Psyched!

Well, I'm now excited.

There was never any question of me just blowing Camp off entirely this summer, but I was thinking that I'd only be out there on a volunteer basis, weekends and that sort of thing.

A few other events fell together in ways that I really hadn't expected, and after talking it out with someone who knows me well ("Hi Mom!"), I decided to give Twinks (Tracie) a holler and see if she could use me for any of the summer.

This led to me getting scheduled for almost the entire summer. There's one week where they prefer that all the staff be college graduates. I may see if I can be a camper that week, just for a change of pace. There's something of a family event in June, so I have that first week off - the rest of the summer, right up to the weekend before school starts, I'm at Camp.

I state again: I am excited.

On top of this, I'm doing ropes again. Boo-yah.

Or, in the vernacular out here, Yee-haw.

And, to add yet another notch to the excitement, I'm cabin counseling. Usually, at camp, I bounce around a lot, a week at a time. Might be in the kitchen this week, cabin counseling this other week, do a week of just ropes, etc - but always returning to Day Camp. Which is fun, but cabin counseling's my favorite. You get to know your campers so much more, among other things.

Of course, it also has the most demanding schedule. With Day Camp, after seven at night, I just had some responsibilities to take care of - I didn't need to be in charge of anyone. Cabin counseling is being responsible for a dozen girls 22.5 hours of the day. If Twinks keeps this same schedule (they tend to be a little flexible), this will most definitely be a summer of stretching and growing for me.

This essentially has the summer booked. I'm home for a day, and then I'm off to Camp. Annnnd then after that, I can have Saturdays with the family or doing whatever non-Camp-related stuff needs doing. It's a little intense. We say, "Camp is life," but it really is for those three months.

And I love it. :D

Choir Concert!

Last night, we had a concert. I think it went well.

This would be the better-looking half of the show choir, and Gene.


Our show choir (General Delivery) meets every day, while the Concert Choir meets once a week. Surprise surprise, this means that GD's doing about eight pieces to the Choir's three. As this is the 60th anniversary of Sheridan College, this means doing a "through the years" pops concert.

How PDQ Bach's "Oedipus Tex" is considered a "through the years" piece, I have no idea. But it took the last half of the concert, and was highly entertaining. The hilarity is increased by the signing class - second-year ASL students have, as their final project for the class, taking different pieces that we perform and translating them for the audience. I didn't have anyone in the audience who could take pictures, but a few of the translators and all of our soloists for O.T. (as abbreviated everywhere in the work but the first page) dressed the part of the various wacky Texans that they need to be portraying.

On a nerd note, after seeing the ensemble he put together for this, Ross and I decided that if we ever have occasion to be together for a Halloween event, we're going as Mal and Inara from the Firefly series.

Bye Slicer!

Our furry bit of contraband is no more.

Well, to be more accurate, she's no longer contraband.

Slicer's gone home to Ashley's parents. I am sad. I will have to spend the weekend hanging out with the shy cats at the shelter.















That'd be her on my bed checking out my hat. She likes my room because the sun comes in all morning.

Ashley misses her, too, but she has Quaid and the rats to play with. Ah well.

Need a Hand?

Difficult to say exactly how Ross and I became such fast friends. We'd both lost a friend last year, and each had our own variation now on treasuring the people around you, because you never know how long they'll be there. This blended with the history we both had of working at camps - mine Christian, his BSA - the love of woods, fun we have with kids, and enjoyment of climbing.

Ross is also a member of the Order of the Arrow, which is kind of like the honor society of Boy Scouts. The fourth purpose of the OA is, "to crystallize the Scout habit of helpfulness into a life purpose of leadership in cheerful service to others," and that's Ross all over. He's naturally given to giving, helping, and serving. It's just the way he is, and he will often become mildly annoyed with anyone who tries to praise him for it.

One of the results of this combination - drive to serve and treasuring the people around you - is that I should remember to never ask him to do ANYTHING for me unless I'm okay with him doing everything that could be considered necessary for the task to be completed.

In this case, I spent Tuesday night and most of Wednesday rather sick, and Thursday ridiculously so. Since I really couldn't drive, I asked Ross if he could give me a ride to pick up some Dramamine and crackers on his usual Thursday-night-Taco-Bell-run. That was it! I just asked for a ride! He asked me what I had for food at that time. He then proceeded to go get half my grocery list, refuse to pick me up because I apparently need more rest, concocted an elaborately entertaining story about why I would never get to see the receipt, and remained very put-out that he hadn't managed to drag the other half out of me.

Admittedly, sometimes, when Ross is being helpful, he's very annoying about it. He's explained that if I would just accept him being helpful with a simple, "Thank you!" he wouldn't have to be such a nuisance.

I think it's part of growing up in a society that prizes independence, but I have a hard time accepting it when someone clearly goes out of their way to do something nice for me. I sincerely appreciate it, but I'm also not entirely comfortable with it. Ross has been working on breaking that mentality for the last seven months. :)

It's been a very nice day. :)

Me attempting to sleep in now means that I wake up...shortly before 8 a.m. Well then. No one else on the block is up then, so it's a good time to get in some reading and breakfast. My RA made cornbread the other day, and has indicated that it's for everyone. Excellent addition to breakfast.

Went biking for a little while. Last night I had a blast biking all around, just exploring the streets and trails and seeing where I ended up. This is more entertaining than it was last fall, because then I didn't really know the town. I would come out somewhere, and comment, "Huh. This is pretty. Where am I?" Now, I'll come out somewhere, and stare around me in amazement. "How did I end up here?!"

Of course, after everything I did yesterday, I'm now very sore, so I ended up squirreling around campus, and then just biking to the store to pick up a few things before admitting surrender and returning to the house for lunch.

As is the custom for Saturdays, lunch was followed by going off to play with the am-i-nals, which is therapeutic in its own fashion. It's comparable to receiving a massage, and having tension released from muscles you hadn't known it was residing in. Sitting in a pile of cats releases some kind of tension that you didn't even know you were holding. It's a good thing. Plus, come on - cats are awesome.

My RA's two-year-old niece is visiting our house for Easter. I will be completely useless for the next two days.

And, if events permit, I'm going to Lizzie and Ross's play tonight, which should be pretty cool. Theater is good, friends in theater is even better. Our director's been harping on us the value of live entertainment vs. recorded, and I think it's starting to take effect. :P

Er, hi again.

Oops.

I'd actually forgotten about this blog, and offer my apologies for the neglect. I'll try to get back into it.

After the accident, I'm now driving around a pretty sweet Park Avenue by the name of Charlie. Well, okay, I think it's pretty sweet. :)

One of the girls on our floor moved home at semester break, so Ashley moved into her room down the hall. Oddly, we still refer to each other as 'my roommate,' we just see a lot less of each other.

The weather up here continues to be positively bipolar. It's fairly normal to get a decent five inches of snow on Monday, and be wearing short sleeves on Thursday. Wyoming seems to always be either snowing, or melting. It never occurred to me that I would miss the stability of Minnesota. :)

And, as of today, I am a palindrome. :D Or, my age is, anyway. It's my birthday.