Cosmopolitan Girl in the Woods

My best friend X is a true cosmopolitan girl. She owns 200 pairs of shoes and she always accessorizes. She used to live in New York and she is always in a trendy outfit. She worked at camp with me for 3 summers, so there is a little granola in her somewhere. But her granola comes in a coordinated china bowl with a doily under it.

X was here for the first three days of camp. I wanted her to come visit and see the camp at some point this summer- I hadn't planned on it being at THE craziest time of camp, but we needed to get our new van from our office to here, and it just so happened her mom was out of town and driving through this area on her way home, so it all worked out. I was relieved to have the van up at camp and that job checked off my list, and I was thrilled to have my best friend here to support me as I ran around like a crazy person.

Having my best friend here was excellent on many levels. First of all, now when I call her with fun stories about counselors or camp, she can imagine it because she was actually here. She, like my mother, commented, "it's like a real 'camp' camp. Like the Parent Trap." I'm glad she will be able to fully appreciate my stories. Second of all, I could process and vent to her without worrying about being a strong leader or professional. So, yes, I stomped my foot and whined a few times and yes, she was nice about it.

Another exceptional thing about having her here was that I could leave her in the train wreck of a camp store and tell her to organize and clean the whole place and come back 3 hours later to the PERFECT working camp store of my dreams. She did that several times with several projects and didn't complain at all. She also stood by my side and helped me learn to drive a pontoon at the last second before taking a group of kids out on the lake. When kids go tubing, we put the whole group on the pontoon and then 2 at a time, they get to hop out into the lake and tube behind the speedboat. So in addition to learning to drive the boat, she got to drag wet children back onto the pontoon, getting soaking wet in the process, despite the fact that she is afraid of water and (her words, not mine) "doesn't do boats".

Now I owe her my first born, or at least a week of scrubbing desks in her third grade classroom in September, but it was worth it because she did a spectacular job. In addition to the big projects she did for me, several times, I would be in the middle of a small project and have to step out and deal with something else, and when I did that, she would continue entering things into the computer or organizing camper mail or whatever I was doing. She also took the initiative to do something she saw that needed to be done and also did it well. Oh, and while doing all of this, she interacted with children in the most respectful, engaging way. She was helpful and kind, but firm and able to get kids to follow the rules. She has been a teacher for three years, so yes, she has a little more training than my 19 year old counselors, but it was still refreshing to have someone besides just myself who knows how to work with kids without teaching them new swear words (as one of my counselors did today).

I was tempted to lock her in a cabin somewhere and tell her mom I had no idea where she was. I need her to be here all summer, but she's planning a wedding for July and needs to be home. Whatever. Wedding schmedding. Summer vacation laying by her pool or being dirty, bug sprayed and rained on at camp with me. It seems like an obvious choice, but I had to let the cosmopolitan girl go back to the city. It was SOOOOOOOOOOO nice having her here though. Seriously, she is the best best best.