Hard to be a boy in a cabin named Sioux - Camp J 2014 Highlights

And now, the post you’ve all been waiting for. Or at least I have since it's the one I look forward to every year.

First here are the previous years:

2011 Highlights - Jansen
2012 Highlights - Eh, they signed a waiver
2013 Highlights - Now Rhonda has no Honda

Now on to...

Camp J 2014 Highlights - Hard to be a boy in a cabin named Sioux

Thursday

-Tent Setup
:: After working Thursday morning I headed out to the camp site in the afternoon. Jim arrived soon after. After we had unloaded the trailer - with much help from others there - we went to set up our tents. This is an adventure in itself every year. And you would think after doing it for at least 10 years we would have it down, but not so much. Though technically he did just get a new tent like last year. This year there were spider webs everywhere so I was super nervous I was gonna walk into one (yes I'm a farm girl but that doesn't mean I like bugs) but really the only bugs we encountered the whole weekend were wasps, and we have spray for that. Oh and hornets, apparently there were angry hornets in Mary Lee. Glad I missed out on that one. Anyway, 2 hours later after a few failed attempts and a lot of screaming the tents were up and running and it was time for food. Cantrell made us burgers - they were good stuff - and just when we thought Smo was lost she turned up.

-Oooo vs Ewww
:: For those of you who don't know, Smo was my high school roommate - well, one of the many. I talked her into going to camp a few months ago and - after registering on time, woohoo! - she made it this year. Since she was new she went with us on a cabin tour - or as we call it "Mattress Count". The count exists because the one year when we didn't count them we were short and had to drag extras from Mary Lee to Mohican which was all the way at the other end. Here, here's a map, courtesy of Michael's computer skills.




Similar to last year, we had more boys than girls so we had the same arrangement, however this year we did have a cabin of girls on the very edge of the boys side (Pawnee). We chose to put the 3rd grade girls in this one because there is a difference between the 8th grade girls "oooo" at boys and the 3rd grade girls "ewww" at boys. And if they're "ewww"ing them then we don't have to worry about them venturing past their cabin into boy territory.

-The Butter Aisle
:: Every year Jim and I find ourselves going to Walmart Thursday night to get things we've forgotten. This year his list was longer than mine and included things like soap and sheets. I made fun of this then three days later found myself running to Walmart because I forgot extra shorts. They were in the dryer, woops. To be fair I did remember pants...but you don't wear pants in 100 degree weather. But whatever, he got his forgotten stuff and I got my skit supplies and then we were like, let's get ice cream and chocolate syrup! Cause that's what we do on Thursdays before the kids get there. We found the ice cream right away but got lost finding syrup so we asked an employee. Then of course she had no idea so she radioed and they told us it was in the "butter aisle." Well, where the crap is that? Butter is not in an aisle it's on an end in the refrigerated section. Whatever, so we found the "butter aisle" and there was no syrup in sight. But you know what WAS in the butter aisle? LIQUOR. Lots and lots of liquor. So we're thinking either employees really have no idea where anything is in that store or they were watching us on camera wandering around going "where the crap is the butter aisle?" and laughing. Or maybe we looked stressed and they thought we needed to visit the "butter aisle." Anyway, every Walmart trip after that we kept finding excuses to go visit the "butter aisle." Though we didn't get anything from it because that's what caused a lot of drama last year. Not by us, but with a teen. Read last year's highlights.

-Injury
:: So I don't know what happened but somehow in the middle of the night I did something to my back. I don't know if I slept on it wrong or reached too far for something or what, but every time I rolled over I was in pain. This pain carried on throughout the weekend so much so that it hurt to laugh. Which explains me laughing and then doubling over in pain multiple times. Thankfully Jim had drugs in his medkit so I spent most of camp on Bayer because it seemed to work the best. It's turning into yet another camp tradition - me being injured in some way or another. I get bit up by bugs and my feet swells up, I get blisters, etc. something always happens. I should just learn to expect it.


Friday

-French Toast
:: There are many camp traditions. Cantrell's french toast is one of them. Along with flour tag, lasagna assembly lines, Apples to Apples, and rootbeer floats. Though you'll be proud that I skipped out on that last one keeping my "no more pop" experiment alive. I was asked if it was a permanent thing or if it would be ending soon. Truth is I'm not sure. I just wanna see how long I can make it last. But anyway, the french toast was awesome and it woke us up for what happened next.

-Registration
:: This is always an adventure. I had it set up the night before so that morning it went pretty smoothly. Girls stuff on one table, boys on the other. Set up right by the door so they grab their lanyard and schedule, then drop off any medications for the nurse before heading to their cabin where their counselor was waiting. Usually I have Oldest Sister to help me out but she was otherwise engaged at a family reunion. Not mine, hers. If that makes sense. However, this year both other siblings made an appearance. My brother with his daughter who was up to her 4th year of camp and his son who was there for his first year. Then Second Sister brought her oldest son who was also there for the first time. To be fair I did warn their counselor in advance that when they're together they can be rowdy, but they actually weren't so bad. Minus the fact that one of them wore the same clothes the entire weekend and the other one I'm pretty sure never put on sunscreen. But they both survived and so did the camp, mostly unscathed.

-"I went outside once, it was awful." 


::Before I go any further I should mention that it was about 100 degrees on both Friday and Saturday. Thankfully myself and the music crew were inside in the air conditioning and rarely ventured out. When we did it was horrible. But the kids didn't seem to notice because to compensate for the heat we just increased their swimming time. Actually it was so cold in the mess hall that Smo and I ended up putting on sweatshirts. Which confused everyone as they walked in.

-Skits Day One
:: Each group seemed to be content with their skit, which was a big relief after the hell that was last year, the only one with problems was me and that's because of the whole back injury thing. Which meant I used Smo as my demonstrator. It was amusing so I called it initiation but she seemed to handle it well.

-Hole in the bucket
:: The boys seem to really enjoy when we sing There's a Hole in the Bucket at campfire. We've figured out that it's because it's really the only time they get to win an argument. But as patient women we said we'd let them have their small victory while secretly plotting to Google some sort of rebuttal when we returned from camp. All I can say is that it's top secret and they better be ready next year.

-Night patrol headlamps
:: Remember how I got stuck doing night patrol? Cause Phil is just so persuasive. This year I drug Smo around with me and it's dark so we came up with some interesting lighting options. I had my headlamp, which still works - huzzah - and instead of carrying around the lantern in her hand Smo decided to turn it into a decorative head ornament by strapping it on with a headband.



Very stylish I must say. We had to be sneaky this year because I was challenged. Keep in mind this year was my 19th year of camp so I've been doing this for quite some time but I've only recently picked up night patrol duty. My niece - the one who'd been at camp 4 years - told my brother, aka her dad, that the kids only pretend to sleep when I come around for night patrol. I told her (through him) that I knew that because I went to camp at that age and know all the tricks and don't stop circling until I know that they are actually asleep. Upon hearing that I knew all the tricks she vowed to come up with new tricks. Which led to Smo and I crawling and ninja rolling around their cabin, avoiding all windows and trying to find her bunk without alerting the other girls to our presence. We failed cause she's tiny and we couldn't find her, but to be fair SHE WAS ALREADY ASLEEP. So take that.

-No bug spray in enclosed spaces
:: So Smo crashed with me in my tent this year. We fit 2 mattresses in it along with all of our stuff and still had room to walk, so yay big tent! A worthy investment! Though we were outdoors and there were bugs everywhere. Smo decided to spray herself with bugspray thinking that that would keep them away. The only thing about it was she did it inside the tent with no windows open. I wasn't paying attention cause I was texting the boyfriend but suddenly I was engulfed in this wave of spray and couldn't stop coughing. My "did you spray that inside the tent?" was followed by loud laughter from Jim (who was about 5 feet away in his tent) and then us as we coughed for the next ten minutes. Needless to say she didn't do that again.Other than the frogs and the trains and the crickets and the back pain and the fog of bug spray tent life was pretty good this year.


Saturday

-Speaking of ferrets
:: No band is complete without a name. Every year we challenge ourselves to come up with a new name. Last year we were Destiny's Red-Headed Step-Child, this year we went with Speaking of Ferrets. Don't ask. All I'll say was that it came from an interesting conversation about ferrets and then stuck. Our band did excellent this year. We rocked the house for skits and worship and then dominated at campfires (though it was too hot to have them outside so they were moved into the air conditioning).

-"Sounds like a car driving through a halftime show"
:: As part of our band our lead guitarist also plays some piano. We have an electric keyboard that we bring every year complete with different settings you can play with. When working on skits he decided to find the drum setting so he could add in some rimshots after big jokes. While attempting to find it he pressed a bunch of keys and it sounded like a car drove through a halftime show. Which was wildly entertaining, though I'm sure would have been scary if you were apart of it.

-Ping Pong
:: Our un-air-conditioned chapel, where our band used to reside and where I spent the majority of my camp years, is now complete with not one but two ping pong tables. I learned I have no skill whatsoever, but that's okay because I was playing against Smo who faced a similar situation. Ping pong turned into water balloon wars which lead to our next segment...

-"Would you feel better if you threw water balloons at Michael?"
:: After being pelted over and over by water balloons that Michael had thrown at her, Smo tried to be sneaky by stealing my sweatshirt and storing a bunch in there. She failed, they saw her coming a mile away. On our way to get payback we saw a little girl who was starting to get homesick. We worked with what we had on hand - aka two water balloons - and she got Smo's revenge for her.

-Or so we thought, Smo gets thrown in pool
:: Though that didn't last long cause less than five minutes later Smo was over Michael's shoulder as he ran toward the pool. Which really was her fault cause she kept asking what the pool looked like. (It was too dark to see during our mattress count.) Thankfully she did not have any electronic devices - like I did the one time, which was not one of my favorite life moments - and she was thrown in. She stayed outside for a while afterward to dry off in the sun.

-"Hard to be a boy in a cabin named Sioux"
:: Another camp tradition is cabin cheers. Each cabin must come up with a cheer that they will perform for all of camp on Saturday night. Pyramids are popular amongst girls, along with chanting, singing, dancing, and posters. It's not a competition but if it was the 4th grade boys would have won. They had our lead guitarist play as they did a Johnny Cash-inspired song about the rough life for a boy sleeping in a cabin named Sioux. If you don't get that joke you'll make me cry inside and say "oh, for the love, scroll down to the music rec's."


Sunday

-Skits
:: Sunday morning is our closing service for kid's camp. They get up, eat some breakfast, clean camp, then we rehearse for the service by singing through the songs (which we covered during Skits and Worship during our day sessions) before the parents start to arrive at 9. We offer them breakfast - so some of the kids wait to eat - and then church starts at 10. The service was great, Pastor is always great at that, and the kids sang nice and loud. Afterwards is when we perform the skits they practiced (which is the other half of the Skits and Worship sessions) on Friday and Saturday. Needless to say they all did great. I was super proud. If I had to pick a favorite... while the 3rd grade girls did an excellent parodied version of Mary Poppins I think I would still go with the 7th and 8th graders. For the three previous years I made them sing Hee-Haw which I did away with this year because of last year's drama (see post). But I did keep up the singing tradition which was actually worth all the time and effort put into it. The skit was called "If I were not a Camper" and went something like this:



Though I switched out a few of the professions and changed it from boy scout to camper. The ref and police section made people laugh every time and the Pastor and politician were also grand. The boys that I had as the lunch lady and garbage man really REALLY got into it and that made that section hysterical as well. All in all it went over really well with the parents and I was super proud.

-Standing ovation
:: As I introduced myself before the skits I mentioned something about talking to all the parents at one point or another because my name was on everything. After the skits Pastor always does his thank yous and mine was the very last one. I even got a semi-standing ovation from half of the kids. Nice to know all of the hard work was appreciated.

-Walmart shorts, horseshoes, and etc.
:: The first thing that Jim and I do after youth camp - after eating lunch and almost falling asleep that is - is make a Walmart/Ray's Apple Market run for food for teen camp. This year Smo and Michael tagged along. As mentioned previously, I made fun of Jim for forgetting essential items and then ended up buying shorts for the rest of teen camp. It was pretty smooth. After buying out the grocery store we picked up my shorts and some cheap horse shoes at Walmart. Was nice being able to take our time and all that in the air conditioning.

-Fly zappers
:: So we bought all this food and after lugging it all in I picked up my fly zappers and got to work. They're the electronic fly swatters. You press a button and it zaps the fly. While morbid for the flies it's actually quite entertaining. And I make it that way because it's my only job in the kitchen. Jim doesn't let me help anymore after a few years ago when I karate chopped an avocado with a cleaver and missed my fingers holding it by a mere inch. Though this year I did get to help cut fruit. With a paring knife and constant supervision. But even Jim was a bit more relaxed in the kitchen this year because he has decided to promote Michael to head cook. Michael and I have already agreed that as soon as Jim retires from camp we will also, but he was happy to take over kitchen duties as long as Jim still helped out.

-With Bacon
:: The thing about teen camp is that it requires a lot of bacon. This year we had 20 pounds and went through 10 of those in a single meal. We had steak - with bacon to put on top - sauteed onions - which were sauteed in bacon grease - cheesy potatoes - with bacon on top - salad - with bacon on top - and brownies - with no bacon, but it did say it was on it on the sign hanging next to the lineup. You're stunned by this but it has became the norm at teen camp. Last year we went through at least 10 pounds so this year Jim stocked up. And you know we had to use it, couldn't let it go bad....we learned there's no such thing as leftover bacon.

-Missing Ferret
:: Campfire on Sunday night was all about teaching them the theme song. Another one of camp's traditions. Usually it's Liz that writes it but this year she took a step back and let Joel - our new lead guitarist - write this year. The song always revolves around the theme for camp. This year it was Gracebook so he added some Facebook lingo in there. It was really good, though it took us about a day and a half to realize the refrain sounded suspiciously like "Time of Your Life" by Green Day. Scroll down. Anyway, we thought we had it down after singing it over and over at youth camp, but teen camp campfires always seem to have some sort of drama and ours just wasn't the same without our lead guitarist (he just comes for youth camp).

-LOTR
:: After watching basically the same movies over and over we have decided to switch it up over the past few years. One year we did Star Wars' original trilogy, then there was Harry Potter...this year we went with the Lord of the Rings original trilogy. It was awesome, but long, and after starting it at 10:30 we ended up going to bed around 1:30. Which was fine, except we had to be up early the next day. Though not as early as youth camp - there's a major difference between 7:30 and 8:30...The fun thing about watching Lord of the Rings with Smo is that it brings back memories of her beating me in the middle of the night with her giant tiger because she dreamed she was being attacked by orcs.


Monday

-What kind of Star Wars are you watching?
:: While working in the kitchen - they were prepping, I was killing flies - we got on the topic of hospitals and blood. Smo said something about hearing her blood "wooshing" through her veins and how it sounded like Darth Vader. I don't know what kind of Star Wars she's been watching but I'm pretty sure that's not how James Earl Jones sounds. Just throwing that out there.

-Your face is wrong/I know words
:: Remember how I said we didn't go to bed until 1:30? Did I mention I didn't fall asleep until 2:30? This lack of sleep accompanied by the heat made me extremely tired throughout Monday. I don't know why Monday of all days, it may have something do with the fact that I was running on pure adrenaline Thursday-Sunday cause I'm partly in charge of youth camp and I'm only a helper at teen camp so I crashed...I don't know. Anyway, Oldest Sister and Squirt came for Monday of teen camp and I could barely form words. I don't know how this conversation started, all I remember was we were at a picnic table outside and I mumbled something that I understand but they didn't and they made fun of me. I know words, I just couldn't pronounce them at the time. Oldest Sister said I was wrong about something to which I contradicted saying in the dictionary there's a picture of her face next to the word "wrong" and kept repeating the phrase "your face is wrong" for the majority of the afternoon. I know words.

-Women start forest fires too
:: Of course there was a lot of Apples to Apples played at teen camp - and even a little played at youth camp. The only amusing one that I can think of at the moment is Squirt. The word was masculine and someone turned in a card that said "forest fires" to which she responded, "women start forest fires too" and immediately flipped the card over. Scuba Steve found a "trendy" expansion pack and added those cards to our bunch so now our collection includes nouns like "Hastag" "Mommie Bloggers" "Amish Mafia" and "Beliebers". That last one got used with the word "obnoxious" or something similar. Made me proud.

-Campfire fail/I need to use the sleep
:: As mentioned I was extremely sleep-deprived on Monday and by the time campfire rolled around it had come to my breaking point. This was the only outdoor campfire we did the whole week and we couldn't see cause it was dark. There was moke in our eyes from the fire and adding to those the kids didn't want to be there - you could tell cause they weren't participating at all. We were off with the beat because we couldn't hear them, my bandmates didn't want to play certain songs that the teens wanted to sing, and then I had an epic voice crack which made me laugh and I completely lost it laughing hysterically and basically just closed and sent them all away. Apparently even Jim leaned over to Pastor and went "I think there's something wrong with her." I needed to use the sleep.

-Family Guy/Cosmos War of the Planets
:: Since the failed campfire was outdoors and we started it late instead of watching the second movie in the LOTR trilogy Monday night (and being up 'til like 2) we instead watched our favorite camp movie of all time Cosmo's War of the Planets cause it was much shorter. Don't pretend you've seen it, I'm fairly sure you haven't. Which is a shame. Cause it's so bad that it's good. If you're commentating with the right group of people I should say. Cause you have to commentate otherwise it's super lame....because the characters names change, there are no special effects, the storyline's awful, but we still love it. It came out the same year as Star Wars did and we're thinking the filmmakers saw that and went "well, crap." But whatever, that one finished so early that we threw in a Family Guy Star Wars movie - which I fell asleep to.


Tuesday

-Alarm fail
:: Apparently I was so tired from the night before that I slept through my alarm. I have no recollection of it going off, but Smo heard the bell so we got to breakfast when the teens were getting there. Woops. But Jim and Michael seemed to have it under control.

-Nap Time
:: One of the songs we sing at campfire is called I Just Wanna Be a Sheep. It goes like this:
I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa baa
I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa baa
I pray the lord my soul to keep
I just wanna be a sheep, baa baa baa baa

As mentioned we were pretty sleep-deprived so by Tuesday Michael and I had changed the words to:
I just wanna go to sleep, nap nap nap nap
I just wanna go to sleep, nap nap nap nap
I pray the lord give me some sleep
I just wanna go to sleep nap nap nap nap

We were so tired that Jim and I actually took a nap for like 20 minutes before going back out for more groceries.

-Campfire redemption
:: Tuesday night's campfire was redemption night and I figured it out. You have to go in with a plan cause otherwise it drags on and they don't want to be there. So we started off with some Pharaoh Pharaoh (anytime you say that title Jim and Steve make a run for the hills cause they don't want to do the dance) moved on to some King Jesus is All, then Hole in the Bucket, took some requests and did Squiters and the Bedbugs (another camp classic) and finished with Someday. Which has become basically our annual theme song and every year it makes me cry. Mostly during the closing service of the youth camp, but teens sing it well too.

-Dance party
:: With teens you can't plan a dance party because they'll think it's lame. However, every year they want one, and I never know when it's going to be. Since Squirt was there Tuesday night again I basically pulled out my laptop and suddenly they were all over with requests. Cupid Shuffle, NSync, Backstreet Boys, Pharrell, and Barbie Girl were among the favorites. That's where most of the teen camp pictures come from, though this year I tried to take more of other stuff and ended up with a ton of board games pics and also a load of flour tag ones.

-More LOTR
:: The last night of camp we ended with the second of the Lord of the Rings trilogy because we did have time. The teens did smores, we had more rootbeer floats (which I avoided) and we basically pulled out everything we had left to snack on to get rid of it.


Wednesday

-Why, oh why
:: I don't know why but every year when Josh shakes my hand and thanks me for my help I get emotional. Josh is our teen camp pastor and he will forever be Josh because one time like 5 years ago I called him Josh and he went "finally, someone who doesn't call me pastor!" Thankfully I wasn't the only emotional one on hand but we only get that way cause we honestly do love camp. I miss it already. Not the hot weather so much or the bugs, frogs and trains that keeps me up late, but interacting with the kids, playing the games, eating good food, teaching the music and skits, making memories, it's all awesome.

-Rock and Roll McDonald's
:: Our final camp tradition is our yearly McDonald's trip. Each year after the closing service at teen camp and after the trailer and our cars are loaded Jim, myself, Steve, Pastor and now Michael stop at McDonald's for sort of a last meal thing. Steve and Michael order lots of food and count calories cause they're listed on the placemats while the rest of us make fun of the amount of food they order. No, actually, we're all dead tired so we joke about camp for about an hour and then head on our ways. It's a nice and relaxing way to end camp and we enjoy it.


Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash



Time of Your Life - Green Day



All in all it was a successful camp. We're calling it Redemption Year since last year was so bad. Here's hoping that next year's is even better. And that I don't injure my back like that ever again.

Tomorrow will be a list of the skits as usual. Hope you all are having a rockin' summer.

i'm gonna ride around in style, i'm gonna drive everybody wild.

Well, today sucked.

For legal reasons I won't go in-depth as to why.

The worst part is that work has been going so well lately.

And when I say going well, I mean I haven't written an incident report in months.

Today I got to write two, one that I collaborated with Superwoman on that went straight to the director and the other was for stolen DVDs.

Oh the joys.

The director one being the highlight of the day.

Lowlight?

Low point?

Yeah, low point.

Basically I had to let a volunteer go.

And they didn't take it well.

Psychologically speaking I can understand why they said some of the things that they said, but it doesn't make them hurt any less.

Thank God for Superwoman.

Don't think I could have gotten through the whole thing by myself.

But it's over and there's nothing I can do about it now, even though it threw off my whole day.

Immediately after work I called Slim Shady who talked me down.

She used to be volunteer supervisor there, and it was good to catch up. Talked for a while until I got to the boyfriend's place.

Went out for supper with his parents for his dad's birthday. Afterwards we watched parts of The Campaign, some Will Ferrell George W. Bush special, Mr. Popper's Penguins and then Deep Impact.

Gonna have to get Deep Impact through the library, very intrigued.

It was nice to see the boyfriend after the crapsuck that was today and just relax.

Don't even remember the morning before the whole ordeal.

Oh right, staff meeting.

Ate more yogurt.

Learned about a cool website and more stuff from the staff manual.

Sent out the links to that Google Power Searching assignment we did for Internet Reference cause I thought the reference people might find them cool.

So it didn't start out bad.

And I got Chinese for lunch. Cashew chicken, that was good.

Had a really good supper as well, hot beef sandwich. So really, two of my favorites from childhood.

Gonna add a third and eat some popsicles before I crash.

on to the music.


just cause i can.


So thankful to have tomorrow off.

And no homework to do.

Sleeping in. Watching movies. Logging in to watch people present at 6.

out.

Head First, Fearless.

Well that was fun.

Today I mean.

Very relaxing.

Church in the morning, buffet lunch with Homey G and the parentals after - only in a small town does an entire restaurant sing Happy Birthday to their waitress.

I swear, my father knows everyone in this town.

Though technically he does go there like every morning for coffee, anyway, he got us a table and I walk in to see the waitress wearing this Happy Birthday hat and she wishes me happy birthday as well.

Thank god she didn't make me wear a hat, I would have gotten so much crap from G-Wigger.

Anyway, some lady - that my dad also knew - went around saying we should sing the next time said waitress came through so we broke into song during her next pass.

She seemed happy.

Said she'd trade me ages.

Apparently 25 is more appealing than 44.

Tuesday I'll get to be in her shoes working on mine.

BossLady said I should have taken it off.

After lunch we came home and watched Swamp People - cause really, what's a weekend at the farm if there's no Swamp People? I'd cheer and say I avoided Hee Haw but I'm still here tomorrow so who knows what he'll have lined up for me to watch then?

Swamp People's premiere ended so then it was switched to Ax Men, well, a scene from Ax Men of this dude loading a crane onto a barge whilst his wife freaks out aboard said barge.

But it didn't sink so I can't make fun of him for it.

Well, I can, but it won't be as fun.

I turned on Charlie's Angels again after Dad left to go work on a project and Mom went to some party thing in town. Burned through a disc pretty quickly whilst playing Mahjongg Titans.

I know, my life at the farm is so rough.

That's only cause it's my birthday weekend.

Think I've officially watched all the discs from season two, but it's okay cause I brought season one with me as well. Mom has been watching quite a few of them as well. She makes fun of them and me for them and yet she continues watching.

More fun one-liners.

"If we were still married, I'd poison your coffee!"
"If we were still married I'd drink it!"

Ten bucks if you can name who they're quoting.

If you guessed Winston Churchill or David Lloyd George I owe you.

After Charlie's Angels was dinner with his parents and mine plus my brother and his family. It was supposed to be my whole immediate family and his parents however sickness and sports took over for the 2 missing siblings.

But it's cool, I'll see them later this week.

Dinner was fun.

Got a hot beef sandwich.

The boyfriend made fun of me.

"You have anything to choose from and you choose a hot beef sandwich?"

Then 2 minutes later says that sounds good but goes with chicken.

I rarely eat fried chicken anymore. Makes me nauseous. Stay tuned with the family history and you'll figure out why.

I got some cooking stuff from mom and even stuff from his family, they didn't have to do that but they're awesome like that.

Porcelain cat that looks just like Carter. He's gonna love it.

And some movie gift certificates, stoked, will most likely use them on Tuesday, he's coming up. Thinking about seeing Identity Thief.

Speaking of, have you seen the preview for McCarthy's new movie with Sandra Bullock?



Oh my god, I died.

Pretty sure the boyfriend was not as enthused so I have a feeling I'll be watching that one with Sketch.

After dinner I went to his place and we watched Mystic River.


Scale of Awesome rates it at about 7/10. I was intrigued but not obsessive enough to watch it over and over.

Sean Penn was great, as was Shawshank - don't remember his name but he'll forever be Shawshank - and then Kevin Bacon as the cop.

The ending was a little confusing, may have to pick up the book and read it.

I saw it all the time whilst shelving at the home branch, right next to Shutter Island and every time I'd think, "movies I haven't seen". Lehane was the author I believe. Could tell you exactly where on the shelf to find it but they've since shifted and I would be off.

And that's all I got for today. Tomorrow is another lazy day before heading back to the real world, but first stay tuned for some music and more family history.

Fearless - Taylor Swift


Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash

in the mud and the blood and the beer.


Family History, Dad's Sid Part Two:


When I was little I used to be the favorite. There was a big age gap between me and the other eleven so I was the baby. Grandpa and Grandma only lived half a mile away from our house. Sometimes grandpa would pick me up from school and we’d get groceries. They both helped out my parents a lot with babysitting when mom and dad were busy. I spent a lot of my afternoons watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.

There’s a picture of me on mom’s fridge from when I was grandpa’s little helper. I used to dry the dishes after he washed them. Well, I attempted to dry them, I think he went over them again when I was done and preoccupied with something else, but I stood on a stool next to him and smiled pretty for the camera. It was a regular routine. When I cleaned house for grandma I did more sitting and drinking tea with her than actual cleaning which was true for literally everyone that tried to clean. We would all try but were never successful. Grandma always made everyone feel welcome and special.

When I was really little, around 4 years old, I was watching Jungle Book with the lights off and it was really loud so I got scared. No one seemed to be in the house at that time because they were cleaning the bins. I was so scared I ran all the way to their house barefoot on gravel roads in the dark. Grandpa took me back home and my parents didn’t even know I was missing.

The only movies they owned were “The Best of Victor Borge” and “Riverdance.” God bless Michael Flatly for my lack of tap dancing skills. We used to watch them all the time. Grandma loved to watch the dancing and listening to Mr. Borge play piano. I always wanted to fast forward through the actual music and just listen to the jokes. I now own them both but can’t watch either of them.

I used to play the hymn “Glorious in Majesty” over and over on their piano. Grandma always encouraged my playing because she was once a piano player herself. I was never any good despite years of lessons. My aunt Elaine taught me how to play “Strawberry Roan” a song about a horse who bucked people off its’ back. I’d play that after I grew tired of “Glorious in Majesty.”

I'm a man of means by no means, King of the Road.

10-4 Good Buddy.

That was the theme of the day.

Oversize integration.

Did a lot of shifting.

Also sang a lot of Roger Miller with John Boy. It was highly amusing.

They painted - well they're painting - the walls at the library. One of the walls is purple which brought to his mind the line "They say roses are red and violets are purple, Sugar is sweet and so is maple surple."

Which led us to a discussion about Skating in Buffalo Herds, Chugging a lot of Lug, Danging ourselves and being Royalty of the Road.

And then we started singing King of the Road.

It was a slow day.

Which was actually quite convenient for oversize shifting purposes. The whole upstairs area is kind of a dangerzone as mentioned earlier. There's shelves all over the place, carts with loads of books, stuff out of order... I'll be glad when everything's painted, but there's still the matter of integrating what's left of the oversize along the walls and on the carts. We're only at 617.8ish.

And I mean, we have a serious amount of material, but some of other branches have more...that must have been even more stressful.

I'm just glad I got to jam out with the New Guy. They have us working in pairs for the most part. We found new shifting techniques that work wonders, aka one person on both sides of the shelf and then just pushing it through to the other side and putting them in order. Quite helpful. We did a lot in a little amount of time.

Then re-arranged some shelves so they could make more progress tomorrow.

There were a lot of 10-4 Good Buddy's.

I just do what I'm told really. They have enough going on, just give me a task and I'll go with it.

I did enough shifting at the home branch to get the techniques down.

And get used to books falling on my head.

That's how you could tell where I was in the building at the home branch, you'd hear a bunch of 'thump's and then one big 'ahhh!!' and you'd be able to pin-point my exact location.

All-in-all I'd call it a productive day.

After that got to jam with the boyfriend. He gave me a massage cause my back hurts. Best boyfriend ever. We watched Tower Heist and Mission Impossible.

Totally called it man.

Biggest named actor, I'm telling you. That's how it works.

But I figured it was time I watched the series since the 4th??? one is coming out of DVD. I'm on the list for that but I was told to watch them in order. 1 down. 3 to go.

Anyway, I should probably crash and burn soon. I haven't looked at tomorrow's schedule but I'm guessing it's more of the same. Though I do have Saturday off, woohoo!

"King of the Road" plus some impromptu song writing - Roger Miller and Johnny Cash

this was basically our attitude throughout the day, love it.
hysterical.

But that train keeps a-rollin' on down to San Antone...

And I'm DONE!

For this weekend anyway.

Powerpoint is researched, finished and posted. It's on cataloging non-print items so I basically gave examples of some, some stuff to watch out for when cataloging them, and then notable tag numbers.

Now I just gotta figure out what to say along with it. But I do that best on the fly.

Plus I'll have time before class cause we're going early. There's a meeting about choosing classes and all that. I have my plan all set out but it'll be interesting to hear what they have to say.

So, you know when you finish a series and you're looking for something to start next, and even though you have a mass amount of tv shows to pick from, you automatically go with something familiar?

Is that just me?

Like, I can literally choose anything to watch, but then I see Charlie's Angels and I'm like, heck yeah!

Sabrina Duncan: I love you, I'll prove it, You won't like it, I don't care.

(favorite quote from the entire series and I use it frequently)

I'm talking the original series, not the remake. No matter how much I love Drew I couldn't watch the new series all the way through.

The movies rocked though, we went as the angels for Halloween my junior year of high school, that was highly amusing.

It goes in spurts with that show, like once a year I get all obsessive and crazy then drop it after about a season and a half.

Original cast is the best, but I actually kind of like Cheryl Ladd, so secondary cast was good as well. I have yet to force myself to watch fourth season, even though I own it. I'll start with 1 and go from there.

It always amuses me to see Tommy Lee Jones in the pilot.

I blame the sudden return on my powerpoint.

I needed something running in the background that wasn't going to distract me and I've seen every episode from seasons 1-3 multiple times.

I work better when there's noise.

Hence the headphones.

For some reason I find silence more distracting than noise. I think it's because if it's silent my mind runs 80 miles per minute and goes off on all these different tangents, whereas if there's a noise to distract me I actually have to focus all my energy on one tangent in particular.

And it works.

Did that make sense?

Perhaps not, I did just take that couch medicine stuff and that makes everything fuzzy.

Oh yeah, some chick told The New Boy "bless your fuzzy heart".

Is that a compliment?

Yes, he's The New Boy, cause there's already a New Guy, and he's older than the New Boy.

I'm gonna blame that nickname on the fuzzyness as well.

I'll fix it later.

I actually almost got to work at the home library today, but I had so much crap to do at the work library that I needed to get done there that I sacrificed the opportunity.

This whole extra responsibilities thing is kickin' my butt.

But in a good way.

Cause it gives me something to do, like today I switched out my "All's Fair in Love and War" display one with one entitled "Teen Scenes in Green" which basically consists of books with green covers.

Also today I made some progress on my spreadsheet - we took the TAB kids to Barnes and Noble and now I get to make a spreadsheet of all the titles they want added to the collection and send it on to my supervisor.

That, of course, is due Monday but since I've been gone the majority of the week, and I'm not supposed to work on work stuff outside of work, I will be finishing it on Monday and hopefully getting it sent in before I get another reminder e-mail.

Speaking of TAB. I was told today that Mentor is going on vacation. And there's a TAB meeting on Tuesday. Which I get to lead. By myself.

No pressure.

Actually, haha and this actually makes me laugh, the only part of the meeting that I'm actually dreading is taking role for volgistics, because I'm still learning their names.

The rest of the meeting will be cake!!

Which sounds backwards, right?

But there are a lot of them, and outside of the meetings I've interacted with about 5 of them. My niece included.

It'll be fine. I will give them snacks and we'll discuss the Barnes and Noble thing, plus talk about our refurbishing idea - basically we're gonna take old books and make them into crafty stuff and decorate the library. They were excited so I'm going with it.

And then review Summer Reading Kickoff duties and then we'll be good.

Good.

Yep, good.

Not gonna freak.

Cause that would be loser-y.

Plus I have more to freak about in the meantime.

Starting with tomorrow.

After that comes my next week's To-Do-List

-Finish that spreadsheet, send it in, and get started on example crafts for refurbishing project.

-I've uploaded all my camp music but I still need to format it and send it out.
Plus pimp out the camp date and theme on Facebook, plus update the website. Or send updates to our webmaster. For some reason there's always something camp-related on my to-do-list no matter what time of year it is.

-Finish editing my friend's stories. I'm almost through with one, but still have to get started on the second, then send those back.

-Summer Reading stuff at work - make sure my program planning sheet got cleared for the forensics presentation, plus get in touch with the other presenter since he still hasn't said anything since his initial e-mail. Gonna have to break down and call him, that should be a fun conversation.

-Plus do whatever homework is due for next weekend.

-And insert some sort of social-life into the process, I haven't actually seen my boyfriend in like weeks cause last Friday didn't really count.


"Wonderful World" Herman's Hermits

good god, they look fifteen! love the random go-go dancers.

"Folsom Prison Blue" Johnny Cash

but i shot a man in reno, just to watch him die. when i hear that whistle blowin' i hang my head and cry

"I am a Man of Constant Sorrow" The Soggy Bottom Boys

classic.

You've Lost That Loving Feeling

Oh my god.

Ranger Gord is an idiot.

So I'm watching more Red Green, yes without my father. What is wrong with this picture?

But it's due next week and I have all this stuff checked out that I need to get through, plus I should really start on some of that homework. Maybe I'll consider looking it over tomorrow.

Even though it's my day off.

Technically nothing is due until like the 29th, but I should start earlier.

Cause that was one of my resolutions, avoid procrastination if at all possible.

Which it usually is.

But where's the fun in that?

Today was interesting.

Remember the crazy obnoxious stalker dude from yesterday?

Yeah, ran into him again today. at lunch. shaking everybody's hand in the place. I freaked. But the employee kicked him out before he could make it to our table.

That would have been really bad.

We have another new guy at the library. First day today, I got to train him on the desk. He picked it up pretty quickly, although with the new system there's a lot of stuff to pick up all at once.

I'll have to come up with a nickname for him cause I already have The New Guy. Though he's not so new anymore. But he's newer than me. So that makes him still new.

And the New New Guy would just sound redundant. I'll work on that.

Tomorrow is gonna be awesome!

Sleeping in, awesomeness, but then of course Oldest Sister is dragging me clothes shopping cause apparently I need new jeans.

They don't like it when I drag my feet and it tears the bottoms to shreds.

It's habit, sorry.

But then after that is some sort of trivia night at my nephew's school. I really REALLY enjoy that there's going to be a cashbar... at his school. That really just makes me laugh.

We might need it.

The Boyfriend is braving the wild and joining our team. As in me and my siblings.

Viper pit much?

Should be interesting.

Not that any of them are bad, they're just protective and sarcastic.

For instance, Second Sister - on her wedding day, at her reception, during the dollar dance - asked my boyfriend of the time what his intentions were. And that was at her wedding. Granted he was goofy right back and wrote her a two page letter.

For serious.

I'm sensing a theme for her meeting my boyfriends. Cause then she was getting married.

Now she's pregnant.

And with either of these times she's allowed to be crazy, cause it's either Her Day or Hormones as excuses to blame it on.

No, I'm not worried.

They're protective but when it's all of us together we're just goofy. It can get pretty hysterical. I have a lot of one-liners to prove that. Set for life in that aspect.

Though I am bummed cause my oldest brother-in-law won't be able to make it, and he's like the trivia king. With him we would dominate.

But we're not aiming to dominate, just to have fun and drink lots.

Gotta support the school, you know?

Sorry, that's still funny.

Anyway, I'm gonna get back to my Red Green then konk out.

I'll let you know how tomorrow goes, in the meantime jam out to these.

Throwback Thursday

"Johnny B. Goode" Elvis

you know, if i didn't already know the lyrics i would be completely lost by this version. especially that first verse, i think i could only make out a few words.
Down to Louisiana...New Orleans...Johnny B. Goode...so well...guitar...
and that's all i got out of that verse.

"Folsom Prison Blues" Johnny Cash

love him live. they came out with a new video for this song and put it on vevo, it's AWFUL! they put a backbeat to it, made it sound like a rap, completely killed the song.
he's johnny cash. give him a guitar and that's all you need.

"You've Lost that Loving Feeling" The Righteous Brothers

whoa, that loving feeling...

take these broken wings and learn to fly...

I love Tuesdays. Broken up day, go in in the morning, work for three hours then run errands, take a nap, clean more of the apartment, go back in to work then come home and crash. I'm diggin' in. Just thought I should mention it.
Tomorrow will be a longer day, 9-5 then a meeting with my boss's boss's boss. Serious stuff. With a few members of my class to talk about our selection policy and its history. Totally gonna look like comic relief. Again. In front of my boss's boss's boss. No pressure. But I get to see my friends at the other branch, who I feel like I haven't seen in forever even though it's only been since like Friday.
Yes, I'm a nerd. Deal.

I feel like I should post this since I'm on a Maroon 5 kick and I love Glee.

Diggin' the whole pounding the table thing. Was stoked to see them do Maroon 5. Is it me or are there different Warblers in every episode? Like I know the council. And that blonde one, I think his name is Ryker or something. And then the dude that does bass. But everyone else looks new to me, and far too similar to Blaine.
And I'm sorry but I totally love Mercedes' "Hell to the No" song. Was totally crackin' up the whole time. "Loser like Me" is cool as well.
And hooray for Pink! I totally screamed...big fan of that song.

And yes it is mandatory that I post this song. Because I love it.

We attempted it in high school but it wasn't as good as Kurt and these guys' version. Yay Beatles.
And all I can think of when I see Kurt in this outfit is Johnny Cash as the Man in Black. I'll spare you the spouting of "Cocaine Blues" lyrics. Probably not appropriate anyway. The benefits of older parents is growing up listening to artists like Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, the Beach Boys, the Beatles, Carole King, Joni Mitchell, etc.

Speaking of childhood music, here's a favorite:

1983 John Anderson's "Swingin'" was kind of a family song. Ask the older sisters. Pretty sure we have some interesting/embarrassing/blackmail material recordings from them... "phone.....pie.....fry.....garden hose...."