Kicking and screaming

that I have to leave this place now.

Have I mentioned how much I love Fire Island.?

It's been so much fun here - just like summer camp, only I'm the counselor, and my kids are my campers.

• Revele at 6 a.m.
• Breakfast at 7
• Off to the playing fields by 9: tennis, soccer and baseball.
  
• Then two hours of rest time, which means that I get to practice (full primary, going smoothly)
• 3 p.m, is swim time, only instead of a pool or a lake, it's the beach. When the lifeguards go off duty, it's...
  
• 5 p., and it's time for an outdoor shower to remove all the sand clinging to our bodies, after which we dress for late afternoon sports: lacrosse and basketball. This time, instead of participating, I hang with some of the other "counselors".
  
• Once this is done, it's about 7 p.m., and we take a"hike" before dinner, you know, to work up the appetite...a a two mile "out and back" to Ocean Bay Park.
  
• 8:30, we arrive back in time for a reservation at the mess hall, or rather, the Island Mermaid, whereupon I imbibe a Vodka Collins and some grilled and steamed vegetables and entertain my charges further by turning pipe cleaners into yogis and yoginis.
  
• Lights out is around 10:30, I settle in with my cheesy novel which is somehow strangely compelling.
• Eyes close around midnight, and the next thing you know, I'm being shaken awake by two anxious campers who are ready to begin the day anew.

And now it is time to go back to the real world, if only for a day and a half before leaving again for the Laurentian Mountains in Canada. Mont Tremblant, to be exact. I am sitting here waiting for the ferry, and praying that it comes ontime, that the traffic from Eastern Long Island back to New York City works in my favor such that I arrive in midtown in time for my Yoga For Breast Cancer Survivors Class.

A few discoveries I have made along the way:

• Mung bean sprouts taste much better the first day than they do after a few days of sprouting and an inch or so of root growth. MUCH sweeter when they are new sprouts.
• Vanilla fudge with a chocolate swirl is really, really, really good even if I don't know where on earth or under what circumstances the vanilla or cocoa beans were grown (hanging head in shame).
• Crickets are edible. Just ask Adam, who ate one at the Island Sweet Shoppe in exchange for the honor of having his Poloroid taken and placed on the wall for posterity (or at least until Labor Day) and donning a big-assed pin that reads, "Eating Bugs is Cool". Of course, the cricket was covered in chocolate. And again, I do not know from where that chocolate came or whether it was created in cruelty (turning my eyes away, pretending I can't see things that I don't want to see).
• Stories, even clever ones, about the Buddha that you hear at Shala Summer Camp do not translate to moms you meet on the bleachers outside a soccer field in Long Island. Remind me to tell you those stories. They are really sweet. And smart. And I know you will appreciate them.
• People who object to your dog barking in your house may very well break into your house, feed the dog and then lock you out. When you knock on their door to ask you if they saw anyone breaking into your home, they may very well admit to you that indeed it was they who trespassed upon your property and vandalized your cupboards and refrigerator. And then if you are lucky, they will send their grown son over to help you break into your own house because you never thought that anyone needed a key in Fire Island. Ooops. Then quite possibly, they will not recognize their son, asking, "Oh, is this your husband?" Ummmm. When the police came, I told them not to bother the poor woman. She had enough troubles of her own.
  

And on that odd note, here comes the ferry....

YC