Cue the contented sighs. I just had a very, very nice evening out. First I went to the VW dealership and heard that (a) the lack of warning lights on the dashboard most likely means the problem is only with the AC and not going to impact any other parts of the car, and (b) that all it needs is to be "charged" (something to do with the refrigerant, which apparently needs to be done every few years) and they can do it this Saturday morning at 10:30 (my first full day off). Then, given a clean bill of auto health, I went to Freeport, which has got to be the most awesome little town I've ever seen. I rounded the corner onto Main Street and knew that if my mom ever saw it, she'd refuse to leave. It was equal parts small-town and modern shopping mall, with tons of little shops lining the streets, Abercrombie and L.L.Bean next to old-fashioned chocolatiers and fancy lobster joints and privately owned artsy shops. The sidewalks were red brick and everyone was dressed in bright, summery colors, out walking with their kids and dogs and ice cream cones. Like something out of a postcard. I had a lobster roll for dinner at a hole-in-the-wall place atop a roof overlooking Main Street, then a waffle cone from Ben & Jerry's (Phish Food and Turtle Soup). But the main focus of my trip was... THE L.L.BEAN OUTLET. I must have spent over two hours in there, poking around. It's unbelievably big - four floors - and they have everything. I bought a new toiletry kit in light blue, since Dad kind of adopted the hunter green one I used to have, and then I also bought a new bag, of course, because did we really think that Miss Zippers-And-Pockets could go to the L.L.Bean outlet and not buy one? (I was sorely tempted by a great carryon bag too, but restrained myself.) I hadn't seen anything in the catalogs that tempted me, so I just thought I'd look through the bag section, but I saw that one (which is brand new) and was hooked. It hits a nice 'happy medium' as far as potentially being a laptop bag, school bag, travel bag, or any number of other things without looking out of place; it also isn't overly stiff (like most laptop bags) and doesn't slide around to the front of my body while I'm walking the way my orange one does. A winner! So that was my summer splurge; I looked in a number of other stores but didn't buy anything else (not even one of the huge collection of anti-Bush magnets). When the sun started to go down (around 8) I headed back here to spend some quality time with my computer, and only then looked at my list and realized I forgot to go to Dick's for a new Endurance-fabric swimsuit (mine has performed wonderfully for almost a year and a half now, but the lining is finally ripping out). Oh, well; something to add to the table for Saturday. Car dealership, Pirates of the Caribbean II, and Dick's Sporting Goods! :)

Random question, since I've been listening to the Dixie Chicks all night: what should my sign say when I go to the concert? Most places won't let you take signs in, so I'll have to be creative about making cuts and folds and sticking it down the back of my pants or into my purse and then repairing it inside with some tape - but I absolutely have to take one, since I'll be sitting so close (8th row center!) and they might actually be able to see it. But what should it say? My only idea so far is 'I'd Be Ashamed If I Were From Texas, Too.' Anybody else out there got a brain wave?

This weekend was Pro Sports Day (two days, really) where the camp is divided into two teams (this time, the Braves and the White Sox) and the kids compete against each other in all the different sports. It was actually kind of fun; the counselors had to join in too (I was on the White Sox), and we had to make up a song, a cheer, and a clap and perform them all, as well as do a couple of counselor events like a volleyball game and a tug of war (which we won!) I'd forgotten how much fun it was to bang on a table and yell along with a bunch of people. We also got cool shirts (Braves = red, White Sox = black).

One other cool thing, from yesterday: I now have the assignment of driving a 12-year-old boy to Hebrew tutoring every Sunday and Wednesday afternoon. (A lot of the camps up here are heavily Jewish, so one of them hires a Hebrew teacher every summer and she takes pupils from other camps.) His name is Jason, and he's got his bar mitzvah on September 1st, which is why he has to continue his lessons over the summer. And he turned out to be a really great kid! We talked about languages and accents and Camp All-Star versus other camps. The instructor loved him too (she kept saying she wanted to transfer him over to her camp). Also, major coincidence: he's from Orlando (two hours away from me), and he also attended Camp Blue Star (which is in North Carolina, like five minutes up the road from Ton-A-Wandah, where I went for eight years). Wow. Anyway, the point was, he already knows most of the texts he has to know, etc., and it was really neat to hear the chanting and see this little American boy look at chickenscratch symbols and make words out of them - music, really. I was impressed, and intrigued, and the instructor was over the moon that he'd learned that much only going to twice-a-week classes for a year and not anything more intense. He's here for four weeks, so he'll have five more lessons before camp's over. I think I may be seeing a budding future linguist here...