Camp magic is in the air!

Ah another wonderfully crazy day in Boston.

I spent a good part of the morning messing with mapquest trying to plot out the simplest routes for the errands that I needed to complete. I had hoped that by staying in the very north end of the metro area I could avoid the traffic and the chaos.

It all started out well. I made it to Target and picked up some soap and other goodies I've been needing. Then I went to Best Buy and got a new camera battery and charger. That was smooth, but painful as the charger and battery were $50 each. I really don't remember spending $50 for either one when I first got them. Of course the battery is some new high tech one that will tell me how much power I have left down to the minute...which apparently gives it reason to be $20 more than it was before. Of course they don't sell the "old fashioned" ones anymore.

With that accomplished I was off to the post office. It was close by...nothing to worry about. It was actually so close that I should've parked and walked. Instead I decided to drive, and ended up on a one way street death march. Every time I tried to turn around I ended up on a new one-way street taking me further from anywhere I wanted to be and anywhere I knew. When I finally found the main road that I'd started on I was so totally confused that I ended up taking the wrong direction away from the post office. The way I took did happen to be the way out of town so I decide to forget the post office and just get going. Sorry to the people I'm sending mail to. Though luckily for me they don't know I'm sending it so they won't know it's late. :)

Next stop was AAA. It didn't go as badly, but it took a while to find. At this point, it wasn't even 4:00 but already the traffic was getting CRAZY! There were people everywhere, and it was right at that point where it's really scary: tons of cars but everything's still moving very quickly. At one point I had to stop suddenly because of a slowdown up ahead. Thankfully I'd left plenty of room in front of me to slow down and stop but the woman behind me hadn't. The look of terror on her face as she tried to slam on the brakes terrified me. I scooted up as much as I could and she swerved to the side a bit and thankfully we missed each other.

Finally found AAA, and then went to REI for the fun shopping. I got a new camp stove, some nice, packable pots and pans, a new camelback bladder, and some other random fun things like I always manage to find at REI. The guy I talked to about stoves convinced me to get a bigger one rather than a little backpacking one like we used for Outward Bound. I guess I'm happy with it...the Outward Bound ones were a pain, and this one looks nice. It was actually cheaper too, and has two big burners rather than one little one. (Not that I'm ever going to need two burners for my style cooking of course!) I'm starting to wonder how much I'm actually going to use it though. So far I've done pretty well with going out for lunch and then eating something that doesn't require cooking for breakfast and dinner. Of course it'll be a lot healthier if I cook and will give me more options, but it still feels really limiting. I mean just to make mac and cheese I'd need milk and butter...but to have milk and butter I'd have to have a cooler...which would mean finding somewhere to buy ice everywhere I go. Granted it is getting cooler even during the day, so I probably wouldn't need to get ice as often as I did when driving during the summer. I will have to work on my timing a bit because so far i've gotten to every camp site after dinner time and too tired to cook.

Anyway...this is getting long and I haven't even gotten to the good stuff! After all that craziness I went out to Walden Pond to watch the sunset (yes the Walden Pond; yes Thoreau's Walden Pond). Just being out there wiped away all the stress I'd been feeling before. It was amazingly beautiful and down right magical. I went for a walk on the trail around the edge of it and out to the site of the original cabin. Along the way I came across a man who, like me, was walking by himself carrying just a camera. He said "You just don't find a place more calming than this, huh?" He couldn't be more right. It was perfect. After walking out to the cabin site and back I just stood and stared out at the sky. It was a perfect fall night...just cool enough to put on a sweatshirt, but not cold. Just enough clouds in the sky to add color to the sunset. The reflection off the water made it all the more beautiful, and a few of the trees were just starting to change their color. Truly perfect. I think it will be one of my favorite memories from this trip, and I almost decided to skip it all together because I was so stressed from the traffic!

As I stood there, my single bead necklace from the final session of camp closing sort of fell out of the secret pocket in my camera case (where it should not have been able to get out) and fell into my hand. It seemed to find it's way out at just the right time and I got to reflect on camp and bring some things to a close in my mind. It got me thinking about how blessed not just I am, but the whole world is if we only take the time to look around us. We live in an incredibly beautiful world, but we spend so much time being worried, angry, stressed, etc. that we don't notice what's right there in front of us. Despite all the shit that goes on, it seems that big or small things usually have a way of working themselves out. In a small way, like how my stress was instantly erased by the setting sun. In a much bigger way, how so many people (counselors and campers) are brought to camp through absolutely terrible circumstances, but are brought into a world filled with so much wonder and magic that it is unforgettable. And it's not just that you won't forget, it's that you never have to worry about forgetting because it becomes a part of you.

The feeling of camp magic continued as I got in my car and the radio started playing one of my favorite camp party songs. One line of this song says "I've got a feeling, that tonight's gonna be a good, good night". It made the mood even better and I realized that I too had that feeling that it was going to be a good night. I'd changed my plans to go to a campsite closer to Walden Pond rather than going out to Cape Ann as I had been planning. Turns out everything I've found about this new campsite is perfect. For one, I hadn't had a chance to eat dinner, but the camp store had a big selection of frozen foods and a microwave. So instead of the cold spaghettios I'd planned on eating I got to eat chicken with wild rice, mushrooms, and green beans. Then I also find out that even the tent sites here have electricity, so I can charge my new camera battery without having to go somewhere and sit next to my charger. That also means that I can charge my computer here and use the wireless internet from right in my tent. So here I am in my pj's, curled up and cozy, writing to all of you. Oh, and even my sleeping pad inflated to just the right amount tonight. Something I've been working on every night so far but just haven't been able to get quite right. I realize how cheesy this probably sounds to everyone reading it, but there's some serious magic in the air right now and I just feel so amazingly whole and at peace with the world.

I might go back to Walden Pond tomorrow and do a longer walk on the trails. It's on the way if I decide to go through Cape Ann, but out of the way if I decide to take 495 instead. We'll see. I'd love to go for a swim there (it's a huge swim beach for triathletes here...tons of people were swimming across it...which looked like a LONG swim), but that is something I definitely can't do without a buddy. Maybe I can talk somebody there in to swimming with me. :)

In other news, exactly one half hour ago the time was 9:09 on 09/09/09.