Thanks to TL and N, (names have been abbreviated to protect the guilty) I got to spend the weekend at Camp.

After talking to one of my non- New England friends, I have realized that “camp” may need some defining. I thought it was obvious, but evidently some people think it is a place people go to play musical instruments. Or to shed several pounds.

They would be wrong.

While there would be no reason musical instruments could not be included at Camp, the shedding of pounds will most definitely not happen. The exact opposite is much more likely.

Camp is a house on the water used mainly in the summer. It is a wonderful place to spend beautiful summer days reading books on the wharf, kayaking, playing cards or swimming off the boat. In other words, relaxing. It is heaven.

And when you spend the weekend at Camp with the right people, there are always lots of laughs.

There was an argument about my hair. Which I’m pretty sure I won. It is my hair after all. But TL was quite adamant I had been bald well into my teenage years. Or at least until I was 6. I happen to know baldness is something I am not likely to suffer from. I have a lot of hair. I learned this on several occasions when brushes have been lost trying to untangle it.

This required a call to my mother. Who at first said indeed I had been bald. But after further interrogation, conceded it may, in fact, have been my sister. So, like I said. I’m almost 98.9% sure I won that argument.

There was an afternoon of teaching N to play cribbage.

N is a hustler.

TL and I have both played cribbage for years. We played a few games to show N the ropes and help her catch up with us. I feel I need to point out here that I beat TL quite easily in all these games. Not because this is at all relevant to the story. But just because I want to rub it in.

But back to N being a hustler. During these learning sessions, she seemed to be quite confused and had a lot of questions. We thought maybe her playing a hand or two herself would be helpful.

So she played each of us. And beat us both.

Hustler.

I have no problem shamelessly tapping into beginners luck, however. This afternoon N and I teamed up for team cribbage and Canasta. When you are on the winning end of hustling, I can’t say it seems so bad. We are still undefeated.

And we took the boat out to the middle of the lake, moored ourselves to it, to prevent us losing it, and swam. It was lovely. And while I tried very hard to get bit by a fresh water shark in order to have an entertaining story to share with my friends, I was unsuccessful. Mostly because I’ve been told fresh water sharks do not exist. I am still skeptical. But I gave it my best shot.

I hope TL and N will invite me back at some point so I can give it another try.