work was basically the same as yesterday, but 10 degrees hotter. we spent most of the day inside, accordingly.

after camp i worked the summer concert series, which recently moved to a new town park. a better town park. one that doesn’t require staff members to direct traffic for. so melissa and i basically spent the whole time either chatting with becky or handing out fliers to people around the park. it was a bit awkward, harassing all the soccer moms and such, but it’ll pay off when i can put an extra three hours on my time sheet. when the concert finished we didn’t even have to hike to westfall road to take down the banners, because shawn coincidentally almost ran over us in the parking lot in the town truck, so he drove us there and back, plus helped us with the banners and chairs. score.

first day of work? nailed it.

it’s awesome being in charge. today went so smoothly i couldn’t believe it. the kids are great, the staff is great, life in general is great. it’s all kind of weird though, leading. i mean, i’m only the assistant director, but it’s still a lot of authority. especially since i’ve been at french road for a few years already. and all the building staff already know me, so i was an excellent help when we needed to find someone to unlock the front door and to find us a water key. lol, it’s going to be a really great summer.

and tonight i saw hancock again with jon, capping off my good day. mike was supposed to come, but he got grounded because he has to go to summer school. sigh, high schoolers. lol.

(1) camp starts tomorrow! i’m half super nervous, half super psyched.

(2) someone stole the scooter license plate, and the dentmobile is at the mechanic. so i have to either ride my bike tomorrow or get a ride. i thought my days of being dependent were over! oh well.

(3) if you see me try to purchase a CD in the near future, please slap me or something. too many new CDs lately. i have acquired 26 in the last three weeks, 4 just today. not good.

(4) there is less than a month until breaking dawn, the final twilight novel is released (august 2nd)!!! i just finished rereading the series this afternoon, and it’s making me very antsy. when i read these books i get unnaturally caught up in them. it seriously takes me weeks after finishing them to get them out of my mind. any down time i have is spent thinking about them, i’m not even kidding. note to self: calm the hell down and get your OCD under control.

i just realized that i haven’t mentioned one word about camp orientation (oh the horror!).

day 1: director training
i’m sure i mentioned that i’m an assistant director this year, yes? if not, i am. i’m moving up the food chain, yo. anyway, my director is jeff, who i worked with at after school a bit last year. we make a good team, this summer will be excellent. training basically consisted of becky telling us things that us veterans already knew, but since half the staff is new this year, i was okay with that. after two hours of said training, i had to renew my first aid certification, which was really easy. the instructor basically told us everything that was on the test, and then gave us the test. afterwards i scootered home. the end.

day 2: camp orientation, part 1
my third time sitting through regular orientation. i characteristically got there a half an hour early and helped set up. the rest of the four or so hours was spent listening to becky and kasey (becky’s new assistant director) go over the policies and procedures manual. oh, and becky has become even more eager to use me in every single example she has, or to just generally talk about me in front of the entire camp staff. i guess that’s what i get for knowing her for seven years. but who am i kidding, i know i kind of like it. lol. anyway, we got out early, so jeff and i helped kasey split up the sports equipment. in turn, kasey let us pick what stuff our camp got. excellent. when we finished we had CPR/AED recertification. this time it was even easier—we all took the test together. afterwards i scootered home. the end.

day 3: camp orientation, part 2
this is the fun day. well, it’s fun after the sexual harassment lecture is finished. first we finally met all the french road camp staff. there are 16 of us this year! last year we only had 8. this is going to be insane. it’s because we have double the BOCES campers this year, and their program requires a ratio of 2:1; regular camp ratios are 8:1. most of our staff is new to french road this year, jeff included. for the first time ever, i’m the resident staff member. it’s strange. after our meet-and-greet, we played a gym game, made our camp posters, got our t-shirts and whistles (director shirt and blue whistle this year!), and planned the first week. then everyone packed our equipment up in their cars while i typed up the newsletter. when i finished making 50 copies, we hit the road, stopped for lunch at wendy’s, and eventually arrived at french road. we’re in the same room that we’ve been in for the past two summers, luckily. after bringing all the equipment in, we spent the rest of the afternoon moving the tables into the correct spot and organizing all our stuff. we ended the day by making our schedule (we have a pocket chard this year!). afterwards i drove home. the end.

CAKE TICKETS GO ON SALE TOMORROW.
9.28.2008

this is mainly for you, curls. and liz.

so, i saw WALL-E yesterday with liz and my dad…
omg, can you say BEST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER?

adorable/cute, funny/hilarious, et cetera/et al. action-packed, beautifully animated, a lil’ bit romantic, PERFECT. i could go on, really. if you don’t go see this movie, you’re obviously insane.

OMG AND WHEN WALL-E POWERS UP HE MAKES THE MAC BOOT UP SOUND! need i say more?

i really really like pink. like a lot. after redying my hair yesterday, i realized that i may even like pink a bit too much. lol. i have found that pink hair sometimes limits my choices of clothing an accessories (for example, red shirts look terrible with my hair), but as a rule, i always say yes to pink. i included photos of what i mean under the cut : )

( continue reading this entry! )

grandpa: what is that stuff?
liz: it’s hummus.
lan: yeah, chickpeas.
grandpa: lemme have some.
lan: hummus doesn’t really go with your cinnamon raisin bagel.
grandpa: it tastes like cat food.

FRES
school’s out! it was a fun day full of sugar and insanity. candy, cookies, and ice cream made the kids off-the-walls crazy. but it was a good day. we watched finding nemo and ice age, we had recess for two hours, we played bingo. oh, i got lots of handmade cards from the kids, complete with more bath and body works products than you could believe. so cute. it was so sad when the final bell rang, though. after several bone-crushing hugs, it was time to say goodbye.

okay, so when i went to FRES, the school year ended with the buses going around the bus loop three times and the teachers stand ing and waving as they past by. well, that was the tradition up until last year. now the buses stay in park and the teacher walk around them. i asked the principal why they stopped doing it and he said, “it’s an accident waiting to happen.” LAME. well anyway, i walked around the buses with all the other teachers and waved to everyone. passing the brighton rec bus was insane, lol.

BRIGHTON REC
the kids were really tired from school (can you say sugar crash?), so it was a pretty easy-going afternoon. we had more ice cream and popsicles, and spent even more time outside. it was kind of like a mini-version of my day at FRES. once again, it was sad to say goodbye to all the kids. most of them don’t go to the camp i work at, so i won’t see them again until i have my thanksgiving break in november (!). as for the staff, i’m not sad to say goodbye to them. i kid, i kid. orientation is monday, so i’ll see them again monday. lol.

tomorrow is the last day of school for brighton. this means it’s the last day at FRES, and the last day at after school. but camp orientation starts monday, so i really only have thursday and friday off. and then i’m working staright through until fall semester!

anyways, i’m so sad! i’m going to miss all my kidlets. today was the end of the year celebration at FRES, which was really fun, actually. they started off with an assembly and did staff recognition stuff, which the kids of course got really into (clapping, yelling, et cetera). i got to stand up when they got to teaching assistants, and suddenly i was surrounded by children shouting “LANNI!” even though i’m fairly sure they know they aren’t supposed to call me that. haha. after that they did a photo slideshow, which was really cute. the rest of the day was spent outside on a bunch of blow-up rides the school had rented, along with a dunk tank and a face painting booth. kinda like a mini carnival. the kids had a blast, and it was nice hanging out with the 4th and 5th graders that i never get to see because they’re on the other side of the building. all in all, a good second-to-last day.

brighton rec was swell, as usual. played some kickball, played some wallball, played some cards, played some cat’s cradle, played some “let’s all sit around lanni and rant about our lives.” good day.