#tecumsehtuesday

For about a month now camp friends have been posting old summer pictures on Instagram and facebook with #tecumsehtuesday. We had too many pictures to just be using them on #tbt. On this rainy #tecumsehtuesday I wanted to do more than just put up a picture.

 

Lizzy, Erin and I met for dinner at Pei Wei and I wore an old staff sweatshirt. Right when I walked in the door a woman noticed my shirt and asked if I worked there. She then told me she went with her school when she was younger and went there for a couple retreats in college while she was at Purdue. She's good friends with our camp friend Heather who owns Crimson Tate and will be teaching at Quilt Camp this summer. Sarah (great name right?) was there with her husband and three boys. I told her she'd have to send them to Tecumseh next summer. It's a small world and camp just makes it smaller.

 

When we were too full to eat anymore Lizzy, Erin and I wrote campy lists: Top 10 things that make Tecumseh superior to other camps and Top 10 memories at camp in the last three years. We love writing about camp things and telling old stories.

We also love being weird. Lizzy and Erin have always been so good at being weird and not really caring what anyone else thinks. Whether they're dressing up like a jack-o-lantern for no reason, breaking out a shimmy-shimmy-clap move or singing a little too loud in public, I know I can always count on them to be totally themselves.

To finish this #tecumsehtuesday off with a bang let me take a little trip down memory lane...

DC2k5- I loved the people I got to work DC with this summer. Scott and Katie Quille were two of my best friends from our first year on staff and Molly and I got so close that year. During the DC carnival everyone wanted to be in charge of the watermelon station so they could play the watermelon seed game. You stick three seeds to your forehead, give them the names of your crushes and then wait for them to fall off. The seed/crush that lasts the longest is the one you're supposed to end up with.

2006- My first year on resident staff I lived in Mingo leading Warriors and Pathfinders with CharChar for the first part of the summer and then with Chapin... until I moved down to River to be a Brave counselor week 9. When one of our camper's parents showed up with this little dog we couldn't resist taking a picture with her.

2007- Sarah Delong and I lived the dream in Teton all summer long and got to have Carolyn Kata join us for all of her DC weeks. The memories I have with my campers that summer are still some of the most vivid of my whole counseling career. When these puppies showed up again we had to recreate the picture. You'd think I'm an animal person wouldn't you?

2008- I moved down to the River to start being a CILT counselor. There were so many counselors in sororities at this point who were so excited about it that we dedicated a whole opening campfire to our letters. It was so fun to have Casey Dawson, one of my best SIB friends, there with me that summer.

2009- When I worked with younger kids at the end of the summer Lily and I would take our cabins on adventure hikes. This night was one of our most epic adventures-- we kidnapped a boy from Eric's cabin, visited secret Tecumseh locations like the Nightingale basement and the Wright's living room and doing friend-matching-making like introducing Maddie and Kirsten.

2010- I had just finished my first year teaching and leading Carmel YL when I went back for another summer of CILTs. I missed my Senior girls so much and was beyond thrilled when they showed up on a Friday during trading post. They made their visit even more special by surprising me with Diet Coke and a bouquet of flowers.

2011- I don't know if I've ever laughed more than I did when leading CILTs with Mel, Evan, Arielle and Kraft. I'll never forget the night when in order to motivate our kids to be protesters for opening campfire we told them that camp was getting rid of Irving the Indian. Camp was in an uproar for a little while before they realized it was all just a hoax for campfire and Irving wasn't going anywhere.

2012- It was a magical day last summer when we first discovered "turtling" in the pool with our Blazer-friend Sarah. Every time we went swimming during her two weeks we'd grab the beach balls and then float around turtling together. I loved getting to do CILTs again with Arielle and becoming close friends with Jamie Z that summer.

Summer 2013 is just over a month away and I can hardly wait. I can already tell that it's going to be a great one.