last day of the first week!

it was pretend new year’s, so we made cute party hats and toasted 12:00 (pm) with cups of W-UP. well, we were running a bit late, and it was actually 12:04, but luck was on our side—the clock stopped at 10:01 yesterday and hasn’t started back up since! haha, the kids didn’t even know the difference. muhahahaha.

tonight abby and i saw journey to the center of the earth, mostly because we are madly in love with brendan fraser. believe it or not, it’s really not that bad. we didn’t see it in 3D (i’m not paying 3 extra dollars for a headache!), but i still thought it was pretty cool. nothing epic though.

oh, and i bought my dark knight ticket tonight! i am SO psyched for thursday : )

today agent Y came up to me and said:
“um, excuse me ma’am, can you watch me boogie?”
AND THEN HE DID.

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.

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.

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.

today was aussie day at FRES. basically they just felt bad for the third graders (because the fourth and fifth graders all got to go on field trips), so they showed a movie about australia in the cafetorium, and voila, aussie day. some of the classes got to make rainsticks, but our class couldn’t be trusted with hammers (not kidding) so we instead did australian bingo. it’s really just regular bingo, except with words about australia written on the boards. super exciting.

brighton rec has been pretty good this week, actually. we only had 20 or so kids (we usually have 40+), due to the field trips, so it was an easygoing afternoon. the highlight was when i saw some kids playing monopoly with three dice, and when i asked them why, one kid responded, “they were in the box.” am i the only one that finds that unbearably hilarious? omg.

oh, and i saw get smart tonight. i was a little sad when i saw that the newspaper gave it a 4/10, but i really enjoyed it! i’ve never seen the tv show, but i still thought it was hilarious. plus steve carell is awesome. the movie isn’t overally remarkable, but it’s a good summer movie. which reminds me, i passed the halfway point of my 100 movies in 2008 goal. i’m at 56 : )

max: chief, are you thinking what i’m thinking?
chief: i don’t know, were you thinking “holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went through my head!?”

FRES:
i’m really having a super fun time, for reals. the kids are a handful and a half, but i’m really learning a lot. the kids call me the assistant teacher (makes me smile every time), and i think i’ve struck a balance between being a disciplinarian and being a friend, which is good. and i’m getting pretty good at reading books aloud. and i’m enjoying the grade school flashbacks that i’ve fallen victim to. oh, and did i mention that instead of doing 25 hours of service learning (the required amount), i’m doing around 150 hours? hahaha.

BRIGHTON REC:
nothing really special to write home here. it’s pretty much the same as always. i play games all day and get to hang out with my friends, and i get paid for it. plus the kids are awesome. duh.

MCC:
i got 100 on my first paper! i had another due today, and i have high hopes for that one too. the class itself is… odd. i expected a college-level course about writing, but it seems like i’m just relearning (not that i forgot) all the essay-writing skills that i developed in high school. we went over how to format an essay (paragraph one: introduction (hook + thesis), paragraph 2: body paragraph (topic sentence, information with examples, transition statement)…) for friggin’ an hour and a half. for serious?

i’m officially a full-time employee of the brighton central school district. well, for the rest of the year at least. thirteen more days of telling kids to be quiet, grading papers while they’re at music or gym, reading countless dr. seuss books to the class, playing math “games,” being attacked by swarms of brighton rec kids, and just having fun.

and i now respond to more names than ever before.
- Lanni (preferred first name)
- Alanna (full first name)
- Lan (what my friends call me)
- Louise (what select brighton rec kids call me, jokingly)
- Miss M. (what i tell the students to call me)
- Mrs. M. (what the less observant ones call me)
- Miss Maszerowski (what it says on my school badge)
- Pinky (what several brighton rec kids call me, along with their parents)
- Pinky Tuscadero (what shawn from brighton rec and lisa from FRES call me)
- Lanster Monster (what alexa from geneseo calls me)
- Lanno (what sruthi from school calls me)
- Dr. Lan (my stage name)
- Lani (a mispronunciation of my name — a short a instead of a long a — that i hate)
- Punkin (what my mom calls me)

know any more? i pro’ly left a few off.

today i subbed at FRES. except it wasn’t really subbing, because i wasn’t filling in for anyone. i was instead a TA (teaching assistant) for a teacher with a difficult to manage class.

at 8:45am i had a short meeting with the principal, mr. hall, who happens to have been my vice principal for my four years of high school. then he took me down to the class, which i knew nothing about ’til i got there. turns out it was a 3rd grade class, and they were effing rowdy, let me just say that now.

i spent the entire day with the students, except for at lunch when i obvs ate in the teacher’s lounge. really i just walk around the room and either tell students to quiet down or to sit at their desk and such, or i help them with what they’re working on. i also graded papers, which was a new experience. and at recess i played on the playground with a group of boys (mr. hall recommended i get involved in recess, which i had no problem with).

like i said before, the kids are rowdy as hell, and i can totally understand why the teacher needs some help. she’s a great teacher, but these kids are out of control. and they just rile each other up. mr. hall told me if the teacher feels i’m helping out enough (i’m also working tomorrow), i will be a TA for the rest of the school year. how great would that be? but i won’t get my hopes up.

oh, and i saw like five billion brighton rec kids, especially when i dropped the class off at lunch. that was a mistake. i’ve never had that many kids surround me at once, i swear. and i constantly heard “lanni!” or “pinky!” or “louise!” as i walked down the hall. hahaha.