High School Drama, Real World Prices

OK, so I have been getting some hate mail because it has been so long since I posted. I apologize. It's been a busy few days. But I will not make excuses. I have let you fine people down. I would say it won't happen again, but it might and I like to keep my word.

The big event of the past week was that I got to spend some time in the great state of Missouri! That's right, I was home for the weekend. And let me tell you, it was no easy task to make it there. I left Thursday immediately after work and headed to Portland. I got there at around 8:30 PM and found out that my flight was running really behind so they had switched from a layover in San Francisco to a layover in Sacramento. I caught a 9:30 plane to Sacramento which landed at about 11:00. I left Sacramento at 12:45 AM and landed in Dallas at 5:30. I found an extremely NOT comfy chair and curled up to sleep for a couple of hours. When I went to sleep, the area I was in was pretty deserted so I was sprawled out over a few chairs. When I woke up, the area I was in was pretty packed and I was still sprawled out over a few chairs. Woops.

I finally boarded a plane headed directly to Missouri at 9:30. I landed at the Springfield airport and 10:50 and found my brother passed out in a chair near baggage claim. You see, he had to fly like an hour and half, so he was pretty exhausted.

Anyway, from there we headed to Big Cedar lodge where my stepsister Kelley got married. It was a beautiful wedding and a beautiful weekend and we had a great time. It was good to hang out with the fam.

On Sunday, we headed back to Jeff, so I did get to go home for a while. Craig flew out on Monday, so I drove him up to catch MO-X and got to hang out in CoMO for the afternoon. It was extremely great and comfortable and made me really not want to go back to Oregon. Being home made me realize how uncomfortable I had been here, which was hard. It's definitely been a difficult transition and we're all stressed out trying to get to know one another and build community and learn our jobs, etc., etc. It was so wonderful to spend an easy couple of days back home.

On Tuesday, my dad drove me up to St. Louis, where I hopped a flight to Dallas and then to Portland. (A little less of a trek than the first time.) I got into Portland at 7:00ish and then made the trip back to camp. I didn't run into a single car the entire last hour of my trip. It was dark and creepy and I was excited to finally make it back to the condo.

However, immediately upon arriving I got an earful of all the drama that happened while I was gone. Apparently, there were some pretty impressive fights and basically the stuff had hit the fan. Everyone has hit the point where it's frustrating that this isn't easy, although we all knew it wouldn't be. Nothing's happening the way anyone thought it would and tensions are high.

Today, I had to work to make up for having Monday off, so I was gone most of the day while everyone hung out. We had a meeting to talk about some stuff and people were really honest about being disillusioned with what is going on here. I was really frustrated and flipped into let's fix this mode, although it's not quite that easy.

Although it is drama, I think it's really good that things finally came to a head. I had some really great conversations today and I think that we may have turned a corner of being more real with each other and feeling more comfortable. It has just been such a crazy, overwhelming month and we all need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and let things happen. We just need to have some fun together and get to know each other.

I had a really great talk about all of this with one of the guys here and it definitely shed some light on some things. I constantly pray that I wouldn't live a comfortable life and, yet, when I'm uncomfortable, I hate it and do everything I can to gain comfort again. When I'm seeking my own comfort, I end up selfish. I realized today that if I want a community here that is loving and welcoming and inviting, I need to shut up and make that happen. So, I'm gonna. Hopefully.

Anyway, that's the high school drama that's happening here right now. The price we pay to live together, work together and worship together.

The staff kids came trick-or-treating tonight and it was extremely cute. They are a really fun bunch. Several of us ate dinner together at the boys' condo and then Kristen and I attacked people with the Sock 'Em Boppers. There was then an intense game of Sorry in which Darren came from way behind to win it. It was my kind of night.

However, I then had to figure out how to pay my bills because we got paid today. It's hard and not fun to be a grown-up and try to figure out where your money should go. And I'm trying to book my plane ticket home for Christmas and they're ridiculously expensive! I don't know how people do it. Luckily, it costs like nothing to live here. I bought $27 worth of groceries the other day that will last me 2 weeks. So, I'm not complaining.

Also: I am going to make a bold statement right now. Missouri is the best state ever. The trees are pretty and the people are nice. What more could you want?

I miss you all and I have to constantly fight the urge to pack up and come home to you. Luckily, you're all going to come visit so I don't have to. Right? Right?

I love you all. Send me emails and update me on your lives.

Pop Goes the Weasel

OK, so today was the first day that I had a moment where I absolutely did not want to be working anymore. I have a feeling there will be a lot more of those days as the work becomes more and more mundane and routine. So, I will be prepared.

This morning we had checkout. We were late for work because of one of the girls in our house which I can already see will be a point of contention. So that didn't start the day off well. Our boss was mad because we were late and we were all mad because one girl had made us late. Also, it was freezing (literally) and I woke up with a scratchy throat.

But we made it through check out. I had to inspect a bathroom that had the aroma of being freshly used which was awkward and gross. But, the men were better than high school kids are at following instructions and actually doing the 3 things we ask of them. So it was a pretty smooth process.

After checkout, I went to do vending while everyone else stayed in housekeeping. I do vending by myself, so that makes for a peaceful day. It's actually a pretty long and complicated process which includes me carrying a lot of heavy soda and water around. But again, it was peaceful and I ran into the boys all over camp landscaping and maintaining. So I got to stop and chat a lot.

I finished up vending before lunch and went to work in the Washboard for about an hour after lunch. Then Sara and I met Angela back at the Mercantile to do the deposits for the weekend. That took about an hour and a half and then we headed back to the Washboard and were there until 5:00. I was really exhausted by the end of day and definitely still am. I'm also kind of dreading All Clean tomorrow, so let's hope I wake up with a better attitude.

We got invited to Tim (the kitchen manager) and Leah's house for dinner. They apparently invited the whole property and had a make your own grilled cheese station with an incredible variety of fancy cheeses and homemade tomato soup. It was really fun to hang out with everyone in an informal setting and to see some of the moms and kids. We sat and chatted for a long time, but everyone was really tired and we headed back early. Also, I met one of the volunteer couples who had been on vacation the first couple weeks we were here and thier son lives in St. Louis. So I got to talk about Missouri for a while. All and all a good night.

And now, although I have always been a self-proclaimed night owl, I am going to bed at 9:45. Life in the Canyon is extreme... and extremely different. I'm having so much fun, but I'm also so worn out and feel so challenged. It's a great place and I'm becoming more convinced that this year is going to be huge.

I love you all! I'll be back in MO in 5 days! Get pumped!

Settling In

Sorry it has been a few days. I'm definitely settling into the routine now, so the days are blending together. Still, I shall recap.

Thursday, I did absolutely nothing. And it was wonderful. Several people had stayed in Portland for the day off and Kristen and Sara had gone into Bend, so it was just Mandi and I in the house all day. I spent the day sleeping, reading and watching episodes of the West Wing. It doesn't get much better than that.

Friday morning was the Sports Center. I helped mop the skate park, which was pretty intense. You have to mop up the ramps in a lot of the parts so your arms get really tired. But I only had to do that for a little while and then I went to help mop the 4 basketball courts, which was slightly better. Still, it was a fun morning because we blast random 80s music while we clean and we're definitely learning how to clean quickly and efficiently.

We had operations lunch yesterday since we had Thursday off. We found out about the group in this weekend, which is a men's retreat from Rolling Hills church. I was excited to have someone besides high schoolers in because I knew it would bring a much different atmosphere to camp. It definitely has. There are a lot of men running around. They've been a lot of fun.

After ops lunch, we went to the Washboard and spent all afternoon stainblasting and folding. I really enjoy the Washboard because we're all in there together and it's easy work, so we get a lot of time just to talk and laugh and be silly. I'm coming to enjoy all the girls I work with, but I can see that it is definitely going to be difficult to live and work and spend all my time with the same people. I know there are days where it is just going to be miserable. But that's alright, I think it just comes with the territory.

After Washboard, we were done for the day and went back and hung out at the condo. I tried to go to bed early because we're open for morning espresso this weekend, which means I had to be in the Sassy at 6:45. And we all know, I'm not really a morning person. I had trouble getting to sleep, meaning I had very little last night. Still, morning espresso was really fun. The middle-aged men love their coffee, so we were really busy. It certainly kept me awake.

We were done with espresso by 9:00, but I was scheduled for the Sassy all day. So, I basically spent all day doing random stuff in the Sassy. I got to make some signs on the computer and use the laminater and do some cleaning and reorganize some stuff... I am coming to feel more and more like the Sassy is my own little domain, so it was a lot of fun just to be in there all day making it feel more like my own.

Since I went in so early, I got off at 3:30. People had just started on the ropes course and that's where most of the other interns were working, so I decided to go watch that for awhile. It was a lot of men trying to be really macho while actually being really scared. Which is understandable because that course terrifies me. It was fun to watch the interns run it and look like they knew what they were doing. It's also really pretty from up there.

After ropes, we all headed to dinner and then back to the condo. I've been downstairs talking with Kristen and Dan for the past couple of hours, but now it is definitely time for bed. I've got to help with checkout in the morning and then I'm doing vending which should be interesting and backbreaking. Gotta love it!

I love you all!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch

Craig, I hope you're reading this and that you started singing that song in your head after you read the title...

So, I'm back at the ranch. And it was an incredible few days at the coast. I feel so good and so excited about this year now that we've had this time together. But, let me start at the beginning.
We left Sunday immediately after work and we were all exhausted. It had been a long day because we had to do All Clean before we left. But we got it done and it's always fun working together.

On the way there, I road in Jen's car with Jen, Kristen and Mandi. It was a really great drive. We talked the whole way and it was so good to get to know Jen better. Even though we've been working with her and she's been a lot of fun, I hadn't felt like I had been really connecting with her. But I think that I just needed to realize that all the other interns that were here before us left literally 3 days before we came. So this has been a really hard transition for Jen and everybody, just like it has been for us. But we had a ton of fun in the car and I now feel really comfortable around her. Which is good because she's one of our small group leaders.

We got to Breakaway around 11:30 and they had snacks out for us and our beds turned down. It's a great place, right on the coast, small and rustic. They have middle school camps there during the summer, but it only holds like 65 people. They have 3 people on staff there, Jeff, who runs it, Suzanne, who is in charge of housekeeping and helps in the kitchen, and Spencer, who runs the kitchen and did the internship at Wildhorse a couple years ago. They were all great.

We crashed that night and woke up early for breakfast the next day. After breakfast, we had some time to worship and then we had 2 and a half hours of solitude time to create some goals for ourselves for the year and to think about what we want out of the year. It was wonderful. I went and sat on the beach for two and a half hours, which was incredibly beautiful and peaceful. However, everyone left me because I had wandered a ways down the beach and I got lost for like half an hour walking back. But, I made my back and all was well.

After lunch, we did some team- building exercises which I thought were going to be nerdy, but ended up being really sweet. We had some great discussions about communication and how to respect one another. And some cheesy get-to-know you stuff. Can't beat it.

After that, we went back inside and Rich told us that we now had another 2 and a half hours before dinner and our mission was to create a mission statement for ourselves and develop some non-negotiables that we all want to follow. We ended up spending the entire 2 and a half hours on our mission statement. It was really cool to see how important everyone thought it was. We all wanted it to be perfect and to represent each one of us and how we were going to spend the year. It was also really cool because we spent a lot of time talking about how we wanted to live while we're out here. Ben, our property manager, keeps telling us that this program is designed to give us a year that will be completely different than any other year of our lives. We've decided to really challenge ourselves. We want to create a community where we love each other well, where we share life and challenge each other. We talked a lot about calling each other out on stuff. And people were really honest about saying that they've heard a lot of this before and it hasn't happened. I know that that is true but I feel like this is the best opportunity we have to learn a lot of these lessons because there are people around us to hold us accountable to it and because we all are in agreement. It's going to be really sweet.

So, we got through the mission statement with only one fight and then we had dinner. After dinner, we had worship again and then we went bowling! It was so much fun! I did pretty well, but mainly it was just fun time with our whole group taking over this random bowling alley. After bowling, we went back to breakaway and hung out. There was a pretty intense ping pong tourney and then we all turned in.

Yesterday, we had worship after breakfast again and then Chris, Rich's wife, shared with us and challenged us to think about what we want to give up this year and what kind of habits we want to develop. After that, we had more time to work on our non-negotiables. We came up with some sweet stuff, although it's hard to get 14 people to agree on something. Still, it was good.

After lunch, Rich talked to us for a while and then we met with our small groups for the first time. It was really great because we decided to set the tone of honesty from the first moment. We got some stuff out on the table that we were already struggling with in the house. I think it's going to be hard, because we have a lot of very different people with very strong opinions and personalities. But I think the more we get to know each other, the better it will be. We're all reading Celebration of Discipline in our small groups so it will be sweet to talk about that with everyone as well.

After small groups, we had free time to go into town. We went into Astoria, where we went up in this lighthouse that was pretty cool. And then we went to cannon beach, where I tried some marrionberry ice cream and also tried some huckleberry ice cream, which I had never had before and the northwesterners seemed to think was a sin. They were both very good. We then saw the haystack, which is this weird huge rock out in the ocean that looks like a haystack. Then we headed back and had dinner.

After dinner, there was more worship and then a sweet game of apples to apples. Love it. We woke up this morning, had breakfast, cleaned up and headed back to the canyon. We had a good car ride back as well. Jen and Jeff decided to take us up Mount Hood (the other cars went the shorter, more boring way). We stopped in Sandy, OR and had the best wood-fire pizza ever and then went up and over Mount Hood where we stopped and played in some awesome snow.

Then, after a couple more hours of Disney songs and random 90s mixes, we were back at the Canyon. It's good to be back and we get the next couple of days off, which is sweet. I love getting paid to go on an awesome retreat. Forget paying 50 bucks for the leader retreat!

I also really ridiculously miss you all. If you get a chance tonight or tomorrow, I'll probably be in my condo, so you could call. If I'm not here, that means I headed into town, in which case you could call me on my cell phone. Doesn't that work out so well?

I love you all!

Headed to the Coast

Hi Friends!

I'm headed to the Pacific Ocean for a couple of days, so I won't be posting. But I promise the mother of all posts when I get back. But I'm pretty sure only Bryce is reading them, so I might just call him. JK! I know you all love me and read these all the time.

Please be praying for the other interns and I these next couple days as we take some time to get to know each other, create some goals for the year, and spend some time with the Lord. We're all really looking forward to the time and hoping to get a lot out of it.

Also, my cell phone will probably work, so you could try to call me. That would be cool.

Much Love!

A Missed Handoff and an Interception? Really?

OK, short one today. I'm very tired and I still have much to do tonight.

Today was the same schedule as yesterday. I again slept in. It was again awesome. The Sass was pretty busy this afternoon and it was fun to see some of the kids that came in a bunch of times and remember their names and stuff. I enjoy that I get to see little pieces of their times at camp.

After the afternoon shift, Angela and I went to watch the Mizzou-OU game conveniently saved on her TiVo. Darren ended up showing up too, so the the 3 of us watched the game. I really like Angela, so I had a good time. I really did not like how we lost that game. It was a heartbreaker. And we stayed with them except for those 2 crappy plays. Sucky.

After the game we headed back to the Sassy and it was pretty slow again tonight. However, the band continued to make up for it by the mass amounts of food they ate. The band that's here this weekend is the Awakening with Ryan Long and they're pretty awesome and a lot of fun. They spent a lot of free time hanging out in the Sass and it was fun to get to know them.

We closed up the Sass at 11:30 and had to do all the end of the weekend clean up stuff, so I just got back here at 12:30. And, although I would normally do vending on Sundays, I'm in housekeeping at 7:30 in the morning because we're leaving for 4 days for our intern retreat, which I still need to pack for.

I'm super stoked for the retreat. We're going to a property on the coast and I'm excited to hang out by the ocean and have some down time to get to know everyone and spend some time with the Lord. It's been fun, but so overwhelming this first week and a half. It'll be great to get away.

So, off to packing I go. Much love.

Can't Touch This!

It's late and I'm tired. But I will tell you of my day...

The Gig Harbor Campaigners came in last night and, therefore, the Sassy was open twice today. Which means that I didn't have to go in until noon. Which was sweet. So I set my alarm for 9:00, thinking I would get up and get some of my paperwork and such done. There's a lot of stuff that we have to have in by the 15th, but we're leaving right after work on Sunday for our retreat, so I need to get it done quickly. But, of course, I slept in until like 10:30 and then took my sweet time getting ready and stuff. So, I didn't get anything done.

It's nice on the weekends because the house is empty when I wake up and people kind of filter in and out throughout the morning. We all have different schedules depending on where we're working and stuff. So, the house was quiet when I woke up this morning and it was very peaceful.

The Sassy was a lot of fun this afternoon. We were scheduled to be there for almost 2 hours before we were supposed to open though, so we spent a lot of time doing random stuff like cleaning out the refrigerators. But it was good to have time to do that. And we stayed pretty busy throughout the afternoon which was nice.

We did come up with our Billy Sundae song which we decided would be to the tune of MC Hammer's "Can't Touch This." It's pretty awesome and includes some sweet rapping. And we had 2 orders for Billy Sundaes today so that was fun.

It was also really fun working with Dusty and Becca. Dusty is a riot, very sarcastic and funny. He kept me laughing all afternoon with his commentary about the high school kids who were dumb enough to be in the pool in the freezing cold. The Sassy's great because it's right in the middle of camp, so we can see a lot of what's going on. Becca's really funny too, very random and just ditsy enough to be endearing.

After we closed for the afternoon, we went to dinner and then Kristen, Becca and I helped Sara bake pumpkin cookies that were delicious. Then we had to head back into the Sassy at 9:30 and were open until 11:30. The night shift was really slow, but a bunch of people came to visit us, so it was still fun.

One funny thing that happened today: We have all these squirt bottles with different topppings like chocolate syrup and caramel and stuff. We set them on top of the espresso machine so that they'll warm up a little and pour easier and use them as toppings in espressos and on sundaes. There's this white one that we all thought was mayo but Angela told us it was White Chocolate. So Dusty was making a White Chocolate Mocha and went to drizzle white chocolate on top of the whipped cream and realized that it smelled weird. So, he tasted it and realized that it was in fact mayo... that had been baking on top of the espresso machine all day. And, what I didn't find out until later was, Dusty just scraped off the whipped cream and redid it but gave the girl the same drink. So some poor girl out there was walking around drinking a mayo flavored mocha. It was really gross.

Anyway, we closed up the Sassy and then I came home, paid some bills, worried about the fact that I'm really broke, and then got excited about the prospect of a real paycheck very soon. It's going to be really nice to be employed. Also, I filled out my 401(k) paperwork. I will be participating in the 4% matching program provided by YL and investing in the Fidelity Freedom Fund 2040. I think it's going to yield well for me. (I'm just pretending with the lingo; I have no idea what I'm talking about. I really just did what Rich said was best.)

Now it's very late and I'm still tired, so I'm going to go to bed. I love you all!

If You're Still Reading These, I'm Impressed

Seriously, these are really long and I write them every day. I love you all for loving me enough to want to know what I do all day everyday.

Today was the first day that I felt in the groove and like we really knew what was going on. We were all talking earlier about how it already feels like we've been here for a long time, even though it has only been a little over a week. It's nice to be settling in and be done with training and stuff.

Thursdays are meeting days because they are the day before camps usually come in. So we started the day off with the weekly staff meeting in the upstairs meeting room of the office. It was fun to have the whole staff sitting in one room and I'm finally starting to sort out who is who and who does what.

Basically, it's your normal staff meeting, although we went around and introduced ourselves again. We also gave backstories to the fun facts they had printed about us in last week's Canyon Connection, which is our weekly newletter. My fun fact was sneaking into Game 5 last year, so I got to tell that story once again. However, people don't really seem to care that much about baseball out here. It's pretty much Oregon Duck fans all the way.

We also are taking turns, one intern every week, telling our 5-minute life story at the staff meetings so that the staff can get to know us. We're going in alphabetical order, so I won't be for a while. Dan started us off today.

After the staff meeting, we were in housekeeping. We split up into 2 teams and went to clean the perif buildings which are things such as the club room, the dining hall, the leader lounge, etc. I was with Kristen and Lacey and we had a lot of fun chatting while we cleaned.

We also had our second operations lunch today. The Guest Services kids were all excited because this is the first weekend that they get to actually do their real jobs since they were all in AE training all last weekend. We got our schedules and there's no morning coffee shop, so I get to sleep in late again!

After lunch, we went to get started on the sports center. We had to do it today because the camp was actually coming in tonight instead of tomorrow. So we have a whole extra day. Which also means the Sassy will be open twice tomorrow and twice Saturday, which will make for a fun weekend for me.

We busted out the Sports Center in record time and then I headed to the Sassy to train the other interns who will be with me in the Sass for the next couple of months. That is Dan, Becca, Dusty and sometimes Sara depending on the Store schedule. It was fun, even though I still have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to making espresso, so that was kind of the blind leading the blind. But it's going to be fun working with other interns. And we've been coming up with some great ideas for our Billy Sundae song, so all is well.

After work, I headed home, watched some 90210 (we've gotten really hooked) and ate some dinner. Then we had our first Staff Worship. We'll have worship every Thursday night, alternating between just the interns and all staff. Since we can't get to church on Sundays, this is our own little church service.

I was really stoked for worship, but it made me miss home the most of anything since I've been here. I just had this really clear memory of singing a capella worship in that weird TV room at Ben's house and I really missed it. We're so lucky to have the community we have at Mizzou, to be surrounded by people who are so passionate and expressive. I think it's just different being with people of such varied ages too. I'm going to need some more extreme worship if I'm going to make it through the year.

But worship was still really good and refreshing. And Tim, the kitchen boss, gave the message. He spoke on community and things that can be a stumbling block to it. It was a good talk and I'm excited to hear from more people as the year goes on.

The group that's here this weekend is a YL area from Gig Harbor, WA. They have an intense weekend planned including 5 clubs (the first one tonight). And, Ryan Long is their special music for the weekend. So I'm definitely going to try to get to club this weekend, either tonight or in the morning. It's nice because we're always closed while club is going on so I can always go if I want. I'm excited to see different people throughout the year. It's also a pretty small group comparitively, so that's nice.

One thing to be praying about that was brought up in the staff meeting: Next week there are a bunch of YL bigwigs coming in to look over the plans for a new camp on our property. Basically, there's so few camps in this area that we have been filled to capacity and have had to turn kids away during the summer because we've been doing both middle school and high school at one camp. We have the land and the permits to build another camp on this property that could be used for middle school, Capernaum, YoungLives, etc.

They already have the plans drawn up and the place is crazy. It's water park themed, so there would be like 4 slides and a wave pool and all this crazy stuff. The sweet thing is that there is a successful businessman in the area who has already committed to putting up the first $5 million for the project. The problem is it will cost around $40 million. So, the decision is whether or not we have the means to do it. We all have faith that if God wants it to happen it will, but please be praying for the people that have to make this decision.

Exciting things are happening at Wildhorse, this weekend and in the future. It's so great being here, even though I truly do miss you all like crazy. Please call, send me an email, write me a letter, something so that I know what is going on back home and can be praying for you all. I want to know everything! I love you, I love you, I looooove you! (Buddy the Elf voice.) Peace out, girl scouts (& weblo scouts- Bryce).

Chillaxin'

One thing about me has not changed: I love a relaxing day off.

I woke up this morning to the sound of Shea singing Candy Mountain very loudly. The vent from the living room goes directly up into my room. So, Shea decided to get as close to it as he could and sing to me in order to wake me up. It was a rather unusual way to awaken.

But I headed downstairs and everyone was hanging out in their PJs. We had decided to cook breakfast, so the guys made pancakes, we made eggs and the marrieds brought some OJ and such. It was really fun to all sit around in our pajamas and eat a meal together. Everyone is really excited to create community. It's really cool to see and I think I'm going to learn a lot from it.

After breakfast, everyone dispersed. People headed out of the house and I started some laundry and took some time to read my Bible and journal. I just started Velvet Elvis, so I read a couple chapters from it as well and then showered and took my time getting ready while everybody else watched Elizabethtown downstairs. I've come to realize how important it is to me to get some time to myself often. It was so refreshing to just sit in my room and read and stuff.

After all of that, it was already around 5:00, so I headed downstairs, ate some dinner, and hung out with the girls. I'm coming to really enjoy all the girls in my house, which is so wonderful. We just hung out in the kitchen and each cooked our own dinner and talked.

After dinner, we put in an episode of 90210 and Shea decided to watch with us. It was hilarious to see the early 90s mullets and Blossom hats and we had a lot of fun getting into the ultimate teenage drama. We had to stop in the middle of an episode to head to the ice cream social they were having for us to meet all the staff.

We headed to the Sassy and, because we've had to get into the habit of being 5 minutes early to everything, we were the first one there. It was really fun to meet everyone that we hadn't met yet. There are a ton of people on staff here and with their families, there are a lot of people on property. We got to meet some of the Moms who don't work on property but are here with their kids and meet some of the other people that work up in the Maintenance and Woodshops and stuff, so that was great. Although it was already weird to be in the Sassy and not be behind the counter.

After we left the ice cream social, the girls and I had a sweet dance party back in Condo 55. It was a blast and made me feel like I was back at 203. They've put us in the condos that are kind of away from the rest of the condos which was probably a good idea for moments like tonight. We eventually got shushed by Dan, who informed us that some of the hunters that are on property right now were staying in the condo next to them. So, we stopped the dance party and settled into more 90210.

We have our first staff meeting in the morning and in the afternoon I get to train the interns who will be with me the next couple of months in the Sassy. I'm excited to get have some other interns with me. We have to make up a song for the Billy Sundae, which is our ultimate huge sundae. Each staff has to create a new song to sing everytime it gets ordered and they're always to the tune of popular songs. It's going to be fun.

That's the day. Love you all.

I Had a Sandwich that was Named After Me Today!

I'm sitting in my living room chatting with everybody as I write this. So, if this is a little random, I'm sorry. I'm not focusing very well.

Today was my first day off. But I still got up pretty early. We had decided to leave around 10:00 for Bend, so I got up around 9:00. The Marrieds had gotten up and left at like 8:30. And Shea and Dan had headed into Madras because the boys were ripping down sheet rock yesterday and Shea got some fiberglass in his eye and it had swelled up really bad.

I got up, showered, got ready and headed downstairs to find a message from Shea on our white board that read, "Hey Ladies!- I pooped in the fridge! -Love, Shea." It was hilariously random, but we did check our fridge. You never know.

So the girls, Nick, Mike, Darren and I headed out of camp. It took us a couple of hours to get out to Bend. When we first got in, we met up with the Marrieds and got lunch in downtown Bend. Dan's from there, so he told us how to get to some really good local places. Kristen and I got sandwiches at a place called the Downtowner while everyone else went for pizza. It was a great little place and the people were super friendly. I had Kate's Chicken Salad sandwich. It was very yummy.

Also, Dan is really cool. He's kind of a hippy, super chill and finds himself funny which I find funny. I like him a lot as well.

After lunch, we went to Costco. I didn't buy anything because food in bulk kind of creeps me out. But I did get a $7 pair of jeans at the Old Navy next door. I only had one pair of jeans with me here that were kind of grungy work jeans. I needed some nicer ones to wear in the Sassy and stuff. And you can't really beat $7.

After that, we went to REI which is in an outdoor mall type of place. It was a really nice area. Bend is a really cool place. It's very outdoorsy. They have huge parks and a lot of locally owned businesses. The people were really nice and I met a guy from Missouri who was wearing a CO State shirt, which is where Kristen went to school.

After REI, we headed to Target where we picked up all the things we were missing for our condo. Target is as great here as it is at home. I love that store.

By the time we were done with Target, it had already been a really long drive. We decided to drive back to Madras to go to the grocery store so that we didn't have food in the car for 2 hours. So we drove back to Madras and stopped at the Safeway. We ran into Curtis and Jay there, who are the Landscaping staff guys. We stocked up on food and headed back to camp.

It was really great getting off of property for a while and it was good time in the car. I rode in Mandi's car with Mandi, Kristen and Mike. It was good to talk in the car and jam to music. And we made tentative plans to go to LA for Thanksgiving because it turns out we get 6 days off. Mandi has a bunch of friends that we could stay with. So I hope that works out. I really want to see some more of the West Coast while I'm here.

After we got back, we unpacked, ate dinner and have been hanging out ever since. Some of the boys have been in and out and now we're hanging out in the living room. But I'm kind of dragging and I'm looking forward to not setting my alarm for the morning.

I love you all. Get your summer staff applications in! Peace out, girl scouts!

We're All in this Together

I can't believe it hasn't even been a week since I moved out here. It already feels like I've been here forever. I can already see how easy it would be to live within the camp bubble and not come outside of it. Because it's so kind of wonderful and ideallic. Although, I'm sure that will shatter at some point as well.

But my day...

Today was our first real All Clean Day. Today was also the first day I was really dragging getting out of bed. I think the week had finally caught up with me and I was really tired. But I got up, got dressed and headed to Geronimo.

We were lucky this week in that only one of the quads was used this weekend. So we got everything in the quads cleaned in the morning. We started off cleaning the bathrooms which means one person in each bathroom. But we were blaring some random 90s mixes that included the likes of Destiny's Child so it was still pretty fun. It works out that everyone ends up cleaning like 4 bathrooms which really isn't that bad.

After bathrooms, we split up into 2 teams (upstairs and downstairs) and go around and make sure of things like the blankets being folded correctly and the trash is emptied and every bed has a pillow. That was fun because we got to talk a lot while we did that. I was with Darren, Shea and Kristen for that part. It was good to talk to Darren because I hadn't really had a chance to talk to him yet. He's a really cool guy except that he was the first to make fun of my accent. I'm sure there is only more of that to come.

After we were done with that we cleaned the suites and then it was time for lunch. After lunch, the girls went back to Geronimo and the guys headed to Maintenance or Landscaping depending on which they're assigned to.

From Geronimo, Jen taught us how to use the giant lift truck we have for housekeeping and then took us to the Washboard, which is our laundry facility. We spent the afternoon there learning to fold precisely and washing sheets and towels. It was fun too because all the girls were together and we got to keep learning more and more about each other. One thing to be praying about is that there are a couple of girls that already really get on my nerves. It's already taking a lot of patience to be around them and we're going to be spending A LOT of time together over the next year, including small group. But I'm hoping that as we continue to get to know each other people will settle into their personalities more and become a little more laidback.

At the end of the day, Jen let us into the Summer Staff and Work Crew dorms which are brand new and really incredible. It's a beautiful building and one that some of you will hopefully come stay in this summer. Just a suggestion.

As of 5:00, we have entered into our first days off. It was a really weird feeling because I don't really know what to do with myself here. We're still in the phase where we're all trying to hang out a lot. I would love to get some alone time but I also think it's really important to hang out right now so I don't seem like I don't want to get to know people. It's a hard balance to strike right now, but hopefully I'll get some time to myself over the next couple of days.

We had dinner at 6:00 and then a bunch of the boys went to the gym. Mandi, Kristen and I settled into the living room to watch some Grey's and work on thank you cards for support. It was great just to sit and chill.

We had been talking at dinner about watching High School Musical tonight, so we got that going around 9:30. Dusty (of Dusty and Sara) is freakishly in love with the movies as well as several of the girls. So they're my kind of peeps. It ended up being Peter and Becca, Mike, Shea, Mandi, Kristen, Dusty and Sara and me watching it. It was really fun and funny especially because Peter, Mike and Shea had never seen it and Dusty knew all the words. The commentary by the boys was especially humorous.

We finished that and everyone headed back to their condos. Everyone seems pretty beat after the week of absorbing more information than I ever have in my life. We're planning on all heading into Bend tomorrow which is about 2 hours away. We decided to drive all the way in there so that we can stock up on stuff at Cosco and go to Target and stuff. It should be a fun day.

Paige- I was clearly thinking of you the whole time I was watching HSM.

Al- Thanks for calling and leaving me a message! I listened to it and it brightened my day.

Bryce- It was good to chat. And, no I haven't skated yet, I hope to rectify that soon. Yes, you absolutely can use razor skooters in the foam pit. Wildhorse does not have Sunkist but it does have Fanta. And I'm hoping there will be no bad blood after OU gets romped next week.

I love you all and still miss you like crazy!

I Work in Vending Services

I had just typed out my whole blog and then I accidentally pushed something that deleted it. I'm pretty frustrated but I'll start over.

First of all, I'll pick up where I left off last night. Sara and I ended up eating dinner all by ourselves after work because everyone else was in AE training until really late again last night. It was a little sad, the two of us being the only ones at the 2 whole tables set up for the interns. But I enjoy Sara's company and we had a nice meal.

After dinner, we headed up the hill to Angela and Andrew's for the game. They were watching the OU/Texas game that they had recorded earlier and a bunch of the other young staff people were there hanging out and watching as well. Besides Angela, Andrew, Sara and I, there was Jay who is on Landscaping, John from Maintenance, Dina the teacher and her husband Bill, Sarah and Meg the kitchen girls and Kacie who has worked everywhere, helps us in the store, and is moving to Thailand to work in an orphanage or something.

It was a really fun night made only better by the romping my Tigers gave Nebraska. It was so nice to be sitting in a real home, watching football, chatting, laughing. It was just really comfortable and nice. Andrew and I have already had some talks about next weeks game between Mizzou and OU. He's a little worried because our defense finally dominated. I told him he should be.

Everyone here is also really excited about Stanford's defeat of USC because a lot of us know the 2nd string quarterback who led them to the victory, Tavita Pritchard. His father, David, is on staff in Washington and was my Camp Director when I was at Malibu. There family is really cool and of course a lot of people around here know them, so that was definitely the talk of the camp today.

Angela and I ended up having to leave during halftime of the Mizzou game in order to open the Sassy back up. The late shift was also fun. Angela ran the cash register so that I could practice making drinks and filling food orders and stuff. It went pretty smoothly and I continued to enjoy Mary and Judy. We finished up and I was back at my condo by 11:15. When I got back, everyone was dead asleep and Kristen had left me a note in my room saying she was sad she hadn't seen me all day. It was really sweet and I continue to enjoy her a lot.

Sleeping in late had messed me up a little and I had some trouble getting to sleep. I didn't end up getting to bed until like 1:00 and I had to be up early. I reported to Geronimo this morning to help with checkout which I don't think I will normally be doing but everyone who is normally on housekeeping was busy with AE training. So it was just Jen and Erin (the housekeeping staff), Andrew (Angela's husband who is with Guest Services) and myself. We basically just gave each cabin a bucket with instructions on how to strip the beds, fold the blankets and empty the trash. Once they were done and ready to be out of their rooms completely, one of us would go check it over and then cross it off. It was a pretty simple process, but you have to wait around a while for people to get their ish together.

I got done there around 10:00 and headed to the Sass. The Sassy isn't open on Sundays, but I will have to do vending. Angela went with me today and it is quite the process. First we drove around to all the vending machines on property and opened them up, took the money out, counted how many of each drink we would need to restock, and counted the "clicks" which shows us how many drinks were purchased.

After we were done with that, we headed back to the retail office and went through the whole process to deposit the money from the vending machines. From there, we went back out and checked all the places that have 5-gallon jugs of water for water dispensers. After we figured out how many of those we needed, we went up to the water warehouse and loaded them into the truck. Those suckers are heavy and we drink a lot of water around here.

P.S., the vending trucks a stick and I have to learn how to drive it. Intense.

After the water warehouse, we headed up to the Coke warehouse to count out the specific number of sodas needed for each machine and load them into the truck. Then we went and loaded them all. We started this whole process at 10:00 and finished at 4:00 with an hour and a half break when the store was open but also with 2 of us.

While the store was open, I went through our stock to see what needs to be ordered for next week and practiced making espresso drinks. It was fun.

After we got back from vending, we learned the whole process of how to close out the register and make deposits. It ended up taking us a really long time but we only have to do it at the end of the weekends during the off-season. During the summer we'll do it every night.

After work, Sara and I headed over to dinner and found all of our fellow interns working on the written tests they had to pass in order to become AE certified. Once they were done, we had dinner (steak) and then we realized that for the first time, we had an evening free. First we headed back to the condos and then Julie, the AE trainer showed up.

Julie gets flown in to do this training and she's awesome. We helped her grade their tests because everyone was very anxious to see if they passed. Everyone passed and is now AE certified to save lives and such. It was a little bit of a bummer to miss out on the training with everyone these past few days so I'm glad it's over.

After we were finished grading, Shea decided we should all go see Maize Reservoir because none of us had seen it before. It's about 3 miles outside camp and we were told we shouldn't go there right now for fear of being shot by the hunters. So we decided it would be a great idea.

Side Note: Shea is quickly becoming one of my favorite people. He's 6'6, played basketball for Montana and in Amsterdam, never stops talking and everything he say is sarcastic and hilarious. While being constantly hilarious, he is answers every question you ask him honestly and earnestly. He's very warm and welcoming and makes you feel comfortable. I like him a lot.

So Kristen, Lacey, Mandi, Drew, Becca and I all climbed in the car with Shea and the boys hopped in with Julie. All we knew was that Maize was on the road past the stables so we took off driving down a winding mountain road that have cows wandering freely across it. We had no clue where we going and ended up driving forever and never finding it. Still, we laughed a lot in the car and sang loudly to songs such as Indian Outlaw and that KC and Jo-Jo song.

After we got back from that, all the girls in my condo, Becca, Mike, Nick, Shea and I played ImagineIff. I was winning until the very end when Shea overtook me. It was a rough loss but it was a lot of fun. I know that it takes a while to really settle in here, but today was the first day I felt a real twinge of lonliness. It was great to just sit around in a group and try to feel comfortable and laugh and play a game.

Tomorrow's All Clean and I'm both excited and not. It'll be fun to all be together but housekeeping is definitely not my fave so far. But still, it'll be fun and after it's over, we'll have made it to our first days off. We're planning on heading into Bend to hang out, get all the stuff we forgot for our condos, grocery shop and have a generally good time.

I feel like I'm settling in here, but it's definitely not home yet. I miss you guys a lot and I can't wait to talk to you all soon. I love you!

First Day in the Sassy!

I'm going to go ahead and post because I have to work late tonight and I'm probably going to want to crash. But there's not a ton to write about... So maybe my brother will be happy. Jerk.

I got to sleep in today because the Sassy wasn't open in the morning as it will be a lot of weekends. Since we didn't open until 1:00, I didn't have to be there until noon. So I slept in and hung out with Mandi and Lacey for a while. Mandi is on PM shift in the kitchen tonight so she didn't have to go in until 11:30 and Lacey was on a break from the dining hall until lunch. But then I showered, decked myself out in Mizzou gear in support of my Tigers on such a monumental day as when we play Nebraska on ESPN and headed to the Sassy.

I got to the Sassy and went through all the set-up and learned how to work the espresso machine. I made one mocha but haven't really used it yet because I was on register all afternoon. The register was actually really fun but I probably won't get to do it very often because I'll need to oversee everyone preparing stuff. But Angela said she'd work the register tonight so I'll get used to making coffee and all the food and stuff.

Again, Angela is great. And what makes her even greater is that she has TiVoed the Mizzou game for me! She and her husband are huge Oklahoma fans and so they got satellite for football season. So I'm going over in just a few minutes to watch at least part of the game before I have to go back into work. We're open again at 9:00 tonight, so that should be fun. And we're already planning for next week when Mizzou plays Oklahoma. There will be punches thrown. But she and her husband, Andrew, are really nice and it's good to be around someone from the middle of the country.

The Sassy was a lot of fun. I really enjoy that I get to meet a lot of the kids when they come in and get their names for their orders and hear little tidbits of conversation. I think it's going to be really cool throughout the year. Besides Angela and I, there were two other ladies working with us. One is Mary who is very funny and hugs people a lot. She lives here full-time but I'm pretty sure is a volunteer. She's really fun and so is her husband Gene who wears cowboy hats and gave Mary a little smack on the butt when he came into the Sassy. I generally enjoy them both. And then Mary has a friend named Judy from back home in Michigan who is here visiting and being very helpful. They were fun and funny and I enjoyed working with them. I think I'm going to end up with kind of random staffs but that should be fun.

That's it so far today. I'm headed over to Angela and Andrew's in just a minute and back to the Sassy from there. I love you all and call me!

I Fell Down Today

I'm still in Oregon and it is so fun! I know it has a good chance of getting really hard and sucky at some point, but it is so great so far. Although I have muscles that are sore that I didn't even know I had. Our housekeeping boss, Jen, is always telling us to switch hands vacuuming and stuff and I now see why. You get for real sore. But I digress.

So, since I last posted we had our first intern meeting where we got our Year Long Intern Program binders and found out about all the little stuff that we need to know like how to order pizza. That would be go to the kitchen anytime before noon on Wednesdays and place an order with Prancing Pony Pizza, pay $7 and be in your condo at 5:30ish to eat it. It really is like a whole little town out here which is funny and fun. We were also reminded that we can't drink or date each other. Bummer. Also, how to use our sick days, that we get a sweet discount in the camp store, what to do when we see trespassers (during hunting season that gets a little dicier because they probably have guns), if we brought a gun we have to lock it in the gun safe and we're not allowed to shoot it, that we have worship every Thursday (one week with just the interns and the next with the whole staff), that I'm supposed to get an OR driver's license but I will not, and how to join the fire department here at camp should you so desire.

We also got our keys which was sweet. I got 6! That was pretty good. I have one general camp key, one to the office to check mail, one to the Sassy, the housekeeping key, the Coke machine key, and the toilet paper despenser key. It's pretty sweet. Also, if anyone wanted to send me a Mizzou laniard, one of the ones that goes around your neck and you can put keys and your nametag one (preferably one of the skinny ones), I would love you a lot. I need to get one and I want to rep as much Missouri gear as possible.

We then pretty much went straight back to bed and crashed. It's been an intense few days. But I woke up this morning refreshed. All the ladies were in housekeeping this morning finishing up for the camp arriving tonight. We did the bathrooms and stuff in the club room and the dining hall first and then moved on to the Sports Center. The Sports Center is going to be the monster of all things we clean and it will always be on Friday mornings so that everyone can use it all week but it still be clean and sparkly for the campers.

Cleaning the sports center includes things like mopping 4 basketball courts and mopping down the skate park. Which we just got a new skate park that is ridiculous, at least twice the size of the old one and inludes a foam pit to do tricks into. Yeah. It's awesome and they only have 60% of it out because they couldn't fit it all. Crazy. Anyway, it took me like an hour to do one job which was vacuuming the rock wall islands and redoing the ties in the ropes so that they all hung down evenly. It was fun though because it wasn't a bathroom. I'm already sick of bathrooms and I've only been here a couple days.

After we finished the Sports Center, we went to lunch. After lunch, the four retail and kitchen interns went to our job sites to train while everyone else got a couple hour break. That is because everyone else has to do AE training which is the ropes, swing, etc. They went in at 3:00 and are still there and will be there for a while longer. Apparently it's pretty intense. But I got to go to the Sassy and got off at 5:00. So, sweet. But not being AE trained means I don't ever get to help on climbing wall or anything which is fine because pretty much everyone else is trained so I'm sure I can find someone to help. But it would have been fun.

But I went to the Sassy with Sara who is the other retail intern (she's in the store). The Sassy and the Store are in the same building and we both report to the retail manager, Angela. So we'll be hanging out a lot. She's really cool. We got to the Sass and met Angela, who is SO GREAT! I already like her a lot. She's from Oklahoma and she just so sweet and excited and ready to let us take a lot of responsibility. She just started this job, so she's great about letting us put in input and stuff and asked us a lot about what we like to do and stuff. She's going to be wonderful to work for.

First she took us on a tour of all the storage and stuff and then we sat and talked about where we were from and stuff. Then she left Sara a project in the store and took me into the Sassy to do some training. It's a lot of stuff that I'm sure will quickly become 2nd nature. I get to learn to make coffee. So I'll be a barrista! And I get to be in charge of ordering and everything too. So the Sassy is going to be my own domain. During the off-season I'll have other interns rotating in and out working in the Sassy and then I'll have Summer Staff during the summer. So it's my job to know everything and be able to point people in the right direction quickly. It won't be a difficult job but it will definitely keep me hopping.

After I was done with the quick training, Angela had me defrost one of the ice cream coolers. It was intense. I had to get this crazy layer of ice off the sides and then clean it out. But it was slightly too deep for me to reach the bottom so I had to precariously perch on a step ladder and attempt to clean it. It was not pretty but I got it done. And then organized some flavored syrups and then went back to the office and talked some more with Angela and Sara and prayed to close the day. We talked a lot about how the 3 of us are really going to become a team and I'm stoked about it. They both seem really great and it already seems like our strengths are going to compliment well.

After the Sassy, Sara and I went back to the condo with Mandi (kitchen) and Lacey (d hall) and hung out for awhile while everyone else was at training. Then we went to dinner. And then I fell down. I was kind of skipping out of the dining hall and nailed the door stop and seriously went flying face-first straight to the ground. But I hopped up and shook it off. I was fine. And everyone has to eat it every once and a while, right?

Anyway, now I'm back at my condo. I'm going to spend a while reading the giant binder of info I got on the Sassy and read or something. I don't really know what to do with myself. I don't have to be to work until noon tomorrow because we're open in the evening too. So, I guess I'll just be hanging out, maybe try to catch up on sleep.

Glen- Answers to your questions: I'm about 4 hours from the coast, we're pretty much right in the middle. We're actually going to the coast next weekend, so I'll let you know. We haven't had blue juice yet, but I'm waiting for the day. And I have not yet introduced air hump but we did talk about nakedness today so I think we're working up to the time.

Paige- Thanks for officially making me the first to get a call! You're the best!

This is intense

Oh, how I love you all for actually reading my insanely long posts and then responding with long comments... I love reading them!

OK, so today there was continental breakfast in the dining hall at 7:00 but the other girls and I decided to skip that, sleep a little extra and eat granola bars in our condo. We had to be in the office at 8:00. What's weird about this camp is that you drive everywhere because it's so huge. And the staff village is set kind of far away from the camp and stuff. So, we hopped in the car and went to the office.

At the office, we had to do some paperwork (like the freaking health form again) and find out about our investment options for our 401(k)s. YL has does 4% matching which is apparently really good. We also had to sign up for lifeflight because otherwise we wouldn't be able to get to a hospital for like 2 hours if we got hurt. But we took care of all that and it was really fun to sit in a room with everybody and joke around.

That took about an hour and then we went on a tour with Rich, who is the intern coordinator. Again, Wildhorse is ridiculously huge, so we had to get in cars. We first went out and saw the ghetto gas pumps that we can use (that's right, you can get gas at Wildhorse). We also saw the giant camp garage (there's a full-time mechanic), woodworking shop, welding shop, etc. Those lay right next to the air strip which is actually used fairly often. There is also another smaller staff garage, woodworking shop, etc. in the "bullpen" which is right next to the staff village. So, if those happen to be hobbies of yours, you can feel free to woodwork or something.

From there, we went out to the stables. The only have about 5 horses right now, but the camp is a fully functioning ranch as well, meaning there's cattle that they round up with the horses. And tractors and such. The ridge runners are up next to the stables as well as more storage and such. About 3 miles out past the stables is a resevoir which is apparently beautiful and amply stocked with bass fish. We can't go out there right now because it's hunting season and we may get shot. They let hunters come stay on the property and they mainly hunt deer, elk and pheasant. There are also all kinds of random buildings that are used for storage and stuff. It's going to take a while to figure out where everything is.

From there, we went down into the main camp. Surprisingly, I haven't even really seen main camp. We come in on the service road and into most of the buildings from the back, so it's weird. But we saw the club room and it is huge! It has a capacity of 900. Rich was telling us that during the summer season there are normally 1,000 people on property including all the staff, wc and ss and kids.

We had to cut the tour a little short because it was time to get to Geronimo which is the housekeeping headquarters. There we learned how to clean the quads. Wildhorse doesn't have traditional cabins. They have 2 big hotels with a lobby in the middle. There's a girls quad and a boys quad. They're each basically a big square. You go into the middle of the square and there's a really pretty courtyard and you enter the cabins from there.

Every Monday is going to be our All Clean Day, which is where we completely turn over all the cabins and all the interns all work on it. Today we did one floor of one of the quads in order to get the hang of it. Basically, in the morning we'll be cleaning bathrooms, one of us in each room. The rooms are different here too. They can either hold 10 or 14. The 10 rooms have 2 bathrooms and the 14 rooms have 3. So rather than one big bathroom in each cabin, there's 2 or 3 regular bathrooms with a shower, toilet and sink.

After we were done with the bathrooms, we have to room finish which is where we go through and clean out the cubbies and make sure the blankets are folded right and stuff. And the last step is to take out the army of vacuums and do that.

After room finishing, we went to lunch and had our first Operations Lunch. This is the once weekly lunch/staff meeting that we'll have on Thursdays where we get our schedules for the weekends and talk about any special needs the specific group coming in might have and pray for the group. Today we talked a lot about what kind of attitude to have for good customer service. Of course, Andy (the Guest Services Coordinator) had to mention Disney for their amazing model of customer service.

After lunch, the girls went back to housekeeping and the boys went to maintenance or landscaping depending on which they are assigned to. On Thursdays, all the girls will be in housekeeping without the boys doing everything to get ready for the week. We first first finished vacuuming and then learned how to clean the suites. After that, we cleaned the hotel lobby, the club room and the Sassy (the snack bar). Then we went back to Geronimo, cleaned up and finished our work day.

I am definitely exhausted. If you know YL, you know how precise housekeeping is. Lines have to be straight and towels at a specific angle, etc. It's something that we will get down in no time, but it's just a lot of information in one day. And we're definitely not done. We have dinner at 6:00 and then we're going to have and intern meeting where we will learn even more about what's expected of us, what we can and can't do, etc. We also get our keys to different stuff and the camp and, if you're one of the lucky few, a walkie-talkie. I'm really hoping for a walkie-talkie. You just look cool with one of those.

I'm so excited to have jumped right into work today. It's a little exhausting, but this is definitely what I wanted. I'm here to work and to work hard. I know that I'm going to have a lot of fun and grow a ton, but it's clear that we are here to work. That's definitely more prevelant than on WC or something, not that you don't work hard on WC and SS, but this is actually our salaried job to be here. It's fun.

I'm hoping to get to bed early tonight. We have our first day of training in our specific jobs tomorrow which I am definitely pumped about. The 3 girls that are one Guest Services get to do their AE training tomorrow which stands for Adventure Experience. They get to learn all about how to rescue people on the ropes course and stuff. It sounds really fun.

Oh, also, I saw like 9 deer standing maybe 20 feet from me today. They were weird Oregon deer. They kind of have mohawks. And apparently there's cougars around here. Awesome.

Bryce- to answer your questions: chicken, huge, I'm working on more pics, and maybe a little.

Al- It's freezing here. Seriously it wasn't supposed to get above 50 today and it didn't feel like it did. I've been in long-sleeves and a fleece all day.

I love you all, but I must go because there is much still to do today. Feel free to call me on my land line. I don't think anyone has gotten a call yet, so that would be cool.

I officially live in Oregon

I am currently in my room in my condo in Oregon. This is where I live. I'm on Property Staff (my nametag even says so). Weird...

OK, first of all, I want to give you my phone number and address.

(541)489-3189

Kate Tichelkamp
1 Muddy Rd, PO Box 142
Antelope, OR 97001

Please call me and send me mail. Both would be greatly appreciated. Because I miss you all A LOT already.

Let me now tell you about my day...

I woke up at 6:15 in Boise because my mom had to leave for the airport. We said goodbye and she went on her way. I headed back to the Blazer, ready for my lonely trip the rest of the way to camp. I left Boise at around 7:30 AM. Luckily, I gained another hour on the trip out. I crossed into Oregon and was again amazed at how beautiful it is. Even though all the states I've driven through have been really pretty, Oregon takes the cake. I spent the whole day driving through mountains. But again, they're not the kind of mountains I'm used to. There like giant hills. I'm going to try to attach some pictures that I took on the way out so that you can see kind of what I'm talking about. Although, they don't really do it justice.

I was on I-84 for most of the day until, weaving through the mountains. At a town called Biggs, I was to get off the interstate and that is also the last place I would be able to get gas before getting to camp. As I said, I was basking in the beautiful scenery all day, but driving into Biggs was awe-inspiring. I'd been seeing mountains all day, but for about 30 miles into Biggs I drove along the John Day River, which was incredible. Right at the base of the mountains is the huges river with crystal blue water. And the mountains are this crazy yellow and red because it was off and on showering all day which was creating really cool light. At one point I drove under a rainbow. It was just gorgeous. But I was getting anxious.

I stopped in Biggs to grab some lunch and fill up on gas. Biggs is a teeny-tiny little town with tucked onto the side of the mountain. People were actually wearing flannel inside the McDonald's. It was awesome. Two things I have learned about Oregon: 1) There is no sales tax and 2) Every gas station is full-service, meaning someone pumps your gas for you. It's weird. And I didn't know whether to tip them. Turns out you don't but I did, so hopefully they'll give me a little extra gas for free next time or something. That's how I roll.

From Biggs, I got on Hwy 97 which is a windy 2-lane highway that keeps rolling through the mountains. You know, being from Missouri, I thought I knew rural. It was nothing compared to this. There is just literally nothing for miles and miles. I passed through maybe 2 towns in 50 miles and none of them even have a gas station. Crazy.

In Shaniko, I got onto Hwy 218, which takes you into Antelope. This is where things got dicey. It literally S-curves all the way up and then down a mountain with no guard rail. It was seriously scary but when you got to the summit of the mountain I literally gasped out loud. You can see for miles and miles of incredibly beautiful, uninhabited, mountain land. It was indescribable. That took me down through Antelope (pop. 37) and then I turned onto the scary dirt road that would take me into camp. It's another 15 miles into camp and also scary. Although about 10 miles before getting to camp, the road is paved. That's because that's where the property starts. This place is massive.

I manuevered my way past the cow in the road (seriously) and got my first real glimpse of camp. This place is so different from other camps because there's a lot of buildings and stuff (left from the cult) that aren't being used. But I drove past the big lake, some buildings and the air strip and made my way up to office. There I met Rich, who is the intern coordinator. He showed me the way to my condo. I'm in East Village Condo 55 with the 4 other Lady Interns. The condo's really nice. It has 7 bedrooms, but there's only 5 of us. Upstairs there are 5 bedrooms, 2 on each side with one at the front of the building and a common room. There are also 3 bathrooms. Between each set of 2 bedrooms are the bathrooms. The toilet and a sink are in one room and the shower and another sink are in the other room. So I'm only sharing with one other girl, which is awesome.

My room looks out into the courtyard with some picnic table and mountains. I'm across from Kristen and Mandi and Lacey are on the other side. Downstairs is a living room, a huge kitchen with 2 fridges, a laundry room and two more bedrooms and a bathroom. Drew took one of the down stairs bedrooms because the other upstairs one is weirdly shaped. Apparently summer interns will move into the other 2 rooms when that time comes. The condos are in really good shape and they've made them really nice. The boys are right next to us, we share a common wall. And the two married couples are across the courtyard from me. What's funny is they each have condos the size of ours for themselves. So, 7-bedroom condo for a newly married couple! But they're just living downstairs.

We live in the East Village and there are probably 30 condos here. There's also the Staff Village with more condos. There are about 80 people that live here year-round which I was amazed at. A lot of the ladies came by and brought us bread and cookies and such. It was nice. And we met one lady and her children who have been here for 9 years. There's a little one-room school house here on property and there are 13 kids in school there. The camp has actually hired a teacher which is so cool. So it seems like a really cool little community out here in the middle of nowhere.

After I got here, I unloaded all my stuff and started to set my room up. Kristen was the first one here and we hit it off right away. She is so fun and sweet and we've already had some great conversations. I can't wait to get to know her more. Next came Mandi and then Lacey and Drew came a little later.

We drove down to the dining hall for dinner at 6:00 which was, of course, yummy. We got to meet some more of the property staff including Pam and Jen, who will be the small groups leaders for the single girl interns. We then went back to the staff village to a condo that has been converted to meeting space and played some get to know you games. I emerged victorious at a game of Oh-So-Co-No, which is very similar to Ah-So-Oo except that when you get out you get to become a heckler and stand on the outside of the circle and yell and the people still playing. Luckily, I have lazer focus and I represented for MO by dominating.

We also got our schedule for the next couple of weeks AND our jobs... Wait for it... I know you're excited, I was... My job is.... Snack Bar. That's right, I'm the Sassy Intern. (That's what it's called, short for Sasparilla.) I'm really excited; I think it'll be a lot of fun and I'll get to interact with a lot of the people who come in and stuff. So I'm stoked.

OK, so this really long, but I want to tell you my first impressions of all the other interns, so if you're bored, you can stop reading. If you've made it this far.

Single Girl Interns: Kristen, Mandi, Drew, Lacey, Me

Kristen is originally from the Southwest but went to Colorado State and just graduated. She grew up in YL and may be my kindred spirit while here. We've already laughed a lot and talked about how we were both really wary of not being in direct ministry while out here. And she knows a few people from Mizzou that I know and did Lifesigns at Timberwolf when we there 2 years ago. She's going to do Guest Services (which is running the rides and stuff).

Mandi is from Michigan but has been living in LA working for a church called the Dream Center. She's the most quiet, but seems very chill. It's hard to get a read on her, but I like her. She's the kitchen intern.

Drew is from Oregon. She seems artsy and brought the most stuff. She's pretty gregarious, but seems very welcoming. She's one of those people that I would never be particulary drawn to because our personalities seem pretty opposite, but I think I'm going to end up liking her a lot. She's on Guest Services too.

Lacey is the baby of the group at only 19. She's from Washington, near Spokane. She seems very sweet and girly. She and Drew both have been here several times and she seems to be the expert on the intern program. She's also very sweet. Lacey is the dining hall intern.

The single boy interns: Mike, Nick, Shay, Darren and Dan

I didn't get to spend a lot of time with the guys so I don't really have a read on them yet. Mike and Nick are both from Michigan and led together. Nick was here over the summer as the video guy. They're both really friendly and seem fun. Shay, Darren and Dan are all from Oregon. Shay was getting competitive during the games, so that immediately made me like him. Dan is very tall and seems super chill. Darren was friendly and an easy chatter which I also appreciate. The boys are all on landscaping or maintenance.

The married couples: Peter and Becca, Dusty and Sara

Peter and Becca are from North Carolina and SO fun. I like them both a lot already. They're very friendly and engaged in everyone they come across, asking a lot of questions and being genuinely sweet. Also, Becca already came and hung out in the girl condo without Peter, so she gets mad points for that. Becca's in guest services.

Dusty and Sara seem to have been kind of nomadic but came here from the San Diego area. They both seem really chill and SoCal, but in a good way. Dusty also brought his A-game to the get to know you games which again, I appreciated. He also made an Office Space reference, so he has double points. Sara seems a little overwhelmed; she's never had anything to do with YL before. She's also a little sick, but also seems chill and sweet. She's the store intern.

And that's it: 14 of us. Tomorrow we have some paperwork and then we're going on an official tour of the camp followed by training, training and more training. There's a camp coming in this weekend, so we have to figure out what we're doing fast. But it'll be great. Sorry this was so long, it was a crazy day.

Udaho

I'm in Boise and I'm very tired. Yet I feel oddly pressured to post about my day. I don't know why that would be...

It was a long day. I actually got to sleep in a little while my mom took my car into Pastor Bob. We were hoping it would be done by 11:00 or noon at the latest. However, noon rolled around, we called Pastor Bob and he told us he would give us a call back. We had to be out of our room, so we went and hung out in the lobby. At about 12:45, Pastor Bob showed up in the lobby to personally drive us back to the Blazer. We had a great ride in his Subaru jamming to Chris Tomlinson. We got back to the shop and met his lovely wife Sandy. She was rocking a button-downed jumper and a lot of blush. I liked her a lot. Anyway, the Blazer was fixed and we got back on the road.

I took the first shift driving and as soon as we got back out on I-80, we were facing some crazy wind. The wind was at 60-65 mph for the next 100 miles or so. It was crazy. When we were facing into it, it was impossible to get the Blazer to go over 65 and when it was blowing against the car it was hard to stay on the road. It was a little stressful. Yet, Wyoming was beautiful. I drove pretty much the whole way across and I loved it. I often wish that I had the ability to paint or at least the words to describe what I see, but I don't. There were these big hills that looked like huges sand dunes that had petrified. And also kind of like the rock creature in the Never-Ending Story. It was so sparse. When you drive through Kansas, you feel like there's nothing. But there's fields and crops and farms. You know that somethings there. Driving through Wyoming it felt like if I got off the interstate, I wouldn't be able to see a person for hours. Everyone once in a while there were some cows, but that was about it. And not a single city we passed through in the whole of the state was bigger than Jeff City. It is a crazy place.

We hit the border of Wyoming and Utah and that is where things went uphill and downhill at the same time. First of all, Utah was ridiculously beautiful and awe-inspiring. Driving through the mountains was incredible, as it always is. But it looked different that Colorado or the Tetons or something. Again, I wish I could describe it. The mountains aren't as jagged, not as weathered. They're browns and reds and greens. They're huge and they make you feel small and powerful at the same time. I really love the mountains and it was beautiful light, the sun was just beginning to set. It was great.

The downhill part was that my mom took over driving when we crossed the border. Now, I wouldn't say I am a control freak, but it kicks in occasionally when someone else drives my car. And I love my mother, but it was making me nervous to have to be in the passenger seat winding through the mountains. I was trying my best not to be the obnoxious passenger who is clearly tense the whole time someone's driving. You know, grabbing the handle and kind of gasping every time we took a corner at 80 mph. It was a little stressful.

The other big bummer is that it was dark by the time we got into Idaho. I was really excited to see Idaho, but I guess I'll have to wait until the morning. The one thing I can say Idaho has is extreme stars. I mean, extreme. I could see galaxies. It was awesome. It may have something to do with the fact that it was for real dark. No cities=no lights=lots of stars. I like it.

I took over driving again, my mom promptly fell asleep and a prime mix of the wicked soundtrack and disney songs took us the rest of the way into Boise. We have settled into the Comfort Inn and are only about 7 hours behind schedule. I'll be up in 5 hours and headed the rest of the way to Wildhorse. I am excited. And for the first time I really mean excited. And don't worry, I'll be home in 12 hours and one year.

Broken Down in Cheyenne

It's day 2 of the trip out to Oregon and the Blazer has already broken down. I can't be mad at her. She's getting a little old and quite frankly, this is unfamiliar terrain for her. But let me start at the beginning.

Our trip began yesterday at around 2:00. We took off from my mom's house in Jeff City. My Blazer is literally loaded to the ceiling. I have tucked something into every nook and cranny. I was able to fit all my books, all my DVDS AND all my board games. It was a day to celebrate. You can't remotely see out the back window, which distressed my mom a little. And you have to slam the back hatch shut in order to get it to latch, but everything fit. And that's what side mirrors are for.

We drove to Kansas City and then hit the mother of all rainstorms. We were driving 30 mph on the highway and could not see a thing. But it didn't last very long, so all was good. We got onto 29 and took that all the way into Lincoln, NE, where we stayed for the night. It was a good drive all and all and the Travelodge beds were comfy, so things were looking up.

Today was even better. We left Lincoln at about 9:30 with a goal of making it to Rawlins, WY. It was going to be about an 8 hour drive, nothing too bad. We basically had to make it all the way across the length of Nebraska and half of Wyoming. We made it through Nebraska in great time and crossed into Wyoming. I was excited to get into Wyoming. It's exactly what you think of, lots of open space. I completely understand why they call it Big Sky country. It's just so vast. That seems weird, but you step out of the car and you just feel small. The sky is huge and you know that there is absolutely nothing for miles. And everything is Cowboy themed which makes me giggle.

We were headed into Cheyenne at about 3:00 and were planning to stop for awhile there, see the capital, maybe do a little shopping, the usual. But right outside of Cheyenne the Blazer started jerking and the gas pedal was kind of not working. That caused me a little bit of concern. So we pulled off in Cheyenne and pulled into a Sierra Trading Post Outlet. Between the water-proof boots and the floor length button-down hunter green women's skirts, we found a gentlemen who is what I think defines Wyoming. He had a white, curly mustache, skin-tight wranglers, big glasses, a cowboy hat, and a denim shirt (that's right, denim on denim). We told him of our predicament and he let us know where the Chevy dealership was and also told us of Palmers, a local car shop.

We headed first to the dealership and David the Dealership Man was not so helpful. Without looking at the car, he told me it was the fuel pump and that it was going to cost $800. He suggested we bring it in tomorrow morning and he would try to get it done. This was not so great for us since we lost 2 hours to go and already had 8 to drive tomorrow. Which wouldn't be a big deal at all if we could leave early, but we would have to wait to get the car fixed. So, dejectedly, we went in search of a hotel. We found a nice LaQuinta Inn, but decided we should at least go check out Palmers.

So off we went, back through the town of Cheyenne to find Palmers. Side note: Cheyenne is a really pretty town. The capital dome is covered in real gold. It's pretty but it's small. You don't actually need that many representatives for a state with a population of like 10. And they have a really cute historic downtown with ranch outfitters and cowboy bars. It was so charming.

Anyway, we made our way to Palmers and it was a little hole in the wall local place. We went in and told them what was up. The gentleman in the office (whose name is Augie- awesome!)quickly suggested that his brother go for a ride in the car to see what was up. So my mom and the bearded brother took off in the car leaving me at the office with Augie. As I was glancing around the office, I started to notice the Christian paraphenalia. It was one of those times where I was pretty certain I was going to get evangelized. And I was pumped. So Augie and I chatted for a while and sure enough, within a few minutes I got the test balloon Jesus reference. He threw it into the conversation and waited to see what my response would be. I gave him the I know what's up response and we proceeded to talk about Jesus and ministry and kids for the next 20-30 minutes. This whole time my mom was in the car with the brother, Pastor Bob, having similar conversations. It was great.

Not so great: my fuel pump has to be replaced. It is going to cost a lot. But Bob and Augie are going to get started on it at 7:30 in the morning and hopefully we will be able to get on the road quickly. And as Pastor Bob reminded me, everything happens for a reason! I'm glad it broke down here at least rather than when I was by myself in the middle of nowhere. And I wasn't in tears leaving Palmers like I was leaving the dealership, so things are looking up.

After leaving Palmers, we followed the very detailed map Augie drew us (which included his house!) to his favorite Mexican resteraunt and then headed back to the LaQuinta. We got the last non-smoking room and are chilling for the night.

I started realizing today that I'm for real moving away. It's weirding me out and I really miss everyone at home already, but I'm getting really excited for the first time. It had been so far away for so long that it didn't really seem real. But now I'm feeling adventurous and excited driving through the Wild West. I can't wait to get out there and get to work. Two more days on the road!