Tribute to the Aerobics Superstar

I mentioned in my last post that my friend H is moving away, and the time has finally come. She pulls away Wednesday morning!

Camps are pretty transitory places, so I've seen a lot of people come and go in my 6 1/2 years here, but H was always a constant. It will be a different place when she's gone, and I will miss her! Here are some of my favorite memories:

1. Becoming friends at Great Escape while waiting in line for the most disappointing roller coaster ever. We nicknamed it "Cracked Axle Canyon"-- I can't remember what it was actually called.

2. Spending sleepless nights in damp, mosquito-infested cement block buildings on our days off. We called "Split Rock" "Misery Rock" and "Ausable "Auswample" -- I think there was one more, but I can't remember its name!

3. Praying for rain in order to get out of our 6 a.m. lifeguarding workouts in the frigid water, and singing, "The moment I wake up, before I put on my swimsuit, I say a little prayer for ME! While grabbing my towel, and wondering how loud I'll howl, I say a little prayer for ME!" (Also, our awesome goggles.)

4. Watching Anne Goes Psycho in Miss Kim's little cabin and laughing so hysterically that I think the whole camp heard us.

5. Choreographing and performing "Sisters," of course. ("Do You Want a Revolution?" and "Wishin' and Hopin'" were fun too.)

6. Walking down the hill to our little cabin on the island in the pitch black with our hands out in front of us, lifting our feet way up high to avoid tripping on the roots. (One time H did trip and hit her head on the building. She was okay, but the next morning we found a clump of her hair on the wood siding!)

7. Living in the retro-styled CHA with three girls in one bedroom and H sleeping in a little cove under a lofted bed, because space was so tight! Also, making the dangerous trek to the "dungeon" to do our laundry on cold, snowy nights.

8. Finding a mouse one morning with one leg caught in a trap pulling itself around the CHA while we tried to figure out (between squeals) how to kill it. We finally gave up, tried to feed it some banana bread to ease its discomfort, and allowed our upstairs neighbor (a teenage boy) to take it off our hands.

9. Seeing H run into the house wide-eyed and out of breath one night, because she was pretty sure that a coyote was chasing her home.

10. And last but not least, doing aerobics at 5:30 a.m. to H's awesome combos! I loved every minute of it (with the only possible exceptions being the time she made us do so many lunges that I couldn't walk for days and the time I almost broke her leg off in Kung Fu while testing D's butterfly stretch claims). Here's a picture of the aerobics faithfuls at our farewell breakfast for H:

Well, the list of memories could go on and on, but those are a few highlights. I will miss you H! You better start a blog so that I can read about all the new memories you're making.