Anniversary

April 30, my beloved and I celebrated forty-seven years of wedded bliss. When we tied the knot it was in a field adjacent the home where I grew up in Echo Park. Surrounded by our families and friends we followed the promptings of the "right on Rabbi" Alan Secher, as we recited our self-crafted vows to one another. It was a beautiful ceremony and party. We absented ourselves before dinner and drove to Santa Barbara just a couple of hours up the coast to a motel with waterbeds. We only had the weekend away from work, but enjoyed the mini-vacation tremendously - walking around the historic downtown and relaxing by the pool and walking on the breakwater.

For this 47th anniversary, we took ourselves to the mountains. We enjoyed three meals a day for the long weekend, also wonderful company, arts 'n' crafts, fishing, boating, archery and a talent show Saturday evening. We went to The Painted Turtle Camp to be volunteer counselors!

Such fun to interact with families and play with kids. I got to meet a young author I'd heard about for the past two years who wrote the book, "Campity Camp Camp Camp!" Fourteen- year-old E, wrote the book during another family camp when she was twelve and she only had one other sibling  This time, her two young brothers, E and E, Dad Joe, and Mom E were there along with twenty-eight other families for this weekend of PIDD (Primary Imuno-Deficiency Disorder), Liver Transplant, and Arthritis diagnoses. Mom E explained to me that all three kids also had middle names beginning with the letter "E." With a surname that begins with "P," that means all three have initials spelling EEP! Saves on monogramming, for sure! And perhaps serves as family cheer. Eep, Eep, Eeeeep Eeeep Eeeeeeep!

I observed that even with the incredibly long days as family camp pals, my honey and I were still able to complete our physical therapy routines each morning at camp. I had to get up at five a.m. in order to get through all my routines for whiplash and shoulder tears and still have time to bathe, dress, and eat a small pre-breakfast snack before meeting my family at the High Ropes Course by 6:50.

I was assigned to a wonderful veteran family. The B family is comprised of Mom G & Dad R, older sister A and younger sister S. Such a lovely and loving family, well-versed in the rules of camp and the joys and pleasures of family projects. We hung out a lot in the Arts and Crafts building. S and I made binoculars as part of this session's "WHO-DUNNIT?" A Mystery-Solving theme. The family also painted multiple Tee-Shirts supplied to camp by Abercrombie Fitch of the softest cotton EVER! S made one that proclaimed in bright green hand-painted letters: "TPT (The Painted Turtle) OR TPP (The Tinted Poodle).

Fifteen-year-old S missed her nineteen-year-old sister who was studying for law classes when I accompanied S to activities, but soon got into archery and the satisfying THWACK of arrow hitting target. We got to pet and groom miniature horse Carlitos, watch kids catching fish, which she decidedly did NOT want to do, and she FLEW down the zip line after climbing the high-ropes course that early Saturday morning. Among other things, S is an accomplished dancer and for stage night composed and performed an intricate dance to one of the currently popular rock songs. We had fun after each meal dancing to many songs choreographed and led by volunteer counselors at the front of the dining hall.

Saturday night, all the teens are invited to LNTC (Late Nite Turtle Crew) held in a room just off the main gymnasium. Pun, as my husband is known at camp is the facilitator of the ninety-minute program. Forty five years ago "Pun" nicknamed me "Moose," because he said I'm too big to call deer. It stuck, and at camps I've been Moose ever since.

This past Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary, we were both with the teens and several college-age counselors who adore hanging out with the teens and with Pun. He holds their attention while playing games utilizing the big TV screen. Our wonderfully talented friend John Ricci rigged up several templates for Pun to play Talk About, Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, and See-More Hints. Kids love shouting out the answers in these non-competitive games. 

We also got to play truth or fiction, responding to a written question that also contained the correct answer. Each team of about twenty campers and counselors could decide if we'd bluff or give the correct answer to the printed question. Our opposing team had to guess if we were telling the truth or bluffing an answer. 

The best part of the evening for me was watching my honey shine in the eyes of these young people and to watch their faces as he led them in a pretty fantastic closing where he teaches them that even when the going gets tough out there in the "real world," all they have to do to return to their happy place (camp) is to close their right eye, close their left eye, open their heart and they'll be back at TPT surrounded by love and permission to be who they are. Such wonderful advice.

Our happy place is camp too and it was perfectly magical to celebrate our love there.