Saturday, June 20

Saturday, June 20, 2009

Good morning! What a fabulous Saturday morning! It’s about 9:15am, and I am sitting in my favorite spot in the “Fishbowl” (the small courtyard outside of the Lower Lodge facing the lake), enjoying the morning coolness, watching the water’s constant motion towards the shore to my left, and wondering about the six+ boats that I see drifting on the lake at various rates of morning leisure. I’m still really aware of the different bird calls here, but I’m settling in and really am enjoying the trees’ rustlings, twittering of the birds, and faint sounds of cars, boats, etc. that create a background hum very similar to paradise. Today promises to be a hot day, and I am very much looking forward to it. The sky is ridiculously clear and brilliant; it almost hurts to look at it and I have to constantly shift my gaze because of the intensity. There are a couple of white smudges over the trees on the other side of the lake, but hopefully we will maintain our good weather for today. It’s supposed to be around 85 degrees F today, so pretty darn hot. There is a day trip to the rodeo in Buffalo, MN planned, and I’m really excited to go. Hopefully it will be worth t he horrendous $15 fee to get in!

I’m finally going to get to go online today, and I will most certainly look up some news! The internet so far is moving pretty slowly, so it’s just a matter of patience. I don’t mind at all – it’s gorgeous out here.

This morning I slept in an hour, and I must admit it was pretty difficult – I kept waking up to check my watch. Even though I wanted the extra hour of sleep, I was also very eager to get up and get going for the day! I finally got up around 7:20am for my morning walk, but didn’t really get on the road until around 7:30am. I knew that this was not enough time by any stretch of the imagination to do walk and be back by 8am to go to breakfast with Emily and Annie, but I wanted to get some exercise anyway. I called mother in Memphis and was afraid I had woken her up, but luckily she had gotten up about 30 minutes ago. We chatted for a good while, I told her about yesterday and some of the quirks of the campers, and I talked about plans for today. She, Gramma, and Nala have very loose plans which must include at some (possibly multiple) point(s) steak for Gramma and more cocktails. It was a great, refreshing walk with a breeze on the way back! I didn’t make it all the way to the main road because I had to turn around to get back in time, but I did make it a fair distance. So refreshing! On the way back I passed one of the few male counselors in another village, I didn’t remember/know his name, who was out for a morning jog.

When I got back Annie and Emily were still getting ready, so I scarfed down half a bag of granola and waited for them. I did a part of a crossword puzzle out on the deck, and by that time they were, of course, ready to go down to breakfast. Veronica was in the shower so we left without her.

Breakfast was carbolicious to the max. There were incredibly huge and decadent muffins that actually looked like cupcakes, cereal, and the usual assortment of bagels/etc. The food service woman (I have got to find out her name!) also heated up some leftover breakfast sandwiches from a couple of mornings ago. I had half of a multigrain bagel, half a breakfast sandwich, an almost miniscule amount of cornflakes, and though I got half of a poppy seed muffin, I ended up not eating it and put it back. Instead of the water I wanted, I got lemonade, which was a bummer, but I have a lot of water so I’m not too discouraged. We sad around at breakfast, eating and talking, and Veronica showed up and sat with us. The respite campers came in, David and Chris among them, and I got to say hi and talk to them for a little while. The guy I saw running this morning came in and joined us and we all introduced ourselves. His name is Derek, and I’m not sure if that’s how you spell his name or not. He’s really nice and is reading A Long Way Home, the memoir of a Somali child soldier. Annie loves memoirs and so she asked him about it. He’s from Nebraska.

After breakfast we all came back to the cabin, I grabbed my laptop, and came down here to the Fishbowl. Josh walked past to go sit at the dock but didn’t come say hi, and Barbara was also out on the dock. Emily came down and we looked through her facebook together, looking at pictures of where she wants us to go when we visit her in England (Rachel, Annie, and I). It looks absolutely incredible, and I cannot wait!!!!!! I really hope it works out!!!!

Off to the store! More later!

Notes:

• Emily gets paid less than us, supposedly, and will make hardly any money because she will have spent it all getting here, getting back home, and visiting New York with her boyfriend (flying in from the UK to meet her)

It’s 1:30am and I am so tired. I’m going to briefly bullet point the rest of the day so that I hopefully don’t forget things, but also so that I can do my shower thing and do the sleeping thing so that I can get up early, do the morning walk thing, and finally do the laundry thing. Oh man. So super excited for shower (I smell absolutely rank) and sleep. It’s hard to believe everything that we’ve done today – we really packed it all in!

• Emily came down while I was in the Fishbowl reading news online and doing facebook (of course), and we sat and looked at facebook photos of everywhere that she is going to take us when we go to visit her in England
• Walmart run with Veronica, Annie, and Emily
• I was only one to offer to pay Annie for gas: $5
• Spent a shit ton of money
• Got back by 12:45pm in time for lunch
• Leftover chili, toasty dogs, watermelon, green beans
• I had chili and cheese and crackers and green beans
• After lunch came back to cabin to get thank you note supplies and went with Emily down to the waterfront
• Annie came down eventually and we went out on the water
• Water time!
• Myself in the back of the two-person kayak
• Emily in the back of the canoe, Annie in the front of the canoe
• Had a great time paddling, drifting, and talking
• Went pretty far, stayed out for about an hour, came back in, I switched boats with Emily so that I was sitting in the front of the canoe and Annie was in the back
• We paddled around for a little longer but we were all getting tired (and sunburned probably)
• Saw two great blue herons, a turtle, and lots of doggies that belong to our neighbors
• Went to get ready for rodeo because didn’t know if the meeting time was at 4pm or 5:30pm
• Went to the gate at 4pm-ish with Annie and Elizabeth, but trip didn’t leave until 5:30pm
• Sat at the picnic table at Arts and Crafts for a while with Rachel (different Rachel from previously), but then decided we should go fill up on food so that we don’t spend any money on food at the rodeo; Elizabeth went to do laundry
• I ate an orange, half a baggie of granola, half of a multigrain bagel
• I made and saved the other half of the multigrain bagel for the rodeo, and we all grabbed sinful amounts of baggies of granola
• Sat there talking and Veronica found us; she joined us
• On around 4:45pm, George the music person came over and started talking to us; he has a disability, mostly Asperger’s I’m thinking
• He told us all about the Cleveland and someone’s baseball game today
• We also heard in detail the entire actions and dialogue of the Batman and Robin trio series
• 5:15pm left the Dining Hall and sat at the Arts and Crafts table for a while
• The main group left at around 5:30pm, but we were waiting, according to Rachel, for Grace, Kate, and Josh to arrive (they were coming from Kate’s house)
• They didn’t arrive until 6:15pm, and said they were going to put food in the refrigerator, but then still weren’t around by 6:45pm
• I was super pissed
• We finally decided to go find them, and we found them at the lake (later found out they had found a turtle outside the staff lounge and had taken it down to the lake)
• We left without them
• Rachel was really bad at remembering/giving directions, so she had poor Annie driving all over Buffalo, MN
• Stopped at an ATM for Elizabeth and Rachel
• Rachel finally called the mom of one of her friends for directions
• Made it to the rodeo; there was a $14 entrance fee
• We made walked around for a bit and then made our way towards the seating area (I think we were in section E or something to that effect)
• A rodeo is the perfect place to go if you hate animals. This is what I have decided. Especially if you hate calves and steers. During the roping and three-legged tying of the calves most of the calves would get up and fall over on their necks, twisting at weird angles. I started breathing really rapidly and deeply and in a way panicking while trying not to cry too much – I’m tearing up and getting that tight feeling in my chest and head just thinking about it. It upset me so much. I always forget how much I hate rodeos, but only after I’m already there. I was so freaking upset. Also, their branded numbers were still fresh, with either very beginning scabbing or scabbing having just fallen off. The wounds were still pink and extremely clear and wide, and it pained me so much. I have just a hard time even typing this. Poor things! I know it’s the cowboys’ livelihoods on the line and that I should be rooting for the cowboy and not the animal he’s chasing or riding, but I couldn’t help myself.
• Basically I hate rodeos.
• Rodeo things to expound upon when not so tired:
• Probably one of the most uncomfortable experiences I’ve ever had.
• To begin with, I was probably pretty darn pissed off because of the hypocritical rhetoric they had going on via the announcer.
• Making fun of the kid
• Cheering for the animals (sheep, calves, steers) to get away and probably offending several people in the process
• Who we all sat with (Annie, Rachel, Elizabeth, me, Grace, Kate, Josh, one other person who I can’t remember right now); we did not sit with the rest of the group
• Really enjoyed the barrel racing
• Hated he bucking broncos and bull riding because I know what they do to make them buck!
• Had this “Wild Thing” show where white capuchin monkeys rode border collies as they rounded up sheep into a pin, then a pick up truck bed, then the top of the cab of the pick up truck.
• Dance – huge group from Camp Friendship – we shut down the house!
• Band sang happy birthday to Lorna
• We all danced together and had a great time
• Mechanical bull riding
• Annie
• One of the Polish girls
• Grace
• Huge bruises on inside of thighs – badges of honor!
• Annie was so sweet
• Perkins afterwards, 10 of us (I think): Elizabeth, Grace, Josh, Polish girls (2), Annie, Me, Kate, Rachel, Derek
• I had a grilled cheese sandwich and fries; wish I had requested some tomato on the sandwich as well
• Was delish
• Most people just had dessert stuff
• So full and gassy from all the greasy food
• It seems like I’ve just been bleeding money this weekend

Alright. It’s 2am. Shower and bedtime. So ready for this!

Ta-ta for now!

~ Mei