Monday, July 25, 2011

Tell Her to Make Me A Cambric Shirt... Give a Poet a Cookie.

Then she'll be a true love of mine.

A quick narrative before the main purpose of this brief post.

"Bad boys, bad boys, whatchu gonna do?"

The sheriffs have arrived at Avalon Pines, complete with their gang prevention materials, oppressively yellow uniforms, and a surplus of testosterone. (Seriously, they knock the kids around and would likely not sleep at night should they lost a round of capture the flag.) The sheriffs mean well, and they're certainly nice enough people, but it's so interesting how some of them come off as complete tools. Most notably a particular sheriff who sings the praises of gang and drug free lives while packing a lip and spitting in front of the children. I'm don't mean to bomb on cops. Again, most of them seem really happy to be involved with the kids and whatnot, I'm just kind of saying that a uniform shouldn't automatically make you a role model. I'm curious how kids view that situation, if they pick up on things like that and in what way.

The Army was nice enough to fly in a helicopter to land on our field. The kids always seem to enjoy it, especially the younger ones. It's a real shame that some of the older kids appear to be jaded to something like that because they've "seen it so many years in a row." If I ever feel disinterested and annoyed by the army coming to share information on helicopters with me in the middle of their schedule for free, you have my permission to humble me in whatever way you see fit. Kids these days... a double edged sword if ever the metaphor existed.

A counselor and I had a little chat about Furthur and Dark Star Orchestra, and my inability to track down a yellow baha today. One of the cooler camp exchanges I've had in a while.

As if aerospace exploration weren't enough, a "reptile guy" also came in with a bunch of far out animals to share with the kids including some serious bugs, turtles, a giant lizard whose exact species escapes me, and a giant 10 foot snake that I took the liberty of naming Denny. The guy was a lot of fun, and one of the things he did throughout his show was make the kids repeat the words he was saying, like, to teach them. Words like ubiquitous, exoskeleton etc. Now anyone who knows me is aware that if there's one thing I dig, it's repeating cool words simply because they're super fun to say. Here was a man who shared my passion. I had a great time with it to say the least.

With that said, the highlight of the presentation and arguably my summer thus far (actively competing with the image of Sean Taylor on a rocking horse) was this guy removing an alligator from his car and as soon as the gator faces the kids it begins to urinate. This guy physically placed his hand over the running bladder, which is something akin to taking a bullet for a stranger and spun on his heels quicker than Dorothy in Oz. The reaction of the kids caught in the "splash zone" was nothing short of priceless and the fact that the show ever recovered is a testament to both the presenter and us as counselors. Suffice to say, we ran through our fair share of purell. (Plug it, give me 20 bucks.)

Speaking of shells, it's time for the interactive segment of the blog. A good friend of mine has been invited to be in the wedding party of a wedding. The crew is unifying their funds to purchase a gift that for the strict reason that I'm not exactly sure who reads this blog specifically, I won't disclose here. The gift, while a beautiful gesture, is kind of superfluous and expensive, and likely won't be used more than once by the happy couple, kind of like a DVD of Spiderman 3... once is enough.

This brings me to a thought that has been tickling my fancy for a couple of days. At the risk of screwing myself out of future wedding invitations and any chance normalcy in the gift department of my own nuptials, should I ever tie the knot.

What are some equally weird and awkward gifts that still qualify as gifts but are not necessarily wanted in the traditional bridal registry. I was thinking of things like a mailbox, his and hers bowling shoes, a crate of the bride's favorite condiment, i.e. mustard, a gift certificate to a bridal boutique now that the big day is over, a free 60 day trial of match.com, 2 day passes to Sesame Place, and the recent relevelation of Spiderman 3 on DVD (blueray if I really like them). I could honestly list my random gift musings all day, but I'd love to hear yours along the same vein. Remember, I'll likely remember these when your big day rolls along.

Leave me some comments, I look forward to reading them.

Advice of the Day: Pilfer a listen of Bill Evans' new exploration "Van's Joint." Strength in the Sax, for real.

Song of the Day: This Beautiful Life-The Dear Hunter
Jazz Song of the Day: Dark Prince-Trio of Doom (I doubt he reads this, but considerable thanks to Tyler Gentlecore for putting Tony Williams on my mind of late.)

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