Glorious Victories

Greasy watermelon football is amazing. We had our end-of the year party tonight. I have to wake up in 3.5 hours to catch my flight to Wyoming for the Tetons hike, but I'm so wired right now, so I'll sleep on the plane tomorrow. The first rounds, we dominated. Seniors against rookies, so really they had no chance but they put up a good fight. They scored no points, but still, a good fight. Well... Technically, one of the rookies did score a point. I got the ball close to our wall, but then he interfered, picked the melon up, spun halfway and it shot out of his arms and onto the wall, thereby scoring a point for us. After the first melon broke, we played girls and one guy against the rest of the guys, and well... we lost. Bad. 4-1. We won the point in the first round by getting to the ball first, passing it right ad pretending it had been passed left to me, so I was tackled by most of the guys while the ball was snuck around to the wall. It's a type of move that can really only be pulled off once and we really didn't think it'd work, so that was pretty great. A couple of the guys have a habit of just grabbing as many people as they can around the waist and holding them, problem being that if they squeeze, it kinda hurts your stomach, and they're pretty solid so there's no escape. And if you struggle, you just push the other people's stomachs more into their arms so the only way to get free is vicious shin kicking and sternum elbowing. After that, we were all pretty exhausted, so we tried doing flips - the type where 2 people make a square with their arms and a third stands on the arms and is hurled into the air. The only problem with this is their arms were greasy and so was the bottoms of our feet, so that didn't last long. A break for ice cream - no bowls, so we were all eating it out of the carton with plastic spoons, and then we decided to go back in for another round. A bit of goofing off first, and I managed to indent my nose a little bit on the bottom of the pool doing something stupid. And then we played another 5 rounds or so. Then we cleaned up, showered with Dawn and ate watermelon. They say I'm going to be a legend in a couple of years for playing despite a damaged nose (that hurt much worse on Friday when I got elbowed than it does now) Rumors will be that I smashed it flat, or ripped it completely off, and played despite excruciating amounts of pain. They've got it all planned out already. That's right. I'm legendary. What now?

Camp is MY favorite!

I love camp and camp loves me. Madeline had her dorm sing "we love Linda yes we do" every time they saw me. I earned swamping bruises on my legs, canoed solo for about a mile, paddled through lilies just after sunrise and kayaked for the first time. A night, I stayed up giggling with the councilors after the campers went to sleep, sitting around the fire even though it was hot and muggy out. The salt grass around our launching site cut up my legs, so when we had some spare time, Diana and I took a machete to it. The park rangers warned me not to "go Rambo on it", so we were careful, but there is a picture out there of me threatening Mr. Weston with it. Besides all that, highlights include racoons cleaning up camp after dark, armadillo by the bath house, "You spooked me like a horse", "For the sake of your sanity, go take a shower!", "Hello, and what's on your face?", 'scary' stories, fish running into the canoes (what do you call a fish with no eyes?)

Summer's been going pretty great so far. My cavalier died a tragic death when the radiator fan broke and tried to take the radiator out with it. I have a new car now - a blue cobalt with purple metalic shimmers in the paint. It's pretty. Oh! and the windows roll up and down. I can have drive-through food again. And go through tolls without looking stupid, and enjoy pretty days while I drive. Camp starts on Sunday, and I'm way excited. Riding up with the Devers, and then working with them and Diana and sleeping out at night AND it's been arranged with kitchen staff that I get real food every night instead of 3 nights of hotdogs in a row. And I think marshmellows might have been mentioned. There were fireflies and beavers and bluebirds and racoons and all kinds of pretty wilderness last time. And mosquitos, but that's to be expected.

I'm teaching swim lessons, so I had to have someone take over for me - just when we were all getting in the swing of things, too. I really like the kids, so I'm a bit sad that I'm leaving them, but I'm sure I'll see a bunch of them next session when I come back. All my tots rather dislike my aide, Brandon, and he's the one taking over that class for me. They bonded some on Thursday (by finally agreeing to let him teach them things instead of saying "no... I want her to teach me. I don't like you... etc.") They're brats, but endearing ones, and it makes me feel loved. On the first day, when I told them to climb out and go to their parents, one turned around with HUGE sad eyes and told me, "but I'll miss you." Awww. And I'm finally teaching older classes. Like... I have 11 year olds. The oldest kids I taught last year were 5. We learned Fly yesterday, and it was harder than I thought to slow it down enough to let them see how it's done. Work is a blast. I love it. My co-workers are great, and I'd put up with alot from the patrons to be around them all day. One of the guys had a day off but had nothing to do, so he ate lunch with us and hung around for an hour or so in the guard shack. Between lessons and open swim we have a pick up game of water basket ball or shower off and wash our hair with the hose or get one of the guys to flip us in the water. Last year, he flipped the daughter of one of the ladies we work for and got her to do 2.5 rotations before doing a faceplant in the water. We've tried, but the rest of us are too weak to flip him. On breaks, when we aren't cleaning and such, we play dominos and eat ice pops or come up with really stupid games to play.

In other news, I found an amazing climbing tree in some woods near my house. I didn't climb up too high 'cause it's been forever since I've done any serious climbing and yeah, I'm a little chicken. But, I did walk out on one of the branches like 10 feet out, and it barely moved at all under my weight. Pretty sweet. I also found wild grapes growing all over a couple of other trees like Kadzoo. They're sour with thick skins and a ton of seeds, but it still made me happy. How often do you just randomly find wild grapes?

Ballad of the Silver Cavalier

The Cavalier, the Cavalier
fun to drive, a joy to steer
The Cavalier, the Cavalier
running over highway deer

Warning lights are turning on
anti-freeze is almost gone

The silver car, the silver car
drove real long, drove real far
the silver car, the silver car
the driver's window is ajar

Takes me to church and then back home
has tires of rubber and heart of crome

The Cavalier, the Cavalier
the A/C's cold and the windows clear
The Cavalier, the Cavalier
outta gas, but never fear

Threw the keys in the trunk
closed the lid with a thunk

The silver car, the silver car
a pretty car is what you are
The silver car, the silver car
'though dings and dents your bumpers mar

Radiator fan broke its bracket
car now makes quite a racket

The Cavalier, the Cavalier
Wave goodbye, give it a cheer
The Cavalier, the Cavalier
It is gone, don't shed a tear.

Lifeguarding, the universe and everything

I went by the pool today to help one of my co-workers re-cert (she needed victims). So we cover most of the hard stuff like deep-end back boarding, and are doing a shallow-end face-down passive possible spinal scenario (meaning I’m face down and she has to turn me over without moving my neck) so she positions her arms and is loosely holding the back of my skull and my chin… and asking our boss questions about the positioning. And I’m just there chilling face down in the water listening to their conversation. After a while, the other girl there says, “Aren’t you going to let her breathe?” This is followed by, “Oh, oh… yeah… breathe!”

Summer League swim team has started up, and this year we’re having water polo again. Ah, it’s good seeing those yellow volleyballs being used properly again. It all makes me feel nostalgic… I vaguely miss being on swim team. The swimming part that is – I really miss the swimming part, but never missed the drama. Water polo I truly miss. It’s a great sport, and summer league’s the way to go – it’s so completely different from the school game. I like guarding the practices, because I get to see the different coaching styles in an impersonal way. Yoakum’s the coach this year, and he’s a pretty good guy. He was assistant coach when I was 12 or so, and I’d see him from time to time as he coached other teams (Brook) and in the halls when he came to teach science at my high school. His team played a little dirtier than our team, but nothing vicious and the girls were still nice about it, which speaks well for the coach. And he still remembers my name and talks to me, which is nice.

I’m looking for a way to change up canoeing class a little this year at pre-teen camp to make it a bit more interesting for those who have been to camp for the past 4 or 5 years already know the tip of the paddle from the grip – and yet at the same time, make it fun for those who’ve never been in a canoe before – I don’t know if any of the older girls haven’t been to camp before, so maybe I can do something with them. For the younger kids, covering the basics and letting them play around would probably work, and we only have a few classes besides the trip (and I’m way excited about the trip… I really hope the lily pads are still there, otherwise we’ll have to find a different route to the campsite to make the trip long enough to be interesting). At teen camp, we have slaloms, but I don’t know if the sterning skills are up to that - again, some of the older girls could handle that - and then there’s the usual set of skills tests and races… from experience I know that swamping races are rather fun, but also just a tad dangerous. Last time, we only did it with one dorm, and both Diana and I ended up with minor injuries and decided better us than the campers, but next time it might be them. I discovered a new sport on-line that sounds amazing – Canoe Polo… like Water Polo, but with canoes. How great is that? It’s combining my two favorite water sports into one. But… would it be too complicated to start up in just two classes (and most of that time is needed for covering swamping and the strokes and the like) and from the pictures, it looks like what’s used is little one-man canoes, and we’d be putting at least 3 in each of our canoes… plus the possible added injury of people swinging their paddles around *sigh* so… anyone have any better ideas? I’m open to suggestions.

Le monde est grand quand on est vraiment seul

The world is huge when one is truly alone. That comes from a French song I heard a while ago. Everyone else thought it was depressing, but I found it sweet in a wistful sort of way. It reminds me of laying out on the gravel beach of Govt. Island in Michigan late at night after all the campers had gone to bed and staring up at all the stars. The entire sky opening up above you and water extending out around you, hedged in only by the dark silhouettes of branches from the trees behind you, and you can’t help but feel alone in the vast darkness. It’s beautiful. I loved sitting out on the shore and watching the lights from the houses and radio towers across the lake and on the boats as they came past reflect off the water and ripple on the waves. I went for a walk tonight out around a local park and its that same sort of whole world opening up around you kind of feeling, though not as pronounced. But the night is cool and humid with the hum of crickets, and the streetlights are reflecting yellow off the trees. And it’s just… it lifts up my heart and makes me feel like dancing… a quiet bubbling happiness. The only time I can relate to that desolate loneliness everyone else found so depressing is on Sundays, when I wake up and know that I’m not going to see anyone all day. I can last until around two doing homework and chores before the silence of my apartment closes in around me in such an oppressive manner I can hardly stand it. But, I have faced my last Sunday like that for a while now, and I wasn’t sad to see it go. Next Sunday I’ll be home again. Oh, and I still haven't gotten used to eating dinner alone, but again, I'll be home on Sunday.
I received my acceptance to the Tetons trip today, and I’m pretty excited. I was beginning to worry that it wouldn’t come at all. Looking at the list of supplies, I realize that I have none of it, but I have time to shop beforehand, so no worries on that account. I may have to take up running this summer to get into shape for it, though. Running …*shudder*… I like it more than I used to, that is for sure, and at home I have the pup to come with me to keep me company (and she’s wimpier than I am when it comes to distance running, so we can build up stamina together).

Update

Because Julie insisted.

And because Shannon and Dougie want to know about this white stuff. I don't know. It's all new to me. I think it's called 'snow'.

The weather was crazy this last week. Seriously. Last Saturday was beautiful. I spent all afternoon basking in sunshine since it hasn't been warm enough for me to be outside without shivering for a long time. Sunday was cloudy and breezy, but still quite pleasant, so I went swimming (indoor pool) that night. When I got back to my apartment, it was just too pretty to go in, so I ran barefoot across the field to the swings and watched the storm come in for about an hour. Light pollution makes the sky red at night when it's cloudy and inky purple when it's not, so the lightning was just different bits of red cloud lighting up, but there wasn't really any thunder, which was odd. Monday was a bit colder, but still nice enough to go swimming again. Then that evening it snowed. Not enough to stick, but still... My teacher let us out a little early so we could go and enjoy it since we were so distracted by watching out the window. This meant I had time to spin around in it and try to catch some in my mouth before going to work. I was scheduled for half an hour. To give one person one glass of ice water... And someone else had already given it to him. Uhhg.

Tuesday and Wednesday it hit in the 60's .

Thursday it snowed again. Alot this time. It started snowing while I was at work - huge flakes coming down really fast. When it became apparent that it was sticking, I invited my co-worker, Megan, to a short snowball fight between work and my next class. The university closed right as work ended, so we went out and frolicked and pelted each other with balls of this soft frozen stuff. There was at least 3 inches on the ground... and this is only after about 2 hours of snowing, and the stuff was still coming down. When we were sufficiantly covered, almost completely white and sopping wet, we made a snowman. Great little guy. I ran back to my car to grab my sunglasses to give him eyes, or to hide the fact that he was lacking eyes. Megan had to leave because the buses were about to stop running, so I made my way back to my car and cleared it off. After letting the defroster run for a while, I had to get out to clear off the back window again, and then joined the line of barely moving cars to go home. It took me over an hour to drive three miles. Craziness. Upon reaching my apartment, I discovered that somewhere along the way, I had lost my keys (car keys on a seperate key ring). And the office had just closed. AND my cellphone wasn't working. So, I borrowed someone else's phone to call maintenance and ask if they could come unlock my door because I have a spare inside my apartment. The guy asks if I know there is a fee. I ask how much - $30 - and then he asks if I still want him to come do it. My response was something along the lines of. Well, uhh.. I'm locked outside of my apartment, and it's cold and snowing, and my spare key is INSIDE my apartment. It's not like I have a choice is it? So 30 minutes later, I get to go inside.

Friday, I discover that my spare key doesn't lock my apartment, so they gave me a new one. Classes were canceled, so I dressed warmly - complete with "poor man snowboots" - double socks, grocery bags and old shoes, and then spent the entire morning frolicking in the snow. I totally went all "Calvin and Hobbs" on it... I built a little girl building a snowman, and behind her was a monster about to eat her. I used Pom-Poms of Happiness for the eyes and buttons, and baby carrots for noses and teeth. Great stuff. Then I called Julie, because she's had more experience with this sort of precipitation than me, and I was running out of ideas. Her first suggestion (after listing the things I'd already accomplished) was singing Frost the Snowman. I sang as much of it as I knew, which ended up being "Frosty the Snowman... la lala la la la lalala lalal lalallaLAAAA" or something to that effect. She added something about coal and noses. Drinking hot chocolate and/or hot cider was the next order of business.. I didn't have cider, but I did have apple juice, and briefly considered microwaving it and adding pumpkin pie spice to it, but that sounded a little disgusting, even if it was in the spirit of a snow day, and besides, I had not only hot chocolate mix, but also cream. I took my drink outside and tried frolicking with it, but just spilled it on myself, so I decided against that. Megan had mentioned making "snowcream" so I opened a can of sweet and condensed milk and mixed some of it with a handfull of snow from the bushes outside my door. I discovered an open untouched field across a shallow drainage ditch, and set off to explore it. The snow was thick enough that my snow angel actually had some snow where I had been, not just green grass like the last time made one.. enough, in fact, that since I was wearing my letter jacket when I made it, it had my name written backward in the snow. I tried making a snow fort, but I don't think it turned out too well.. only like a foot or so high, so I don't think it'd work as far as defense goes. It's mostly gone now, but there is still a little on the north side of the building, but I think it's more ice than snow - and Kaylee, I'm sorry, I didn't save any for you.