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.

(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.

monroe community college: taking ENG101
may 27 - jul. 2 (6:00pm-9:40pm)

after school program: back to brighton rec.
may 15 - june 26 (3:00pm-6:00pm)

french road elementary school: for my service learning
may TBD - june TBD (9:10am-3:10pm)

brighton camp orientation: training for the summer
june 30- july 2 (9:00am-3:00pm)

french road camp: i’m the assistant director!
july 7 - aug. 16 (8:30am-3:30pm)

see some flaws in these plans? all the times overlap. and how the hell am i going to get from place to place on my BIKE? it’s going to suck bumming rides off my mom all the time, but i really can’t see how i can get from french road elementary school to work (late) and then leave brighton rec (early) to go to class (on time). i really hate being dependent on people to get me places on time.

i’m so sad! today was the last day of betwixt and between, which means today was the last day of work until i either a) get a new job, or b) next summer when camp starts again. work has kind of become a really big part of my life and i’m going to miss it so much. i hope that some of my breaks align with the break camps so i can work those, but they probably won’t. *sob*

so, ONE WEEK UNTIL I MOVE OUT OF BRIGHTON AND INTO GENESEO. this is insane. i have only contemplated packing, nothing more than that. next week is going to be insanity.

“betwixt and between” camp started today. it’s only a week, and it’s different hours (1-6pm), but it’s a job, and i’m doing it. the kids are pro’ly 10 times insaner than our camp’s, but at least i’m working with people i like (melissa and andy). we don’t have a really definite schedule, so it’s kind of hectic, but you know.

stabby, liz, and i went to see hairspray yet again (third time!). it’s so amazing, i even bought the soundtrack a few days ago and i’ve been listening to it nonstop. </nerd>

i’m so sad, today was the last day of camp :’(

it was a kind of mixed up day, since we had to move our afternoon activities to the morning because we had a party after lunch, in which we ate pizza and hit the piñata that we made (the littlest kid was the one that did it, it was hilarious). and since it was the last day, after the party we had to clean, but we thought ahead and came in earlier that morning and did most of the time-consuming stuff. so then while everyone was in the gym, three of us did the other necessary things, so that we didn’t waste any time. after all the kids left and after our ceremonious group whistle blow, we packed our cars full of equipment and games and drove to brighton rec to drop it all off. that marked that end of camp. well, there were still the goodbyes that consisted of me yelling at someone for hugging me, and then getting attacked and hugged by everyone at once. yeah, that was fun.

and then as i was about to walk to my car, i hear people yelling “lanni” and “pinky” and “louise,” so i turned around and saw about six kids with their heads out the windows of the brighton rec camp windows, so i went back inside to say hi. after about five minutes of being attacked by huggy third and fourth graders, i grabbed a pop and talked to melissa (from after school). turns out their camp doesn’t end until 5:30. ha ha ha.

and then of course i had to drive back to camp, because someone really smart packed the school’s stereo into his car, thinking it belonged to the rec department. and he had to go somewhere. good thing i’m nice.

hookay, so my life is shaping up (really, it’s true). today we had our final evaluations at work, and not only did i get all 1’s (a perfect eval, a first for me), but the only constructive criticism my directors managed to come up with was “in need of a more significant leadership role (director/assistant director)” or something along those lines. then they told me a director/assistant director doesn’t have an age requirement. so that was basically a recommendation for a more influential job next year. yay!

on a side note, yesterday after i filled up the gas tank of the dentmobile at my usual mobile station, i stopped into the shop for a dr pepper. there were three employees there (only two were working, the other was perusing the magazines), and the guy working the register turns to the other two and says, “see guys, this is the girl with pink rims!” and the magazine guy turns to me and was like, “oh man, your car is really awesome,” and i was like, “thanks. um, see you guys later.”