Well, camp is over. I miss it a lot more than I thought I would, not just the folks I worked with but the kids and even the place itself. I had an incredible last session. My kids were just amazing and, so far as I could tell, I wasn't too bad myself.
There were two really amazing moments for me during session 6 and as is my custom, I'll describe the funny one first. There's a special double block of the nature program that we, the counselors, can sign the kids up for. The reason for this is the pond we go explore is about a 20-minute hike from the nature building and the usual 50 minute block just doesn't work out. Anyway, we hadn't gotten any substantial rain in like 2 months so the pond was really more a giant mud puddle. Young boys being themselves, well, they couldn't bear to keep themselves out of the mud which wasn't a big deal as they had waders on, well it wasn't a big deal until three of them got stuck. At first I tried to pull one of the kids out with some rope I had in my bag and all I managed to do was tip the poor guy over flat on his back in the mud and give him some rope burn which I hope went away before he got home, haha. Eventually, all three of them had to climb out of their waders and pull the waders out of the mud before they sunk back in the mud too much. Many pictures were taken of this but I refuse to post them on a public forum, even one read so little as this.
The other great, and certainly one of the most touching for me personally, moment came during lunch one day. Most of my kids were longtime campers and that particular day they were discussing some of the cool things they'd done in the past and the various counselors they had over the previous 2 summers. After a fairly long reminiscence about how cool some of his counselors had been, he looks me right in the eye and says, "But you're my favorite." and goes back to his meal. Any of you out there who have ever worked with kids before can, I believe, imagine what this meant to me at the time and what it still means to me now.
So I start my new job on Tuesday, working at a warehouse for Thermo Fisher Scientific. They manufacture plastic tubs filled with a water/formaldehyde mixture for doctors to put biopsy samples in. The unfortunate part of this is, despite applying for the job over the Michigan Talent Bank, I'm working through a temp agency. I hate temp agencies. I feel I'm being far too gracious when I call them the carrion eaters of the employment industry, providing cheap, throw-away employees for companies more interested in finding a quick fix rather than a long term solution. My job is called a 'temp-to-hire' position, meaning if I prove myself there's a possibility of actually being hired directly by the company. That's the upside, but let's be real here, why would they want to hire anyone on a permanent basis? They apparently pay their permanent employees $2-$3 more per hour in addition to benefits like insurance and a 401(k), which is cool, but I just don't see the reason they'd want to spend the additional money on a permanent guy when, due to Michigan's sky-high unemployment rate, they have access to more disposable employees than they could ever want via the temp agency. Did I mention that I hate temp agencies?
So my birthday is coming up, I'll be 26 which is way too close to 30 for my personal comfort. I planned on having a shindig with my friends on the 7th of September but it seems that I'll likely have to change that date of that or possibly even cancel it entirely depending on my work schedule. I like working third shift but it's tough on your social life (although not quite the unmitigated hell that second shift is).
Anyway, when I have more news or something funny to say I'll make another post. Catch you hookers later.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Monday, August 06, 2007
Girl You're Fi-i-ine!!
Almost a month to the day since my last entry and so much has happened I'm not sure what to include, leave out or even where to start.
My last entry was made at the beginning of session 3 shortly after I had my tooth pulled. Near the middle to end of that session there was a bout of theft and other suspicious stuff (including two laptops found under a mattress in one of the 'counselor' rooms in the staff house) that includes $80 and a laptop all vanishing and possibly other things that leadership staff and the police have decided to keep to themselves. Since then the entire camp, including our personal belongings and vehicles, has been searched. We've had to fill out a written interview form and, as if all that wasn't enough, they are, to my knowledge, no closer to figuring out who the fuck the thief is. As you may have guessed this whole thing has ripped the group apart. The trust-bond I was so happy to have developed amongst so many different individuals, the ingrained support system one really relies upon when dealing with difficult kids - torn asunder.
Despite that, I had my best session of the summer thus far during session 4. I had an amazing group of kids. The only really tough part of that session was saying goodbye, especially when one of the kids, a foster child, asked if he could move in with me. A highlight of session 4 was 'Fantasy Day' which coincided with the release of the 7th Harry Potter book. Our idea was to dress all our kids up in "Wizard's Robes" which were really bed sheets and in truth the kids' costumes more closely resembled those worn by a certain hate group than actual wizard robes which, believe it or not, is funnier than it sounds.
The break between 4 and 5 consisted almost entirely of reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which was a wonderful book and a solid conclusion to the entire HP series, at least in my opinion.
Last session, session 5, has been my toughest since session 1. I was moved back into cabin 4 after having spent the previous 2 sessions in cabin 5. Looking back on it now, I see I was hoping to turn cabin 4 into cabin 5 instead of preparing myself for the usual cabin 4 shenanigans. The session started poorly but ended pretty well which I attribute to my co-counselors patience with me and my ability to back-pedal like a madman when I realize I've been a dumbass. Highlights of the session include a kid dropping his swim trunks into a toilet, parading around the cabin with them until I told him to throw them out on the porch. Another kid then picked them up and began waving them around and managed to hit someone in the eye with what I have now dubbed, "The Toilet Trunks". Another fun story involves our "Camping Night" where we actually go out into the woods and camp for a night. A kid runs up to me yelling, "So-and-so crapped his pants!!!" so I go to check things out, look down the road and I see, much to my shock and amusement, a kid with his shorts down around his knees and his bare ass hanging out in the road. Here's the gross part: I then see him reach down into his shorts, pull out a turd and hurl it into the woods. Needless to say, I sent him back into camp after directing the counselor taking him that he needed new underwear, shorts, a shower and probably some hand sanitizer.
That's all for now. I'll be all done with camp here on the evening of the 14th. Then it's back to the real world. Hope to see some of you guys there. Here's to an amazing session 6.
My last entry was made at the beginning of session 3 shortly after I had my tooth pulled. Near the middle to end of that session there was a bout of theft and other suspicious stuff (including two laptops found under a mattress in one of the 'counselor' rooms in the staff house) that includes $80 and a laptop all vanishing and possibly other things that leadership staff and the police have decided to keep to themselves. Since then the entire camp, including our personal belongings and vehicles, has been searched. We've had to fill out a written interview form and, as if all that wasn't enough, they are, to my knowledge, no closer to figuring out who the fuck the thief is. As you may have guessed this whole thing has ripped the group apart. The trust-bond I was so happy to have developed amongst so many different individuals, the ingrained support system one really relies upon when dealing with difficult kids - torn asunder.
Despite that, I had my best session of the summer thus far during session 4. I had an amazing group of kids. The only really tough part of that session was saying goodbye, especially when one of the kids, a foster child, asked if he could move in with me. A highlight of session 4 was 'Fantasy Day' which coincided with the release of the 7th Harry Potter book. Our idea was to dress all our kids up in "Wizard's Robes" which were really bed sheets and in truth the kids' costumes more closely resembled those worn by a certain hate group than actual wizard robes which, believe it or not, is funnier than it sounds.
The break between 4 and 5 consisted almost entirely of reading "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which was a wonderful book and a solid conclusion to the entire HP series, at least in my opinion.
Last session, session 5, has been my toughest since session 1. I was moved back into cabin 4 after having spent the previous 2 sessions in cabin 5. Looking back on it now, I see I was hoping to turn cabin 4 into cabin 5 instead of preparing myself for the usual cabin 4 shenanigans. The session started poorly but ended pretty well which I attribute to my co-counselors patience with me and my ability to back-pedal like a madman when I realize I've been a dumbass. Highlights of the session include a kid dropping his swim trunks into a toilet, parading around the cabin with them until I told him to throw them out on the porch. Another kid then picked them up and began waving them around and managed to hit someone in the eye with what I have now dubbed, "The Toilet Trunks". Another fun story involves our "Camping Night" where we actually go out into the woods and camp for a night. A kid runs up to me yelling, "So-and-so crapped his pants!!!" so I go to check things out, look down the road and I see, much to my shock and amusement, a kid with his shorts down around his knees and his bare ass hanging out in the road. Here's the gross part: I then see him reach down into his shorts, pull out a turd and hurl it into the woods. Needless to say, I sent him back into camp after directing the counselor taking him that he needed new underwear, shorts, a shower and probably some hand sanitizer.
That's all for now. I'll be all done with camp here on the evening of the 14th. Then it's back to the real world. Hope to see some of you guys there. Here's to an amazing session 6.
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