At first, when I began composing this last summer blog, I started with a melancholic note of a summer's end. I didn't think that was fair to Nathaniel and all the great things we experienced together. And so, I will now re-begin, this time talking about Nathaniel and our week together. What follows is my send off to summer 2009.Nathaniel and I were a great team last year, and I was pretty excited to see his profile in my mailbox.
He's big on logos. No, not legos... I actually meant logos. As in the Warner Bros. logo. Or the Disney Pixar logo, featuring Luxem and Luxem Jr. (note: Luxem Jr. does not appear in the onscreen Pixar logo until the Disney blockbuster feature Cars). Or the 21st Century Fox logo with the searchlights. Or the Dreamworks logo. Or the MTM logo (standing, of course, for Mary Tyler Moore) featuring a little orange kitty named "Mimsie", meant to mimic the MGM logo featuring a lion named "Leo". I really never realized just how many logos there were in the world before I met Nathaniel, and I'm actually really hoping that Jeopardy comes up with a Logo category sometime soon. I will smoke it, no doubt!
Last year he was alllllllllllll about Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends. Each day he'd bring along with him two different trains from the Thomas show, through which I would have to talk in order to get him to comply with virtually all of my requests of him.
(*Christine as Christine*: Nathaniel, it's time to get changed so we can go swimming! *Nathaniel*: [no response].
*Christine talking as Thomas the Tank Engine*: Uhhh, Nathaniel?
*Nathaniel*: OH! Yes Thomas, is that you?
*Christine as Thomas*: Why yes, it is! You see, it's time to swim, so we better get ourselves dressed! Why, we'd have to wear wet clothes just about all afternoon if we went swimming in our clothes!
*Nathaniel*: Ok Thomas! And do you remember episode 21 where the conductor spilt the flour on you and you sneezed on 14 boys? That was hilllarous!
*Christine as Thomas*: Good golly! It sure was!
And just like that, I vanished into thin air and Thomas was in charge.
Thomas wasn't so in this year. Instead, he seemed to be fixated on one blooper in particular he found on Youtube. Titled "A Funny Blooper", it features Porky Pig forgetting to stutter on the "badee, badee, a-that's all folks!" (please! watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADcf3cOpiT8). Nathaniel knew this short skit verbatim! To be sure, each time I skipped a word or some small detail, he was immediately there to remind me of it. We practiced any time we had a free moment to ourselves. We also forced audiences out of the people around us, such as all the lifeguards and non-swimming senior counsellors on the beach on Tuesday, and then anyone willing to give us a minute and a half of their time in the breeze way, and then for our helping hands friends and counsellors at lunch in the senior pavilion, and so on and so on, UNTIL! FINALLY! We got to perform it at senior flagpole on Wednesday afternoon! Nat was so extremely proud of us and, as silly as I may have felt, once I embraced the moment and acknowledged how happy he was to be a star for that moment, I was quite proud of us too! We made a Looney Tunes drum out of what was left of the construction paper, and even wrote "Looney Tunes" in it's original custom cursive font. We were something to see, indeed!
He wished me luck on my job interview, and advised me that I might stand a greater chance should I have chosen to wear my Tinkerbelle costume rather than my regular teacher clothes. "And maybe you could invite the man to the Goodbye Summer party on Friday". It was the most thoughtful, genuine advice I had ever received <3.
And then Friday came. Such a bitter-sweet arrival. Everyone was so tired after the last 10 weeks, but each of us LOVED everything having to do with each moment that made those 10 weeks up. But all good things must come to an end, and this was no exception. We canoed, swam (I say "swam" but really mean self-inflicted hypothermia on ourselves, because the water was COOOOOLLD!). And we had our final HH party of the year. Nathaniel/Link waited very patiently for the party to commence (of course, spending 45 minutes trying to dislodge a very small toy from a crack in the picnic table served well to occupy us [the toy was not his and I was sweating buckets in panic I wouldn't be able to get it out! PHEW to the fact that I did!]). And in a flash it was over. We said our goodbyes, boarded the busses and departed one last time (of course, on our way to the bus, Nathaniel and I said goodbye to each thing we passed along the way. I asked the trees and lake to not change on us over the next year, and he said he'd really like it if there could be another animation adventure theme day next year ("could you talk to someone about that please?").... naturally, so he could wear the Link costume). I had no profile in my hand, which felt weird on a Friday.
Nathaniel and I had a stupendous time on week 10, only it went by too fast. I wish I was able to write my typical "next week:_____", but that won't happen for a couple seasons now. So, what I will say is that I am SO very thankful for every moment of this summer. For each and every camper, and for each and every laugh, smile, hug, kiss, bus ride (well, maybe not so much the week I was bus monitor!), rainy day, sunny day, canoe ride, co-counselor chat, hot day, cool day, double work day, training day.... everything! This has been my most favourite of summers in the longest while I can recall.
So until next summer, on the topic of summer camp...
"badee, badeee, T-T-THAT'S ALL FOLKS!"
<3
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