First off I must apologise to you all. This page doesn't really have anything to do with anything, it's just you see...

One session break camp offered to take people to the mall in Middletown (about a half hour away from camp). So I put Leanne and my names down. Because of scheduling issues, everyone was given an allotted time to go and get picked up. We got ready. This was the day after the staff photo was taken, and the trailer was still set up for the photo, so Leanne and I decided to pose for the alternate staff photo 2003.



Leanne and I were ready to go at 10am. But there was a problem. We didn’t leave until about a halfhour later. So Molly told us that she’d pick us up a halfhour later. That was cool, at least we hadn’t lost any of that oh-so-valuable shopping time.

Off we went a-shopping. We made our customary stop at Hot Topic where, as usual, I spent an obscene amount of money (well, obscene for camp wages anyway). The staff party was coming up so I bought some new trousers - my big baggy pants. I love ‘em - some pins, a wrist band (Thundercats, hell yeah!), and a hat. At first I’d had my eye on a "dork" hat, but as we were on our way to the counter another hat caught my eye. It was an Emily Strange hat. It had ears. It was cool. And it said "Emily" on the back. "Hey! My name’s Emily, dudes! I have to get that!"

So I did. And we went off shopping again.

~ Just a little thing about the hat here. It was actually really cool. At camp everyone knows your name. So the hat would cause great reactions. As I walked passed someone, first I’d see a slightly amused look on their faces like "what the crap is she wearing?" Then after I past them I’d turn around, as they had and see their expressions change as they saw the "Emily" written on the back. And they’d suddenly look impressed like "Whoa! Sweet! Her name is Emily! What are they odds?!" ~



Anyway, where was I?

With about half an hour left we went to the food court to get something to eat. Subway. Mmmmm... We ate and looked over our new stuff. I took my Cookie Monster beanie off and tried on my brand-spanking new Emily-has-ears hat. It was cool. In an "I’m a moron." kind of way.

Another ten minutes later something caught me eye. A bunch of girls, well women, in camp shirts had come into the food court and one of them looked just like a friend of mine from my soccer team back home in Sheffield. Dude! Weird. When she’d decided to go for a job in the US she’d asked for my advice so I knew she too was at a summer camp, but a few days before I left, she’d told me it was in Massachussetts. I puzzled it over for a second and then went back to chatting to Leanne.

But as I looked back up... damn
"Amy" I called out. Astonishingly, the girl looked around her as I called.

"Oh. My. God!" I remember saying to myself.

"Amy!" I called again, this time calling out her surname as well. She saw me. I saw her.

F*ck! It was Amy! Holy crap! F*cking hell! Dude! Dude!

"EMLEY! OH MAH GOD! EMLEY! IT’S ME FRIEND EMLEY FROM SHEFFYELD!"

We both started running over to each other. She screaming "EMLEY!" and me with my hat’s ears flapping about.

We hugged and laughed abit. It turned out she didn’t go to Massachussetts (duh!), but instead Camp Redwood (or something similar sounding. Redwood seems about right from what I remember though), about an hour away from my dear old Jened. They were here on a day out with the kids.

I didn’t talk much. I was shocked. Mainly by the fact that I’d met a friend from Sheffield in a little mall in a little town in the middle of nowhere, but also because it was the first time in three months that I’d talked to someone with a Sheffield accent... it was freaky! It was bizarre it was... northern. ;-)

After ten or so minutes she said she was going to get something to eat, but we could chat as she ate, that’s when Leanne reminded me, we were getting picked up in ten minutes.

I apologised to Amy and explained we were being picked up. So we hugged again, reiterated how cool it was meeting like this, and we got our respective friends to take a picture of us for posterity. And then I left.



I was in total shock for about an hour or so. I mean, dudes! If it wasn’t for our ride to the mall being a half hour late, we wouldn’t have even been in the mall then! What are the odds, dudes? What are the odds of both of us being in that food court of that little mall at the same time on the same day?...

Dude...