Massage Night Movie

Oh, btw - movie of the night for Massage Night - Top Gun . . . :o)

For directions to my house, check out Yahoo! maps: 1908 Quail Run Ct.
By the way, the star on the map shows my house at the end of the street (for some reason . . . ) It's not - it'll be the second house on your left (the grey one next to the big brick one on the corner.)

Reminder!!

Remember, everyone - Massage Night No. 2 this Monday night (August 1) at my house!! Let's change the time from 6 to 6:30, we can order pizza or whatever. Bring any movies you might want to watch. Call me if you need directions - I live in Ironwood. Cheers, all, and I'll see you bright 'n' early Monday morning!

--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

Dirty Quote Thursday

QUOTES OF THE DAY

"I was hot and I wanted to take my pants off"

-Kimberly Owens-

"I'm not really much of a pepperoni person. I prefer sausage"

-Melissa Ritchie-

I think I'll just let everyone stew over them before I say anything further, haha.

-Jungle Jim-

TONIGHT!!

Tonight there is a large group of counselors (and several of their non-counselor friends) that are coming to see the Sound of Music. Here's the info:

• Sound of Music and Picnic
• @ Miller Park - Meet by the stage for the picnic
• When? picnic @ 6:30, show @ 8:30
• **bring blankets, beachtowels, pillows with you so you can mark your place in the audience off early, and so your posterior doesn't fall asleep during the show.
• For the picnic, please bring something with you - hot dogs, buns, chips, cookies, pop (if you bring a bottle, please bring cups)

Hope to see everyone there!!
(And thanks again to those who have already seen it!!)

--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

Monday: Session 2, Week 2

So this is the post that I started Monday and definitely just got around to completing now (it's Wednesday after work). Sad. Anyway, here it is. Enjoy! :o)

I found that today had several things that needed to be commented upon, so I'll go Jim-style on this one and give you the hits of the day:


Pre-Camp Mayhem (Or the Kick of the Morning) :

• Started out with an intense game of Rat-Stew vs. Miss Sherrie and Miss Kyle, which quickly became UNO once the campers joined us (Mondays = no slaps = no fun for counselors)
• After an everlasting round of UNO, I decided to venture out of the shelter, and found myself headed in the direction of Counselors Kimberly and Ashton, who had started an exhausting game of tag (no "flushing" of the arm to get back in for this one - their version most definitely required the crawl-between-the-legs-save.) Saw one camper nail another in the crotch with his head while attempting to save him from his terrible fate of out-ness. Had Ashton crawl between my legs in an attempt to . . . well, actually I don't think the game was going at that point . . .
• After a few rounds of counselors-are-it tag with the campers, Kimberly and Ashton decided to call an end to tag for the morning. Ashton and I decided 'twas time to grace the kickball field with our shining presences. We definitely arrived just in time for the round of Counselors-up-to-bat.
• While there were many stupendeous kicks made by the counselors, one stands high above the rest as the Kick of the Morning. . . Heather Richie is up to bat . . . Brandon pitches . . . It's a nice pitch, rolling straight to Heather . . . She kicks - straight at Brandon!! He jumps in attempt to let the ball fly under him, but NO!! Brandon definitely gets nailed in the crotch!!!
• When asked about the halarity of the situation and why all the counselors were rolling on the ground (Brandon in pain and all others in uncontrollable laughter), they are informed that the ball nailed him in the stomach . . . So, Brandon, at your expense, we have our Kick of the Morning. We thank you for your sacrifice.
• Following a wonderful serenade from Jim about his corn and the corn's purple tie (trust me - it'll definitely be a classic fifteen years down the road . . .), Jim and I had a deep discussion on the merits and drawbacks to Puppy Chow. More later on Puppy Chow.

First Period - All-Camp Pow-Wow (Or the Promiscuous Cats) :

• Aaron and I hadn't played the Dice Game with our Mondays yet, and to honor the theme day (Down on the Farm!!), we decided to play the Animal Dice Game. Sooooo . . . They rolled the dice, and based on the total of the pair, the whole group (our tribe plus Brandon's, the Pawnee) had to act like that animal (complete with animal noises).
• All was going well in animal-land; 3-Cow!-"mooooooooo" . . . 7-Duck!-"quack, quack" . . . 10-Sheep!-"Baaaaaa, baaaaaaa" . . . and then there was 6-Cat!-"Meow, meow" . . . Or so one would think.
• The second time the number for Cat was rolled, all of the campers are crawling around on all fours on the grass, dutifully "meow-ing" . . . All except for one. This camper turns to me and says, "My family breeds cats!" then procedes to turn to the camper closest to himself, and mounts the poor boy. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that's correct. I had mounting cat campers for pow-wow today. Needless to say, Brandon, Aaron, and I were slightly disturbed . . .

Second & Third Periods - All-Camp Swim (Or Peek-a-Boo) :

• Thanks to the wonderful heat today, we had All-Camp Swim for two hours! Cherokee was one of the first tribes dismissed, so Aaron and I were able to get the kids down to the pool and ready quickly. (Unfortunately the same couldn't be said of getting them dressed after swimtime, owing to the fact that the lifeguards dismissed all of the campers at once . . .)
• The water was beautiful!! Absolutely perfect day for swimming!! Enough said there.
• Today I seemed to have at least one camper permanently glued to my hip. Or knee. Or back. Or wherever they decided to hang on me. At one point, one of my Cherokee girls (who had spent the past 15 minutes or so sitting on my left knee - which was uber-comfortable, let me tell you . . .) decided she wanted to take over my left hip instead.
• Sooooo, I shifted her over to the side, and she decided to kinda jump up to sit on my hip. She definitely over-shot her target and from about her belly-button up was at my shoulder level. Upon scooting herself down my side she definitely took part of my swimsuit with her. Peek-a-Boo time for Kelly. Thankfully, all was covered by camper, so with some hasty adjustments (both of swimsuit and camper), all was set to rights.
• Left early to get changed for the theme lunch - most definitely an excellent idea. Amidst French-braiding Melissa R., Kyle, and Teresa's hair, the announcement came over the loudspeakers for all - that's right, ALL - of the campers to exit the water and get dressed for the afternoon. Mass chaos insued.

Lunchtime (or Heat Exhaustion) :

• Went all out today for the Theme Lunch of Down on the Farm (which I chose to interpret as Down on the Farm/Ranch . . . So mebbe my farm's in Texas? . . .) and wore my self-destroyed jeans, fake-ostrich-leather belt, brown-striped western shirt, bandana hanging out of the back pocket, my Mom's leather Cowboy boots from when she was in college, and a Cowboy hat. With my hair in braids, I must say I made a pretty darn decent cowgirl . . . and unfortunately, one that was absolutely roasting.
• Walking down to the camp shelter from the beachhouse there was definitely a bit of a breeze (which kept me alive), but once under the shelter for lunch, no such luck. Of course the only day when we all wear jeans is the day when there is no breeze to be found!! (On the plus side, no breeze = hardly any spills!!)
• Costume contest time!! Turns out all the counselors who were brave enough (or dumb enough - myself included) to wear jeans won for the day. Hooray for Three Musketeers bars!!

Fourth Period - Tribal Treat (Or the Period When Nothing Really Happened At All) :

• Yup. Not too much to tell. Storyteller. Loads better than the guy from first session, except that all his stories (which were interactive; got to give him props there) were really really repetitive. Started to give me a bit of a headache. Luckily for me, crafts = break!

Fifth Period - Crafts (Or Girl-Talk Time) :

• Sherrie and I (while not in the same pods for the day, luckily managed to secure the same break time) stole the Algonquin blanket and, while we had big plans for naptime, definitely spent the whole period deep in good girl-talk discussions about many different things. Puppy chow was included. I got many things sorted out and felt even better than if I had napped (course, I ended up taking a two hour nap once I got home, so there you go.)

Sixth Period - All-Camp Movie (or Naptime) :

• Got my much-needed nap of the day, despite the fact that Lilo and Stitch is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies ever. :o) Counselors were loud. Kids were loud. Kelly can sleep through anything. Hoo-ray.

Post-Camp Mayhem (Or Spelling Lessons) :

• Nothing too exciting at the checkout shelter. Worked on some hemp bracelets or keychains (yeah, I know - who'd a thunk it?).
• Carley's spelling abilities were put to the test. I learned that you spell Shell, Shell with an H . . . ;o)

Busy day. Long day. Very interesting day. It was definitely a Monday.

*Radio Edit*

I have recently discovered the wonders of Audioblogger ... in which I can post from a phone. I know, it's way sweet!

I am thinking we need to utilize this from daycamp.

Any thoughts?

-Jungle Jim the Goose Hunter-

Hunted

I did forget to mention that on the walk to the pool this morning I passed along super-secret information to the AZA/Choctaw campers. They were getting too far ahead, so for their own safety I informed them that they need to stay with me in case the herd of geese attack. They are in fact, Soon to be Killer Geese* ... Geese are actually carnivorous predators who hunt in packs like wolves and can sprint in excess of 45mph, or about the equivalent of a Cheetah. Thus for their own safety they needed to stay with me.

While the average American does not know this, I hope it is material included in the next wave of textbooks.

-Jim, the Goose Hunter-

*They are "soon to be killer" geese because we can't very well call them Killer Geese if they haven't killed anyone yet. Their have been a couple close scrapes and one counselor is still in the ICU, but no deaths as of yet. So they are the "soon to be killer"geese. It's a distinction that seems silly, but needs to be made at this point in time nonetheless.

Massage Night No.3

Okay, so it's really the second one, since Salute Your Shorts/Massage night definitely turned into Salute Your Shorts night, but anyway . . .

Massage Night No.3 - Monday, August 1. My house. 6-11-ish? Dunno. Whenever. We've all got work the next morning (and some of us earlier than others . . .)

Let me know if you're interested!!

--Kel-- :o)

Kyle's Army

I forgot to mention yesterday that during our break, what caused the huge religious debate was Kyle Matthews proclaiming if God sends him to hell he is going to lead the Devil's army against God and would overtake him.

Not sure if that was a threat against God, or just a back-up plan to avoid boredom in case he doesn't get his first choice of being accepted to heaven, but it was hilarious to hear!

He's be like Spawn (come on u comic book junkies), except I struggle seeing Kyle's decaying form leading an army of hell's creatures against to the gates of heaven ... I can't really see him winning either, but I mean hey, I'm not going to count him out. Stranger things have happened .... okay, maybe they haven't, but nonetheless....

-Jim-

Another Day Done

The Quote-able Kyle Matthews (@11:30am): "Why is it still so hot out today?!? It's like ten degrees cooler and it's still so hot we don't even notice." That's a totally true story folks.

-For all you keeping track at home I arrived 6 minutes early today. Woot woot. Sadly however, I accidentally took my name tage home and forgot to bring it to camp. Eh, such is life. Speaking of taking things home, I forgot my two 'Three Musketeers' bars in the fridge for about the millionth consecutive day!

-Played kickball twice this morning, and let me tell ya, the second one really stunk. Playing kickball at 11am in the heat with campers being made to play rather than choosing to (like before camp) really deflates the energy of the game. One odd play did happen when Ken and I were an intense pitcher/batter duel, he threw me some insane heat which I approached and was right on target to a direct whomping ... everyone says it was going to be beautiful, like kickoff to the goaline beautiful, when at the last moment the ball took some nasty hop and bounced over my thigh as I swung through. It apparently got as high as my belly. I claimed to be aiming over second base on the next kick, but I hit a liner about 5 steps left of it. Sad. Ken 2, Jim 0.

-Swam first. Wore the stylin' huge 80's shades again. They keep falling off my face, not such a fan. Helped Lifeguard David with lessons. Good times. Bummed around talking to Melissa R and the Kyle's most of the time. Kim was in a rare mood. She made like three inuendo-ish comments in about 5 minutes and like half-smacked my bosom when no one was looking at the pool as she passed by (and then started cracking up about how she had no idea where that came from or why). She got to bed before midnight and it was obvious! Didn't have to wait to enter the locker room today, which was exciting. I also got to take the AZA's today. I love taking the hooligans. The AZA's are a ton of fun and I look forward to Tuesday swim because of them.

Celebrity Look-A-Like Contest: Kevin told me today that I looked liked Jim Carrey ... the good Jim Carrey ... who looks tight and is hilarious. Which prompted Carley to once again bring up her feelings of how I look like a Skinny Josh Hartnett. So I am definitely a mutation of Jim Carrey and Josh Hartnett. Funny and Good Looking ... so why am I not famous yet?!?

Oooooooh *&%^ Moment of the Day - As a bunch of counselors are hopping out of the pool, Kyle takes a kickboard (light as all get out) and frisbees it about 20 feet away into seemingly open water. It begins to sharply curve left all crazy style as it zips toward the surface of the water. As it took this sharp veer down and away a camper emerged from the water out of nowhere seconds after the board passed him. With all seriousness he was about a half second away from emerging and getting a board straight to the face. It probably would have killed him or something, haha ... can you imagine the shock of emerging and opening ur eyes to a board hurtling right between your eyes. Kyle was like OOOOOOH (insert curse word rhyming with twit) after he realized how close that came. We started cracking up half-out of relief and half out of how funny those odds would have been. No idea where that kid came from, but I never knew he was in the area until he was nearly down and out. Someone's Guardian Angel sure was paying attention .... and good thing too!

-During Pow-Wow I gave the campers a 5 minute lecture on "DON'T EAT THE MARSHMALLOWS FOR ANY REASON." At the end of the period the Kim is globbing up the excess mallows into a giant marshmallow ball and asks, "Do you want to eat some? We could play chubby bunny with these small ones!" She was serious folks. And she says I can be gross! Her giant marshmallow ball was sweet and I wish we had a picture.

Girls are confusing Moment: Apparently today was the one month anniversary of Kyle L. and I dating. We figured out it had been four weeks since Aeriole (sp?) told me that Kyle and I were together. Kyle told me in the morning that she was "about to break-up with me" which I heard as "we're breaking up." She then told me that I wasn't taking well and showed signs of being abusive. Later, after finding out we weren't actually broken up, I was told that I need to listen more and be a better boyfriend. Kyle L. also said that I need to break up Megan because she's a monogomous women. I tried to tell her that infringed on my religious rights of being a Mormon, but she didn't listen. So we almost broke up, she complains about how good of a boyfriend I am, I find out we aren't breaking up and in fact we are going so strong I need to break-up with my other girlfriend. Haha, now any of you tell me girls aren't confusing ... 'cause whoa! I'm lost and I was there!

-Pooped during quiet time. Now that is need to know information!

-During Tribal Treat a magician came. It looked cool, but Kim wanted it so I took the period off. Had it off with Kyle L, Melissa R, Kelly, Michelle, David and Sherrie (I think Sherrie was there). Layed blankets down in the basement. I took the only chair butt pad in all of camp, layed Kelly's sweatshirt over it for precautionary reasons and layed on my stomach, sharing the pillow with Kyle all period. After 5 minutes I was out cold. I mean cold. Apparently they took a picture. I didn't wake up until the break had ended like 45 minutes later. I remember nothing. Except the concrete floor really F-ED up my back. It hurt a lot after that. But the nap was amazing. As usual.

-Craft time rocked! We made the activity that was ranked #1 in the craft catalog: A Kalaiedascope (sp?!). They were way sweet. The campers thought they were the coolest thing since, well ever ... and they were right. Amazing! Although at the end of the period when trying to put them all together I started rushing and sweating up a mother. It was rough.

-Played with beads ... played slap jack ... got my bottom handed to me in Chess by a very good camper ... went home. There's ur ballgame folks.

Saddest Quote: Dana and Carley had a conversation about how camp isn't nearly as much as fun this year. They are just feeling blah, and they looked forward to camp all year and now their like, eh. Being a part of the new class of counselors that came in, I'm one of many things that changed, and I wanted to come in and make camp that much better, so it's sad to hear that camp isn't as much fun for them. Wonder if there's anything I can do...

Country Livin'

Today was a theme lunch day, "Down on the Farm" theme lunch day! Which is tied with Illini day as the best theme lunch day ever!!! (And by ever I mean this summer!). Unfortunately, predicting how darned hot it was supposed to be I had to alter a few plans, such as leaving the Wranglers at home...

-Definitely left running about 5 min behind, got 5 minutes toward camp and realized I hadn't taken my medication nor had I brought any ... turning around was a no-brainer. Speed Kills, unless you have Narcolepsy, and then it saves lives. Words to live by right there. Amazingly I was only 10 minutes late ... I still got highlighted for being late in the log book. Irk. I hate being highlighted.

-I thought today we'd have like 4 campers a tribe or something, but when I got there we definitely had a full camp! What parent in their right mind sends their kids to daycamp on a day the National Weather Service sends out a weather advisory for such insane heat... apparently waaaaaay more parents than I thought. By Noon our numbers started dropping swiftly, but still!

-The kids were absolutely dead this morning. I tried serenading them with my famous rendition of "I can love you like that" Jim Boyer style ... but that bombed. Old McDonald had a farm wasn't much better. The kids were barely audible. Although we did find out that horses have a screaming neigh and that Kimbo's favorite boy Preston can quack like a duck farely well. I also tried the infamous Alive, Alert, Awake enthusiastic with them. That worked well.

-It also turns out that these kids are getting pretty insanely good at Simon Says. You can be right in front of them outlining the clearest of instructions and they don't hear a word, yet you put it in the form of Simon Says and the little snots hear whether Simon Says it or not every time! I'm a terrible SIMON apparently!

-We had all camp Pow-Wow to start the day. I had secured a radio for Pow-Wow so that we could jam to some country tunes, but Kim "couldn't find it" and then I saw Megan Tripple's group stole it ... no country jammin' for Jim. *Tear*. We made animal masks for the kids. Securing the masks on the head became more difficult than anticipated. Not so brilliant on my part to discount Kimbo's ideas of making them hold-up masks by using popsicle sticks.

-Had a camper who flat out didn't wanna participate this morning. I tried to get him to play Simon Says and he started balling. He didn't even listen to threats of pulling hte plug on the pool. He siad his stomach hurt. So during P0w-Wow I consult keystaff and call his Dad. Nice Guy. He suggests I make the little guy take a dump, cause sometimes "things get alll clogged up and he doesn't realize it". Wonderful, this kid could be about to spew poo like Mount Vesuvius and wouldn't know it. He takes a dump, says that poo came out and he was feeling a little better. Still wouldn't participate int he craft. Said he didn't like making projects. I let him swim 'cause I didnt want him out in the sun. He's fine the whole time. As soon as we're done and in the locker room, apparently he rushes off to the bathroom where he gets on his knees ready to puke. I usher the other kids out in case he is serious, and 10 seconds later I return to him telling me he's puked. I don't buy it. He says he doesnt feel like it anymore, but his stomach still hurts. The kicker, I asked him what color it was and he replied, "Diorrehea colored". No Joke. I try and get him to tell me the truth about him not really puking, but he stands by his story. Won't eat lunch. I call and leave a message for Dad. Miraculously 10 minutes later his name was called for an early pick-up. The heavens were smiling upon me.

-Pool time wasn't too bad. Chilled with Carley most of it. Good conversation. Many counselors came and went, but we remained, just chillin' ... not moving from our post, just hanging out. Got pretty red on my back/neck apparently, but I haven't seen it yet. Oh well. Oh, and apparently Ken loves Carley, at least that's what undisclosed sources tell us. Funny, he had everyone at camp fooled! Hahaha...

-Kimbo and I chilled with our tribe for about 10 minutes poolside while everyone was else wa sin the locker-rooms. They kicked everyone out of the pool at once. MISTAKE! We suspected how crazy it would be and Aaron C. came out and confirmed the mad-house image I had in my head. We waited out the storm fairly well.

-Late start on lunch, 'cause of Grant. Whether it was all the discussion of puking or the insane humidity I had little appetite. Felt a little nausea. Ick.

-Wore my cowboy hat witha blue bandana around it and my faded gray McLean County 4-H t-shirt all day and for lunch added the old boots and my air conditioned jeans. They have built ventilation in the forms of random large holes and rips, specifically in the knee areas. Their pretty darned sweet. Although even withthe ventilation, added like 10 degrees. All the counselors that wore jeans won the costume judging. Yeah for a second Three Musketeers I left in the fridge. Oh well, I found the first one today, hopefully I remember them both tomorrow.

-Had break next, while Kimbo took the kids to listen to some story-teller. I tried napping, but that was a big no-go. Got lots of bug bites tho. Listened to the counselors have a huge discussion of religion and homosexuality. Very interesting. I didn't interject ever, despite my hankering too ... too many voices already.

-Craft time. Darned Seek and Find was one heckuva SOB today .... wasn't strong enough, had to have someone tell me where some stuff was. Got overheated just doing that today. Had to dump water on myself from my mug like three times. I was sweating up a storm. Way miserable. Waaaaaaaay miserable.

-Popsicle time, which meants that like 6 girl counselors took time to take waaaaaay too many pictures. I rebelled by making fun faces at the camera when I was involved. It was for the good of mankind (in some round about way).

-Video time. Lilo and Stitch. I love that movie! Seriously, almost teared up once, no idea why. I'm going soft. Sadly the movie was ruined because half the dialogue was to most of the campers from the drone of the large fan we had to have on and the constant chatter from all of the counselors. Some of my favorite and best counselors were guilty today of waaaay too much chatter. It was frustrating for the kids and in turn I felt frustration for them. But whatever, it was a good movie.

-Check-out time. Surprisingly this flew by! Played Go Fish .... solid game. Cutest camper in the history of camp played. He has the worst memory ever, he kept forgetting Kelly and my name and he called Jared, Jerry. Sooooo funny! Oh, and he called Aces: A's and Jacks: J's. That was way quality!

-OOOOOH, and I forgot to mention that Friday I met Jared's fiance ... the girl is a fox! He done good, he done real good! Way to be. Haha, rock on y'all!

-Jim-

YEAH COREY

JUST FOR THE RECORD: I saw something I hadn't seen yet on this blog, counselor COREY posted a comment in response to Kelly's joke! However shortlived it may be, way to throw in ur two cents somewhere Corey!

The hemp/beading craze . . .

Hey counselors!!

For anyone who's interested, Kate gave me the website that she gets her beading supplies from: S&S Worldwide

I plan to order some of the square colored alphabet beads that we use at camp ($4/bag of 700 beads - same size bags we get at camp), but shipping and handling is $8 for up to $60 spent.

Soooo, if anyone else is interested in ordering some beads with me (they've got hemp, too - beads and hemp are both much cheaper here than at Wal-Mart, which is the cheapest I'd found the stuff previously) we could split shipping and handling.

Let me know if you're interested!!

--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

Lesson of the Day (From Roofio)

Lesson of the day:

(**Taken from Roofio's away message, in reference to the picnic/show at Miller Park Saturday night . . . **)

When you don't show up to a place you say you are going to, you might have about 20 messages on your voice mail from 8 camp counselors about random things that have nothing to with the fact you aren't with them right now...

happy checking Jim :-D

Heating Up

It is just miserable out today. Weather channel that it feels like 107 out, and I think it's possible thats an understatement. I seriously have walked from Schlotzski's to a car (25 seconds), car to hourse house to car to house(15 seconds each), and every time I started sweating. It is just nasty out.

Sadly here's tomorrow forecast: Except for a few afternoon clouds, mainly sunny. Hot and humid. High 96F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.

They've said tomorrow's heat index will be 102, peaking at noon.

Not only is it going to be miserable tomorrow, but this totally ruins Farm Day.

UGH!

Seriously, what is up with that! Oh well

-Jim-

Joke of the Day

Kelly's Joke of the Day

***Amended to - Kelly's BAD Joke of the Day

So this definitely doesn't have squat to do with Daycamp, but I found this jotted down on an old sheet of notebook paper while cleaning through my room today, and decided that this needed to be shared . . .


Two hydrogen atoms were walking down the road.

One turns to the other and says, "Oh no - I've lost an electron!"

The second says, "Are you sure?"

The first responds, "Yup - I'm positive!"


hahahahahahaha . . . ehh, good ol' chem jokes . . . Thanks, Mr. Nelson . . .

Camp Pictures

I took around forty pictures at camp this last week and posted them on a very plain and simple page. Feel free to check them out at: http://students.jbu.edu/rohdes/sfcamp/

:)

E3: Everyone Exits Early

Not many of our bloggers were present today, as usual, so here's the report for Friday July 22nd:

Check-in:

-Got called at 8:02 (I normally leave at 8:05) asking if I could work 9-5 for the day. Worked out fine for me, means I got breakfast at home! Brian and I laughed with my classic Jeff Foxworthy CD on the way over ... got there 10 minutes early ... great start for the day. Altho sadly this means I missed morning kickball. Alas, such is life...

-Harassed by three counselors within 15 seconds of arrival. Thanked by Scottie for taking the shift within 5 seconds of arrival. Asked by Ed if I wanted to take the 9-5 shift every Friday from this point out within 30 seconds of arrival. I accepted it, assuming there was a reason they needed me to. It all evens out.

Morning-3 periods of Games:

-Lindsey had it all covered when I got there. Scottie recommended us playing "Nuke 'Em", an oddly titled game to say the least. It's like volleyball on the sand courts, except instead of setting/hitting/bumping you catch and throw the ball. Not sure where the "Nuke 'Em" part comes in, except that if the ball hits the ground its like dropping a nuke or something? I dunno ... a glorious name for a dissapointingly non-glorious game.

-It was actually a fairly cool morning, all things considered. In comparison to the previous day's humidity, today felt like a day at the beach in 60 degree weather.

-'Twas especially nice when in the middle of the first period, Lindz and I grabbed a bench from the side of the courts and placed it right next to our court. Yeah for sitting rather than standing 3 hours.

-Lindz and I watched all three games on the bench. We gave each group the rules, some tips and interjected for about the first five minutes. It was amazing how much this game entertained every group. They never kept track of score, they never got bored ... they were absolutely in their own world just throwing the ball back and forth. It was amazing.

-My brother is an idiot, as he ran out into the sand courts at first in his shoes. Seriously, who does that?

-With the campers, sometimes it's best to take a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach. A few weeks ago when Dana and I played sand volleyball with them, Brian and a few kids from the second group were more interested in playing in the sand, building castles, etc ... so we made them play part of the time and let them build the rest. This time, they played the game for a long ... and came back from a water break looking a little tired. The campers came over to us ont he bench and starte dburying our feet in the sand. We just let them do their thing, and then, seeing how much fun they had, created a competition where the girls buried Lindz's feet, the boys' buried mine and we had a contest for best and fatest burying job. We even had Teresa as a third party judge. For the record, the girls were the fatest and looked the best while the boys was considered the most structurally sound and did the best job immobilizing me. Brilliant.

-Random: The sand got really hot by about 11 am ... every group had odd numbers so it was always unbalanced teams ... Lindsey is a pretty cool person and I enjoy having games with her.

Lunch:

-Humorous story of the day. At the end of lunch everyone clears from the picnic tables, leaving Adam alone on one. He leans back to grab something and the whole aluminum table moves with him. It was so funny, but I think he felt pretty sheep-ish. He kept making comments about needing to lose weight. Turns out when u've got as much muscle as him, there's no one on a relatively light aluminum bench and you shift you're center of gravity in such a radical fashion ... bad things happen.

-However, during quiet time he did offer to give me 60-100 pounds of his muscle weight. Of course I accepted, although I told Kim I'd give her some of my cut for her B-squared fund. (That's her boobs and boussom fund, to donate contact Kimberly at....)...

Afternoon:

-All afternoon activities were canceled, althought after spending some time outside, I don't really think we should have (and I think they knew it mid-afternoon). It was like 87 out with a heat index of 92, but it really wasn't too bad. I could see canceling some events that were out int he sun, like Court Area, but overall it was prolly okay. However, with all the talk of the heat, and how it had been yesterday, they erred on the side of caution. Can't argue with that. Having said that, yesterday was about 10 million times worse. Today was just warm out, no humidity at all ... not a bad day by any means.

-First came the afternoon video, which was Elf. Campers that had signe dup for crafts left in groups to participate in their crafts. Katie O., Teresa, my brother Brian and myself all sat in chair around the back door of the bunker, using the light from the door being slightly cracked to read. We had our own camp book club. Yeah for getting through more of Harry Potter. What a book!

-I broke from the book club early to relieve Dana. Jared and Dana were the only two counselors really inthe thick of the campers ... they didnt need to be as the campers were being good, but Dana was sitting by the stairs listening for names of campers leaving early. She looked antsy and said she needed a nap, so I took over for her in order to nap. I don't think she got much of one, but i tried.

-At the end of Elf, the campers got really goofy and started singing along with the Christmas song being sung during the touching ending. They werent juts singing, they were like screaming. So I got up and told them that I was all aboutthem singing and being goofy, but the screaming had to go. They complied, surprisingly. It was really funny.

-The movie ended and we herded them upstairs for some mad board game-age, as we had like 45 minutes to three. We busted out the rainy day board games, so there were all these little groups of kids playing different games. It seemed to be a big success. I taught 6 or 7 kids Egyptian Rat-Stew which was good times.

-A group of campers began organizing a talent show for the last day. Scottie has yet to be convinced, but the camp was abuzz with talk of it and most of the kids were taling like it was a done deal. One kid even took the iniative to walk around and sign people up for it. I signed up for a "secret talent", which was code for Jim supporting his effort without having to think of something to do ont he spot. I hope we do it, it would be sweet!

-Distributed popsicles and then made my way up to the check-out shelter where I stayed till 5. At 4:35 we had 5 kids left and by 4:55 the last one (and most annoying at all camp, so of course he was last) left and Kate and I took off...

-Side Note: Friday's are my least favorite days as is, but especially on days like today when there are so few campers and counselors to begin with, and then everyone leaves early. It's just not as much fun. *Sigh*Such is life, *Sigh*.

REMINDER: MONDAY IS A THEME LUNCH DAY. IT'S FARM DAY!

The Hills Are Alive, With the Sound of . . . Rain?

Hey all!!

A huge thanks to Katie O for coming to the show Thursday for Opening Night - and a huge apology that we got rained out.

Note for any of you who decide to come see it sometime this weekend or next -- bring something soft and squishy to sit on!! The audience seating is rows of hard wood benches, and I've been told they get very uncomfortable.

Please also realize that (since we're FREE OF CHARGE to see) if we get any rain (even the few droplets that showed up last night before the big pour) we will call the show.

After the show we've been asked to change out of costumes before we go out to visit with any of the audience members, so keep in mind that if you're looking for me, you might not see me right away after the show - and if you do come to the show, please hang around so I can see you! I really appreciate everyone who goes to the show!! :o)


Also notice that you'll see two Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka campers from last session in the cast:

• Monday Camper Alexis (Ally) Palmer plays the yougest VonTrapp child, Gretl
• Thursday Camper Jay Simmons plays the younger VonTrapp boy, Kurt

As always, give me a call if you have any questions about the show, call Aimee if you've got any questions about the plans for picnic & show Saturday night, and I hope to see you there!!

--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

a.k.a. Sister Sophia . . .

Happy One Month!!!

Happy one month anniversary to the Camp Wa-Nik'-Ska-Ka blog!!

1 month, 14 counselor blog members, and 59 posts later, here we are!! Thanks, all, and if you haven't joined yet, check your email, or send me a message to know you'd like an invite!!


--Counselor Kelly-- :o)

knsnyde@ilstu.edu
AIM: SoggyShrubbery

Just got a call from camp ... 'twas keystaff Sarah. VERY VERY RANDOM to be honest with you! Good thing I decided to answer my phone this morning, I had initially thought against it! Anyhoo, I was blogging on 'the Normal Life' when my cell rang and Miss Sarah asked me if I could work the 9-5 shift 'cause Anne and Sophie were gone.

Not a problemo I told her, except I wish I would have known that information BEFORE I woke up! Haha. Well, I guess this means I have time to actually sit down for breakfast. My little bro Brian may be a few min. late to his first activity, and sadly I miss kickball with the Friday campers, BUT whatever ... gotta change plans when help is needed. So yup, that's what's goin' on...

Hope everyone not at camp has a beautiful day! I'll miss y'all much on this fine, and probably unbearably hot/muggy day. Enjoy the time off!

-Jim-

Salute Your Shorts

'Salute Your Shorts' night was awesome! We watched the lightning go crazy over head on Dave's deck ... craziest lightning ever, I saw more than one bolt go sideways from a cloud. Seriously, sideways lightning is just wicked.

I read the group an article from Newsweek about how 46% of women own a vibrator and how they are becoming socially cool. Dave kindly pointed that since we had 3 girls int he room at the time, 1 and a half of them thus owned a vibrator. My question was: Which half of the body owned it?

David ghetto rigged his home audio system to finally play the DVD.

The TV show had some of the worst dialogue and acting, it was so painful it was funny. And we weren't under the influence of anything either!

Kelly came! Yeah! She brought tons of food! Even more yeah!

Kelly smelled amazing. Seriously, I called Walter and David and withint like a 4 feet radius u could smell her lotion and it was amazing. Walter and I decided to be her groupies and just follow her around ... then we decided that'd be creepy and just enjoyed the moment.

David's ex-girl (of less than 24 hours) said good-bye. It was amazing to me, as David's response nearly made my lip tremble with laughter (so hard to hold it in). Can anyone say AWKWARD! She acts like she wants him and is all acting like she wants some alone time to chat, when she sees she's not getting she slowly is all like, Okay, well, I'll see ya round Dave .... and slowly begins to turn for the door a Dave says his only word of the whole 5 minute awkward period, he says: Ok.

That's all. She's like, well I guess i'll see ya around and he says, Ok. Really, I found great comedy in it. Poor girl. She seems real nice, but man was it funny ... especially because one of the reasons they broke up was that she thinks he is emotionless.

We enjoyed chuckling with Dave about that in his living room for a while, especially since Melissa Ritchie was present and she literally IS EMOTION. We had two extremes int he same living room. Worked out well.

And as they say at Camp Anwanna, "You've been roasted, toasted and BURNT TO A CRISP"

Good night y'all!

-Jungle Jim-

Thursday's Quick Hits

As you'll see the first half of the day was very eventful, while the second half was amazingly not. Without further-ado, Ladies and Gentleman, I bring you today's quick hits:

Check-in:

• 'Hakuna Matata' is always a great way to start one's morning...
• Just because the counselors decide they don't want any runs to score in kickball doesn't mean they'll have enough resolve to make it happen. Laziness is abundant at 8am.
• Picnic tables at camp don't seat 12 Thursday campers with the same comfort they seat 12 Monday campers ... go figure.
• Even Thursday campers get lost and follow the wrong tribe. Either that or 3 or 4 kids decided that Choctaw was the place to be and jumped ship...

1st period-Games:

• My campers think that I look like Johnny Storm (see 'The Fantastic Four')...
• Two campers that I know from doing Recess Duty at Sugar Creek Elementary for the last two years decided to be onry and tell me I was a better supervisor than counselor ... and we hadn't even started first period yet! They always did like to harass me. I blame it on the fact one of them is Counselor Tristan's littler sister ...
• Today we played a glorified version of "Bird's Nest" with four tribes and then a version of tag. A rather tiring version of tag...
• Often times Bird's Nest at such a grand level is a game of who has the most campers in the right place/right time.
• There are many many many strategies to winning the game, none of which are technically cheating...
• Sadly, we could not play enough games of "Bird's Nest" to test out said strategies.
• Kimberly will not take any suggestions about counselor cheating in "Bird's Nest" with positive feelings ... until the fourth game when you're team is win-less, in which case she'll suggest cheating to win as if it were a novel idea that was entirely hers. Seriously.
• Drink breaks save lives.
• Threatening teaming-up with Scotty to call one's parents is an effective strategy when attempting to get a camper to cooperate with said drink break.
• Thursday campers worship a Grass God, which they take very seriously. In an effort to appease this God they ambushed me as I was laying down, buried me in heaps of freshly picked grass and attempted a live human sacrifice. Seriously.
• Games that require too much running in too much heat are generally games that all counselors feel are best supervised from a seated position rather than active participation.

2nd period-Swim:

• Busted out the huge pinkish-red 1980's shades that were my Mom's ... I wore them to the Hawaiian Luau. The EJ's (Elton John's) as I have affectiontely dubbed them are always a crowd pleaser.
• Apparently, I abandoned my campers today. Leading a large group of campers up to the pool house with Kimbo and as we got into the house and up this little ramp (like 10 feet from the locker room) I was about 5-10 feet ahead of my campers. Kimbo harassed me for losing campers and not being a good counselor or something. I didn't lose them, they lost me if anything ... haha ... seriously though, if they can't make it to the locker-room at that distance with the herd of campers going that way we should be looking into alternative forms of education ... *Grumble, grumble*a bad counselor, I'll show you a bad counselor*grumble,grumble*
• I went to the pool feeling so droopy eyed. Like barely being able to keep one narcoleptic eye-lid open droopy eyed
• Kim lays down on a cot and curls up, proclaiming how tired she was. I look around, notice how many counselors we have, how few kids we have and decide that a brief nap time to re-energize is in order. Laying down ont he cot next to Kim and curling up, I literally did fall asleep within 10 seconds (and yes, it is possible, and no I am not exaggerating). About 2 minutes later, Ken decides to be onry and towers Kim and I, shouting, "WHO'S WATCHING YOUR KIDS?" Kim and I sit up and chuckle ... I prepare myself to lay back down for a few minutes when Kimbo goes all noble on me, pushing herself up with great effort and saying under her breath, "I don't get paid to sleep"... Seriously, just 'cause she has a concious why do I have to? Haha... SO NATURALLY, the guilt was hanging in the air and I had to get up to. She could have just been satisified with taking our brief naps, but noooooooooooooo, she had to decide that was wrong ... geez, talk about injustice in the world, there goes my wonderful nap time because she has to notice that her moral compass is a little cock-eyed.
• Hopping in the pool was a shock to my system. Immediately I became quite alive and chipper ... in fact, I was, *GASP*, darn right goofy! I even sang along with two country songs from the pool PA, including "You ain't much fun since I quit drinkin' ", to Carley, Kelly, Melissa and every camper in the area.
• The pool felt amazing for the first 15 minutes and then I got pretty darned cold after that.
• Carley pointed out that I have small nipples. Melissa giggled in agreement. Quote of the swim period, from Anchorman, "And then my small little nipples went to France..."
• Carley demonstrated that it is possible to take one of the swim noodles with the hole through them, fill them up with water, and then blow water out at people through them (like a giant straw). Not going to lie, that just doesn't get old.
• Aaron C. got all smart on us and put one end of the nozzle up to a jet so as to continuously squirt water at people, often across great distances or at great pressure, through the swim noodle. That definitely did not get old, although it was discovered it's a two man job (one needs to hold it to the jet while the the other sprays ... like a fire hose).
• Sadly, there was one camper casualty in this experiment, but we're confident he'll recover as science finds a cure in the next 10 years.
• In serious news, a fun camper named Lauren with swimmers ear was driven from pool-side by Hurricane force winds produce by tropical-storm Adam Hospelhorn. As a side note, Jim had to ask her what swimmer's ear was becuase his brain is the size of a monkey's. Jim's only response to these allegations was: "That must be one smart monkey."
• In entertainment news, Kimberly Owens does not in fact like Jim's throw-back shades and she wished his nipples took the EJ's with them on their way to France.

3rd period-POW-WOW:

• Was called weird by one of the girl campers for the 43rd time this morning. I took it in stride. My therapist says that held-up well under the criticism.
• Played a name game in which you have to name everyone in the circle that went before u, the food they said they like that corresponded with their name (i.e. Jim likes Jelly Beans). Turns out, some kids stunk at it because they didn't pay attention at all. It's those people that are going to be making decisions for polticians one day. Scary.
• Had time to kill so we played Categories again. I really can't snap my fingers for that long. My weak little fingers wear out under the strain. I need a relief snapper. Unfortunately none were available. I felt like a Chicago Cub, and I cried.

Lunch:

• Completely uneventful, unless you count the fact we had a whole lunch-time discussion on the merits of strip clubs and how they affect relationships, if at all. David and I were on the same page the whole time ... that page being the correct and right page to be on.
• Kelly recognizing she was so blatantly off-target (mwuhahahaha), tried to offer a truce by holding out her hand and asking if we could just agree to disagree. I laughed heartily and told her that I much preferred open debate to truces. What's the fun in agreeing to disagree ... NO FUN AT ALL! Especially when you're on the right and winnning side as David and I were ... Yeah, that's right Kelly, I said it... PWN.

4th period-Video:

• It was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too hot and muggy for soccer, so Kelly, Chris Meadows and I were assigned to supervising Video time in the basement. The video for today was "Ice Age". This first hour of the video, I wrapped myself up in a blanket in the back and passed out. I was out cold for the entire hour. AMAZING.
• Woke up, went outside to find it so humid I started choking and gasping for breath. As I proceeded to my shelter I saw a huge tree branch (like a whole 1/4 of the tree) laying in between three shelters and I look around and say, "Did I miss a hurricane or is the sky falling?"

5th period-Video:

• And by video time we mean sitting in a chair in the back by the fan/sunlight reading the new Harry Potter book.
• A fewe counselors came up to me and were like, "Oh man, you've got video, that sucks. Its gonna be so boring" and yet amazingly, up to this point, I have napped and gotten a chance to get through more of the new Harry Potter book and caught some of 'Ice Age'. U're right, video was just terrible.

6th period-Video:

• Plowed through some more of Harry Potter. WOOT WOOT! What an afternoon!
• Made Kelly take a nap, she was exhausted and delirious.
• Kept getting visited by counselor after counselor, and even Keystaff, searching for a chance to sit in front of the cool fan and get a chance to cool off ... breathe a little. They hated me. It was seriously cold at times down there. Here everyone was, in the choking, muggy weather, where there wasn't even a sun to increase their great tans and I was suffering in the cold basement ... forced to nap and read because of the "boredom". Oh what a world, what a world...

Check-Out:

• Dave whipped up some directions to his house, which we colored coded and idiot-proofed as best we could.
• Got my excercise in for the day. I walked from the check-out shelter to the big shelter where I signed out and them walked back to give Kelly a role of masking tape. It was agonizing on top of such a brutal afternoon, but I survived and I'm stronger because of it.

I feel like a grandma in saying this...or maybe just a mom, but who knows...
SO, questions of the night are: 1. are kids growing up faster, or is it just me? and number 2...what's the rush???!!!!! number 3...are parents clueless????!!!! I don't understand.
Does it bother anyone else when you hear a five year old girl singing "holla black girl", when you have a 7 year old girl tying up her shirt so her belly hangs out, you have little boys calling each other the "n" word, a camper tell you that their favorite singer is eminem, and of course, the infamous plastics on fridays talking about being "teases". WHAT??!!!! I know i've posted about it before, i guess it just baffles me. I think if my mom heard eminem, she wouldn't want me to listen to it now (not that i would care to anyway)...and im almost 20 years old...not 9. I didn't know what a tease was when i was 10 (i probably was still playing with care bears and hmmm, littlest pet shop (ps, does anyone remember those, they were cool!)), and pretty much, i didn't even own real make-up until i was 15 or 16. I just wonder if parents like, even realize it. It's funny, i always enjoyed working check-out tent last year for the sole reason that within 10 seconds of seeing a parent interact (or not) with their son or daughter, you can tell why the kid is the way the are (whether good or bad).
I just don't understand the rush for kids to grow up so fast. Thus are the baffled questions of kimberlina for the day.
On another note, regardless of all my questions, I LOVE CAMP, and EVERYONE involved...hehe. I miss buffalo bradley. That is all

Love and HUGS...
Kimberlina

Bad Jokes: Round 1

Worst joke of the day: After one guy helps rip the door off the car being taken part, he carries the door to the kids sitting on the curb and makes some joke about it being a Door Prize. Oooooh, sooo clever. Haha. Wow. It was really corny and hysterical at the time and it only gets better/worse with time.

*Tear*

The 2nd Half: Day Three

First of all, it was a long day at camp because it was such a sticky day. It wasn't like an okay hot, it was a really sticky, wet, nasty hot. Ugh. Anyhoo, here are today's quick hits...

Check-In:

• Woke up at 7:24, only b/c of my Mother. Scrambled out of the house in about 12 min...
• Dad was behind me part of the way. Way Sweet. Then Jared was behind me. There we were, two counselors, rushing to work in our awesome 90's mini-vans, fighting the traffic on Vets.
• Made it at 8:01. Played kickball in which nothing eventful happened, except some kid thought he was hot stuff and after kicking a double, kept taking a huge lead off of second. First, there's obviously no lead offs in kickball and second, he was just seeking attention, showing off and getting greedy. So I hollered at Walter who was pitching and caught his eye, stood right behind second and then Walter pretended to pitch, turned around and tossed it at the kid ... it missed, but he threw it so that the kid thought it went way past him and took off for third, I was literally right next to him when I grabbed the ball and nailed him in the knees. The look of surprise as I threw the ball was priceless. I didn't hear much out of him the rest of the game. He got told. Woot woot.

1st period-Pow-Wow:

• Played counselor scavenger hunt today, boys vs. girls. The girls beat us, and they beat us good. It wasn't a whoopin', but it wasn't close.
• I think maybe we were slowed because two of my guys were shy and slow, and I kept insisting they said please and thank you's ... apparently manners aren't nearly as important now a days as when I was being raised. 'Twas frustrating to have them not get the please/TY concept and to get beaten by the girls.
• That ended way early, so we played categories the rest of the time. That's a classic game in which the same kids always went out early and the same kids always stayed in it late.
• Note: I nearly beat Kim in the last round when the categories was stores in the mall ... but after like 5 minutes I blanked. Needless to say that category was her thing and I could only hold on for so long.

2nd period-Games:

• Soccer and whiffle-ball l were the two games today. Woot woot. I had a big double play in whiffle-ball, where I caught the ball and stepped on third. But I failed to get Kim out in her turn up to bat and I hit a shot to right field that was caught by a camper (I gave him his due props).
• Although, there was a sweet play where counselor Aaron of the Cherokee hit a ball which I got as he rounded first so it was a sprint for the tag, and he literally like a sprint car or something, got low, started losing traction and was like spinnig his tires as he tried desperately to make a turn to get to the base under the tag. I got him on the shoulder, but only just barely. It was humorous because as we were re-living it, I couldn't tell if we were talking about a good race or demo derby or our whiffle-ball play. Quality.

3rd period-Swim:

• THE POOL FELT AMAZING. Everyone jumped right in and it felt great.
• It should be noted that with each day I realize a little more how much I NEED A PAIR OF SHADES! IRK! Definitely wore Kelly's extra shades which were pink. They weren't as hot pink as I would have liked, but I mean, it's hard to complain. Haha.
• Megan, Kimbo, Melissa and Kelly played follow the leader ont he diving board. Teresa and I aren't big diving board fans and David has neve gone off one (hehehe, virgin), so we chilled in the pool and judged them.
• Btw, on the way to the board I was like, "4 Girls, that's awesome!" ... 'cause let's be honest 4 wet college girls in their swimsuits doing just about anything together is awesome ... but apparently this led to a huge thing where the other counselors think I say "that's so hot" way too much. Sad. Apparently calling things that happen/they do "hot" repeatedly is a bad thing. Girls are so confusing. Always wanting attention and compliments, but whent hey come, it's too much ... blah blah blah. Haha.
• Kelly had the best dive of anyone as she gave in to the chantings of Dave, Teresa and I and did an AWESOME BELLY FLOP! I am sure it hurt, but that a way to give in to peer pressure. Way Sweet.
• It should also be noted that all morning it was very hot without a cloud in the sky. We go to the pool and within ten minutes it was overcast and stayed that way until lunch. THAT HAPPENS EVERYDAY! I DON'T UNDERSTAND! It was the only part of the day where I got kind of cold at some point.
• In better news, my towel smelled better as I did get it cleaned last night (along with my two shirts and socks. WAY EXCITING!)
• Kimberly and David also discovered "the jet" and I had to whistle them away.
• We mock Baywatch well. Especially the slow-mo "money" shot down the ramp of the pool. BRILLIANT!

Lunch:

• Seeing as how I can't really have caffeine, I was forced to drink some Minute Maid Mango Tropical Light drink thing ... it was pretty gross.
• Other than that, lunch was pretty darn good. Quiet time was also sweet as Kimbo and I just crashed int he shade, without saying a word to campers, and then they followed suit and all layed there towels out and napped with us. OH YEAH!

4th period-Crafts:

• Had this period off, so naturally I was like, yeah nap time. Sadly, I felt more worn out when this hour was done. I made the mistake of laying with the other counselors on break too ... it was like 7 seven girls. Waaaaaay too much estrogen in one place. With all their chick talk and blah blah blah, sleep was nearly possible.
• Making it ten times worse, ants kept crawling up on the blanket and on my legs. Not sure why it was just me, but seriously I counted no less than 18 ants (and I think that numbers on the low side) ... i was constantly killing ants or punting them very far away. It was way distressing.
• Oh, and I was told again that I think too many things are "so hot", so to compensate I warned the girls I was going to start telling them when something was "so nasty or ugly" ... they weren't too fond of the idea, but hey, it's what their asking for.
• It should also be noted that of all the counselors I am being labeled the pervert, and I am like people, did any of you live through high school? Their like, u take everything dirty, and I'm like if you've ever met my friends you'd understand why everything suddenly has sexual connotation. If you think I am dirty I better not let any of you meet the people I hang out with, as generally I am tame and mild in comparison to a lot of the guys I know ... actually most of the guys I know.
• Needless to say I take the mantle of being the dirty counselor with pride and I find no shame in being told that I live in the gutter from the camp counselors.

5th period-Tribal Treat:

• Sweeeeeeeet Tribal Treat. Counselor Adam's twin brother Jason came with the McLean County Rescue Squad. They are straight-up volunteers and that is way cool. Major Props.
• We split into two groups and one group watched how some balloon things can pump up a car so that fireman can get in to save people. It was boring from my POV, but the kids got to play with it and deflate or inflate the thing, so that was way hands on and sweet.
• Second group got a tour of a resuce truck used by Jason and co. They then got to climb in and out of the cab and look at the truck up close. Once again, I love the hands on approach.
• Sadly, we were all baking out in the sun on the parking lot pavement, BUT I have faith that we won't have Ecoli or anything...

6th period-DEMOLITION:

• For this last period campers/counselors could either sit in the basement and watch 'Ice Age' OOOOOOOOOOOR stay in the oven and watch the Rescue Squad dismantle a car, including taking it's top off. Without question, the Rescue Squad won out!
• After saying that this was sweet and I wish I could join in, Melissa Ritchie asked me, "Why, does it make you feel manly" ... HECKSTYA IT DOES! Seriously, using big 'ol power to rip apart cars, where do I sign up for that trip?
• The car was awesome because it was like half demolitied as the Squad got it from the Bloomington Police who had just used it in tactical training. The targets of people in the seats that were all shot up were still in the vehicle as was the windshield which was riddled with machine gun bullet holes. Seriously, the PD had waaaaaay too much fun? When's the last time we had a Hollywood style high speed chase end in a S.W.A.T style shoot-out? UM, NEVER! But I guess if you got the toys and the time, might as well...
• RANDOM STORM #2 OF THE WEEK. At the start of their demo, I hear this random noise and I'm like is that thunder? Way behind us (due west) was the ever so faint sound of rumbling that u had to strain to hear. Within 7-10 minutes the storm was right over us and the ground like shook from the thunder. The guys cut the demo short, went straight to the grand finale of the top coming off and then went into high gear to pick all their stuff up. However, within 5 minutes it was clear the storm was blowing right over us and after like a few sprinkles camp was waaaay sunny again while B-N got some nice rain. That is the second storm that came out of nowhere, looked nasty, charged hard and then produced nothing, avoiding us all together. SERIOUSLY! THERE'S SOME TYPE OF FORCE-FIELD AROUND CAMP WA-NIK'-SKA-KA!!!!
• I did retain my weather-man role from Monday as I accurately discussed and predicted storm movement and changes. PWN!
• For the brief 30 seconds of heaven, it began to rain sort of hard and lot of us counselors were out in the main shelters ... as the rain picked up we all went out in it. I look across the shelter at one point to see like 5 girl counselors literally frolicking in the grass with each other, in their white t-shirts as the rain came pouring down. And yes, they really were frolicking. That event confirmed the existence of God above and if noticing things like that is what makes me a pervert .... then this is a sweeter job than I once thought!
  
  

The Hills Are Alive . . .

The Sound of Music opens tomorrow night through Bloomington Parks & Rec out at the Miller Park stage!!

The show starts when the sun goes down (around 8:30). We'll have shows this week and next, Thursday night-Sunday night.

As of now, Counselor Aimee is getting a group together Saturday night for a picnic and the show. If you want to go, talk to Aimee or just meet at the Miller Park stage at 5:00 pm on Saturday.

Hope to see you guys there at least one of the nights - it should be a really good show!! (Though I don't reccomend tomorrow night . . .)

*** Please note - we will not do the show that night if it's raining . . . too many instruments and costumes and too much sound equiptment ***

David's Salute Your Shorts Extravaganza!!!

DAVID'S

SALUTE YOUR SHORTS

EXTRAVAGANZA!!!

Come join in the festivities tomorrow night as we step back into time with a Nickelodeon Classic.
We will have air hockey, billiards, a fire, and SALUTE YOUR SHORTS!

Directions will be available tomorrow at camp. If you still get lost, you can call my cell at (309) 310-4710 or my house at (309) 527-2121.

Questions? Ask me at camp tomorrow. We will decide tomorrow what time the festivities begin. Everyone is welcome.

Secret Love

I forgot that during games, one of the Aza's was hanging all over Katie ... she's a real sweet little girl named Aeriol (sp?) ... a few Tuesday's ago she told Kyle L. that we were dating, but that I wasn't to know ...

Well anyway, she was looking at me funny and I gave Katie one of those looks and she goes, "Aeriol has a crush on you ...", I respond with something like, "Oh really, is this so?" and then Katie adds in a hushes voice, "But you can't tell Ken."

Haha, I don't know if it was for Ken's sake, for my sake, or for the sake of the Aeriol/Ken relationship, but it really made me chuckle.

So apparently Aeriol thinks I am supposed to pretend I am completely out of the loop on all things pertaining to my love life as I was not supposed to know Kyle and I were dating and now I have to keep her true feelings for me secret even tho she told me. Wow, girls are like way confusing even as second graders!

-Jungle Jim-

Day Two of the 2nd Half

Made it to camp again today, which was quite exciting. On the whole I felt much better ... I finally felt alive again and while I had moments of being a little uneasy in the stomach or some minor nausea, 'twas a good day indeed.

Check-In: Made it to work right at 8am. Brilliant. Today was sort of my day to help round up the loners (the kids sittign by themselves) and help them feel included. Helped two boys join in the kickball game, and stayed long enough to watch Walter kick the ball into the tree and amazingly, had it get stuck there. The kids appealed to me and we called him out as the tree did make a legal catch. Tough luck Walter. One of the boys followed me from the game into the shelter where there were two girls sitting by themselves. One of them got up and walked away when I tried to sit down and the other just sat with her head in her arms on top of the table ... she absolutely refused to recognize my existence (very sad), but the kid that followed me and I had a good time. I felt exceptionally goofy at this stage of the morning.

1st Period--Swim: Okay, so I am like waaaay gross, but last night I definitely forgot to wash my towel and trunks and I knew my towel stunk soooooooooooooo bad, but I didn't care ... so I threw the stinky trunks on and went in the pool anyway. The water felt great but it was a pretty lazy day. Sat poolside with Carley a lot, walked around with campers, etc. Not much going on. It was also a gold-bond day, and gold-bond days are always great days!

2nd Period--Pow-Wow: Birds nest again. The kids loves it even more than the Monday campers, especially since we had a championship round. Sadly, one girl in particular was a terribly sore loser and with every Tuesday she's around I realize how much she's a little snot and I can't stand her.

3rd Period--Games: It was hot and I was bored, as were most of the kids. Lots of time spent in the shade, or supervising from a sitting position. Normally I am hardcore into a game, so I felt like sometimes I can be the one sitting with the campers who dont want to play in the shade/shelter.

Lunch/Quiet Time: Had to sit with the campers, but thankfully it was an uneventful day. It was also the most food I have had since Sat. evening. I tried to hold myself back as I am still unsure if the nausea will return. I also had a salad for the first time all summer. It was really good ... so that was sweet. During Quiet time I learned that just because it feels like something is crawling on you doesn't mean that anything actually is. That and I learned grass up one's nose is a most uncomfortable feeling and I don't recommend.

4th Period--Tribal Treat: Oddly enough, both counselors were needed for tribal treat. It was actually good times, except the campers were terrible. It set a horrible tone for the afternoon. Although on a positive note, I would like to declare that while many tribes had terrible campers you can't expect to control and many counselors had their kids well under control, I was most proud of my Choctaw tribe. They were very quiet and well-behaved, and major props to the campers, but more so to Kimbo for making the tribe a model of behavior. Sadly, we got fourth int he game (how well you know your counselor), as one tribe got 11/12 questions right, two groups got 10/12 and our tribe got 9/12. Good times...

5th Period--Games: All the counselors got either games or crafts off and as it turns out, most of my pod, save one tribe, has a boy and girl counselor and without exception all the girls took games off and all the boys took crafts off. It was just Katie and the boys for games ... which were pretty boring overall and felt like they lasted for an eternity. Except I did have to sit one boy out ... he was causing trouble by harassing some girl and then some kid came up balling to me (way overacting btw) about how the trouble kid had totally whacked him in the stomach to tag him out. I talked to the trouble kid with my big boy voice and then sat him out of the game, in the sun, looking away from the game for like 5 minutes ... i thought it was mildly creative.
MORE EXCITING. As I was in the shelter with some counselors while the kids were on a water break, some kid yells about how someone is bleeding (generally means like something the size of a papercut), and as we look at the kid yelling that some kid comes up to us holding his short leg above his knee and saying something about someone sucking his blood ..... right below the knee the kid had like a seriously huge stain of blood from a pretty good sized cut that was bleeding pretty darned good. Like three counselors, WENT UGH ... I think it was especially shocking as the kid was so non-chalant about it.
There were also obvious blood stains on his shorts, clear up this thigh and his shirt (don't ask me how). The kid is wearing shorts clear down to his calves, so I make him roll up and hike up his shorts against his will ont he walk over in an attempt to not dirty his clothing anymore. I sit him down and Keystaff Sarah helps me out. For the first time ever at camp I had to put on a rubber glove to deal with stuff ... Woot woot ... I was actually mildly excited as I have never had need for a rubber glove during clean-up. Sarah put on her gloves, I wetted down some towels and then put a glove on my right hand as she and I went to cleaning it up. At first it almost looked like something was in the cut ... Ed used a peroxide spray, which foamed like crazy and then I would clean off the foam between each spray. I totally felt like doctor or nurse half the time. After we got everything cleaned up all it needed was one band-aid.
The craziest thing about it, was how this kid, who was really not that big, played total tough guy. Nothing ever hurt, even when Ed sprayed peroxide on it or when I pulled back from dead skin to see if something was lodged in the cut. He didn't even flinch, like he wasn't acting. And he didn't know much about what happened. We wer elike what happened, when, how, etc. All he had was, I dont know and I thinkI fell. I mean, the kid was so non-chalant ... like he got some dirt on his shoes and didnt care or have any idea when/how it happened, nor cared too. It also looked especially bad because the blood was mixed with dirt and smeared so much that it looked almost like a gaping wound. But really, with the glove and all the wound clean-up, I way felt like a medical professional!

6th period--Crafts: Had crafts off, so I crashed on the Iroqouis blanket and slept like the entire time. I was out cold, and whent he period ended it definitely felt like it wasn;t long enough ... like the period was cut short. Every counselor, whether at crafts or on break said that they felt like it was a shorter period than any of the others ... but the nap felt amazingly good.

Check-Out: Before I went up to the shelter I had a nice chat with ex-counselor, and old neighbor/friend, Dustin Fornoff. Very good times. Then it was up to the shelter where I actually sat at the table with the binders next to Kelly (very rare). Kelly made me a really sweet key ring thing (that was almost long enough to be an anklet, but not quite), which has my name Jungle Jim on it! It was soooo awesome, so I definitely attached it to my camp back-up and that was rockin'. At one point there were like three campers at the shelter so I got part of the way through a solitaire game when more campers and wind pushed me back to my job. Overall, good ending to a good day.

-Jungle Jim-