A Funny Story.

The Day Camp staff decided to create yet another inovative tradition for the 25th anniversary of our beloved camp.

Last night most of the core staff were able to camp out in the church's field. A recipe for good times? Yes, indeed. The night was complete with a campfire on the baseball diamond, hide and go seek in the church and quality bonding time. (The boys especially bonded...giggling late into the night.)

We finished off the night by sleeping under the stars. Our parents would be so proud. There was a distinct patch of grass separating the boy's and girl's tarps. I've never slept under ths stars before, and let me just say, its pretty fabulous. (I think the final count was ten shooting stars.) The night was just perfection about the time we were drifting off to sleep, but it was about to get a lot better!

I was sleeping lightly when I heard shouting. "Waaake up!" pause "Wake up folks!" pause "This is not a campground!" This went on for sometime and various situations were running through my mind. Mostly, I thought it was the boys being ridiculous, that is, until I looked up and saw a policeman standing over my bed. By the point it was clear that everyone was waking up to the bright headlights and shouting, but so far everyone had decided to take the "ignore it and it'll go away" course of action. Things were getting awkward, so I decided to step up.

I slowly lifted my face off of my pillow and said, "Hi." Yep. That's the best thing I could come up with. The policeman began to question me in my half conscious state. I think I managed to say something like, "We have permission to be here." The policeman then requested a letter indicating that. Letter? As if, Andrew barely packed a sleeping bag.

"We work here!" Josh piped up. "We have a security pass to the church." I added. "Here I'll get it." Mike comes to our aid.

"Well you better hurry before you ALL GET ARRESTED!"

Mike replies, "Well...let me just get my pants on." This is the point where I start focusing wholly on not laughing. This gets even harder when the cop starts checking my cooler. Well, fumbling around trying to open it, but he just can't manage it. "You have to flip the handle," I help out. "Do you have any alcohol?" He finally gets it open to discover Andrew and my yogurt that my dear mom packed for us.

Any alcohol? What a question! Have you not noticed the distinct patch of grass between the guys and girls tarps?? This is clearly not that type of party.

The story ends with the policeman taking Mike over to the church to show that he has access to the building, but not before Mike requests a ride. The cop leaves sincerely disapointed that he wasn't able to take credit for the biggest bust of the summer, and the rest of us are feeling wide awake at 5 a.m. in the morning.

One thing is for sure. This experience makes me want to take a really long road trip just sleeping in random places without getting caught. I think my idea of freedom means being able to sleep under the stars without getting arrested.