Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Starting A Business is HARD! *Pout*

So this summer I really MEANT to use my free time and money to get the ball rolling on my custom made beaded jewelery business and start an etsy shop. Both of the aforementioned have been squandered all through out the summer. I mean I'm not BROKE right now, but I'm in no position to be spending a ton of money, either.

So I'll still make custom jewelery for anyone who is looking to buy. I'd love to work with people putting together custom pieces. My sister just got a beautiful pendant that I'm going to make a necklace with for her eventually.

I guess what is really going on in my head is that I'm getting anxious. There are sooo many things I had planned to do this summer that i did not do because I was busy, obviously. I was ok with letting a lot of these things slide but now I'm feeling really desperate about it. I mean, they're not even really IMPORTANT things, other than getting a job (which I'm working on and starting to get nervous because I haven't gotten many interviews) but some things I really just would have enjoyed doing. Like FINALLY finishing Jane Eyre and starting Moby Dick and making some jewelery. I'm not good at doing things on a shorter time frame either, so a lot of these are as good as screwed.

My room is also REALLY messy which is stressing me out. Bleh.

Thursday, August 12, 2010

Finishing What I Started

So yeah, I'm leaving tomorrow. When I look back it was overall a good experience working at camp courage. There were some shitty days, some REALLY shitty days, some good days, and some GREAT days. When I think back, though, I don't see days at all. I see moments. And I don't see the moments I wanted to throttle my coworkers (except the recent experiences today, but those will fade), I see happy moments. I see fun late night swims, spin the bottle truth or dare, the staff slip 'n' slide night, countless campers I fell in love with. I remember leading the MILK song at the top of my lungs, cabin staff who were SO helpful in my program area, conquering my fear of cares, and the awesome friends I made at Camp Courage.

I would say I don't want to leave, but you would all know that to be a lie. I do want to leave, but I don't want to leave the great memories. The fun things about memories is that you don't have to leave them! YAY!

Oh I also don't want to leave all the froggies. I love froggies.




Ok so I also wanted to tell you more specifically about this session! It was great that I didn't have several kids this session comment about my short stature (fun fact: even with communication disorders NO OTHER KIDS commented about my height that much! wth?!).

I worked and lived in the cabins, which was really fun! I actually had a girl tell me I was her favorite counselor! It was a lot of work this week, but it was a nice pace. I didn't get TOO stressed other than the stress of the end of the summer and wanting to go home. One girl, Emily, has been my buddy this session. Well, her and Rose who drew me an awesome picture of a purple cat. Emily said she wants to email and keep in touch after camp. I'm glad I made such an impact as a counselor! So it late and I REALLY need to shower the nasty sweat off of me from another intense game of "Zoo Break" so I'll try to write again within the next week!

Soooo Ready To Go Home!

So all day I have been gathering topics I want to write on right now and I hope I remember them all!

First of all, the title topic. I want to go home. This is a really fun session but some staff are really getting under my skin (which is expected at the end of the summer). So far today I had two fishing groups. One was decent, but the other? Holy crap. Thanks for NO help cabin staff. I was seriously so frustrated at the attitude and lack of help I got from the cabin staff. the kids were fine, it was the staff that was the problem. That should not be so. Also, right now I am remembering another reason I want to be done with this session. Our cabin is freaking FILLED with flies. They keep landing all over me and buzzing around my head as I try to write.

In good things, the other fishing groups have been great. For one group I pretty much didn't have to do anything. I mean I still did, but the kids were so on top of all of their stuff and the counselors were so in to helping with the hooks the kids couldn't get out that I could almost have put a line in, myself! Almost.

but yeah, there's a lot of stuff I'm getting sick of here. Working in the cabins is tough. I just want like 2 seconds of me time. Even now I am surrounded by screaming children.

Ok, so kids are freaking everywhere and I actually can't think enough right now to finish and post this. I'll add more later. Sorry for the lack of info!!





*Grumble grumble grumble* Effing flies. >:(

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

I Have Never Appreciated Rain So Much

So I've talked to a lot of people at home complaining about the heat. MY sister even posted how miserable it is on her blog and how she can't turn off her AC. Some other friends have had similar complaints and all I can say is this:

FREAKING WAH, GUYS!

Yes, we in Maple Lake are too experiencing the heat and humidity, but in this heat and humidity AC is not an option! Nor is going inside for extended amounts of time (not that you would want to because inside is worse than outside lately.

We got a break today. It was hot humid and rainy in the morning, but then it cooled down. Tomorrow, it will be hot, even MORE humid, and I will punch a newborn puppy in the face. I looked at the forecast. This heat won't break until two days AFTER camp ends. In the meantime I'll be leading fishing programs and when I'm not doing that I'm a counselor this week so I'll be doing whatever (probably outdoor) activities my cabin is doing.

Yes, I WILL complain about this. I will complain about this A LOT! I want AC and a hug!!!


In other news, this session is the celiac camp! Thats a genetic condition where the kids can't eat any gluten at all or bad things happen. Gluten is in pretty much everything and the kids can't normally go to camps because of this intolerance. There's not a lot of gluten free food offered anywhere. Also, gluten free chocolate chip cookies are incredible. I wanted to eat them forever.

I'm liking working in the cabins. The girls in my cabin think I'm crazy, and that's cool cause I guess I am. Today at the opening campfire (which we DID have after the rain cleared up) I was in a really awesome skit. You know the thing where you put your arms behind your back and the person behind you is your arms? I was the person in the front. Needless to say I ended up literally COVERED in apple sauce, water, soap, and shampoo from head to toe. My clothes from today are in the wash now. I had a ton of fun acting that part though and yelling fun things like, "OH I'M SOOO HUNGRY! I LIKE MY APPLESAUCE ON MY FOREHEAD! ITS MORE DELICIOUS THAT WAY!" also, at what other job is it not only acceptable, but ENCOURAGED that you do that while getting applesauce smeared on your face by someone standing behind you? No where. So I enjoy the opportunity.

I've noticed this pattern with me when I'm at camp where I'm either really tired or bouncing off the walls hyper and silly. I do it for the kids, of course..... :)

I don't know what else to write about right now and I really need to switch loads like 30 minutes ago. Oops. I guess my clothes will sit in the dryer over night. I'll write more later, though!

Monday, August 9, 2010

A Darn Good Night!

Last night was exactly what I needed. I've been stressed and upset all week and barely able to keep a happy face for the campers, much less my fellow staff (just ask them!). But last night was a huge opportunity to blow off steam.

It started off with my sitting outside of the dinning hall while all the kids were in their asthma education class. I was making a few calls under false pretence of verious reasons to NEED to talk to person X or person Y. In reality I was just lonely.

After I got off the phone on my last call my boss, Corey, approached me. Looking serious (and I assumed he was serious because he had been in a meeting through the whole evening program and had missed me dressed up like a beached whale so the meeting HAD TO be important) he told me that there would be a mandatory staff meeting at 9:30 and we all HAD TO be in the cabins so we could go to the meeting together. i tried to crack a job about how, "someone is in trouble!" and Corey didn't laugh. This scared me. Corey always laughs.

So 9:30 roled around and I was in the cabin and EVERYONE was flipping out thinking we were all gonna be fired. I was fine with it because I know they aren't about to fire all of us 5 days before the end of camp and I also knew I didn't do anything.

The evening watch people couldn't go the the meeting so in the girls cabin, we assigned people roles so we could reenact what happened at this meeting. I called playing Corey because I love pretending to be people who are much bigger than I.

So eventually one of my other bosses (I have a lot of them) Justin came to the cabin and told everyone who wasn't on evening watch to follow him. A little down the dirt road he stopped and turned to us and said, "I have seen staff areas left a mess before, but I have NEVER seen anything this bad." Now, I've seen the staff areas look awful and if this mess was even worse than that I KNEW we would be there allll night. Still, I felt like something was up. The staff areas were cleaned earlier that day.

What was even more strange was where he was bringing us. He brought us up to the door of the reception building which is where several people work and the only reason staff go there is to use the computers (as I am doing now). He stood at the door and waited for us all to get together. He opened the door and we cringed in fear but.... TA-DA!!! PARTY WITH ICE CREAM CAKE!!!

After the party with ice cream cake (we brought some cake back to the evening watchers) we did the thing that I now realize my childhood severely lacked. SLIP 'N' SLIIIIDE!!! A big one! Down a hill!!!

I seriously almost peed myself with excitement. I mean, SERIOUSLY. I went down once and then felt the urge come on STRONG! I ran to the nearest bathroom (all the way accross the feild) and I swear I almost pottied trying to get to the toilet. The one time I regret having a one piece swimmy suit. I went down several more times and then we tried to play in the mud but it literally smelled like poo. Then we went down to the lake and everyone jumped in and washed all the mud off! Then then THEN we played water ninja. Its like ninja BUT IN THE WATER!!! Holy crappenoli. Best night ever!

I went back to my living area and showered and my clothes were all stanky but now I'm washing them. I spent some time with Nikki too and we chatted. Such a fun night.

I'm still in a good mood from that and now the athsma kids are gone. Tomorrow the celiac camp gets here and four days later I'm done!!!

But seriously, why did I go so long in my life without slip 'n' sliding? WHY?!?!

Sunday, August 8, 2010

OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!!!!!!

The lunch fairies have blessed me today.

We have only had grilled cheese ONCE this whole summer and when we had it it was with chicken noodle soup. Today before lunch I thought to myself, "I really hope we have grilled cheese and tomato soup..." and VOILA!!!!! GRILLED CHEESE AND FREAKIN TOMATO SOUP! Commence day being MADE!!!

Ok, so I realize the title of this post pretty much only pertains to that short blip, but get over it. I'm the queen of random.

It has been almost a FULL WEEK since I have last posted! GASP!!!! See, when I'm at home I never think anything is memorable enough to post. I spent some great times with some great friends and worked my butt off on tons of apps because I NEED A JOB WHEN I GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!!

... I was gonna write about something but then I forgot.... crappin cupcakes.

Yesterday I celebrated (well not really celebrated since I'm away at camp and he is not) the 1 year anniversary of when Elliott and I started dating! The second time!!! DAAAWWWWWW!!!!

Yesterday I also found a TOOOOONNNNN of froggies. Their names were, in order: Geronimo, Luigi, Reginald, and Captain Stickypants(he climbed up the wall). This was all within 5 minutes of each other when I was walking to my room from the reception building at night. during the day yesterday I found a frog and a toad named Cindy and Bertha respectively. They were so fun!!! I love them all.

This week is not going as quickly as I thought it would, but its quick enough. The first four days are the asthma camp and the next four days will be celiac camp (gluten free food). I was nervous for the celiac camp because my mom informed me that it would be the, "meat and potato" week. Now I'm not too wary because I have been informed that the camp is so short because courage Center can't afford to pay the SPECIAL CHEFS all week! Yeah, chefs that specialize in gluten free foods. It was explained to me like this: These kids don't get good food 361 days out of the year. They always have to be super cautious of what they eat and the quality of gluten free is not always the best. Not to mention they can't go out to dinner because very few restaurants are gluten free. So when they're here, Courage Center sees to it that they eat well. Very very well. This works out for the staff too. :P

In between the two sessions I have one night off so its not worth going home. Instead, my dad and step mom will be meeting me in Maple Grove for dinner at Granite City. Yussss.....

So if I stop now the first and last topics will be food, thus justifying the title I had selected before I even started writing. Cool. I love pudding. I hope we have it for dessert.....

Monday, August 2, 2010

All About a Lot of Stuff

So the youth and oncology sessions week is over! I didn't work with the oncology camp much, but the youth camp was by far my favorite camp yet. The kids were 7-12 years old and all with physical disabilities. I don't know much about the boys cabin but I spent a LOT of time with the girls' cabin in which I worked. I'd say most of the girls had some form of cerebral palsy in a few cases combined with soemthing else. There were also some kids with extreme skeletal disfigurement, spina bifida, or extreme scoliosis.

So how did this week inspire me? Well the camp out was a fun experience because it was the first time I actually heard the girls talking about what I have always believed is the most special thing about Camp Courage. After bed time the girls were in their tent (and its funny how young girls think you can't hear through tent walls) and the topic of discussion was their favorite thing about Camp Courage. The girls shared with eachother their experiences at school being made fun of and left out because of their disabilities. One girl who over the week I became particularly attached to over the session (the one with the encyclopedia) said, "when I'm at school people make fun of me. When I'm at camp everyone is just like me. I belong here."

I was also pretty proud of myself at bedtime one night. One little girl, Julia, apparently became very attached to me very quickly because on just the second night one of my coworkers in the cabin who was working in Julia's room came to me in the room in which I was working and said, "Julia won't get out from underneath her bed. She likes you, so you should go get her out." Whaaaattt?! Someone prefers me?! Sweet!! So I went to Julia's room. She sat laid under her bed where she had been stubbornly yelling at other staff, refusing to come out from beneath her bed. I came to her and laid down on the floor next to her bed. "What's going on, Julia?" I asked, "why don't you come out here and talk to me?" She started bawling and crawled out from under her bed saying that she missed her mom and she wanted to go home. I convinced her to lay down in bed and I sat with her and comforted her. It took about 10 minutes of talking to her and rubbing her back, but I finally convinced her to go to bed and maybe we could call Mom in the morning. It was great to feel important. :)

I feel like I'm finally getting really comfortable in my job and I'm finally starting to rock at it. Too bad I only have two short sessions before its all over. At the end of this last session I said goodbye to about half the staff who would not be there for the next two sessions which are shorter and with fewer campers. I feel like most of the people who I have become closest friends with are done now and that kind of sucks. For the first session next week I will be a cabin staff as well as program staff so that will be interesting!

I'm starting to wonder what I'm going to do with my blog after I'm done at camp. I mean, camp gives me plenty to write about because its an experience that few people get to have, but I feel like college is routine and boring and the only note worthy thing I might do is a particularly fun saturday night or something. Even so, we have two more sessions, so keep checking back until then. I'll try to keep writing after camp, but no promises until next summer when I am hoping to take a 3 week course in Germany. Who knows?!