Wilco Gonna Love You, Baby

So I haven't given my two cent about the new Wilco record yet. It probably goes without saying that I like it but I don't think it's great. It's worthy of repeat spins.Verdict: Good overall with occasional greatness in a couple of places.

Took me a while to buy it. Seems these days I don't go near record stores often enough (or when I do I don't have any cash). Times are tight all over and music is, afterall, available for "free". I still like to support an artist when they merit it. Probably going to see the Hold Steady in September if the tickets aren't sold out...

Picture from the 1,000 post was from a camp I volunteered at for a couple of days last week. It's something I used to do every summer until my job didn't allow me too. First time back in years and things had definitely changed.

In other news, I might my generation's worst cellphone owner. I had to borrow my parents' car to go to camp and left it in the car when I dropped it off last Tuesday. Met up with my parents for lunch today to get it back and then left it their car AGAIN. Now I have to meet with my parents yet again to get back 'cause I need for when I do returns (returns are when I take extra books back to the publishers) on Wednesday. But when I checked my messages today nobody had left any so I guess no harm, no foul.

done for the summer

Today was officially my last day. I rode the bus back to Toronto with the kids and have to go pick up my car tomorrow. I'm looking around my apartment and I'm excited. There's lots to do. It'll be a great fall.

Time is on my side

My nights are now my own. I've got my laptop up at camp and this means I'm more inclined to post. Why? See the above picture. That was my desk at camp. Notice how there's about a lot of random stuff on it? Yeah... Not exactly the best place to write semi-personal things that end up in the most public of places.

Thank you to everyone who sent me a letter or such. It was awesome to receive. I also find that I'm misplacing stuff all the time. Like my camera. And my guitar. I think both are up in the dining hall currently.

I don't know what else to say. It's been a long day and there's a rumour floating around that we're only getting a half-day off instead of a full-day for the last two weeks. Kind of sucks.

That was fun

So, I'm once again looking for a new job. Things haven't worked out in the office at camp so I'm finishing up the last two weeks of camp and then I'm looking for another job. It's not the best situation and wasn't handled in the greatest way possible but there's no bad blood between me and my former employer. I really like coming to camp and working here. I just don't think I was cut out to be the full-time office person. So come September there will most likely be lots of blogging in the first couple of weeks as I will have lots of time on my hands again (then again maybe I won't).

How's your summer been?

Another lonely Friday night

Tonight is the last Friday night dance of the summer. It's the Prom. The campers get dressed up. It's a big deal. The older campers decorate the Rec Hall. Tonight's theme is outer space. Several counsellors dressed up like Jedi Knights. I spent the night checking over swimming report cards, putting together packages, answering the telephones, and watching kids who got into a fight over a cup of juice.

Sounds almost exactly like how I spent my senior prom... except totally different.

Going to up at camp for another two weeks after camp ends on Sunday.

Will start posting regularly in the fall.

Hope you're all doing well.

DANCE

Tonight is a "wrestling" theme dance. Most of the staff dressed up. Most of the campers did not. I've got pictures. Fun times. That's all I've got to say.

The politics of loneliness

The best part of my day was explaining why I had homemade cookies and a mix tape to everyone at work. Good job, ag.

It rained some more

It was Parents' Day today. There was a huge rainstorm as everyone was arriving. Then the power went out. Still, it wasn't a bad day. Everything else went fine. I answered a lot of phone calls from lost parents.

Tomorrow the next batch of kids arrive and it starts all over again.

Another lonely night

Hey, it's another weekly update from camp!

So this week was a little crazy. The fifteen hour days haven't gotten to me... yet. It's the third week in camp and the kids are now comfortable enough to let rather some random shit to happen on a regular basis.

The real test is next week, the last week of the first session, when all the evaluations and awards have to be written. Seems like I'll be spending a lot of time in the office just fielding questions and answering phones. That's what I do.

I think my verb tenses are all over the place. What can I say? It's been a long week.

the truth

It's late night at camp. I'm on office duty, which means I've got to stay in the office until midnight so that nervous mothers can call to find out about their children. It's Friday night, so most people have gone into town. It was busy in here until 11pm and now it's eerily quiet. With 234 kids in camp, during the day it's never quiet. All these things together have given me a moment to collect my thoughts and write a post.

I'm slowly understanding what my role in camp is. I didn't at first and it was causing a variety of different people to get upset with my work. That's been corrected and now things have settled down into a routine that everyone can live with. The boys in my cabin are awesome. They're a good bunch and they're old enough that I don't have to worry about wandering (it's a big problem).

There's very little personal time so I don't get caught up in everything that's happening around me. I realize that I'm in the dark about most things and that's fine by me. Gossip isn't something I want to get involved with. It's better that I know nothing than go out and try to find out everything. Makes life easier. I can go on believing that things are fine (they aren't by the way).

I don't know what else to say. The batteries on my camera have died. I'm re-reading one of my favourite books, The Razor's Edge by Somerset Maugham, during the few moments I have and it's making me happy.

My goal is during the summer to post one of these late Friday night posts every week. I'll periodically post during the week but there isn't going to be much here for a while. I'll be back with a vengeance in the fall after I'm back from camp but for the moment you're going just going to have to deal with these vague and long-winded posts.

Apologizes to Queen Mary and everyone else.

sick of myself

Without fail, I got sick the second week of camp. I've got to seriously do something about my body's ability to fight germs. So now I'm sucking on Halls like they're candy... really bad tasting candy...

yelling in my ear

The kids have arrived.

Things are crazy.

Half the time I don't know what I'm doing and the other half I'm faking.

I'm three seconds away from smoking again.

And it's kind of awesome in that way working with kids can make you feel.

But seriously, it's the second day.

At Camp

So aside from moving to/from Winnipeg, I think last week (ending with today) is the furtherest I've travelled in one week in my life. I'm now at camp, with limited internet access and even less time to blog, which shouldn't be a change from the last two months. Either way, I hope to have some fun and amusing stories for all of you sooner rather than later. Okay, back to unpacking the office.

What's her name today?

Baseball season has started. Not as exciting but it's a fairly important date in my family. My grandmother and mother are both huge Toronto Blue Jays fans. Not really anything else to say. These last two weeks have not been terribly difficult but it has been an adjustment.

On a completely different note, I've got a new apartment! It's a great place. It's a corner penthouse that comes with indoor parking and is in a great neighbourhood. The only problem is the move-in date is ONE DAY BEFORE I LEAVE FOR THE SUMMER... my stuff will sit in boxes while I run around cottage country earning money to pay for my empty apartment. It's kind of annoying but I don't really have a choice. Maybe somebody else will take advantage of this and enjoy a summer in the city.

Tomorrow Never Knows

Today was my last day at the university. It was a good job to keep me busy while I was looking for other work, but it wasn't a career or anything. The people were nice and that's what's most important.

Tomorrow is the first day of the new job. I'm excited and nervous. Probably post about it tomorrow.

Cut your hair and get a real job

I haven't told the entire story about my trip to LA. On my last night in town, I got a call from a former employer. This was an offer of full-time employment at the camp I worked last summer. Today everything was confirmed. In the spring, I'll start working full-time in the office at a decent wage. This is the first "real" job I've ever had. It's not my ideal job but I'm very excited about this. It'll be nice to have some money and to actually do something worthwhile. Right now, I'm still toiling away at the university and tutoring on the weekend. Life is a strange thing.

Sexy! no no no

I think, question, and wonder, which basically means I'm sitting around in my bathrobe doing very little.

So, I worked at a summer camp this summer. I didn't really post about it over the summer because I was using a public computer and didn't want my co-workers finding out about this blog. Now that I've been at home for a while I want to write down a few thoughts I had about my summer.

First off, it wasn't what I expected and it was exactly what I expected. Since I didn't know what my job was going to be, I thought I'd have a little more time to interact with the kids but that wasn't the case. I was driving pretty much all the time. It was a 20 minute drive to town so a trip at minimum took me an hour, usually more. My record for trips to town in one day was five, which I had to do twice over the course of the summer. Most days I took two trips to town; once in the morning and again after lunch. I had to drive back to Toronto several times during the summer to drop kids off at the airport because they had done something that caused them to get kicked out of camp (often it involved violence but there was a group of kids that got kicked out for doing drugs). On the final day of camp I had to follow the bus with the campers back to Toronto, make sure everyone got picked up then drive all the way back to camp just so I could go home again the following day.

I was given a credit card with a 10,000 dollar limit. With one week left, I reached the limit. I was then given the debt card for the final week, which meant I had access to the corporate account for the camp. The power! Sadly, I didn't abuse this newfound power. Nope, instead I smile when they gave me my small paycheck at the end.

Most of the other people who worked at the camp were there for a reference because working with kids with learning disabilities looks good on a resume. My job didn't really allow resume building (my driving skills improved but that's not going to get me a job in my field) but the boss liked me and helped open some doors with some connections he had. Hopefully by the end of next week I'll know what's what with my job situation.

So now I'm listening to the new Ryan Adams and Weakerthans records and enjoying this pause before I have to jump back into the world.

Less than zero

Here's a list of the following items that are coming home with me but didn't come up with me.

• 512MB MP3 Player
• 2 waterbottles
• a cloth camping chair
• an alexisfire t-shirt
• a cooler
• 2 pairs of sunglasses
• a copy of Being There (the novel)

That's it. Only one of these things was actually purchased.

You make me break down

sick.
tired.
two more weeks.
it's getting better but I want to go home.

Be Patient With Me

It's so hard to be fun when you're not a drunk teenager. Hahahahaha... two out of the three people who got fired this summer got fired because of "issues" they had with the campers.