Happy Thanksgiving

I'm really thankful for Day Camp. I definitely got more from that experience than I gave. More than any other place -- and I'm including high school, college, and the Forest Club, Ukiah's most notorious drinking establishment -- Day Camp grew me up.

But these are strange times for this good group. The Day Camp Yachting Club, whose membership is restricted to past directors, sorry, has been oddly quiet for this time of year. In years past, long before now, Burt, Shaggie, Muppet, and I would have been tossing around ideas for a Day Camp New Years party. This year, the yachts are lonely in the harbor.

Let's ignore the obvious fact that I could easily sack up and start resolving this by, you know, just e-mailing those three (plus Who now, of course). Here's why I'm not. Here's why none of us are: Day Camp is growing up and moving on.

This is a fact that's sad for obvious reasons and really, really cool for less obvious ones.

Burt first worked Day Camp in 1997. 1997! That's like 20 years ago. And no matter how cool the really cool counselors of 2006 are, some distance and fragmenting is kind of unavoidable there. From what little I've gathered from the pretty-darn-reliable grapevine, the über-tight Day Camp girls of 2000-2002 (Fragment #1) are pulling their own group together to do adult-type things like trade Tupperware and fill out mortgage applications. Which is cool. It wouldn't surprise me, especially given this, to find out that DC06 (Fragment #3) wanted to do its own thing too.

Which leaves Gator's Fragment. (Yeah, I know, "Fragment #2," would make a lot more sense, but c'mon, please?) I should've taken the lead on this and made sure anybody who wanted to reconnect had a place and a time for it. I haven't because in a lot of ways it feels like Day Camp The Experience has been dying a pretty natural death since last summer, and why should any of us call an ambulance?

It's just that I really want to make sure that Day Camp The Experience, the New Years Extravaganza, and even this blog are here to serve us; not the other way around. To the extent that these things have made community easier for all of us friends, I say great. But I'm not about to shed a tear or feel guilty over Day Camp The Experience, over New Years parties, or over this blog. These things have been great for us, but let's all acknowledge how cool it is that even the best things grow and fade and end. I'll continue to be good friends with the Day Campers I'm already good friends with long after these things are gone. Let's not force friendship or feel guilty about a fragmented Day Camp, a canceled New Years party, or a blog that kinda limps along these days.

After all that, I just want to say, my bad for not taking point on this. Do you guys want to get together this New Years? Seriously. If there's enough interest, say 15 people, I'll make the invitations, buy the streamers, stock the Kool-Aid bar, and look into housing. A cabin around MH, maybe. Someone's parents' home somewhere else. (Heyyyy, aren't Scout's parents out of the country?!) I know it would be so so fun to say hi to Hula (for example), but even if that doesn't happen this year or ever again, I'll have nothing but fond things to say about her when Jav, Fish, and I get together to gamble on cockfights late December.

This is easy. The Yachting Club is suddenly open to everybody. If you want to get together, let's talk about it. If you don't, comments are pretty unusual these days anyway so no one's gonna be all like, hey, why the hell isn't so and so commenting? We either do this or we don't. I really want to be intentional either way, though. No matter what, thanks for the good run with you guys.

G8R