Just Call me Oodalolli!

Once a month or so here at camp, the year-round folks get together at the Facility Director's house and eat dinner and play Bunco. I will not go into the details of Bunco, but if you have not played, you are missing out on some serious fun! It gets pretty intense. Last month I actually bled a little bit. And it's a dice game. so you can only imagine...

Anyways, so last night was Bunco night, with a little extra fun--our first camp Naming Ceremony! For those of you who don't know, at Camp Hammer, we don't go by our real names during the summer. Your first summer at camp, you are given a "Camp Name", and the goal is for the kids to go the whole week without knowing your real name. It kind of adds to the magic of camp, I suppose. For example, Daniel's name is "X"...so all summer kids and staff will call him that! It's really fun.

Alexis (Daniel's sister) is spending the summer up here and got into town on Tuesday night. Alexis nor I have camp names yet, so last night at Bunco it was decided that we would get our camp names before the rest of the staff arrives (for a number of reasons)

So...we eat dinner, and then we all gather in the living room (about 20 people). Then, Eric the Camp Director comes out of nowhere dressed up as a Texan-ish mechanic, and he has morphed himself into "Vern"--the mechanic who doesn't really know about cars, has a handle-bar mustache and a bald head. "Vern" then begins the naming ceremony. This is how it happens:

Those being named are first asked to sit in a chair at the front of the room.
That person gives a "Minute Memoir", introducing themselves and sharing all they can in one minute.
Then, the floor is open for naming. Anyone who has a good name can throw it out. BUT, the name has to come with a story about why that name is perfect for that person. The story can be 100% true OR 100% false.
The idea here, when you're trying to name someone, is to come up with a really good story and build up all the way to the end, when you say ....."and that's why we should name her..........(INSERT NAME HERE)!!!!!!!!"

If others like that name, they chant the name loudly. If you don't like it, you "ching" it, and make clawing fingers and say "ching, ching", etc.

Are you following me, here?

If the majority is chanting the name, that is your name. If the majority chings it, then someone else has the opportunity to tell a story and try to name that person.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk about last night.

I sit there and give my minute memoir. And that wasn't hard for me because I like to talk about myself. I told how I just got married and like to play the guitar and was a pastor and like to run and all that. My minute was up really fast.

So then, the floor was open. Andrew (as in, from date night the other night) stood up and says he'd like to sing a song. It goes like this:

(sung to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star)
a b c d e f g, h i j k l m n o p....q r s, t u v, w x Y....and starts chanting "Y! Y!Y!Y!"

He wants to name me Y because Daniel is "X"...He thinks it's cute. I don't. :) Neither does anyone else, because he was immediately chinged. I don't think he really wanted to name me that, I just think he thought it would be funny.

Then someone else tells a story and then wants to name me "Swoosh"....he gets chinged too.

THEN Sarah stands up and starts talking about how I'm a Pastor and I like music , and Sarah, Lori, Frannie and I all go running together and we call ourselves a posse....and so she talks about that and how I'm in a posse and all that. So then she said she'd had Robin Hood on the brain and thought about naming me Friar Tuck b/c I'm a pastor, but that wouldn't work. So then she said she thought about Little John since he was in a posse with Friar Tuck...but that didn't work either. Then she got up and said she had a little song to sing:

I think you know it. It's the one that goes "Friar Tuck and Little John walking through the forest
.......and then it goes "oodalolli, oodalolli, golly what a day!"

and then she said "And that's why we should name her "Oodalolli!"
And everyone chanted it and it won, and now at Camp Hammer I am forever known as Oodalolli!

Cute, huh?

Then when Alexis got up there, Ellibella, Sarah and Eric's daughter, said "well, because she is going to be our nanny, and because there was a very famous nanny named "Mary Poppins", I think we should name Alexis "Poppins!"

So Alexis is Poppins. That's cute too, huh?

And now we are named....


In other news, it looks like I am kind of disconnected from the world from this point on for awhile.

Several of you have tried to call me, and I have been in camp all day since Monday. I don't know when I will be able to call you back, but I will....just give me some time!

In still other news, my birthday is tomorrow! I love my birthday.
I don't know what the plans are, though...Daniel is up to something, I just don't know what. He won't tell me, he won't let me look at the bank account online, and he won't let me in his office until he's given me the all-clear signal.

Look forward to a birthday blog.

Anyways, gotta run. Got some more work to do! Orientation starts on Monday. It's CRUNCH TIME!

love love,

Oodalolli