Camp

Me -I   have been  going  to  camp  since  I   was  four. Yet, I only liked it when I was younger. Once you get older, all you do is sports most of the day except for going swimming and a few other activities.  For three years, I went to Ivy League Day Camp. The next summer I went to All Star Day Camp. I didn't like it at all, all we did was either we went on trips or we sat around all day and made lanyards and about once a week went swimming. The camp also lied. On my first day, they gave out little animal shaped rubber bands and said they gave them out every day. They only gave them out twice the whole time I was there. However, one thing I liked about that camp was I got to jump off a really high diving board for the first time. You had to pass a test to go on the diving boards or swim in the deep end. I passed the test. Now, I have a lot of confidence when I am jumping off high things. The next year, I went back to Ivy League, but it was then that I realized once you get older all you do is sports. I didn't like that. This summer, I am going to a sleep away camp for my very first time. My Mom, Dad, Sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and I went on a tour of the camp, and it is awesome! I am so excited to go, but I'm a little scared. It is my first time being away from home for THREE  whole weeks! I am already packed up with two duffel bags. My Dad and brother will be dropping me off at camp. They are not allowed to take me to my cabin. I am not really sure if I'm going to make any friends, but the lady who took us on the tour introduced me to a girl who will be in my bunk and a girl who is a year older and I may see around camp. However, I don't even remember their names.
                                                     Wish Me A Lot  Of  Luck


Mom - I went to camp a few times when I was young  I never really liked it. I found that camp was mostly about sports, and I never really liked sports. Besides, I was this quiet little thing, and I didn't really like to participate in any of the camp activities much. When I was a little older, I went to sleep away camp. I didn't like that much either even though it was a more specialized camp, and I didn't have to do sports at all. I just didn't like being away that much and all I could think about was how to get my parents to let me come home. I ended up there for 6 weeks though and even managed to let my parents talk me into staying for the second 3 weeks after the first 3 were up. When I was a little older, I went to a traveling camp. It was a traveling camp where we went to a different place every day and then came home at night not one where we traveled around the country or anything. I liked that pretty much. It was fun to go to different places all the time and to not have to do sports or anything. Of course, some of the places we traveled were better than others. I loved the Bronx Zoo and Washington, D.C. (we went there on an overnight trip) and Great Adventure amusement park among other places. Some places, I didn't like as much. For instance, I didn't like that a few times a week we went to a state park and went swimming. I didn't really like swimming in a lake and there was not much else to do there.When I was in high school, I worked at day camp for two summers. I worked at a preschool camp. I didn't make much money, but the kids were adorable and it was a lot of fun. I liked working at camp much better than I ever liked going to camp. My mother is always telling me now that I should get a job in a camp for the summer so my kids can go for free. However, now that I have kids of my own the thrill of being with other people's kids all day every day all summer long is kind of gone. So I don't think I'll do that.

And that's our view. Tune in again for another topic.

Family Relationships

Me - I love my whole family, but I am closer to my Mom than my Dad. I am closer to my grandma than my grandpa. My grandpa always says "What am I chopped liver?" This year on Passover someone said "Pass the Chopped Liver." I said "Grandpa, you're chopped liver they're calling for you." I am close to my sister also. I am not fond of my brother at all. He is not fond of me either. That is why it is good that he lives in Florida with his Mom, and I live in New Jersey with mine. Sometimes, blogging with my Mom makes me feel closer to her; sometimes it doesn't because we fight over what we want to blog about. My sister, Aurella, and I have an extreme love-hate relationship. One minute we are happily playing together and the next she hates me or I am mad at her usually because of stupid reasons. I am really close to my grandma. She is my phone buddy. I call her and tell her everything. I love to sleep at her house. She is so good to me. She buys me things and lets me stay up late and helps me with things like math homework. My Mom is my best buddy,  and I love her very much. We get along really well when neither of us is being annoying. The same is true of my sister, Aurella, and I. My mom always says that she hopes when my sister and I grow up, we will still be close. For example, call each other a lot and see each other a lot and let our kids play together all the time. My Dad says I am closest to whoever gets me what I want. I know I am closer to my Mom because for one thing, when my Dad yells at me I run to my Mom when my Mom yells at me I still run to my Mom. When I have problems in school, my Mom always lets me talk about it and helps me solve my problem. Sometimes, she e-mails my school guidance counselor so I can talk to her. When we have time, she gives me 15 minutes a day so we can talk about my day. I am closest to my Mom, my sister and my grandma of anyone in my family.

Mom- When I was young I was very close to my Dad. When I got older and got married and had kids of my own, I became closer to my Mom. My brother and sister and I were close when we were little although my brother and sister fought all the time. Now, that we are older, I am not especially close to either of them. I see them at holiday gatherings and stuff, and we get along. If I really needed them they would be there and vice versa. However, are we not especially close. We never call each other just out of the blue or just to say hi or anything like that. We don't spend a lot of time together outside of  big family ocassions. Part of that is because they live in New York City, and I live in New Jersey. When we do get together we get along, and our kids really enjoy spending time together and playing together. I'm glad for that. I have a cousin who is 2 years older than me and when I was young I was really close to her, and I remember what that was like. Since, then things have happened in the family, and we have drifted apart. It was nice to have somebody in the family close to my age who I was close with when I was young though. Of course, I love both my daughters, but my older daughter is and always has been much more of mama's girl and my younger daughter is more of a daddy's girl. I am close to both of them though. I guess there will come a time when neither of them wants anything to do with me until they are adults, but I am not looking forward to that. Besides, it might not happen that way or at least not for both my daughters. There was never at time when I was not close to my parents or didn't want to be around them. I was kind of on the quiet side growing up though. My younger daughter is kind of quiet too, but not as much as I was. My older daughter is more outgoing like her Dad. I love and am proud of them both. I always will  love and be proud of them even  if there does come a time when they don't want to be seen with me.

And, that's our view. Tune in again for another topic.

The Royal Wedding

Me - Me and my mom watched a lot of news coverage about the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Kate is a beautiful woman. Prince William is very handsome. They make a great couple. I can tell by the way they kept looking at each other, that they are really in love, much more than his parents were. On one of the news shows, they showed Charles and Diana's wedding, and they weren't looking at each other at all. Not only did Prince William and Kate kiss one time, they kissed twice. The newscasters showed it over and over again. Kate kept looking at Prince William lovingly. He kept looking at her the same way. The royal wedding was the main story in the newspaper and probably will be in next week's People Magazine. There were so many people at the wedding. It looked as if there were billions of people there and that's only the people outside not even the people that actually attended the wedding. When me and my Mom were watching, I asked if that many people would be watching my wedding on a screen outside the building and on TV. Even though my mom sweetly answered "no Melia",  I thought in her mind she was saying "in your dreams". It's too bad that I won't have a wedding like that, unless I move to England and marry a prince than my wedding would be as big a deal as theirs. I'd be all over the TV, newspaper and magazines. Now that would be cool! In any case, I hope that Prince William and Kate Middleton will love each other forever and have a long and happy marriage. And, I hope that they have a little adorable baby girl that behaves well.

Mom - Although a lot of people may think that there was much too much hype about and media attention to the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, I for one enjoyed it. I mean I didn't get up at 4:00 in the morning to watch it live or anything. However, Melia and I enjoyed hearing and seeing everything about it on all the news shows on Friday night. It was so nice to see the news dominated by something good for a change instead of another tragedy. Kate was certainly a beautiful bride. I personally think she is prettier than Princess Diana was, and Prince William is a lot better looking than his father is. They make a beauttiful couple. More importantly, I have rarely if ever seen a couple so in love. They way they kept looking at each other so lovingly was to me the best part of the whole wedding. I mean if you look at Prince Charles and Diana's wedding, it makes you wonder if they were ever in love. They never looked at each other like that. It was like the divorce was foretold even from the beginning. I don't think they were ever  really friends either. It was like they were expected to marry and they did so that was that. Kate and William started off as friends and got married because they wanted to because they were in love and not because they had to. I think the marriage is going to last and I really hope it does not just for them but for all of us. I mean even if  their lives are not exactly a faiy tale, after all, nobody's is, it is certainly more of a fairytale than my life or the life of anyone  I know. We all need a little bit of fairy tale in our lives. I appreciate William and Katherine for providing that to us. I hope they continue to provide it for many years to come.

And that's our view. Tune in again for another topic.