Back to camp!

Ok my turn, just a few days late(r).

While my weekend didn’t take me on a grand treasure hunt, I too drank plenty of wine, ate a delicious home-cooked meal (or four), played, and spent hours finding something.

I found my way back to camp.

Have you ever gone back to visit somewhere that held a most special place in your heart? On the way there that nervous excitement takes over, with just a few little butterflies aflutter in your stomach and you wonder how you’re actually going to feel when you finally get there. To top it off, I’d been keeping this trip a secret as it was a surprise. This being the second surprise secret I’d had to keep in just the past few weeks, I was itching to just make it happen already. (As you can tell, I like to talk so these have been a real challenge!)

The surprise was a special birthday dinner for a very dear old friend, one of my best from growing up. J was turning 25, and after a number of years having lost touch, about a year ago we ran into each other while home for the holidays and she started a pen pal relationship. In this day of clogged e-mail in-boxes, text messages, and yes, even blogging, there’s something almost sacred about writing a letter. Try it, really. You might like it. And then receiving that letter back in your little NYC apartment mailbox, well that just makes your whole night. Like tonight.

So, J’s mom, P, is the owner/director of camp and wanted to put together an intimate dinner for J’s closest friends from back in the day that she’s now back in touch with (a pen palling extraordinaire she is!) P emailed weeks ago to see if we’d be able to come, and following an elaborate adventure to get there (Friday train – ok the luxurious Acela to which I tend to treat myself – to Boston, mama picks me up late night from South Station, sleepover/sleep in, and -day solo drive all the way up to Maine, Belgrade Lakes to be exact), I arrive. A few hours and one stiff back later (but worth it), I roll into camp. And, it looks the same, except P’s house has been gorgeously re-modeled, there is a towering climbing wall (it must be as tall as my apartment building!) and a goat pen in the works. There were no goats when we were kids and these are going to be petting goats. They also happen to be meat goats. Don't tell the little camp girls that this summer...
But soon, I see the shacks we used to live in during those carefree summers when what mattered was aiming the rifles at the target, not the horses trotting past, and how fast you could eat saltines and whistle during the 4th of July relay race. I was better at blowing bubble gum after eating peanut butter. I learned to windsurf and kayak and once I got a 50 at riflery, all five bullets (okay, blanks) hitting the bull’s-eye, not the horse. Clearly I still ride on those coattails, and did you know, I’m actually a member of the NRA? Ahh yes, a story for another day.




J is there when I arrive, hanging out in the house with her fiancé (she at least is all growed up), P, P’s husband, the dogs, and the new (like six days ago) addition to J’s family – an amazing little spunky Boston Terrier named Parker. I am in love. I walk in – surprise? J looks like she’s seen a ghost, and I don’t think its because she’s blinded by my gold Adidas kicks (J actually tells me later they are pretty sweet, thank you). It has been many months, but really, since we spent QT together? Years. So, we catch up, and drink wine and eat cheese and it is like things have never changed. We chat about our dwellings (she actually lives in a real house in NH!), our jobs (I do silly things like host boxing press conferences and pretend its promoting an island), and, when J’s man leaves the room, we chat about boys. And the ring. Of course. We all feast some more (good thing we took the dogs for a walk all over camp earlier!) and lament as we watch the Celtics look dumb in the playoffs against Lebron and the Cavs. It's good to be in New England.

Tipsy to bed following P’s homemade cupcakes with Splenda-infused frosting (surprisingly good) and I believe almost an entire watermelon (it’s just water right?), and as I drift into satisfied and satiated sleep with a happy, still surprised old, yet new, best friend in the next room, there are few places I’d rather be.

I got the greatest thank you note from J today (see Suze, there was totally a good reason I waited until tonight to blog!). Boy does she have nice stationary – she has other “adult” things too like those sticky return address labels with fiancé and her name on them together – but the smiley face and “THANK YOU” in caps block letters made it feel just like a letter we’d write to each other when I had left camp following first session and J was still there through August. There was no smuggled in candy, however. Hint, hint J, for next letter!

I plan to go back to camp more now, or at least get to NH to go camp-ing with J. We can pretend we’re going for our Junior Maine Guide certification and building an intricate Liu with pine trees, brush, sticks and bark to shield an exposed behind in nature, once again. Then she’ll come here in fall or winter, and we’ll make some NYC adventure memories. With wine and food and dancing and shopping and boys (just kidding J’s finance!)…and once again, we’ll find our way back and it will feel like no time has passed at all.