My Summer of Scouting Adventures

Disclaimer: ALL posts on this blog are MY PERSONAL thoughts opinions and comments. I am not an official BSA spokesperson simply an 18 year old girl who has grown up in the scouting program and is VERY passionate about it. All names have been changed, because woohoo fun. So welcome to my daily life, and My Summer of Scouting Adventures :D

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

ERROR 404: Daily updates not found

      This Summer has been very crazy and hectic, and as such daily updates will not happen. I will update now and again, but it will not be a steady (ish) stream like last year. 

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Four, 16 June 2016

                                        Thursday  

                                           (Staff Week)    

       I had the brilliant idea last night to sleep in my Max suit. It is wonderful, I made it out of a blanket, and it's big enough for people up to like six inches taller than me because excess arm and excess leg means more warmth. So I was super warm, and super happy. It also wasn't raining which is always a plus. Don't get me wrong. I love rain, but I would rather it rain all night, than wake up to rain.

       The rest of the morning is ... A little dysfunctional .... Oscar, Jasper and I are told to head up to Bernard's shop. The only problem is we were given absolutely no instructions, and therefore had absolutely no idea what to do. KEVIN is up at the shop and we are able to help him for a little bit. But other than that we are just uselessly standing around for an hour and a half. We finally decide to walk back to admin so we can do something useful. Of course, the moment we hit the admin area we run into Bernard in his truck, who now has instructions for us up at the shop. So we turn around and hike ourselves back to the shop.        Once everyone is there and we have all are instructions we make quick work of loading up two trucks of things for the rifle range which is brand new and GORGEOUS but missing targets, and the posts that hold them up. We jump into Oscars truck and head down to the rifle range to get some work done.        This is when we realize that our hour and a half of dead time this morning should have been a prophecy for how the day was going to go. We get down to rifle to see very little actual productivity happening. Bernard appears, gives us clear instructions and then leaves to go instruct his staff on what they are to get done today.

       As soon as Bernard leaves, everyone decides we should do THE EXACT OPPOSITE of what Bernard said we should do. I tried to argue otherwise. But being a girl, in a group of "men" I am not listened to AT ALL because I COULDN'T POSSIBLY KNOW WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT. Bernard then comes back down, sees that everyone is doing the EXACT OPPOSITE of what he said to do. He asks why we are doing what we are doing, I tell him nobody listens to my because I am not the authority figure on site. This doesn't change anything for him and he begins an angry tirade. I am opposite of him on the site, and everyone crowds around him so the full force of his angry deluge is aimed at me. Of course no-one comes to my defense or says anything, and I become the scapegoat. On the surface this is incredibly obnoxious, but deep down I know it isn't my fault. And Bernard is even more frustrated and angry than anyone out here, and this is his most stressful week so I can't hold it against him. I'll be sure to get him some cookies or his favorite Ice Cream this weekend as a peace offering/thanks for doing all this week without a single thank you.

       The whole mess gets slightly cleaned up, and a little work is done before we head to lunch. Lunch is fine, a few people from nature get to lunch late. They were out checking on the Kaliama (super cool trail that goes all over the property. Also a lot of it is covered in poison oak), making sure posts are near where they are supposed to be. They look a little disheveled but I write it off, they were hiking, they should look disheveled right? Yeah. We'll come back to them. After lunch we went over emergency procedures (missing campers, fire, severe rain etc.) and then Jasper and I headed out to shotgun and O'Reiley's to finish preparing them to open. Oscar had to stay behind to study for his RSO course thing. Luckily, we were able to snag  who worked shooting sports last year to help us out.        We get out to shotgun. Expecting to just have to check on a few things to find that absolutely no work has been done. It only takes us about.... 40 minutes. And then we head up to O'Reiley's. We thought nothing had been done at Shotgun. ABSOLUTELY nothing had been done at O'Reiley's, except a Diet Pepsi had been drank and then the can left. We had absolutely no doubt who had left it either. It took us about.... 2 hours. We had to rake, kill plants, remove logs, take down branches with a MATTOCK??? (I dunno, its some super weird, totally not used for chopping off branches. Anyway it is NOT easy AT ALL mind you) and all other clearing and setting up procedures. And O'Reiley's is in the middle of the woods so there were probably 10,000 pinecones. We were not at all happy by the end. Especially because the pair running the ranges had already spent an entire day out there. Supposedly weeds whacking and repairing fences. Yeah. Sooooooooooooo happy.

       We got back to admin about 20 minutes before dinner, and there was no way we were going to walk the 7 minute walk to rifle, only to work for 3 minutes and then take another 10 minutes to walk back.        Remember those hikers I mentioned? Well they all ended up swimming in Poison Oak. Vincent rolled down 4 hillcliffs COVERED in poison oak, and pretty much died. Being the incredibly stubborn person that he is, wrought with Dude syndrome as he is (which we learned about again in our CPR course) he refused to lay down in the medics lodge. He went to dinner, but immediately laid down on the table, and only ate a few bites of the soup I brought him. I DID however manage to convince him that he was NOT walking the 3/4s mile back to FC and that Jasper would give him a ride. Half way to Jaspers car he decided that was too much of a bother and would lay down until we were done with everything else for the night. So I found him a room that was unpacked enough for him to lay down and got him situated. I put a sheet and blanket over him, and he sunk in and fell asleep pretty instantaneously. The evening activity was SUPPOSED to be receiving our staff shirts as well as running through the opening campfire. However, the directors meeting lasted so long, and passing out shirts took so long that we decided instead to just eat ice cream.        I wasn't feeling the ice cream and instead grabbed a cup of tea for Vincent and headed in to check on him. He was feeling a good deal better, and hadn't started itching which was really good. We stayed in the med lodge for a good hour talking and just hanging out. Jasper joined us at some point, and eventually we headed back to FC and I immediately put on my max suit. It was still raining, yet somehow the great Frank Zhang (Frank Zhang, Frank Zhang, Frank Zhang) had managed to start a fire (I think a maxipad and a copious amount of lighter fluid with a cardboard box over it to shelter it from the rain were involved.) Either way, there was a roaring fire by the time I got there, and I sat, content, quietly toasting like a perfect marshmallow in my max suit.

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Three, 15 June 2016

                                           Wednesday

                                                (Staff Week)

       IT WAS 38 DEGREES WHEN I WOKE UP. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. THIS IS CALIFORNIA NOT ANTARCTICA!!!!!!!!!!!

       Subsequently, I refused to take off my sleep shorts and sweats, because we technically don't have to be in uniform until tomorrow and shorts are just not gonna cut it. I am a little late for breakfast but it’s ok, I still get a good bagel, though I wish I had my tea because its SO DANG CHILLYY!!!!

       Mornings are parceled away to Bernard, our ranger, who has us preparing camp for Scouters. This means weed whacking, mowing, setting up tents, and repairing the ramp to the dock. I spend my morning doing the latter with Captain, our water front director.

       Making the ramp is actually fun. We are in Bernard’s shop, with a couple other people working on other various projects. We help Jasper and Oscar load up Oscar’s truck with supplies for the NEW RIFLE RANGE!!!!! (Which is really incredibly exciting) and then we get to work. Captain works with Sea Scouts (hence the name) and he makes beautiful boats. The ramp we are making, it is NOT beautiful. There is absolutely no finesse in this thing. Its twelve feet of rotting redwood which would have made a beautiful picnic table but instead has spent the last 8 years partially submerged in the lake. One board is completely rotted and broken so we decided to replace it with a new cedar board.The whole project turned into a giant jerryrigging adventure once Bernard left, because the workshop isn't exactly organized and finding the part you need is pretty difficult. But eventually it all gets figured out and I manage to learn a few things along the way.

        We worked right up to lunch. Washing our hands was a little difficult because we used this wonderful wood stain affectionately called “Green Nasty”  by our staff. By the name you can probably guess that it doesn’t smell all that great, but it helps rot and insect proof the wood so its used a lot. Lunch was pleasant, I had a nice salad and talked to friends about all sorts of past camp mishaps and adventures.        After lunch its back up to archery, but this time we are repairing bows, not counting arrows. Oscar and Jasper accompanied me so it is all pretty enjoyable. when we were sitting at the table, waxing bowstrings we discover that our compound bows sit perfectly on the seat of the picnic benches if you lean them up against the tabletop. Oscar and Jasper accompanied me so it is all pretty enjoyable.

       I have just realized that I have not disclosed where I am working, so I will do that now. I have been “officially” hired as archery director. However, Jasper also knows how to run the range so we will probably rotate around just so we don’t get totally bored with what we are doing, or go stir crazy. 

We move the hay bails out to their correct distances, which Oscar enjoys because he brought his hay hooks from his “off season” job. All in all Archery doesn’t actually take that long so Oscar, Jasper and I head down to the new Rifle range which is awe inspiring. Its truly amazing, with room for 16 shooters and two different lengths for targets. The only problem is there is still no power, and our gun locker has somehow managed to get lost somewhere in shipping...        Dinner goes as per usual, and afterwords we discuss campfires and attempt  set up a schedule, at least for the first two campfires. Yannis is trying to make everything nice and organized, and he wants everyone to participate. Which is nice because then we aren’t just sitting around and let everyone join in the effort of entertaining scouts.        Everything gets managed and we head back to FC at a pretty reasonable time. The sunset is GORGEOUS and Diego has decided to forego heading straight to the Corral and instead decides to spend some time hanging out with people at FC. It really is too bad that the Corral is so terribly far away because it is hard for them to socialize with anyone. Especially because they are up at 5 each morning to feed the horses and the walk from FC to the Corral is just too long to spend the odd night over in FC partying it up with the rest of us.

       I spend the first part of the evening water proofing my tent. The frame is just a tad too big for the actual tent so there are a few holes on the corners where it doesn't stretch enough. After that I spend a good hour in Grants tent with Calvin and Diego (and Grant) laughing, joking, messing around  and getting all my assorted teas into glass jars so they don't get dehydrated when the rain starts tomorrow.

       Diego stays as late as he can, but around 10:30 we all decide its time for the party to end. Luckily Grant is assistant ranger this year so he gives Diego a ride down to the Corral, and we are all able to get to bed at a reasonable time.

(le lake + le sunset, southern view. Notice the “California golden” grass)

(le ridge + le sunset, western view.)

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Two, 14 June 2016

                                             Tuesday 

                                               (Staff Week)      

        I woke up at five. Probably because the sun was rising, and I could see it even through the tinted windows of the van. I attempted to go back to sleep, seeing as attempting to escape was futile. Have you ever tried sleeping three 18 year old girls in the back of a minivan without removing the middle seats? And no, three ultra slim water front girls don't count. Let's just say we were very snug, and warm which was nice.

        I woke back up again at 6:23 when my silent alarm on my Fitbit started buzzing. I decided to be kind, and let Nadia and Violet sleep in a few more minutes, because Yannis told me I don't have to be back from town until 8:30 when CPR training starts. 

        At 6:27 Grant appeared at the window. Why he was awake I have no idea because usually he is the last one out of FC (if you don't believe me just read through last years blog posts). He then opened the door to the van, therefore releasing all of the heat from the van which made Nadia grumpy, but Grumpy Cat is her spirit animal so.....         We eventually made it out of camp, we actually made good time because we just left the mattresses in the back of the van (which got us a few odd looks in town, because it really looked like we were living out of our van.) We introduced Violet to the wonder that is Lumberjacks for breakfast, and got a pair of flip flops for the showers and a toothbrush for Grant and then headed back to camp for my CPR certification.         The class was actually pretty great. I sat with Diego, so lots of jokes were made. But the teacher was a retired fireman who has been teaching carts to camp staff for about ten years, so he knows we don't need to be taught the first aid and already know most of the stuff he is going to teach us. After class it's program time, so Jasper, Oscar and I head to archery to get everything in ship shape, which means mowing down all the thigh high grass. Knee high for Jasper but he doesn't count because I am convinced he isn't human, he's a cross breed. Like a unicorn, just with less sparkles.         Mowing is... Interesting. It's the first time I've ever done it, because A) it makes my father feel domestic and happy and B) I am allergic to grass, not respiratory wise. Usually it's just if I'm laying down in it, but still I never wanted to risk it. I didn't have an allergic reaction however, which is nice. After that we counted arrows. Then counter some more. And just a few more. Until the only thing we wanted to do is murder ALL the arrows and never look at one ever again.         After dinner we have a couple important talks, including the no purpling talk (which takes about ten seconds for the girls and nearly fifteen minutes for the guys, because guys are.... Special...) and the laundry talk because frankly a lot of people don't know how to do laundry and no laundry means stinky CIT's and stinky CIT's mean angry staff members. For these talks the girls pretty much hang around and talk among ourselves, all 8 of us. We are SEVERELY outnumbered this year, but we have a really cool new medic, Annaliese, and she seems pretty awesome especially because she has offered to let us take temperature controlled showers which is AMAAAAAAAAAAZING. Cold showers are basically my favorite thing.

        After all our talks I hung around FC for a little bit, and then decided to take a super long shower and fall asleep blogging because it was a pretty long day. Plus I am combating a three hour time change, so I am using that as an excuse. 

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day One, 13 June 2016

                                                 Monday

                                                 (Staff Week)

        I started the day wrapped in a single blanket, in a warm house, on a warm bed, without the thought of where I would be in just a few spare hours. I spent the morning out and about with my sister Sugar. We got hot drinks at our favorite café, got lunch at a DELICIOUS sushi restaurant and ended our day of society in a hole in the wall nail salon where we got foot massages and pedicures. But that is where my normal day ended. As soon as we got home I quickly packed up all my things and was on my way to camp. 

        It is staff week, and I arrived a day late, and in the evening at that, so I see a lot of unfamiliar faces that I don’t get the chance to be introduced to. But I’m not worried, I’ll be here for another ten(ish) weeks. I have time to learn names. 

        Coming to camp is like returning home after a long journey. I receive countless running hugs that end in me squealing and getting lifted off my feet. Old friends welcome me, and I immediately sink back into my playful happy self All the stress of traveling across the country, family events and school stress melt away until I am in a simple state of joy. 

        Setting up my tent hits a couple bumps before everything got figured out. I felt almost like goldilocks moving from tent to tent. This one too old and full of holes; this one infested with ants and earwigs. Except the one I ended up in is NOT the perfect tent. The frame is just a tad too big  for the tent frame. A lot of cursing, zip ties, baling twine and struggle later my tent was relatively livable. Unfortunately Oscar, Grant and Quigley managed to convince Nadia and Violet (who drove me up to camp) that they were going to be eaten by Nazi spiders, or the rattle snakes beneath my tent who will eat the Nazi spiders.... So we stuffed two mattresses and Nadia’s 4 inch memory foam cover into the back of her van and somehow we all managed to squish in. A lot more cursing, laughing and the repeated playing of Marvin Gaye’s “Let’s get it on” later we all managed to fall asleep and sleep through the night.  

[thomassandersfandersblog]

Nature Is Beautiful 🍃

[caligayy]

honestly this is me

[zarina3908]

The most important vine.

[fandoms-funnies-etc]

♫ “I know every rock and tree and creature, has a life, has a spirit, has a- ♫

*smack* “Mosquito”

♫ “naaame”♫

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

The horrible truth we all must face, we respect nature until it bites us 😂.

As much as I LOVE living in the outdoors all summer, as passionate as I am about protecting our environment and all who call it home. I HATE mosquitos with a burning passion and they all need to die.

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Pre Camp Days

        Camp starts in approximately a month. Which is hard to believe since it feels like I was just leaving a month or two ago. I am preparing for my fourth summer. Same camp, many of the staff members I already know and love. And yet I know it will be a totally new and different Summer. New memories will be made, mishaps will happen and adventure will be around every corner. Now if only I could find all my Scout socks…

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Fifty-Four August Sixth 2015

Thursday 

        It is crazy to think that today is Thursday! Where did the time go! Thursday of week Eight. The day starts as any other, dragging myself out of bed to the sound of Ferdinand's music. He started it a little early, and I am ready well before I usually head down to flags. Contrary to custom, he also played more than one song, so once I find matching socks  I head over to his tent to hang out. Randy is in there as well, no shocker and Oscar joins us in the last few minutes before we leave. All in all it is a pretty relaxed morning as we muse over how time has flown past us. 

        My morning art tour is... amusing to say the least. Noa  of my Scouts obviously did not get enough sleep last night, because he nods off every two seconds. It is slightly frustrating, but I make it into an amusing game to wake him up. Every time he starts drifting off I would incorporate him into my art discussions. Sometimes the repetition of his name said loudly is enough to wake him up. Sometimes it isn't, and Michael (his friend) finds it within his compassionate heart to help me. Which is the nice way of saying he slapped Noa in the face. I in no way encouraged this, but I didn’t exactly discourage it. I told Michael not to hit Noa, but that's about it. 

        At lunch, I am supposed to go swimming with Jasper, Uriah, and Isabelle, but Uriah doesn’t show. Luckily for me my favorite Mexican cowboy has decided to spend one last afternoon in the lake, and he becomes my buddy. The afternoon is filled with splashes and laughter, and a great game of chicken. Isabelle hops on Jasper’s shoulders and I hop on Diego’s. The struggle starts and I am pretty pessamist about matching up against Isabelle and Jasper, not because I think that Isabelle is stronger than me, but because Jasper is a veriatable GIANT. Standing at 6′11 Isabelle towers over me. But I should have known better to doubt Diego and I’s awesome abuilities because we beat them twice! I may have gotten a little cocky and taunted Jasper a little too much however, because after Isabelle gets dumpd off the second time he goes after Diego and me. Diego tries valiently to run, but to no avail. Jaspers first attempt to knock me back proves unsucessful, which causes more taunting from me. To which he promptly responded by dragging both Diego and I under. Alas, I was unseated, but all in the name of fun. It was a GREAT afternoon. 

        Aparently it is a sleepy day because I can barely keep Tavita, another Tongan boy, awake for my art tour. The same tactics as before occur except there is no Michael to slap Tavita. We make it through however and Tavita and I walk to my last class, moviemaking. There he shows me the majesty that is their version of Rocky, and I have to say it is HILARIOUS. Probably better than the origional. I let them all go early so they can swim, with the promise that they will come back in the morning to get what they missed on the first day. 

        Thursday night means movie night, but Ferdinand, being the kind a gracious boss that he is, lets me skip the movie to go to a special campfire the Tongans are having. I haven’t been able to go to their campsite any other night so it is really important to me that I get to go to this. The campfire goes great, there is food and we all talk and just enjoy the night. I love watching this troop because the comradery they have. And the ammount of love their leader holds for his boys is incredible. He talks to them each individually, about their grades, how they are doing in school, what their ambitions are. He reminds them that they should always be striving for a goal, and doing their best. Not to give up or slack off, and to always respect their parents. 

         After I eat my fill, and talk to all the boys I head back over to Handicraft for our first major clean up. We take down the projector and screen, move the speakers out, and take down the cables. The latter is my favorite part because I get to climb up into the rafters and walk around up there. It is pretty cool, but incredibly dirty. After that we all head to bed. It has been a LONG day, and tomorrow is going to be even longer. Tomorrow we inventory and clean till we can’t anymore. Tomorrow is the last real day of camp.  

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Fifty Three August Fifth, 2015

Wednesday

       I wake up to a world shrouded in fog, which makes getting up so incredibly repellent. Even though it is gorgeous and makes the lake look amazing all I want to do is curl up in my bed and never get out. If there was ever a morning for Baby It’s Cold Outside this is it. Once I do get out of bed I head over to flags with Oscar and Ferdinand and a couple of the other guys and we are barely BARELY late. We get to the curve right before the parade grounds when they are calling up the troop to raise the colors. As punishment Tadleigh tells us we get to do a quick clean up of the dining hall bathrooms, which honestly isn't anything bad at all. Some of the worse punishments include learning the entire parade ground of the rocks that kids kick down from the gravel around the dining hall. It takes eons. Or refilling the lake, which would be a great one because of the drought the lake is CRAZY low. Seriously, we have so much more shoreline than we should. Anyway, how you refill the lake is you take a ten-gallon bucket, fill it up with water at the dining hall, and then dump it in the lake. And you continue to do this until your supervisor is satisfied.

       Another four boys join my eleven o’clock cinematography, sorry, Moviemaking class. The Tongan boys have all decided to do their own rendition of rocky, which will be interesting to say the least. They didn't finish their homework yesterday so they spend a majority of class doing that today which takes a LOT of yelling from me to keep them on task, but I don't mind. Like I said this is my favorite week, and I love these boys to death so even when I’m yelling at them I am having fun. Weird I know, I should be annoyed that I have to yell at them so much but whatever.

       At lunch, Handicraft has a party. Oscar and Ferdinand went into town and got a BUNCH of pizza  during the eleven o’clock classes which were promptly devoured by the handicraft staff. With the help of Randy, Makenna, and Leah. It was a pretty cool party. We chilled, music was played. Wrestling was definitely a thing that happened. A LOT of wrestling. Randy and Adam went at it. It was pretty intense, and we are probably lucky that they didn't get seriously injured.

        After lunch, the day runs pretty smoothly.  Since I don't have a class at 2 o’clock I head out to the docks, send some texts and just sit out and enjoy the view. My original motivation to go to the waterfront was to tan, but once I get there I am more focused on the view and taking pictures than anything. The amount of photos I have racked up this summer is RIDICULOUS. And since I have Ferdinand’s camera for the week I am taking double the photos and dumping the card at least once a day. If I don't have my phone in my hand I have the camera, and if I don't have that in my hand I am either eating, teaching or at flags.         Wednesday Race!!!! WOOOOHOOOO!!!! Last one of the Summer, so it has GOT to be good. Who are we kidding it is amazing, it always is. Both Jasper and Penny are human buoys this week so double the fun and double the amusing pictures. The Race is made doubly as amusing because Jasper has the brilliant idea to throw skittles into Penny’s mouth while the both of them are floating in the water. Of the two packs of skittles I threw out to Jasper, Penny catches four. MAYBE five. But watching them is still hilarious, and I got some PRIME footage of their shenanigans.        After the race, it is time for one final game of D&D, but before that I sit and watch some good old, nitty gritty, dusty to high heavens Tongan rugby. Watching them play is something else, and never fails to captivate me. The amount of dust they kick up is impressive, but their playing... Man, it is something else.

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Fifty Two August 4th 2015

Tuesday

        My two person art class morphs into a ten person art class, though it feels like more because all the boys who join are older and of the rowdier variety.  The newer boys are the polar opposite of the ones who started yesterday, and I can tell the quieter two are a little annoyed with the interruptions. But they are intimidated by the larger boys and they say nothing. I try and keep the rowdy boys in check, but lose any semblance of power when I mention the fact that art is a paid merit badge.

        The rest of the day goes pretty well, my Cinematography class follows the pattern of the Art class. But I think I managed it a little better because I was more prepared when new boys showed up.

        This week has been particularly foggy and cold. The lake is barely visible, and I wear a sweatshirt all day. Because of the cold only four people signed up for the Night Climb. This is nice because we get to relax more, but it is also a hassle because nobody focuses and are instead running around with Ferdinand’s camera and having a “sexy” photoshoot. I got a pretty awesome time-lapse of the sunset though so I am happy. The Scouts actually clean up and leave a little early which makes cleanup easy for us and allows us to climb. Though not for very long because the fog rolls in and obscured everything. It actually made for some really great pictures, and Grant got to talk a bunch about how fog limits visibility so he was happy. 

[papawolfsupplyco-blog]

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

My next camping cup :D

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Day Fifty One August 3rd 2015

Monday

        This morning I woke up at 5:25 because my troop is arriving at six and I wanted to make sure that I am awake and ready when they do get here. The troop arriving is an entire group of Tongan boys who I met my first year at camp. I was their troop guide, and once I got to know them I called dibs and have been their troop guide ever since. 

        The troop shows up at Six Thirty and I am surprised to see that there are only two boys I don't recognize, the rest are returners which is awesome. I stumble over a couple of their names, but the others come easy and I am quickly correcting our medics pronunciation and helping her with the spelling. Once they are all med checked and have their swimmy swims on we head down to the waterfront to take the swim test. They protest because it is pretty cold and crazy foggy, but once I remind them that the lake is really warm they jump, literally. Once I get them all settled, swim tests done, meal shift figured out (the most important thing) and leave the returners in charge of making sure the two new boys know where they are going I head off to my art class. 

        My art class is completely surreal. A total throwback to my first ever class at the Scout Reservation. Three years ago I taught my very first class. It was an art class, on a cold gray morning, just like today, to two younger Scouts. Everything was exactly the same as today, everything except me that is. Today I am perfectly prepared and at ease. Instead of freaking out and begging Ferdinand to stay with me while I taught my class I breeze past him, grab all my materials needed for class and steal a bite of his poptart. Instead of burying my face in the merit badge book and reading it essentially word for word I don't even use the book. I don't teach from the book, instead I teach the Scouts things that I have learned over my 17 odd years of art education, art history, fun facts and interesting details that I have picked up over the years and years of hanging out in art galleries, studios and museums. The whole class just feels like a full circle ending. Something you see in a movie, in the epilogue, and I don't think I like that. I don't know what I am doing next year, where I will be or where I will be working. It is a lot of people's last year, and it might be mine. It just feels too definite, too clean cut. And I don't think I am ready to give this place up. 

        Once my art class passes, however, that feeling of ending, of closure goes away and we are back into the mad swing of things. There is a little bit of chaos, a lot of fun and a lot of laughter. We spend 7-8 program working on side projects, jumping Oscars RC car across tables and having a blast. For once all of handicraft is having fun hanging out together instead of our usual bickering. I am painting the staff plaque for 2013, sketching it out and figuring what I am doing. It is cool to be a part of history like that, to know something I make is going to be around for years and years and years. 

        Campfire got moved to tonight because of all the Monday arrivals and that is a pretty strange feeling because it hasn't happened in the past three years. But it goes well, the skits are HILARIOUS because everyone is giving it their all. It is all or nothing and we want to make sure that it is a campfire to remember. I accidentally missed on of the Songs I am supposed to be in because the schedule got switched around but Ferdinand is letting me borrow his canon DSLR so I snap a bunch of pictures from out in the crowd.

        The night ends well. I hang out in Leah’s tent with Grant (who is her older brother) and Calvin our DM for Dungeons and Dragons and we talk about the ending of the Summer and vent our frustrations. I’ve mentioned before that staff is a great big family, that we love each other and hate each other. This comes out especially in week 8, because we have been with these people for MONTHS and sometimes your family just drives you CRAZY. So its good to vent sometimes and just get some stuff off of your chest before you blow up.

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Fifty August 2nd 2015

Sunday

        This week is… unsettling… at least today is. My brother came to visit me so we go out to Lumberjacks for breakfast and then head back into camp. I clean my tent, toss some stuff in the back of my brothers truck and then we hang out at Med Checks. Camp is empty though, it is so weird. Half of camp is arriving tomorrow, so we have no camp fire tonight we are doing it tomorrow instead because if half the camp isn’t going to be here why would we do it? This way they all get the experience. Camp is so quiet though, it is ridiculous and sets us all on edge. It is quiet. TOO quiet.         Instead of having a campfire we are having a movie night at handicraft. Cars, so the movie isn’t too terribly long which is nice and a bunch of other staff come to hang out and we all have a good evening. It isn’t as crazy hectic and stressful as Thursdays are because there are less Scouts, Scouts aren’t doing the snacks, and we don’t have to do blue cards. It is officially week 8 however. Somehow we managed to get 1 cent into department 16 on our register. A couple different problems. A) we don’t accept pennies. B) we don’t have a department 16… YEAH WEEK 8!!!!!!!!! looks like things are going to be interesting this week.

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Forty Nine August 1st 2015

Saturday

       My troop this week was entirely comprised of rockstars. Seriously they are all pretty darn awesome, mostly because they are completely cleaned up and packed out when I get to their camp site to check them out. Having a troop that is ready and prepared to leave is so nice, and makes my job EXTREMELY easy. The checkout process is streamlined and I am wishing them safe travels home and telling them that I will see them next year by 9:30. After that I am sent off to clean one of the shower houses with a couple other staff and before we know it the staff meeting is over and the weekend begins.        Among our many odd, unconventional and always brilliantly fun traditions is a  final week game of assassin. Which means that the last week is incredibly fun, but also that paranoia runs EXTREMELY high. As soon as the staff meeting is over and we leave the veranda the game begins. Saturday afternoon begins with a bloodbath, and then those smart and lucky few who survive duke it outdoor domination. The rules of the game are quite simple. Do not discuss assassin in front of Scouts Do not let Scouts know about Assassin No interfering with program staff Shower, bathroom, and laundry facilities are safe zones, you’re personal living quarters (aka tents ) are also off limits.        After the staff meeting ends Assassin officially begins and the bloodbath is insane as well as paranoia. I manage to stay alive by hopping in Quigley’s truck and therefore avoid the danger of the open road. When I get back to FC my most favoritist person in the whole entire world is waiting for me. My sister, Sugar, is so incredibly amazing and wonderful. We aren’t sisters by blood but we might as well be. We are past the point of friendship, we are sisters pure and simple. I let a few other people hug her and then we are off, away to have amazing adventures and spend the day together.        Once we got to her house we both chowed down and caught up on all the life events and new things that have been going on in our lives. Then we go about fixing my hair. I have wonderful deep red hair, but with seven weeks of hot showers and no touch ups it is just a little faded. Luckily sugar is wonderful and great at EVERYTHING so we have a nice long girl talk while we dye my hair. Afterwords we get all curtsied up and head out into town. We pop into a great little sushi place before heading out to find our own personal heaven. A bookstore. After we loose ourselves and find ourselves again, fingerling over anime, poetry and philosophy we make our way over to the movie theater. On the way we run into a couple of guys from camp, and it is interesting to see the double takes, confused looks and generally strange reactions. The guys don’t see me out in heals a dress and lipstick very often, and most of them didn’t even know I would be there so when we pass them on the street they are seriously confused. Once they get over their initial stop and stare and realizes it is me however all is good and we head to ant man. Remember how I said camp staff were all nerds? yeah, ant man, PERFECT movie for us. We swap jokes, make fun of the adds and laugh our butts off because Ant man is HILARIOUS. Once the credits roll Sugar and I introduce the boys to our favorite movie theater game, a time honored tradition to make our fathers cringe and mothers shake their heads. We find the coolest names on screen and shout them out.        But like all good things, the day comes to an end and my brother comes and picks me up and takes me back to camp. It’s about an hour drive and we spend it listening to loud music to keep us awake and singing at the top of our lungs. We pull into camp at about eleven and I let him crash in my bed. He passes out immediately and I throw a mattress into the bed of his truck. I spend the night under the stars, slightly terrified because I am pretty sure that I am going to wake up being murdered because Assassin has started. But the sky is beautiful, a red full moon bright over the lake because of all the smoke shines down, and if they wake me up by murdering me then so be it. goodnight.

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Forty Eight July 31st 2015

Friday

        When I wake up I am slightly apprehensive about the day. My basketry class was interesting to say the least and there are a LOT of incompletes which leads to a stressful friday. But it actually flows pretty well, most of the Scouts finished their baskets in their campsite so they just have to show it to me. I spend the morning finishing my unicorn neckerchief slide. Once upon a time it was an antelope but I decided it would be cooler to make a unicorn, sooooooo UNICORN! I plan to give it to my mother once it is all nice and painted. I was making a dragon for my dad, and it was actually REALLY good. I spent HOURS on it, before it disappeared from off the face of the planet which is a major bummer. Ill probably make another one, but its just disappointing you know?         After lunch is amazing. Last week was complete and utter chaos, today I am organized and it all goes swimmingly. I have House Rules, A list of people to go up against and a game register drawn up all before the Scouts get here. There is also a LOT less Scouts this week because Ferdinand didn’t announce at flags, though none of us are complaining. It is a lot more relaxed and we all have a lot of fun. This week we have Jasper, Uriah, Vincent and Adam* as the Elite Four and Ferdinand as the Pokemon Master (With the Unbeatable Bounce House Wilson). Once Campwide games is over we have open program again for makeups. but three Scouts come. THREE. So basically we muck around, we wrestle, some hand stand pushups are done (I just do handstands). At one point a Scout walked in, while Ferdinand and Adam are westling. Intensly. He backed out of the room, and then slowly came back in and asked if that is what we do in our freetime. To which we all paused, and then nodded, because yes, yes it is.         Harmony is leaving, which is really sad. I mean she is going to have so many fabulous adventures in Belgium  Belize? Barcelona? I think it is Barcelona… Anyway, I am super excited for her. But I’m also going to miss her a bunch. She is the girl I connected most with this Summer. Not to say I’m not friends with the other girls in camp. But we just kind of clicked this Summer. We bonded over the stupid things that Scouts and Scoutmasters say to us, and the ridiculous things boys do to try and impress us or hit on us. Whenever we experience one of the unfortunately often “girl, giiiiiiiiirl, giiiiiiiiirl. Hey girl, hey heeeey (insert some stupid pickup line here)” we find each other and laugh about it and puzzle over the mess that is the teenage boys brainpan.        It is a full moon tonight and it is gorgeous. There have been a bunch of fires all around the state this week, and a couple pretty darn close to camp property, so the moon is red. It is also pretty big, not as big as the super moons we experienced this past year, but still pretty big. And reflected on the lake. It is so incredibly gorgeous. I wish that I had a better camera. As in an actual camera. Ferdinand has a cannon but it is dead. And I have been meaning to grab it and take it to one of the other guys in camp who has a good camera so I can charge it. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut I keep forgetting. So I don’t have it. So no super pretty pretty pretty pictures for me :\

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Day Forty Seven July 30th 2015

Thursday 

          Yeah Thursday. Movie night. Starwars man. The first one. And by the first one I mean the original. I am not nearly as passionate about most of staff about the prequels. I don’t mind them, I loved Jar Jar binks when I was little, now I see how obnoxious he is. But I grew up on starwars, I mean I went to the Clone wars in theaters for my fifth birthday.         Harmony and Yannis are both leaving on Saturday. At FOUR IN THE MORNING. Harmony is going to… Belize? somewhere in Spain that starts with a B… And Yannis is going to NOAC out in Michigan. So I mean, I can’t completely hate them, but I am sad that they are leaving. Harmony came on over to Handicraft for the movie though so we get to hang out. She just bought a one terabyte hard drive and is getting a bunch of music from Ferdinand, just like I did a week or two ago. So I am transferring the music over onto her hard drive. While all the files transfer we sit and talk about life and camp and the stupid things boys do. I love talking to Harmony. It feels like she is a bunch older than me because she is in college, but she’s really only like a year older than me. We talk about money and jobs and what we want to do with our lives. I love talking to her because no matter what we talk about, be it ex boyfriends, religion, politics, books or what we like to do in our spare time there is never any judgement. And even if we don’t have the same opinion or stance on a particular subject I still feel fine talking to her because we respect each other enough that it really doesn’t matter.

[mysummerofscoutingadventure-blog]

Day Forty Six July 29th 2015

Wednesday 

          As I mentioned yesterday  I have not spent nearly enough time in the lake this year. So to go along with my resolution to spend more time in the lake I go sailing with Grant. It is a bunch of fun, I really enjoy sailing ESPECIALLY when I don’t get trapped underneath the boat. (last time I went sailing I got trapped beneath the boat for a minute and a half because my paracord anklet got caught on a nail and paracord doesn’t rip) We actually didn’t turtle or tip or get in the water at all, which is especially nice because neither of us were in swim suits. I mean I had swim shorts on because I am trying to not be so incredibly horribly awfully white (I am pale… Very very pale… like… not quite glow in the dark pale, but still pretty blinding. But my arms are getting pretty tan and I want to be more one shade then seven). But other than the swim shorts I am in my normal clothes. Grant is actually quite good at sailing so we are all good on the not getting wet front. However we do dock slightly later than we would have liked because they didn’t call us in at 1:45 like they usually do.         My basketry class is… Slightly more productive than yesterday. They seem to enjoy splashing around in the lake and having fun, so I am fine. A couple finish their first baskets, but not all… Hopefully they actually do their homework and finish their second baskets as well…        We change the weekly race a little bit today, because we are tired of Scouts slashing apart their feet on the rocks at the waterfront. So with just a tiny bit of modification we make the race a bit safer, and our medics evening just a little easier.        After the race I head back to Fc to participate in my wonderful nerd game of Dungeons and Dragons. Over at the dining hall a magic tournament is going down so we have the staff lounge pretty much to ourselves. I mean, people drift in and out and comment, but other than that we have a GREAT evening of kicking butt and taking names. We are working on a pretty eventful quest that involves me getting lots of plunder and lots of deadpan sarcasm. I play a tiefling (half demon) ranger, who is just a little bit standoffish and has absolutely no charisma. I have a lot of fun playing her, seriously, a LOT of fun. The night ends with a triumph as I level up once again and get a panther. perks of being a ranger, you get mad awesome pets and perks :D