I was promised a surprise today and said it wouldn’t happen. Wrong. Cutecutecutecute. I’m a lucky girl.

I miss my coworkers. I miss my kids.

I miss Benn. He wasn’t even my camper, but he is one of the most amazing kids I know. (I also miss Jonathan Tucker, featured with Benn.)

I miss Branson and how he’s everything I like about kids.

I miss these girls and love the fact that this was a Monday night…

I miss Elizabeth, the most adorable and most well-behaved 5 year old I’ve ever known.

I MISS THIS KID!! Mostly because he got his foot stepped on during a game and started crying. Then Andrew let him stomp on his foot to make him feel better and this kid says “Now I am crying tears of joy!” Also, sweetest thing to exist.

I miss Clay! And how he is ridiculous and how he came back later in the summer to pick up his siblings and gave me a huge hug.

I miss this entire group. Even if this entire week exhausted and depressed me, these kids are amazing.

I miss Tyler and his slightly inappropriate touch problem (not that so much) and how he would’ve done anything for anyone.

I miss and love all of these guys. All of them. Especially those 3 closest to me. Evan, Kathleen, and PJ are some of the most genuine and hilarious people I know. They should live with me always.

Kids are cool.

Playing all day was so much more fun than going to class and studying for the three tests you have on Monday.

This entire blog is about camp, more or less. It happens.

I miss getting to see the world from the eyes of a child. Everything is so much cooler and so much more exciting when you’re 8. Not that I’d ever want to be 8 again myself, but life is much more enjoyable when your job forces you to stay young. Like I’ve been saying, I was paid to be silly.

Now I’m paying to study. Boo.

So the second to last post I wrote, which, granted, was over 2 months ago (oops) is ironic and kinda painful looking back on it. That week ended up being the worst of my summer. Not because my campers and co weren’t amazing, because I love Jonathan dearly and that group was so much fun and so so so good to each other. But I didn’t want to be at camp that week. I slept but never rested. My mom got super pissed at me. I had to send one of the best campers home because his dad died. I was so excited about that week, but it exhausted me. Things aren’t what you expect them to be, I guess.
But I wouldn’t change it.

This semester is ridiculous. I hate trying to play catch up with all of my work…I don’t want to do it anyway but the more I put it off, the more I’m sure I’m gonna fail my life. I need to figure out what I’m doing for the rest of my life, or at least for the next 2 (maybe 3, bah) years. Right now I’m guessing psych major…but that is the cop-out-iest of all majors (I could be a Soc or SWAG major I guess…not that they’re not legitimate. but really?) so I have to take a second major. For me. For pride. It keeps changing though…I thought environmental science cause hey, I like the environment right? Well sure, but mainly, I like the outdoors. I don’t like science or numbers or chemistry or 4 hour labs. I should’ve gone to a school that offered the major I’ve wanted all along anyway…but not a lot of (legitimate) colleges offer outdoor education. SEGUE! So no I’m thinking Curry School. I could be a teacher, right? Starting a major in my third year suckssss…but it can be done, I guess. But there goes the Middle Eastern Studies minor I had my eye on.
Yeah, I was for real gonna major in Psych and Envi Sci and minor in Middle Eastern Studies. I’d psychoanalyze environmentalists in Lebanon or something, I guess. Who knows.
Maybe I’ll be a early childhood special ed teacher…which requires a psych major. Justify my slackiness. Also, rewarding much?
Stream of consciousness figuring out my life for the win.
Also, I need a job.
Also, to stop wasting time and read some of the hundreds of pages I’m behind on. Though I did do some Arabic…which is so fucking hard! Why was that ever a good idea! More importantly, why is it a good idea to start the 201 students in the middle of the standard textbook that we didn’t use? I understand it’s basically the standard by which all elementary Arabic is taught, but um that whole first half of the book? I don’t know any of it beyond the basic concepts. That makes consequent chapters a real breeze.

Bitching aside, a moment of zen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swEcsZTxPc

I hate having an anus up my rectum.
Brief diatribe before I work:
Brother Micah is indeed a madman. Not necessarily for his (eXtreme) “faith” and ideals, but because he thinks his methods of preaching reach anybody. In my experience, fire and brimstone doesn’t really inspire the flock. Even assuming a Christian viewpoint, what he says is totally out of line. He’s free from sin, apparently, because he repented once. Best (meaning soundest, not most entertaining, because there were tons of those) comebacks: “Do you shower one day and get dirty the next?” But despite his huge entertainment value, I wish people in general (not just here, since I think he’s actually gone now) would just stop listening. While it’s both fun and infuriating to try to engage in some kind of debate with the man, he’s not changing our minds and we’re not changing his. His “It’s not okay to be gay” song might be a smash hit (I hope I hope I hope) but it’s loud and obnoxious and a disturbance of the peace. That I actively engaged in for like 3 days. Whatever.

WORKKKK.

Being carried to bed is the sweetest thing ever. Shetal and Max are too cute.

I have nothing more interesting than this.

This coming week, I get to work with Jonathan again…I had him with our amazing and adorable and perfectly well-behaved mini campers last week. And we have senior high night owls. Which means we stay up all through the night until breakfast, sleep through the entire day, then wake up for dinner. It’s going to be a ton of fun, we do everything at night…high ropes, wall, swimming, sunrise hike at Sharp Top, perhaps caving…amazing. And we sleep in the AC, all through the hot part of the day. Fun stuff. But…I can’t imagine how it’s going to be recovering from that ridic sleep schedule. I also have to drag myself through the entire night tomorrow night if I have a prayer of living through the week. Still, it should be a ton of fun…with our freaking 17 campers.

Last week, also amazing. 5 and 6 year olds can be a handful but the whole 8 of them their were last week (for 3 days) were amazing and adorable. And then I got to spend the rest of the week with the coworkers I so adore. And THEN got spoiled with a weekend with something ELSE I love. It was wonderful, but now sleeping is lonely. Yeah, I’m sappy and just gave an itinerary of my life for the past week or so but. whatever. I don’t have anything clever to say…ever, really. But I am very happy with my life, and I’m all about documenting that.

If it’s the 4th of July, and you hate baseball, going to a game to see fireworks might be an okay trade off. However, when that baseball game lasts until ELEVEN THIRTY, it’s not. Luckily enough, we skipped out and watched pyrotechnics do their job from the roof. Seriously, who stays for a million extra innings…

I think I’m alright at being thankful but need to be more grateful. Blurry distinction but important anyway.
/two sentence and no more thought

My first week at camp was…ridiculous. My kids were absolutely crazy and wonderful. The way the first week was run was kind of iffy and one night, dinner was only a baked potato. Other than that, what can I say? I get paid to hang out with kids, do fun stuff, and be silly all the time. And nothing’s as fun as camp quotes, so here’s another installment.

Stephen and Branson: The gangsta washes the dishes. He’s probably with his gang right now.
Willoughby: This is god camp, not profiling camp.

Stephen: I’m running with propane!!

Grace: I hope a tornado hits the lodge and only takes the trim.

TK: Andrew, looks like you gotta do it.
Andrew: Well at least I’ve got practice.
TK: At removing ticks from other people’s genitals?!

?: My balls itch.
@: Yeah, it’s a guy thing.
?: Well I hope so, it usually is.

Jonathan: I feel so gay…

JJ: My best friend is a shark.

Tiffany: was it on…”the place”
TK: yes, “the place.
Tiffany: what do I call that?
TK: ummm….testicles.
Tiffany: there’s more than one??
TK: he’s got TWO!

Mimi: What do blind people rely on?
Ida: SONAR!

Daniel: What is that in your hand?
Ann Marie: a posthole digger
Daniel: why?
Ann Marie: I was digging a hole
Daniel: …..creepy.

some kid: if it wasn’t for fire, we’d still be eating caviar

Danielle: I’m allowed to drink anything I want…well, anything I want that’s legal

Charlotte: Lindsay, NOBODY likes to be fat. If you’re fat, you’re really heavy.

It’s kind of lame to just have 40 hours off every weekend, especially since I want to be sleeping most of that time (even though I’m exhausted right now…just can’t sleep). I’m glad, though, that my family decided to go to Richmond today so I could spend all of my hard-earned money and punctuate my pathetic loneliness with the company of a cool kid after one week rather than four. Camp’s great and better than home, really, but I miss being at school, living with my best friends (even though I’m kind of doing that now. I adore the people I work with) and having easy access to my favorite people.
Meh. In the meantime, I’m on support staff this week, which will either be great or depressing. Probably will lean towards great if I get some mail for the FIRST TIME IN THREE WEEKS. haha. sad face.

because I’m not eloquent enough to talk about the rest of staff training. but here’s some stuff I’ve kept record of.

“Walking in the dark ain’t nothing but my job” – Jonathan rapping

“Upside down….pineapple cake?” – Rebekah (4 year old bosses’ daughter)

“How can you tell if a giraffe has been in your refrigerator? Cause he ate all your cabbage and lettuce!” – Rebekah

Grace: I found a dead black widow.
Jonathan: Your mom is a dead black widow.
(later) Jonathan: so much for going to heaven.

Brittany: That dog loves you.
Jonathan (turning to dog): I love someone else.

Mimi: We used to eat triplets.

First Aid video: Amputations are injuries that can cause bleeding.

Thomas: I want my intestines to be a person!

Willoughby gets up before speaking to go to the bathroom.
Holly: Can I take your spot?
Willoughby: um, for a second
Holly: No, can I go number 2?

Monday June 2

It really is good to be back here. You can get caught with the familiar and get disappointed if it isn’t exactly how you left it (just like I’d be disappointed if I expected this summer to go as well and in the same way as last), but it’s also really easy and nice to fall back into a routine in a comfortable place with comfortable people. There are, of course, always, people I’m not big fans of…meh. But the rest I’m already good friends with, which is always good. Maybe it’s not always a good thing to be good friends with your boss and your coworkers (I just said good so many times), but it only helps here. Hooray. I don’t know, it’s noon on the second day and I’m tired already…probably because I was thinking about how exhausted I was last summer and it made me tired in anticipation.
But anyway, so last night at midnight I set up my slackline and played around on it with a couple of people. Found the perfect spot, right outside (what I hope will get cleaned out and become again) the staff lounge. It wasn’t too well lit, but a headlamp and not caring fixed that. I thought about leaving it til morning but didn’t want to do the dew, so. I took it down. And now after a morning of scrubbing pie irons, talking about what a counselor should be (handsome and “enthusiastically good”), and a nature hike, I’m sitting in the dark hogan on Flora until lunch. Baller.

Saturday June 7, 2008

It’s crazy how much days can run together—how one day seems forever long and you can’t even remember what you did, and how the entire timeline of a week can be totally blurred to just include “things I did this week” with no specific timeframe. We went on the trail on Thursday, which was a lot of fun, minus whiners who shouldn’t be employed here (why would you work at a camp if you hated strenuous activity AND the outdoors?) and not knowing exactly where to stop. We hiked from Petites Gap to the footbridge on the James, which ended up only being 10 miles. We also started after lunch Thursday and were done at 10:30 on Friday, so that was pretty good. Thru-hikers are some of the coolest people you can meet, as long as they haven’t already been jaded by an obnoxious large group (which we kind of were). We met these two guys from Israel who started us off at Petites Gap with a Hebrew chant of encouragement and ended up passing us at some point and being at the shelter when we got there. It was this father and son (25 and 50?) who had done all the major trails in Israel I guess, and they found the AT online and decided they wanted to do it together. So they picked up to the US to hike the whole thing. It’s so cool that they did that, and they were supremely nice people. I love when you’re reminded of just how many people there are that you’ll never know…probably tons of them with amazing stories that you’d love to know but never will. It’s awesome when you meet some of those people, feel inadequate about yourself, and are moved to go and do and see just to absorb all the diversity that the world is obviously teeming with.

On that note…today was a wonderful day. We got to stay in the AC all day, doing CPR and first aid training, then played with my bosses’ amazing kids, and got done by 8:20. That’s 12 whole hours all to myself. I love how getting done at 8:20 on a Saturday means a short workday, but whatever. I got a glorious shower and get to fart around until I go to bed early, if I can bring myself to. Something we were talking about today did get me thinking though, and reminded me of why I love this job so much. There really is no such thing as a bad kid. My old (wonderful) boss Zack used to say that all the time, and I love that it’s true. There are behaviors that are bad, and things we don’t like that kids do, but there’s no such thing as a bad kid; every bad behavior exists for a reason, whether it’s because they were taught bad habits, don’t get enough attention, or don’t get enough discipline. There’s always a reason though, and in almost all cases, there’s also a remedy. With the right kind of attention and love, all kids are good kids. I get to see that all the time. I love it. I also love the already good kids; the super perceptive ones, who come up to you and ask if that girl is homesick and what they can do to help. It’s amazing to me the depth to which kids understand things and really can achieve things…I know I really really love kids, but I also love just the fact that such young people can have so much to offer, and also that they have so much wonder about the world. It’s exciting when kids get excited about things like nature and how things work; being around that makes you young again. And even if you don’t like kids, you have to like seeing the world like one, because there’s nothing like it.

I might love my job too much. I should think about something else to talk about.

…achieving the perfect foot-five. [foot high five? high foot five?] Nothing warms the heart more.

I’m not actually kidding.

Camp Hat Creek
7141 Hat Creek Rd
Brookneal VA 24528

write me a letter. I’m back to the woods for two months, but only two weeks in this first dose.