Closing ceremonies.

Tomorrow morning, the parents will come back to campus and pick up the bright, uncertain kids they dropped off a week ago...but now, they're ignited, and all madly in love with each other. Tomorrow will be difficult, with moving out, convocations and final goodbyes with an audience of parents and family. Tonight, it was just us--scholars, RAs, faculty--sharing some memories and love on the quadrangle. It really was beautiful, candle-lit and backlit by the main campus hall.


We all gathered in a circle and lit our candles from one another, just taking a quiet moment to be together as a big group. Everyone split off into little groups next: the majors, minors, and houses met up one last time on the quad, to share final reflections and advice for life after Nerd Camp.

My minor/PSD co-facilitator, Dean.

Some of the kids from my class.

We all cried, we all laughed, we all got some measure of closure...but the transition is always hard. More on that later, but for now, I just wanted to post some pictures of our time together. Thanks, guys, for Nerd Camp 2009.

Summer camp arts & crafts.

Give me a poem, or a piece of prose, or a monologue, or even a simple tune, and I can create something for you. Give me a piece of paper and some ink?...things may be different. Usually, I don't consider myself a very visually artistic person: it's just something I haven't contacted much, though I love it when I do (through photography, painting, silly arts and crafts with kids).

Today, I decided that I would much rather make my own end-of-camp cards, rather than buy a premade box.



I'm pretty pleased with the results; actually looking up stamp/inking tips before diving into the task myself could help in the future. I feel the experiment was a success! Now, to see what else I can DIY before school starts again, and crafts start to seem frivolous.

Dream List

In class today, the kids worked on their dream lists. This is something I try to revisit constantly, and see what comes out of it. Occasionally, I can mark things off of the list...more often, I add to it. This isn't my usual list--just one I made with the kids--but I think I like it well enough to incorporate it/combine the two lists.

DREAM LIST

Remember:
The world is both/and, not either/or.
Always keep a change jar.
Love freely.
Help kids, the elderly, and the lonely.
Stay romantic & in love with the world.
Change the world for the better.
Age gracefully
Marry, and stay married, simply & lovingly
Do unusual, spontaneous things—go on scavenger hunts, arrange apple tastings.

Learn:
Spanish
Salsa (dancing)
Swing
Waltz
How to really tango
Crocheting
Cooking (take a class)
Storytelling
How to do my hair
Red-Cross certified first aid & CPR
As a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford

Teach:
Kids to question.
Gifted kids
In an inner-city, high-need school
At MSA
A yoga class
A gaggle of children to eternally curious and norm-defying.
College courses on comic books, writing, Garcia Marquez, teen lit, film, and fun stuff.

Visit:
Italy, Mexico, England, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Greeze, Ireland, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Seattle, Boston, Atlanta, New Orleans, Las Vegas.
Take a vacation on less than two days’ notice.
Take a road trip
Sistine Chapel & Mouth of Truth, Rome
An international soccer match as the referee.

Miscellaneous:
Stay out all night long.
Adopt, and bear biological children too.
Own my own home.
Have a garden.
Spend an entire day reading, napping, talking, and leaving only for a walk and dinner.
Find one perfect, comfortable, gorgeous pair of heels. (Price is almost no object.)
Help women, kids, the elderly, and the lonely.
Be involved in community theater.
Run a seven minute mile.
Become a librarian.
Read more poetry.
Own a kitty & a dog.
Publish a short story.
Run a marathon.

Tangoing with the nerds.

I only know how to tango in the loosest sense of "knowing." A few semesters ago, I joined a Latin dance club on campus, and learned a new style with them each Tuesday night--merengue, bachata, and tango were just a few of these, and tango is the one I remember best. Despite the fact that I'm not that good and don't know too much, I teach it at nearly every opportunity. Camp kids of all ages love to tango!--and waltz too, but that's another story.

Today was tango day. The closest estimate I could snag was 36 couples--that's seventy-two kids stepping, gliding, and twirling across the dorm lounge-slash-dance floor. I'm still not that great, but they had a fantastic time! Pictures will (hopefully) be coming soon, but for now I'll include some of the music, at least.

*fangirl*

EEE AMANDA PALMER IS DATING NEIL GAIMAN, they need to have dark creative little children immediately. Or just write lots for each other and share it with us. Seriously, two of my favorite artists, dating and creating together? Absolute perfection!

And, look, they're adorable (and in a tub):



Photo from amandapalmer.net.

Saturday at Nerd Camp.

Very busy day today: early jogging, Alumni Day activities, Dungeons and Dragons, bbq dinner, volleyball tournament, and the Holi Festival.

Cultural information can be found here, but the real joy is letting the kids (and RAs) let loose.

The kids ran at the word "go" for the paint and water balloons...and also the RAs, who were standing with what ammunition we could gather. This was an intimidating charge--a 60-teenager war cry is scary!

Reloading...once the water balloons were gone, we turned to hoses, paint jars, and the buckets (USPS boxes) that once carried balloons.

RAs post-fest...I'm on the far right, in the bandanna and sunglasses.

Great afternoon, great time, but boy I'm tired and I still have paint in my hair. Alas!

End of the second week!

Today was Positive Bombardment day in PSD. Basic rules: one person is in the middle. Everyone else bombards that person with compliments--preferably deeper than "I like your shoes." No response but "thank you" is allowed from the wo/man in the middle.

It's so healthy to have a chance to practice receiving compliments. Giving them to anyone but very close friends at very specific times is perceived as weird, and perhaps a little intrusive, yet I don't know any cheaper, faster, easier way to perk someone up. A random compliment from an acquaintance--something as simple as "You did a really nice job handling that coach today/contributing in class/choosing a cute dress" makes my day for the next week.

People are so starved for genuine praise! Even most of the positive comments we give children are too general to be of any use; a "Nice job" or "keep it up" is on the right track, but doesn't quite have the resonance of "Jim, that poem is beautiful. I love the way you described your swingset with such specific details and exciting words!" Not only does it pin a gold star directly on the kid's hard work, it tells him specifically what to keep doing. Improvement to self-esteem as well as self; it's amazing what a good compliment can do.

I've been trying to rediscover the art of the compliment the past few years. I compliment strangers on cute clothes (the resulting grin and "Thanks!" is priceless), I conscientiously compliment and thank students on their behavior and work, I make an effort to compliment my friends and coworkers on something within our first few interactions every day.

The effect on people is astounding; we love receiving compliments! Post-bombardment today, everyone in the classroom left smiling and laughing and group-hugging. This is an example of very concentrated complimenting, but think of that attitude spread across a campus or community, little by little, one piece of praise at a time. It's free, and essentially risk-free, too.

It's something that can make a difference.

New eyes.

Today was my first day wearing contacts in eight years--need 'em for work, so I managed to pop out for an appointment today, and they sent me out wearing a new pair.

In celebration, I bought two pairs of cheap Claire's sunglasses. (I classified them as a medical expense. The doctor did say I should protect my eyes from the sun!)

Pictures likely to come later...it's just silly to wear sunglasses at night.


...i wear my sunglasses at night, so i can keep track of the visions in my eyes...

All of the RA's presented a short class tonight, showing off that we're not only here because we're huge goofs, but because we've got some sharp academics as well. I chose to lead a short non-fiction workshop entitled "What You Know Doesn't Suck: Writing Real, Cool Nonfiction."

The following was one of my example pieces, and may be one of my all-time favorite articles.

Confessions of a Nerd

By Ben Stein

(Cosmopolitan Magazine, January 1991)

Think of this as the report of a geologist announcing a major new oil
find. Or of a securities analyst discovering a highly undervalued stock
that's bound to go up and make money for the investor. Only this report
is about nerds -- and why they are worth your attention. And it's by
someone who ought to know, since I make a good part of my living playing
one on TV (most recently on the sitcom The Wonder Years) and play the
role from life experience.

Every young woman knows that there is a gigantic shortage of
interesting men. Masses are married. Other masses are nasty and cruel.
Still others have sexual preferences that render them unavailable. But
-- and this is a but -- big there is one large pool of men who are
habitually passed over as boyfriend material. These are your basic
nerds, the kind of men whose mere mention makes many women's lips curve
with disdain.

Now, to define my terms, a nerd -- for the purposes of this
investigative report -- is a guy who is shy, bookish, not cool, not
cooly dressed, tends to lack certain social graces, and maybe carries a
white plastic pocket protector in his shirt pocket to shield the
cotton-Dacron mix from the blue ink of his six ballpoint pens. (I do
not include men who are repellently fat, pick their noses in public or
private, have terrifyingly bad acne, or chew beef jerky. Someone else
will have to defend them.)

As I said, the normal woman (who is not herself a nerd) has nothing but
contempt for the kind of men I'm pitching here. How vividly I recally
the female friend who told me about a date with a nerd from her history
class at UCLA: "On our first date, I thought that if he tried to kiss
me, I'd throw up."

But consider these few facts about nerds. . . .

Summer produce...

...is the best kind. Sweeter, fresher, brighter, and somehow just more appealing than any other time of year.

My new favorites? Peaches and nectarines, especially after a hot afternoon of chasing scholars to afternoon programs and doing the moderator tango during deep discussion class.

Too sleepy to write much else now. More later, once eight hours and naps have been had.

Another very quick post, right before bed.

Alex and I finally got the webcams working! It's so good to see each other again (even if it's another eleven days before we see each other, see each other).

So far, so good--we're just about to the halfway point, and the kids are doing great, classes are going well, and everyone even still likes everybody else. Sounds like a success to me.

Very simply...

Managing to (more or less) nap away the day.

(Minus desk shifts and taking scholars to church and such, of course.)


Just five more minutes, and I'll go back to work, I promise...

Nanananananana....

Batgirl!



The RA's tend to take every opportunity to be silly and engage in costumed foolishness, and the first street dance of camp was no exception.

The theme: superheroes.

The attendees: the Pink Ranger, Invisigirl (the Incredible daughter), Cownt Dracula, the Joker, Batgirl, a Guitar Hero, Lara Croft, Bruce Wayne, and many others. (Note the pose with Borat.)

Shabbat shalom.

Thanks to a group of scholars who needed a ride to their chosen religious services, I attended my very first Shabbat tonight. Everyone was very friendly, the rabbi sang beautifully, and I even managed to catch the tune a time or two. (Makes me wonder if there was anyone up there scratching their head and wondering, "Well, this voice sounds familiar, but isn't it usually speaking in a different language?...")

Some passages of prayer that made me pause to think (which I managed to scribble hurriedly in my little notebook):

"May the door of this synagogue be wide enough to receive all who hunger for love, all who are lonely for friendship.
May it welcome all who have cares to unburden, thanks to express, hopes to nurture.
May the door of our sanctuary be narrow enough to shut out pettiness and pride, envy and enmity.
May its threshold be no stumbling block to young or straying feet.
May it be too high to admit complacency, selfishness, and harshness.
May this sanctuary be, for all who enter, the doorway to a richer and more meaningful life."

Certainly something to meditate on.

A story is great at any age.

Especially when it's told by Milbre Burch, a Grammy nominee and a presenter at camp tonight.



She tells many different stories from many different places: ones that contain more than just conflict-rising action-resolution. In the telling and the talking, everyone in the audience learns a little more, and even begins to empathize with very different cultures. We had stories with Celtic roots; one told in Persia; another from Afghanistan. The kids laughed, gasped, and were generally spellbound (so were the adults). All she did tonight was tell a good story--but then again, what a thing she did tonight, in simply telling a good story.

Photo courtesy of Kyndal Marshall.

Forgetfulness

The name of the author is the first to go
followed obediently by the title, the plot,
the heartbreaking conclusion, the entire novel
which suddenly becomes one you have never read,
never even heard of,

as if, one by one, the memories you used to harbor
decided to retire to the southern hemisphere of the brain,
to a little fishing village where there are no phones.

Long ago you kissed the names of the nine Muses goodbye
and watched the quadratic equation pack its bag,
and even now as you memorize the order of the planets,

something else is slipping away, a state flower perhaps,
the address of an uncle, the capital of Paraguay.

Whatever it is you are struggling to remember,
it is not poised on the tip of your tongue,
not even lurking in some obscure corner of your spleen.

It has floated away down a dark mythological river
whose name begins with an L as far as you can recall,
well on your own way to oblivion where you will join those
who have even forgotten how to swim and how to ride a bicycle.

No wonder you rise in the middle of the night
to look up the date of a famous battle in a book on war.
No wonder the moon in the window seems to have drifted
out of a love poem that you used to know by heart.

--Billy Collins

Scholars arrive!

From the camp website:

It rained. Less than fun.

But we're still happy to see everyone! (And are magically dry again!)

A wet, but very fun, move-in day spent directing traffic and greeting scholars. I can't wait to kick off this year's Nerd Camp!

Photos credited to Chris Young and Kyndal Marshall.

Beautiful day for a jog.

A brief list of the things I saw while one the trail (very briefly) today:

*A group of kids in swimsuits playing in the creek
*Young families riding bikes together
*Glistening blue-black wings, as I disturbed a nest of bluejays hiding in the eaves of a tunnel
*Sun shining through the trees
*Green, green, green

I only had twenty-five minutes or so before I was called back to meetings and more summer camp preparations, but it was a gorgeous mini-vacation, and relaxed/rejuvenated me just as much as sleep would have.

Life's a beach!

Now we're starting to get ready for scholars...one bulletin board (a 'mood report' board) down, just a few more to go.



You might be collecting seashells, attending a luau, enjoying the sun, missing the mainland, on a boat!, or eaten by a shark. This could be an eventful program.

Small miracles.

While walking to breakfast today, the staff passed by a few familiar halls, with a few familiar newspaper machines in front of them. What was unfamiliar was the tiny necklace hanging from one of them, and the medals hanging from the black string.

Two Miraculous Medals, dangling in the breeze. I wish I had taken a picture of them on my cell phone, simply because finding them there was so unexpected, and yet very beautiful. Little signs, small moments--that's what happiness is made of, I think.

Moving in!

Before the Camp posts really commence, here's the thing that entertained me the most about today (and is probably very telling about my personality).

I retrieved new license plates Tuesday morning. My mother reminded me several times today that I should put them on, that the DMV had probably already canceled my old ones, that it was important, I needed to do it before I left, etc.--all helpful info but totally not appreciated when given at 7am on a day with a 10:30 departure deadline!

"You could also just wake up your brother to do it," she offhandedly mentioned. "I couldn't do mine, the screws were just cemented in place, so ask him, I don't think you can do it."

I don't think there's a phrase in the English language that would have had me outside faster, screwdriver and plates in hand, wearing a nightgown and someone else's Crocs and no underwear, in the half-drizzle, fixing my plates.

Point proven, though: I could do it. And even felt a little less stressed after proving it.

(I think this qualified me for the title "Hot Mess of the World," or at least that's what I'm claiming. I'm nothing if not a stubborn--and tough--chick.)

MSA-centric posts begin tomorrow; still not sure how I'll handle those, but somehow it'll work out.

Last day in town before Nerd Camp.

...which is always a bit bittersweet. It was still great spending time with my family and A., and just enjoying the day: we had a short but serious thunderstorm that actually KO'ed power for a few hours, just long enough for the whole group to go out to dinner! That evening, my brother, A. and I sprawled around our family room and read until too late.

So, basically, it was a perfect day. :)

Tomorrow begins Nerd Camp prep...I can't wait.

Shakespeare is great.

High-quality Shakespeare is even better.
Free, high-quality Shakespeare is even better.
Free, high-quality Shakespeare performed under the stars on a beautiful June evening?

Sign me up--for another round. My mom and I have been attending our hometown's free Will event for nine years. I've never missed a show, though she sat out for Richard III last year. A. was kind enough to provide an escort then; it was his favorite Shakes-piece!

It was great to catch up with my mom before leaving for Nerd Camp: we snagged a bit of dinner there, and even split a glass of wine (!) and some amazing iced-coffee confections before the show. Ahh, summer. The Shakespeare Fest is one of my favorite events of the whole season. And I'm finally able to understand most of the shows going on!--As You Like It was difficult a few years ago, but the Merry Wives of Windsor went down easy and with riotous laughter. Ford was my favorite, surfacing once or twice in a bald wig and with a pair of men's briefs on his head. Classic (if not classy) vaudeville.

If you ever have the chance to experience free Will, do it. The whole evening is a wonderful experience.