On Friday night a group of about forty of us made the trek out to a large field to watch the Perseids, an annual meteor shower. I haven't missed the peak of the showers since 2008 and I have got to say this particular experience would definitely compete for my favorite year. When we got to our viewing destination we essentially formed a giant cuddle pile. I ended up sandwiched between two friends who just got hired for full time staff. On my left was someone I bonded with almost instantly this winter and have missed this summer because we got separated into different areas of the camp. We have so much in common and we just kind of get one another. I can't wait until we can get back into full friendship mode. On my other side was someone I'm still in the early friendship stage where we're trying to figure one another out. I had already heard that he had gotten full time (from my friend on the left), but there was a moment where he just kind of quietly stared at me until he told me the news himself. There was something about the way he said it that made me ask him how he felt about it. He admitted he was excited, but unsure how he felt about it exactly and I told him we'd have plenty of time to figure it out. We ended up staying out in that field until 4am and I loved every minute of it.

Which was great because Friday morning brought me one massive headache. It started when I walked into work and one of my staffers took one look at me, burst into laughing, and exclaimed: "Boy do I have something to tell you!" She went on to inform me that there is a summer staffer that has a huge awkward crush on me. However, when she told me the name of my admirer, I didn't recognize the name at all. She started to describe him and I still had no idea. It wasn't until lunch when she pointed him out that I confirmed that I had never once had a conversation with this guy in my entire life. My staffer told me she knows that, but it hasn't stopped him from talking about me. This apparently more common knowledge than I thought because for the rest of the day person after person kept approaching me like "Did you hear that..." Yes. Yes I had. I felt like I was in Jr High again.

I initially didn't think much about it because if the guy hasn't gotten the guts to talk to me all summer, then he's probably not going to find that courage in the last week of camp. Then he could move on and forget about this stupid summer infatuation. It wasn't until people started talking about convincing him he should ask me out when they knew I'd say no that I started getting annoyed. I hope they were joking because that would be so unfair and rude to him. Like I said... Jr High.

Saturday officially began the End of Summer where our seasonal staff starts to disappear off into the woods, never to return. That is, until next summer. Possibly. Either way, there's a lot of hugs and promises to keep in touch. With this being my ninth summer I've long since gotten used to this part of the process so I rarely get super emotional during the goodbyes themselves. Instead it always ends up hitting me in the quiet that comes after the end of the season. From now until next Sunday it's going to be a weird emotional purgatory.

And what better way to wander through that emotional wasteland than to have an IMPROV NIGHT. Every year this particular Saturday is reserved for a Whose Line Is It Anyway style entertainment as well as showing videos that all the different departments make. At lunch, my friend who is obsessed with the oatmeal raisin cookies told me that his department's video was one of the most embarrassing things he has ever been a part of. He told me at the very least I should turn my eyes away so that some of his dignity could remain intact. I assured him it couldn't possibly be that bad, but he told me that "On a scale of one to crucifixion, it's the electric chair." After a brief pause I asked, "And this is you trying to convince me not to watch it?" He just gave me a pained expression.

Well let's just say that video really was quite an... experience. It was the story of one of a Princess (played by one of the guys in their department dressed in an 80s prom dress) who was kidnapped and the "Complete Package" (played by my friend) who saved him. I could try to go into more detail, but honestly I couldn't do it justice. Probably the best part was while watching it was I was sitting next to one of the guys from that department and throughout the short film I could see him slowly sink in his chair from mortification. He was practically on the floor by the time the video was done. On my other side was that guy who just got full time who kept giving me perplexed looks as if I could explain the pure art that we were witnessing. Meanwhile I was just watching through my fingers trying to survive the secondhand embarrassment while giggling uncontrollably.

I will say this though, it wasn't the most embarrassing thing that happened at Improv Night. The problem with improvisational theater is that it's truly a craft that you have to work at. It's different than just being funny. That's why there's entire classes based solely around it (is my Theatre Kid™ showing?). But typically when you go to amateur Improv Nights it's just a bunch of people who you know are naturally funny, but they are awful at improvisational acting. So instead of funny, it's just awkward. Then you throw in the fact that it spiraled into what became the complete Roasting of the summer staff Male RDs. They made it seem like they were cool with it, but a lot of those "Roasts" just seemed petty rather than funny. Which only made it more awkward.

On Sunday at breakfast I walked up to my friend and greeted him like, "What's up, Complete Package?" He looked at me like a kicked puppy. I told him that, yeah, that was pretty bad, but I had to admit it looked like it would have been fun to film and that's all that really mattered. He seemed to appreciate the comment and he appreciated it even more when I went into detail of all the other embarrassing stuff that happened the previous night. So all in all, I think his dignity will remain intact.

That night we had a Fulltime Foodservice Hangout where we said goodbye to two of our friends who are leaving the hill. It was the first time in nearly twelve weeks that all of us had been in the same room and the snark levels were unreal. It reminded me of how much of a weird little family we are. Our boss also told us that this upcoming week we're going to have two candidates for the open Executive Chef position visit to see how we like them. It honestly felt like a single mother telling her kids that she was bringing a new boyfriend around. This will be our third executive chef in the three years I've been here, so I really hope this one sticks.

Today I went down the hill to run errands and see a movie. I ended up going to Pete's Dragon. I'll admit I don't remember the original 1977 movie perfectly, I remembered enough to know that this isn't so much a remake as a completely different movie. The only real similarity is that Pete's an orphan and there's a dragon. Without going into too much details because of spoilers, the thing that stood out to me the most about this movie is how very little actually stood out. It wasn't terrible, but it wasn't spectacular either. I don't regret seeing it, but I'll be fine if I never see it again.