directors (even my Sister)
6. Theme Dinners
7. "Types of Leadership" activity night
8. The Long Table
9. Writing the Rules as a Group
10. Thinking of the awesomest Awards and, yes, even writing CiLT letters (so much better than Parent Letters because they actually mean something)
11. Cool Nicknames for group bonding
12. Mafia
13. FotAY and Initiatives Day(s)
14. Breakfast Cookouts
15. River Trips (when we could afford them)
16. Parachute Games and Brain Teasers
17. Being Program Staff but also getting to have Campers
18. Working with young adults who you can have a conversation with
19. Super CiLTs and call-back weeks
20. Making something awesome to sign (the flag, the chunk of wood)
21. So many other things (and, to think, at first I didn't want the job... Travis used his masterful leadership to make me come to the realization that I did)

List #112: favorite Camper Quotations (part 1 of many)

List #112: favorite Camper Quotations (obviously not comprehensive: feel free to add more).
Note: may be paraphrased

1. Reid, daycamp:(Upon being asked to describe himself in two words): " 'Handsome' and 'Likes Football'"
1b. "Old Man" Reid (asked same question): "'mustache' and 'crutch'"

2. Mark, daycamp: "I can't listen to you. It's because I play violent videogames. Real sick stuff. Rated 'M for Mature' "

3. Logan, daycamp: "I just want you to know: I'm a very weird boy."

4. Marina, in her younger years: "Everytime you get on a boat, you're taking a chance with death" (sorry, you knew you were going to make it on here.

5. Mini-camper, name escapes me: (sitting in front of a plate full of bacon, eggs, toast, w/ a glass of orange juice): "What meal is it?"
Me: How many other meals have we had today?
Him: Ummm... one?
Me: So that would make this...?
Him: Lunch?

6. Kyle, CiLT: "Now it's time to get the Hockey Stick"

List #75: Things I am really really going to miss this summer

List #75: Things I am really really going to miss because they wouldn't hire us back at YMCA Camp Miller in Sturgeon Lake, Minnesota. (in no particular order, and not all-inclusive)

1. The Bell
2. The Old Fireplace
3. Daycampers (Mark, Logan, Aedan, Landon, Mason,... the whole lot of them)
4. Seeing another great group of CiLTs grow up to be coworkers
5. C(ampers) i(n) L(eadership) T(raining): and teaching what it means
6. The Four Core Values (wait, nope, we took those with us when we left)
7. Roadrunner plus Polar Bear (95% of the time, for the last 10 years)
8. The Chapel
9. ILAC
10. forgetting to water my mom's donated plants
11. Bernie (and even Sammy)
12. Little Baby Ducks, Old Pick Up Trucks
13. Tradition
14. Spruce Cabin
15. Garber Lodge
16. The "Colonel" card
17. "Chippy" (my canoe paddle)
18. The "Voyeur" pack from tripping
19. (N^2)^3 Every friday at 6:15
20. The Pinewoods
21. Just Dirt, Piracy, Sock Puppet PEGs
22. Oh-penniiiiiiiiiiiing CAMP Fiiiiire
23. Jello Cake
24. Shelley and the Kitchen Staff
25. The smell of the buildings on the first day back
26. The little bench at the Chapel
27. The full moon off the end of the dock
28. Paddling around the Island
29. Prisoner's Base
30. Making up new names for Run Til You Puke night games
31. RtyP in the Green Section (Rabbit, Rabbit, cross my field)
32. Explaining the Rules to CH to the kids
33. Explaining the Rules to CH to the staff (thanks Justin D)
34. Feeling like I'm giving back to somewhere that's given me almost everything
35. Being at a place where I can actually be myself
36. Helping kids learn archery
37. Helping kids learn in an environment based on fun and joy
38. Playing Mafia with the CiLTs
39. Playing Bocce with the CiLTs
40. Playing FOTAY with the CiLTs
41. The 3.X "C"s of Teamwork
42. The "No" rule of initiatives
43. Leading Initiatives in general
44. Toobeez
45. Parachute games
46. Creepy
47. Chops
48. Gumball
49. GNails
50. The rest of the dedicated and committed staff
51. Hop-errrrrrrrrrrs Oooooooout ofthewater
52. THEME DAYS
53. Working for a boss that listens (nope, I have that out here in MD too)
54. Getting a cool free T-shirt to wear with pride
55. Breakfast Pizza
56. The Rocking Chairs (because I'm a good person and never stole one from McCleod)
57. Closing Campfire Song
58. Leading off "If I Weren't A..."
59. The Bee Skit (though we retired from it)
60. Every other good skit
61. Creative Cabin Skits
62. Re-telling stories at Campfire from way back when Scott was the director
63. Hiding in-bounds for Counselor Hunt
64. All of the wonderful people I worked with through the past 14 years
65. Preserving Old Traditions (an unintentionally creating new ones)
66. Arrowheads and Dragonflies (and not adding 19 to my headboard this year (even though I think I pre-made one last year...))
67. Writing my name in the Spruce Cabin Cabinet another time
68. Working with people I've known since they were Pathfinders
69. The Glorious Exhaustion that hits you at 7 p.m. on a Friday Night
70. The Energy of Getting Ready on Sunday Morning
71. Sunday Morning Table Duty and leftovers
72. The Special "Mid-summer" meeting
73. Water Baseball
74. The Rubber Chicken (he might still be in the Initiatives Bag)
75. Using My Initiatives bag (I hope I didn't foolishly leave it last summer thinking it would be waiting for me next year, because that is my stuff and _not_ being donated)
76. Donating 1 paycheck's worth of stuff back to Camp each year (tables, markers, whiteboards, lacrosse gear, etc.)
77. Finally making my time capsule
78. All the things I learned from working with so many different people
79. Shooting a Gun, Riding a Horse
78. The Siesta Song
79. Alive Awake Alert Enthusiastic ! (the Exclamation point is key)
80. The feeling of the new (even after 18 years) on the very first day of staff training
81. Putting in the Dock
82. Setting up the boats
83. Koob
84. Kickball
85. Clark and Bruce
86. Standing in the office doorjamb
87. Ron Ball
88. Telling stories of the past to teach the next generation
89. Realizing that I was, to very, very many people, what my great counselors were to me (and not even feeling worthy to be put in the same category as people like Ashley, Jamie, Jal, Jeremy, Josh, etc.)
90. Making the "This is why we wear shoes" announcement
91. Boys-side Check-in
92. Working with my Sister and Brother (and Mom on the committee)-- I doubt I'll ever work side by side with both siblings again. Camp used to be about Family. (even more than Home was about family).
93. Feeling valued and appreciated (and almost believing it)
94. Singing a different song (not sung yet that summer by anyone) song at each campfire.
95. Fun Limit Infinity
96. Joining different cabins for meals
97. Teaching Styles of Leadership
98. Paper golf, musical chairs, counselor magic
99. Jesus on one end, Norm on the other
100. "The Final Countdown"

okay, I'm going to stop there for now. I may fire off another hundred or so the next time I have 20 minutes to spare.

List #52: My favorite things to teach

List #52: My favorite things to teach / activities to lead

1: Archery
2: Ground Initiatives
3: Watchmen
4: Copyright / Fair Use
5: Counselor Hunt
6: Understanding Comics
7: How Google Works /Search strategies
8: Positive vs. Negative / directive vs. example leadership
9: Course Initiatives
10: Prisoner's Base