Ok... now my blog seems to be displaying each of my posts, including the one it wasn't showing before, but only part of that one, and not in the right format.

Ryan, will you help me on Friday if my blog is still acting wonky? I know it is within your power to fix this...

another test... are you still scrambled? you are not an egg, damn it!

post?

Weirdly, the posts I posted before I left home aren't here. I don't know why, but they aren't. I blame my parents' computer. For everything.

from cecily's lj:


You are a peasant! Carefree and fun, you dont care
what everyone else thinks! Simplicity keeps you
balanced and you are akin to nature. Your good
nature and humbleness makes you a great friend
and listener.

What Renaissance Type Woman are you? (with pics)
brought to you by

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

This is a test.

Ok, clearly, I have not posted a picture of my hair. This is because Kiery has not yet come over and photographed it, and I do not have a digital camera. To give you some idea... it's mostly around my shoulders, but obviously not all, since it's a shag... and when it's humid, it gets curly. Not curly like Rory's hair, more soft curly. If I use a little bit of gel when I get out of the shower, it's curlier. But even when it's not really curly, it's definitely not straight anymore at all.
(Ooh! ooh! hitting return works again!!! go me!!!)
I don't really have anything else to say. I'm mostly sitting here waiting for my bank to call me back, because they left me a message that there's a question or problem or something with a deposit I made a couple of weeks ago. This makes me nervous. I would like them to call and tell me why they called the first time. I would like it to be a fairly simple and fixable issue as well. If someone could arrange all this, that'd be fantastic.
Not really anything exciting going on... I need to start packing. Because really, by Friday I pretty much have to be packed, even though I don't leave until Sunday, because I have a lot of family stuff this weekend. I do NOT, however, have to share my room with my brother's girlfriend now, because my mother's best friend's husband is staying elsewhere this weekend. (catch all that?)
Ok. I'm going to go pack. And wait for the bank to call, so that I can do all my other errands.

Damn. I still can't create more than one paragraph. Anyway, I'm just posting to state that Kiery will be photographing the haircut on Tuesday and helping me upload and post the picture. And also to take a procrastination break from the sermon I'm writing now because I didn't know I was preaching tomorrow until an hour ago. I should really go back to writing it now.

Yikes! I just realized this hasn't been updated in nearly two months! (On a side note, does anyone know why I can't hit enter and get a new line? It's really annoying me. I'd like to create more than one paragraph.) Anyway... I'm done with camp, it was really great, I'm finally starting to think about school, etc... (Man, I really would like to make a new paragraph). And I got my hair cut today!!! I'm very excited about this. It's a shag cut, and I really like it. Ryan has requested a picture, so I intend to ask Kiery if she has the technological capabilities that I lack to be able to post one here. In fact, I'm going to do that now, and see if later I can create more than one paragraph here.

Ok, now I've been chastised by more than just Ryan for not keeping up my blog (not that you're not important, Ryan, you just spend more time on the computer), so I'd better update.

Let's see. I've survived week one of day camp, which is basically an OCD nightmare, though out in the program areas we aren't hit so hard by it. I managed not to let that director convince me that I need to be equally OCD in directing the two I have to do, which is excellent.

Thoroughly enjoyed week two of day camp... I had told the rest of the staff that week two would be way more relaxed and really fun, and luckily they agreed (though Frog admitted that during week one, they weren't going to believe it until they saw it). Two of my friends were running that one at my favorite camp and I stayed out there overnight with them for the week, along with Beasley's 11 year old nieces. Who apparently thought I was the greatest thing since sliced bread... kind of amusing, since I definitely assumed the authority to treat them like they were my own campers and the familiarity to treat them like my own nieces, but there's no telling with middle school hero-worship. They were really fun though.

Right now I'm enjoying the novelty of having five days off, though I'm definitely doing some work every day on day camp stuff for August. If the numbers for Euclid Creek would stop rising by 50% every time I turn around (granted, we're talking 44 girls instead of 30, not 120 instead of 80, but still) and stay put where we have the staff to keep ratios for them, I'd have a good draft of a unit schedule done... but they won't do that somehow (even though registration is closed...). Makes me worry about Wintergreen a little, since I haven't checked on those numbers in two weeks or more.

I've broken down and bought an electric guitar tuner (why do we call battery operated tuners electric?), and have been playing my guitar a fair amount these five days. I like it. I like playing an in-tune guitar, and having the ability to tune it accurately when not at a computer, without spending half an hour with a tuning fork.

I've also discovered a Starbucks within reasonable distance of home - right by Target and Alltell. So Sunday I spent several hours at Starbucks with the NY Times and a caramel macchiato. It was probably the most relaxed I've been since I came home.

These are the exciting events of my life. I'll try not to keep you all waiting as long for the next juicy installment.

have i really only been home for two and a half weeks? have i really only been training staff for five days? these things don't seem possible.

tomorrow i'm going to my first pride festival (with my aunt and her UU group). it's a little exciting and a little scary at the same time.

i'm going to go clean the place where i stuck a stick into my leg yesterday so i can stop forgetting and putting my arm on it. yuck. (this is not as gross as it sounds, i promise.)

and i'm still very tired.

I'm so very tired.

Camp is overwhelming. I am directing two sessions of day camp, which I learned after telling my boss I'd heard rumors of me directing and her telling me, "no, no, no... you're just in charge of these two, they have no director". Um - hello - THAT MEANS I'M DIRECTING THEM!!! She also keeps giving me supervisory/administrative duties, but hasn't told the staff that my position is any different than theirs... so I have responsibility with no authority or direction right now. I talked to her after training today, but I don't know how much effect it had.

I have to go to bed now. Please pray for me.

So my friend Beasley called me tonight. (that's her camp name, not her real name). Seems that not only is our boss leaving in a few weeks (I found this out yesterday, she heard through the grapevine tonight), but day camp is in chaos. Go figure! I love Joan, but you really shouldn't put a woman who can't organize one day camp well in charge of organizing all of them. Anyway... Beasley heard from Charlotte, who's day camp coordinator, that I was directing the last three sessions of day camp (the ones that she and Charlotte aren't directing). I hope this is false, because that's the first I've heard of it... though part of me hopes it's true, because then Beasley will help and the two of us will do three fantastic day camps.

You'd think people would tell us things like who's working our camps and when they are and where they are - and oh, if we've been assigned to direct them - but no. No. Not with the Girl Scouts of Lake Erie Council.

I love my job.

I have very little to say tonight. I saw Harry Potter and it was good.

Also, while I still can't open my comments, I have figured out how to get to the comment manager on haloscan and read my comments. So comment away!!!

To the smartass who commented on my last post:

I can't access my comments. Therefore, I can't access your reply to my question. So if it was anything other than "no"... please repeat in a more useful way. Thank you.

For lack of anything I'd rather be doing:

Countdown: borrowed from Marisa's livejournal

10 bands you've been listening to a lot lately:

We'll take "a lot" generously, given the status of the first one...

1. Indigo Girls
2. Catie Curtis
3. Peter, Paul, & Mary
4. Dar Williams

ok, how about "at all" recently - as in, they're on the ECM CD.

5. Cris Williamson
6. Simon & Garfunkel
7. James Taylor
8. Carole King
9. Cat Stevens
10. Billy Joel

9 things you look forward to:

1. camp starting
2. school starting (yes, I know I'm a nerd)
3. visiting St Louis
4. other people posting new entries in their blogs
5. getting good email
6. seeing Harry Potter tomorrow
7. putting up a clean shower curtain here after my brother leaves for the summer
8. being done putting stuff away
9. Mark & Tom's ordination saturday

8 things you like to wear:

1. my torn jeans
2. my long-sleeved indigo girls shirt
3. my sandals
4. my 1991 camp t-shirt
5. hippie skirts
6. my new black&white dress
7. tank tops
8. my electric blue velour "yoga pants"

7 things that annoy you:

1. the thing that pops up on this computer every ten minutes asking if i want to block viewmgr.exe from accessing the internet
2. distance
3. stupidity
4. people who think president bush is doing a great job
5. people who don't use turn signals responsibly
6. my mother calling the ellen degeneres show "this cruddy tv"
7. people telling me that i should listen to the indigo girls less

6 things you say most days:

1. "you should" do such and such (trying to stop that one)
2. bah!
3. what are we doing for dinner?
4. I'm waiting to hear from Joan about that.
5. I miss St Louis.
6. how should I know?

5 things you do every day:

1. check my email
2. eat
3. bemoan the state of my bedroom floor
4. read SOMETHING in the newspaper
5. wonder about some major detail about camp starting

4 people you want to spend more time with:

1. Kristian
2. Rory
3. Ryan
4. Mike

(the above is a non-hierarchical list which is limited to four only because the countdown thing tells me to and should not be taken as offensive or hurtful by any parties not listed thereupon or dissatisfied with their position thereupon)

3 movies you could watch over and over again:

1. Kissing Jessica Stein
2. Now and Then
3. Sound of Music

2 of your favorite songs at the moment:

1. Wood Song
2. Free in You

(both by the indigo girls, of course)

1 person you could spend the rest of your life with:

1. there are probably a number in different ways... but I don't think that's what's meant here... so out of protest against the extreme unclarity of the question, i respectfully abstain.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled lives. Thank you.

and seriously, if anyone has any advice on how to get to my comments... email me. I can open other people's blog comments, and other people seem to be able to open mine... but I can't read them!

Does anyone know why I can't access my comments?

So I actually only had to teach a dozen girls, and since they were nearly all teenagers, it went fine. I made them do all the boring lecture part about how to do things correctly and then I let them play. They had fun.

Tomorrow I will go out with Kiery and we will play with the boats ourselves. This will be lots of fun and give me a chance to practice my solo canoeing. I wish to be confident enough in my solo paddling to teach by my self from a solo canoe, preferably by next week.

Today, however, I meet my new bishop for the first time. I do not think this will be too nervewracking, because I have seen him in public before and have heard about him, and he seems to be quite friendly and personable. Case in point: I went to the Cleveland area "conversations with the bishop" night last week and was the reporter from our group, and after everything was over, I passed Bishop Hollingsworth and he said "thanks, you did a great job". This makes me happy.

I do not relish the idea of wearing a suit today, when it will be close to 90 outside. I also do not see an alternative. I do however get to wear a skirt instead of pants.

This post is getting long. I'll stop now.

Yes, Marisa, I am now home.

I was supposed to work today and tomorrow all day, but joan, my boss, is sick and so we've been canceled. Or cancelled, whichever you prefer. At least I think tomorrow is cancel(l)ed as well. I suspect this is related to joan's decision to recover from pneumonia at work a few weeks ago. I do teach a canoeing session tomorrow night regardless, and it looks like I'll probably be teaching 16 girls alone. This makes me nervous, since I haven't canoed or taught canoeing since last August, and I can't supervise that many girls on the water at once without another instructor there anyway. At least I don't think I can. These are the things I have to re-remember each summer.

In any case, while I'm home now, the temptation to turn around and head back to St Louis is very great. I actually recited to myself why it would be a bad idea on Tuesday night lying in bed, because at that point my stuff was all still packed and could easily have been returned to my car.

I won't actually try to move back to St Louis this summer, but I do miss everyone.

I can't believe I'm leaving here day after tomorrow. As evidence of this disbelief - nay, denial, even - I present my totally unpacked belongings, still split between Rockwell House and Baker House. Though everything from the office is now in a big pile on Rory's desk. I had no idea I had so much stuff in the office. I hope everything fits in my car, or I will be getting a later start on Tuesday and mailing things first. But really, it should all fit somehow.

Tomorrow we are having a barbeque at the house, and I am making potato salad. Yum. I do so love potato salad.

My friend Stephanie from high school moved to St Louis yesterday. This means we're in the same place at the same time, which I don't think has happened since high school. Isn't that interesting? I think that's very interesting. I'm trying to call her.

Right. That's enough. This has now been updated.

I'm going to update, so that I can berate Ryan for not updating hers without qualm.

Qualm. That's a good word.

Today Kirsten's day-of-being-received. That sentence needs a verb. Was. Today WAS Kirsten's day-of-being-received. Yes. Excellent. Very exciting. Etc. Congratulations Kirsten, is really what I meant to say.

Ryan is leaving me again tonight. But tonight she's coming back a lot earlier than last night. Last night I watched three movies (Peter Pan, Robin Williams Live on Broadway, which really isn't a movie, and Boys on the Side) while she was at Trivia Night at the cathedral.

Right. I really have nothing more to say. Ryan should update now.

I like rain. I like walking in rain, dancing in rain, leading creek hikes in the rain, watching the rain roll down the windows, hearing the rain hit the platform tent, etc.

However, I do not like operating a motor vehicle in the rain. I do not like the traffic patterns caused by the rain. I do not like the slippery nature of the roads caused by the rain. I do not like the standing water caused by the rain.

Today, I got the extreme privilege of driving to Ladue, East St Louis, the Central West End, and the area north of Delmar in the rain. Hooray for me.

However, coffee afterwards was good, and now I get to have dinner.

And then go back out in the rain.