The Road is Calling Me

Ever since I got my  license in February of 2001, I have been desperately wanting to take a solitary cross-country road trip, Jack Kerouac style. I wanted to spend months aimlessly driving across the country, stopping wherever I wanted, eating in local diners, seeing how life is lived across the country.

In a couple of hours, I leave to fly out of New York.  One more experience under my belt, one more chapter closed.

I'm headed to Seattle where I will pick up my car and spend the next couple of weeks seeing as many people as I can and as much of the western half of the country as I can.

It's not exactly the trip of my dreams.  I wish I had more time, more funds, etc.  

But it's fun to see how you end up getting to do the things you want to do if you're open to the things that lead up to them.  I like how life works.

I just got off the phone with Sara and am ridiculously excited to see her and Dusty's faces when I get off the plane.  I didn't realize how much I missed them until I was headed to see them.  I'm pretty sure that's going to happen a lot in the next couple of weeks.

All this to say, I may not be able to blog the obsessive amount that I've been doing the past few weeks.  But fear not, I'll keep you updated on the trip and, more importantly, what sweet jams I'm rocking out to in the Blaze.

Speaking of, everyone keep your fingers cross that the Blazer makes it back to MO.  

Peace out, NYC.

Song of the Day: No Ordinary Love by Toby Mac (the ultimate Sassy Jam- 3rd Session)

The Sassy Prepared Me for Real Life...

I spent all day today walking and my feet don't hurt at all.  I thank the many, many hours I had to spend on my feet in the Sassy for that.  Thank you, Sassy.  (And don't bother to comment that nannying and living for free in Manhattan is not real life.  I know that.)

Today was my first real day out in the city and it was everything it's cracked up to be.  I slept until noon which was AWESOME because my body has definitely still not adjusted to East Coast time.  The damn West Coast has ruined me.  Bummer about the morning was that I figured out that my phone wasn't working and since I just got it literally 5 days ago, I was mildly upset.  But Kelley told me that there was an AT&T store on 17th and 6th which would mean all I would need to do is turn right and keep walking.  So, off I went.

I found the AT&T store and went in and got my phone taken care of which always takes grossly longer than it should.  It's not even like I was in any kind of hurry but do they have to be so slow?  I don't understand.  Also, stores and stuff in New York crack me up.  Either they're 4 times bigger than anything you've ever seen (i.e. the 4 story Old Navy next to the AT&T store) or they're half the size with 4 times as many people crammed in (i.e. the AT&T store).  But the people were very friendly in the AT&T store, so that made me completely erase the stereotype that New Yorkers are rude.  I think they can handle my Midwestern desire to talk to strangers.  

After my phone returned to functionality, I headed straight for the Old Navy.  (Had to see that coming.)  Turns out Old Navy manages to stay cheap even in NYC.  It's a beautiful thing.  After that, I set out to wander.  I walked all over my neighborhood which was super fun.  I walked through a street bazaar.  I walked through a couple of parks.  I walked all around NYU.  I found LOTS of good stores.  I realized that tourists really do stick out.  I found the the movie theater. I found Trader Joe's.  And, most importantly, I found H&M.  It was great.  Also, I never once felt like I was lost or had to get out my map.  I think I've mastered the city (or the 20 blocks around where I live).

Tonight, Kelley took me down towards Bleeker St. and Washington Square which is a really cool area.  We ended up going to a comedy show which was in the basement of a techno club which was fun.  My personal favorite comic of the night was the guy who only got to go for like 5 minutes and had to spend most of the night getting people off the street to come see the show.  He just seemed sweet.  The rest of them were pretty vulgar but still got some good laughs out of me.  And it was really fun to get out.  Kelley's been great about showing me around and telling me about all the things that I have to try while I'm here.

I'm headed to bed and am going to meet Stacy and a friend of hers at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA if you're cool) tomorrow which I'm very excited about.  This city is so fun!  Lastly, if you're reading this, pick up the phone and call me right now.  Do it.  I want to hear from you.  

Much Love.

So Long Sweet Summer

Wow.  I can't believe summer is over and my time at Wildhorse is coming to an end.  I'm sitting in Sisters Coffee Co. right now, watching the pictures scroll on the background of my computer and feeling extremely nostalgic.  I can't begin to think of all I've learned and the ways I've changed this year.  I'll do a recap at some point, when the time comes that I'm willing to admit I'm leaving.  But for now I'll say that I'm leaving this place with more wisdom, less pride and a better knowledge of who I am and what I love.

This summer was seriously wonderful, although the absolute hardest thing I've ever done.  To give you a picture, I was working 80 hours a week and all of that was spent inside the Sassy.  I had 17 college-aged women that worked under me as volunteers over 3 summer sessions.  Every session was unique.  My first session girls were these beautiful messes, girls that were all on the brink of something big.   We spent about an hour every day doing devotionals, a time to hang out and talk about life and study the Word.  These girls were vulnerable from the first minute.  I loved getting in the middle of their lives, watching them realize that they loved serving.  It made me realize how much I miss leading.  It's such a cool thing to just be in someone's life as they work through these big turning points.  They were great.

My second session girls were the girls who had it together.  They were almost all leaders, all had been involved in Young Life.  They were fun too because I feel like the Lord gave me an opportunity to plant some vision into their lives of the power they have to make an impact on people's lives.  I have such a passion for this ministry and this kind of love and it was great to sit for a month and talk about that.  My second session girls were also hilarious and I had so much fun with their sarcasm.  Sarcasm speaks straight to my heart.  They also started a petition to get me to move to Bellingham, WA because that's where three of them live.  The amount of random people they got to sign it was pretty hilarious, although I don't think Bellingham is necessarily in my future.  

Third session was by far the hardest.  Our first 2 sessions are comprised of three 7-day high school camps.  Third session is comprised of six 5-day middle school camps.  Needless to say, it is an exhaustingly long session.  To give a picture, we have more kids come to Wildhorse during our one middle school session than any other Young Life camp has in their entire summer.  Also, I started out short one girl and another girl left in the middle of the session.  To top it off, we are ridiculously more busy in the Sassy during middle school than high school.  Turns out middle school kids love sugar.  But my girls were awesome workers and people poured in to help.  But this was definitely the session my relationships suffered the most.  I just didn't have any energy to invest in the lives of the people around me.  It was basically all I could do to keep going.  So it was really hard.  But the Lord teaches good lessons in hard times and that was definitely the case during third session.  

All in all, the summer was an experience I'll probably never be able to describe or relive.  Watching kid after kid pour into our camp and showing them extravagant love in a world that just writes them off as worthless was eye-opening and overwhelming.  To serve them with no chance of receiving glory for it was life-changing.  Talk about learning humility.  There are kids and moments from this summer that will stay with me forever.  Matt, the geeky weird kid, getting up to sing a song at the talent show and getting a standing ovation even though it was the worst thing I've ever heard.  Andrew, one of the disabled campers, laughing and dancing with his partner at the square dance even though he couldn't come close to keeping the rhythm.  Edgar, a Hispanic kid who had never been in the water, learning to swim from one of the lifeguards and spending the rest of the week going off the diving board over and over.  Schools finding unity where there used to be division.  Kids being kids when their lives normally require them to be adults.  I know it's just a week at camp, but I so believe that it can change lives and communities.  What a great job.

As for me, I'm headed out of the Canyon at the end of the month.  And from here I'm flying straight to New York City to nanny for the beautiful Isabelle, the brand new daughter of my step-sister and her husband.  I'll be there until the end of the year and then who knows.  But I at least have a few months figured out.  Expect a long stint in MO over the holidays and into the first of the year.  Also, please call/email me.  My life is considerably less hectic now and I would love to hear from all of you.

Much love.

1 Week Down, 11 to Go

Wow. I don’t even remotely know where to begin in order to catch people up on my life right now. We are now in the middle of our second week of Session 1. As anyone who’s spent time at a camp knows, the days feel like months. I feel like we’ve been at for so long already, but we’ve just started. And also, this session’s almost over. It’s slow, but flies by. That’s a weird thing.

It has been an utter surprise. I was prepared for the work, I was excited to have summer staff, I knew that I would be emotionally drained. And as prepared as I was, I was surprised the first week. The first week was great. We had such a diverse group in. We had inner-city Portland and rich suburbs, we had large groups of Hispanic kids, kids from rural Oregon, a group of Capernaum campers (YL’s ministry with disabled kids), Native American kids from the Warm Springs Reservation, and a group of deaf campers. What a crazy group, and something you would only find at camp!

It was so cool to watch these kids throughout the week. It’s such a privilege to work in the Sassy because all the kids come in and you get to learn their names and just see little pieces of their weeks. On the last night they were there, I was out in the Sassy cutting off the line. So basically, I was standing at the back of the line telling kids that we were closed and they couldn’t get in line. I was standing behind the craziest group of girls. It was 5 super preppy white girls and 3 tough looking black girls. I’d met all 8 of them throughout the week and wouldn’t have ever really put them together. But they had ended up in a cabin together here; they all go to the same school. And they had come to the Sassy that night to cash in a prize they had won at the volleyball tourney for a billy sundae. Standing in line behind them, they were talking about how they had all thought it was going to suck to have to share a cabin with each other and how they thought they would never get along. But then they all started talking about how wrong they had been and about how much they had loved getting to know each other. They were all crying and talking about how awesome it was going to be to go back home and just say hi to each other in the halls and at basketball games. I just kept thinking, that seems so simple but it’s something that could literally change their school, create love where there is division.

And there were so many more stories like that. Seeing punk street kids from Central Oregon learning sign language to communicate with the deaf campers. Watching the whole dining hall bust out in silent, hand-waving applause for one of the deaf campers when they won an award. Watching kids that came off the bus looking like they hated the world doing the cha-cha slide and going crazy at the dance. It is incredible what can be done in one week, when kids are surrounded by people that care for them and respect them and show them love. I love my job.

Aside from that awesomeness, my week was also awesome. My summer staff girls (Hannah, Lauren, Lindsey, Jenni, Natalie and Megan) are ridiculously great. They’re all super hard workers and the Sassy is running like clock work. It is hard to get that many people trained and to keep the whole thing flowing smoothly. We’ve had our bumps, but on the whole, I feel like all the prep work paid off and things are running smoothly. One of my summer staff girls is also deaf and that has been a really cool thing. I’ve really enjoyed learning to communicate with her. She’s really wonderful. There’s a couple of the girls that I really click with and feel like I’ve been friends with forever and all the girls are really sweet and a lot of fun. We’re working crazy hours, but they’ve had good attitudes and, most importantly, have been great with campers.

Needless to say, I’ve been an emotional wreck. It feels so good to be a part of this work, I think the Lord has designed me for it. So I’m loving it even when it’s super hard. I’ve also been doing my best to get to everything this week, so I’m trying to stay up right now in order to go to sports center night which is our new Gladiator-style carnival replacement. Same idea as the Carnival, but kicked up a notch. It’s supposedly a lot of fun.

Still don’t know what’s next after this year. Please be praying for a lot of guidance.

That’s life.

Even CRAZIER!

So, I thought my life had gotten crazy the last time I posted... I had no idea.

Turns out, the end of May is the most difficult time of the year. It is basically summer without any of the help. And we're trying to get everything done for summer, which starts in 2 weeks!!! That's crazy! To give you a picture, there are 11 different groups here in 7 days this week. So we're working non-stop. I've been putting in a lot of 12 hour days. And it is awesome! I'm loving every second of it, being completely exhausted and still finding it in me to do more. I really love working here.

Speaking of, something to be praying about. I have decided to send in an application for a job. I don't want to talk too much about it, because I'm not at all sure it's going to happen but I figure I'll send in an application and see what happens. I've had a lot of support from people here, making me feel like it could possibly be a good fit. But I don't want to get my hopes up and I'm just in the original application process, so we'll see.

Several of our new interns have arrived. It's a little weird, but they're all really fun. There is definitely a difference in attitude when you're a summer intern. This is their summer break, just something fun and exciting. This is our job with health benefits and a 401(k). So it's a little different experiences. But they're great people and it's been fun to get to know them.

We had our intern surprise the other day which was.... a trip to the shooting range! We have this awesome shooting range here on property that they use for groups and staff can use it. So, we had some competitions shooting clays. It took me forever, but I finally shot 2! And I got to throw the clays for a while which was pretty awesome. I'm a little addicted and really want to go again.

That's pretty much life right now. All I'm doing is working, so it's not really that interesting. But summer starts soon, that's when all the good stories will come!

Oh, and Prince Caspian review:

I did not love it. I had reread the book right before seeing the movie which may not have been the best move. It was a well-made movie, but it strayed a lot from the heart of the book. A lot of the characters were different and it was super Hollywood cheesy. But still worth seeing. I give it half a thumbs up.

Much love!

Warm Weather Always Makes Me Like Country Music

Seriously, what is it about summer that makes me like country? It's a weird thing.

I went home. It was awesome. That's all I need to say. I got to hang out with my family and friends, watch TV, shop, eat at restaurants, watch the Cardinals in HD and enjoy green grass, trees and rain. That is clearly awesome.

Heading back from Missouri, I ended up by myself in a 3-seat on the plane. It was incredible. And I was flying Southwest, who recently switched to general admission seating on their planes. So I was trying to judge how many people were in the waiting area and whether or not the plane would be full so that I could decide whether I wanted aisle or window. It creates a lot of stress for me. But I made the right decision and got to spread out and sleep the whole flight back to Oregon. It was glorious.

That was followed by an incredibly beautiful drive back to the Canyon. The drive from Portland to the Canyon is nothing short of breathtaking. If you get the chance to drive along the Columbia River Gorge at any point of your life, do it. And the sun was setting and casting the most incredible light. It got back to the Canyon just as I started to need headlights. It was perfect. Although, when I got back after 13 hours of traveling, my house was completely empty. I didn't see anyone until the next day, so that was a little bit of a bummer.

I've been in HK every day since because we didn't have a group over last weekend and the mid-week group that's in right now didn't have the Sassy open. The problem is that even though we have a million things that need to be done before our giant family camp this weekend, we can't do any of them because there's a group in. Which means that we're going into HK at 7:00 AM tomorrow and cleaning literally everything in camp. It's going to be crazy.

The good news is we got new slushie machines in the Sassy! Get pumped! Four flavors! Cherry, lemonade, java chip and vanilla latte! The bad news is we are WAY under staffed. We have more and more stuff opened which means everyone is spaced out. This is our biggest group and I have the fewest people working with me. I really don't know what it's going to look like. But I'm sure it will work out. If there's a line, there's a line. It's going to be CRAZY!

Life in the Canyon is good. The weather is incredible. I love it. We have these things called swamp coolers in lieu of air conditioning. I'm a little wary of them, but apparently they result in a quarter of the cost in energy bills and keep you just as cool. Which is exciting. But the phrase "swamp coolers" weirds me out a little.

Bryce is in Europe and I'm jealous.

I love you all!

I'm Back!

OK, this was pathetic. I understand. Not to make excuses, but I kept getting so overwhelmed at the prospect of attempting to catch you up on all the time that I had missed and it was just to much. So I wouldn't blog and then more time would pass and it was just a vicious cycle. But I'm going to break out of it.

All that has happened in the last couple of months: I went to Seattle and LA, hung out at Oakbridge (another YL camp) for a week where I got to hang out with Cathy Riner (awesome!), it got warm and then cold and now warm again, I missed Missouri but fell more in love with my rugged central Oregon, we had a Death by Chocolate Dance Party (as great as it sounds), I turned 23 complete with a Scavenger Hunt birthday party and amazing birthday video featuring pretty much everyone I love from back home, and found my new favorite spot in the world.

I will feature pictures of all down at the bottom.

What is new in the Canyon? We all officially got our summer jobs. I am, of course, still in the Sassy. Sara, Lacey and Mandi remain in the store, dining hall and kitchen respectively but everyone else applies for new summer jobs and then they hire people for the remaining ones. Kristen is Zip/Swing, Becca is Waterfront, Drew is Guest Services, Nick is Video Tech, Dan is Sound Tech, Darren is staying in Landscape, Mike is staying in Maintenance, Peter is Ridge Runners and Dusty is in the Kitchen. We hired 7 new interns as well: Krista for the Sports Center, Amanda and Deanna for Housekeeping, Phil for ropes, Michael for the Kitchen, Dan for Landscape, and Jake for Bikes. The 3 girls will move in with us, so we're excited for that although it will make for a full house.

Also, I've started getting my summer staff applications in. I will ideally have 6 ladies working with me every session, 18 total over the summer. I have 9 in right now and am patiently waiting for the rest! I'm so excited to get to know these girls, they all seem so cool. We went on our retail retreat this past weekend and are getting really excited for the summer. I started planning devos (I lead them every day with my Sassy girls) and am so pumped for that. It feels good to be planning lessons again (I miss Campaigners!). It was also just a great weekend to talk about how Angela, Sara and I are going to work together and what kind of atmosphere we want to bring our summer staffers into. It's so exciting to think about the work that is going to be done here this summer and how we get to be a part of it. I just keep thinking about all the kids and all the leaders that will be here this summer and the relationships they'll build sitting in the Sassy, eating ice cream and playing pool. I love my job.

Also, my mom came to visit me. You can all go ahead and be jealous about that. It was really fun. Everyone was excited to meet the woman who always sends us such great treats! It really was a blessing to get to share what I'm doing out here with her, it's hard to explain this place if you've never seen it in action.

The Lord is good, the sun is shining and people are smiling, life doesn't get much better. I love you all and continue to miss you. I thought maybe that would stop at some point, but it hasn't. I just realize every day what a blessing the people in my life have been and continue to be. I am well loved, thank you for that. Call me, come visit, send me an email, carrier pigeon, any contact really would be fine. I love you all!

Picture diary of the last few months:

Seattle, including Pike Place Market, something called the Taco Bus and hilarious monkeys at the zoo

All of us at Oakbridge:


I stepped in dog poop at a gas station at like 3:00 in the morning. Lacey helped me clean it off with a window squeegee. She's a good friend.

LA!

Death by Chocolate Dance Party!

Just a few of the stops on my birthday Scavenger Hunt:

And my new favorite spot in the world, Maize Reservoir

I can't figure out how to get this last picture off, so enjoy it twice!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It snowed 6 inches in the Canyon today! It's so beautiful!

We had been having a pretty routine week. The staff returned from Florida, we worked HK, etc. This weekend we had 2 groups in. The first was a youth group from Calvary Chapel that have been out here before. The other was a group from the Salem/Keizer area. They were doing something really cool this weekend. It was a bunch of church youth groups from several different denominations and YL groups and stuff. They all came this weekend and the theme was One Body. It was basically a weekend aimed at unifying all the different groups. I thought it was a cool idea and something we don't see enough.

Normal weekend routine, we were only open twice. I continue to enjoy my new crew in the Sassy. Darren, Mike and Kristen are super fun and entertaining. Saturday was easy and fun. I woke up this morning and headed into work and it immediately started snowing. What's weird about the Canyon is that it will snow a foot up in Antelope but not a drop will touch us. Something about being down in the Canyon blocks us from most of the weather. You won't be able to get out, but the Canyon will be dry.

That was not the case today. We went to do check out, but it was up in the air whether or not the groups were going to be able to leave. So it was all chaos. They decided to stay, then decided to go, then decided to stay, then decided to go. Finally, both groups decided they were going to go and hopped on the busses. However, the busses got stuck on the roads and we had to drive out and shuttle kids back into camp. So all 380 kids ended up staying another night!

Things were crazy from there, but I was impressed with how smoothly we were able to take care of everything. We had to get the rooms that they had just checked out of ready for them to go back into. I had gone to the Sassy to do deposit and order and had just gotten back to HK when all this had been decided. So we got the rooms set up and then all the lady interns went to the kitchen to help them because they now had to throw together 2 more meals for 380 people.

It was a ton of fun working in the kitchen. I am definitely a little jealous of Mandi, the kitchen intern. Even though I ended up with the best job, she got a really fun one too. We got home after work and about half an hour later Andrew Pratt knocked on our door to ask if I would mind opening the Sassy for espresso for about an hour that night. I was excited to do it and rounded up some of my roomies to help. I loved being open again and getting to see all the kids one more time.

I have really come to love working in the Sassy. I feel like it really uses my gifts and talents well. Even though it seems like a crappy job, working in a snack bar, the Lord has really given me a passion for it. I love seeing kids come in over and over and doing what I can to create one more place in this camp where they will feel welcomed and loved. The Sass is so fun! I put up some pictures of what the Sassy looks like so you can all see it and wish you were here!

These are the lobby windows. We open them any time the full Sassy is open, for espresso mornings we just open the outside windows. We open both if it's really busy.
The Lobby...
Behind the scenes!
The Espresso Bar...

Anyway, it was a really fun night followed by weekly worship and now to bed. We have a 3-day weekend this weekend to make up for working MLK day, so a bunch of us are headed to Seattle. We're going to stay with Dusty's parents and celebrate Lacey's birthday while we're there. I'm really excited and just hope we can get out tomorrow!

Love you all!

To My Secret Admirer

You know who you are. You never post comments, but apparently you read my blog. I'm sorry that I have upset you by not posting recently. I will seek to remedy that today and do a much better job of posting on a more regular basis. I hope your GPA has not suffered too much. Please accept my humble apology and enjoy the ramblings of my life. Also, you're pretty and nice and pretty nice.

So, I last blogged on New Year's Day. Weak sauce. Unfortunately, not a lot has happened since then. We have our first camp since the new year in this weekend. There are actually 2 groups, both church youth groups in for 3-day retreats over the holiday weekend. Which means I'm FINALLY back in the Sassy. I've missed it like crazy. A lot of fun things are going on in my little piece of the property. We got 2 new microwaves and a shelf to put them on and a new safe! (Doesn't take much, does it?) Also, the Guest Services rotation switched so now Kristen, Darren and Mike are in the Sassy with me. I'm super pumped although sad to lose my old crew. We were finally getting the hang of it!

Other exciting news from the Canyon: we are starting the process of picking our summer jobs. This is more exciting for everyone else because the only way I would get to switch is if I made a strong case as to why I would be better somewhere else. They pretty adamantly encourage me to remain in the Sass which I absolutely want to do anyway. This is exciting for me though because we get to start thinking about summer. I already can't wait for the complete chaos. Rich informed me that I have one of the toughest and most stressful jobs which just made me more excited. I can't wait to have summer staff and hang out with kids and never sleep and all the other things that come with it. This also means that they have started taking applications for the summer interns. We'll get 9 more interns (we get first picks on jobs though!). It'll be weird, but fun to get new interns. And I just got a call from my good friend J-Mac saying he's going to apply which would be ridiculously great because I like him a lot and he can help me prove to people that Missouri is awesome.

The other exciting thing that is happening is that the interns get to take a work week to Oakbridge! Oakbridge is a Young Life camp down in Southern California. It was hit pretty badly by the wild fires a couple months ago so the first week of February, they are sending us down to help clean up the property and do some other stuff. We have to travel on one of our days off but otherwise they're paying us to go hang out in SoCal. And they're paying for our travel expenses and our food and everything. I seriously have the best job ever! Rich, Curtis and Jay are going with us because it's mainly landscape stuff we'll be doing. We are all super stoked for the road trip and for getting to see/work at Oakbridge for a week.

As to what I've been up to... The week after New Year's we were in HK pretty much non-stop. We broke up into teams to deep clean and Lacey, Kristen, Sarah Morrow and I were in the Sassy. It was really fun to deep clean the Sass. It is sparkly and looks so pretty.

That weekend our entire staff took off for Florida and Young Life's All Staff Conference. It is a once every 4 years conference for anyone on any type of Young Life staff, field, property, international, etc. It sounds like it was a really incredible week. It's cool to hear about who all supports YL. Jeff Foxworthy was there because he just became a leader in Marietta, GA! How cool is it if Jeff Foxworthy is your YL leader? And Jack Hanna was there, I guess he's on committee. And a bunch of different bands, authors, organizations, etc. sent their support. It's cool to know that there really are so many people who see the value in this ministry when it feels like we're always facing opposition.

So as cool as it was for our whole staff to go to that, I think we had more fun stuck here in the Canyon. It was literally the interns, the volunteers (the Petersons and the Thompsons) and Bill and Dena (Dena's the teacher, Bill's in Maintenance). Bill was in charge of us all and they left us the task of painting the 400 floor of Quad B. It was so much fun painting. I ended up on a team with Nick, Peter and Mandi. It was so great to get to hang out and get to know Nick and Peter more. They're both such cool guys. Peter reminds me the most of the guys back home. He's hilarious but super sincere and passionate about the Lord. I like him a lot. And Nick is never what you expect him to be. He's an even keel, always keeping us on task, but also cracking me up a lot. I enjoy him.

Bill and Dena became the intern mom and dad for the week and they were such a blessing. They have kids about our ages. Bill would walk into our room every couple of hours and just hang out for 20 minutes, talking about anything and everything and Dena brought us snack every afternoon. It was so great. We seriously bonded with them and they have been such a blessing. It was a great week of work despite the fact that there's still paint in my hair.

Also, American Gladiators is back! While the staff was gone, we were watching Charlie and Rufus. Charlie is Erin's dog and Rufus belongs to the Pratts. But that also meant we had free reign to watch satellite. What did we do with it? Gladiators! Wolf is my favorite Gladiator because he's so crazy looking! It has turned into a huge intern party to watch it and we get really into it. We convince Bill and Dena to come on Monday and it was awesomely cheesy!

The other fun thing we did last week was play Bunco with the Mark 2 girls. I'm not sure if I've talked about Mark 2 or not, so I'll explain. Mark 2 is a seperate ministry that exists out here and works with Wildhorse. The goal of the ministry is to place disabled women in a community where they can live and work, minister and be ministered to. There are 4 women here currently that live and work at Wildhorse and 2 other women that live and work with them and are on staff with Mark 2. They're just starting to remodel condos to bring Mark 2 men out within a year. It's a really cool program and it's been really fun getting to know those women. They invited us all over on Thursday to play Bunco. The Petersons, the Thompsons, Bill and Dena, and all the interns went. It was a joy to spend time with them. They are such great women and Bunco was really fun!

Peter and Becca also decided to have worship at their house on Sunday night because we hadn't had worship in so long. It was really wonderful to just hang out, the 13 of us (and Bill and Dena!) and spend some time in worship and prayer. It was definitely needed and a really great night. We're going to start trying to do it every Sunday night which I'm so excited about. I really miss worship back home, at leadership and church and praying in the weird TV room at 504 and Veritas and RUF and every other chance I had. It is certainly becoming apparent that it's a little harder in the real world than in college. There's a chance to be plugged into everything in college, but you have to be way more intentional as a real adult, even in a place like this. But we're getting better about it.

So that's pretty much that. I guess there has been more going on than I thought. It has definitely been routine since we haven't had any groups in. It is freezing cold and the days are short, but already starting to get longer. You should all call me because I'm not actually that busy and I like talking to you all. I'm extremely jealous of anyone who is on the leader retreat this weekend. Seriously. Miss you all and love you tons!

Happy New Year!

So, I had an incredibly wonderful time back home. It was relaxing, refreshing and fun. It was so nice to get out of the canyon for a while, to get away from all the drama that can accumulate while working together and living together. It was nice to be home because I felt like I was surrounded by people that had taken the time to understand me, who know my moods and my sense of humor. It was definitely a packed week but I got to see so many people I love. I got on the plane sad to leave.

But I got back into Oregon and was supposed to wait for Kristen to get in an hour later and Dusty and Sara to pick me up. However, Darren showed up at the airport to pick me up which was good because I had way too much luggage to fit into Dusty and Sara's car. We all ended up meeting up because it was snowing pretty bad and we wanted to caravan into the Canyon. It was seriously nasty the whole way in. We didn't end up getting in to camp until 8:00 when my plane got in at 2:00. What's even crazier is that it snowed the whole way until we get literally into the Canyon. And then there's nothing at all. It's weird.

It was really good to see everybody when I got back in. I was more excited than I thought I would be which is good. I really have come to love and enjoy the people here. We had a camp in this weekend called Northwest Teen Leadership Conference. They were sweet kids but there were a ton of them. The Sassy was crazy busy. But we made huge sales and everything went smoothly.

The camp left on Saturday so I did vending and the deposit then. I spent most of the day in the Sassy because there was a ton of stuff that needed to be ordered and organized and stuff because the group was so huge. I love it when I get to work in the Sassy by myself and get stuff organized. It makes me feel like it's my own little piece of the camp that I get to show what I can do in.

Saturday night Darren and I watched a couple of episodes of the West Wing. We're plowing right through the seasons. I've been hanging out at the guys' condo a lot which has been great. I get along with the guys really well and they're chill and a lot of fun. Darren and I have been hanging out a lot and he cracks me up. He's also really great about asking me about stuff that I need to be asked about. It's great.

Sunday we did All Clean and it was the biggest one yet because people had just stayed in whatever room they wanted. Every room in both quads was used which is ridiculous. But because the camp was so big we got the Landscape guys too, so it was super fun. I ended up on a team with Lacey, Dan and Dusty for a lot of the day which meant a lot of hilarity.

After work, I watched Planet Earth and Deadliest Catch with Darren, Dusty, Dan, Peter, Mike and Kristen. If you haven't seen Planet Earth, you need to go watch it right now. It is incredible. Make sure you watch the panda who cradles it's baby. It's ridiculously cute.

We had the day off today. Darren, Lacey, Mandi, Kristen, Becca, Sara and I all headed into Madras this morning. We had decided just to have game night and appetizers tonight. The trip to Madras was fun and we came back and spent the whole afternoon cooking.

Everyone came over around 7:00 and we ended up having so much fun. Drew was the only one who wasn't there. We had a smorgasboard of appetizers. We started out playing Scene It Squabble (battle of the sexes) and, of course, the girls dominated. Everyone was getting really into which was so fun. After that we played Balderdash and then Charades. In between each game was a sweet dance party and a whole lot of laughing. At midnight, we ran outside and banged pots and pans and such.

It was such a great night. I felt completely comfortable and laughed so hard I cried. Everyone was getting along and it was just one of those ridiculously fun, perfect nights. Great start to 2008.

I miss you all like crazy and I had an incredible time at home, but I'm finally having so much fun here. It's really great. I'm now watching one more episode of the West Wing before I go to bed and get up in the morning to watch my Tigers take on Arkansas. We're headed into Bend tomorrow night for dinner and a movie.

Love you all! Call me. I'm off until Thursday.

Turkey Time!

So, our Thanksgiving break started today and it could not have come a moment too soon. I am stoked for a couple days off. Although, I feel like I just got beat up. Tonight was the 1st Annual Turkey Bowl. The boys have been talking for weeks about playing flag football and tonight we kicked it off. Kristen and I went thinking we were going to watch but ended up playing and it was so fun. It was us and Sarah from the kitchen as the only girls. The boys had the classic problem of never throwing it to us, but after they figured out that I caught literally every pass that was thrown to me, they started sending it my way more. It was freezing cold, I got laid out a couple of times, the grass was slick and the boys were brutal, but I had a chance to wear my Mizzou beanie and repeatedly yell, "Third in the nation, baby!" So all was good.

The past few days have been a little crazy here at the Canyon. This weekend was huge and Saturday was the busiest we've ever been in the Sassy. It was crazy. But it was also a ton of fun. It felt like there were so many kids here but it's only half of how many will be here during the summer which is even crazier. But the Sass was a lot of fun and people were great about stepping in and helping us out even though they had already worked a full day.

Also, I continue to be amazed at how much money kids will spend in the snack bar. There were these 2 kids this weekend that had to have each spent 30 bucks. And that's in one day. And they're served meals. Kids blow through the money.

After the Sassy on Saturday, we got the privilege of seeing a concert by Jonah Werner, who came as special music this weekend. I like his music, but beyond that he is an amazing entertainer. He was very funny and definitely had everyone's attention the whole time he was on stage.

Sunday was an easy day. Checkout took forever and consisted of a lot of standing around. I became officially certified to handle food in the state of Oregon. And I spent the afternoon in the Washboard which is fun in small doses.

Sunday night we had game night which was so fun. We started with a game of Battle of the Sexes, followed by Catch Phrase and, our intern favorite, Apples to Apples. We have definitely picked up that game are fun, which is extremely exciting for me. Because I love games, at all times. I'm hoping I'm not getting too competitive. But I am. I can't help it.

Monday was All Clean which was really fun this week because the guys stayed with us all day. We're starting the Deep Clean on the Quads which is going to be ridiculous. After we finished bathrooms, we stripped all the mattress pads, blankets and pillows off the beds and hauled them to the Washboard. There is now a huge, daunting pile of stuff that we have to wash, literally 8 feet tall. After that, we broke up into random teams to do random things. Nick and I began polishing all the chrome in the bathrooms. It was fun to hang out with Nick. The more I get to know him, the more I like him. However, satin shining the chrome is a much longer process than you would think. Everyone was done with all their jobs in both quads and we only had 1/4 of one quad done. It sucked.

After work, we headed home and got ready for Dip Day at the Milstens. The Milstens have a traditional, non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner consisting entirely of dips at their house every year. It was a really good time, mingling and hanging out and grazing through all the dips.

We had a little celebration afterwards back at the condos as well for Becca's birthday. We have a lot of fun together. There was some dancing...
We had to work today so that we could get days off in a chunk over Thanksgiving. So us girls were in HK and spent literally all morning finishing the chrome. We had decided to start at 7:00 and take a 45 minute lunch so we could get off at 3:45 which was great. I'm kind of turning into a morning person. No, that's a lie. I still can't function in the morning, but I like it when I have to go into work early and get done early. It makes such a difference.

Anyway, we spent the morning polishing and after lunch headed to the Washboard. We were only there until about 2:30 though. After that we went back to Geronimo and spent the last hour of our day decorating Geronimo with snowflakes and such for Christmas and deciding on the rules for our girl secret santa exchange and what movie theme we want for Jen's craft day that she always has in December and consists of sitting around watching movies and crafting all day. It was a fantastic way to end the day. Our job is great.

We came back from work and Lacey and Mandi headed out and Drew left yesterday, so our house was really empty. It already feels weird. But Kristen and I watched a couple episodes of Felicity and I cooked Paige's pasta for dinner. And then we headed to the Turkey Bowl, dominated, came back and watched movie. It was a great night. But I'm gonna be sore tomorrow. This is also the latest I have stayed up since I got here. It's almost 2:00 which was basically my bed time back home. My life is definitely different.

So, I'm going to be in Bend the next couple of days and other than that just hanging out doing nothing. I'm going to be very available. Phone calls would be much appreciated. I love you all and miss you a ton.

Another Day, Another Dollar

Today was such a fun day. I really have enjoyed Work and Worship this weekend. The people who have come are, of course, awesome. And it has been fun to be a part of a weekend completely put on by us. Most of the time, speakers and musicians and everybody come in with the group. But this weekend is completely our staff putting on program for these amazing volunteers. And it was fun to walk around and see all of the work being done today.

We had morning espresso this morning, so I was up and in the Sassy by 6:30. After espresso, Becca and I were scheduled until 11:30, so we did some of the many things that needed to be done in the Sassy. We finished our deep clean list and then we went over to the kitchen and organized all the stuff we have in the freezer which took a long time and was extremely cold. It was really fun though to hang out with Becca and spend and easy morning.

The Work and Worship teams are on the most random jobs, so it's really kind of funny to see. A huge crew of people have joined the Maintenance boys to clean out the pond which is something the boys have been working on for about a week. Our pond is pretty huge, so it has been quite an undertaking to drain it. There are some problems with the irrigation, so it had to be done. This is the first time they have every drained it and it is nasty. There were all kinds of fish and a ton of algae and stuff. But it is drained and now they're doing what they can to clean it out. They volunteers have been raking all the algae and such out of the bank while the boys use the fire hose to clean off everything else. It'll stay drained through the winter and apparently it will take about 80 days to completely fill it back up. It's crazy.

Other groups are doing things like taking out all the flowers from the flower pots and recplacing windows and working on condos. Anything and everything is being done and it is awesome!

After lunch, I had the afternoon off which was so productive. I was able to get my room cleaned, finish some letters, pay some bills, take care of some stuff at the office, AND start some laundry. It was great. I feel much better about my life after having taken care of all of that.

I went to dinner tonight and sat with the Brown family and Kristen and Mike which was very pleasant. The Browns are great. Korey is running the MCL project and he and his wife Sara are very sweet and welcoming. They have 2 elementary school aged girls who have all kinds of attitude but are very sweet and funny and a little baby boy. I feel like I'm finally starting to really get to know people here, which is so comforting.

After dinner I went to the first part of worship. It was so refreshing and again, I love Judy. I had to sneak out early to open the Sassy, so I didn't get to here Ben speak which I was bummed about but worship was really good. The Sassy was crazy busy for the first hour we were open. So much so that Ben came in to get a soda and ended up scooping ice cream with us for a while. Also, our freezer broke again. So there was ice cream pouring out into the freezer and when we tried to take one of them out, the bottom busted and it was glooping out everywhere. It was really pretty hilarious and we ended up having a really good night.

I'm back in my condo. I'm super tired. I can't really sleep. We have morning espresso again tomorrow. I feel like this is the first real tiny glimpse of what the summer will be like. I can't wait.

Life in the Canyon... It's weird.

Love you all!

Friday Night, Just Got Paid

OK, I know you're looking at the title and thinking, 'It's not Friday night.' What you are forgetting is that Monday night is Friday night in the canyon. But I digress.

Since I last posted, the sex group left, I did vending, we deep cleaned the Hideout and we had an All Clean. It's definitely starting to become routine. The weekend in the Sass went well. The group was really small and definitely didn't care about Night Espresso. Friday night we made $6.50 in an hour and a half. But Saturday day opening went well and was pretty busy. It was a pretty small group but they were all college kids which was fun.

Saturday night was also slow but we had a lot of visitors which was very fun. People tend to come hang out in the Sassy with us which I really appreciate. Mike hung out with us the whole time we were open which was awesome. I've come to like Mike a lot. He's funny but not attention-seeking and when he speaks, he always has great things to say. He's really cool.

On Sunday, I helped with checkout and then did vending. After vending, I met the other girls who were at work Deep Cleaning. The Deep Clean is going to be quite the project as we clean everything that never gets cleaned. But it's fun to work on that stuff all together and we already have 3 buildings done.

Today was All Clean which was surprisingly fun as always. Erin, who is on staff in Housekeeping, hid in a shower and scared the crap out of Sara when she went to clean it which was entertaining for all of us. After All Clean, Drew, Mandi, Erin and I went to the Washboard while the other girls worked on more Deep Clean.

After work, Nick, Kristen, Mandi and I decided to make a trip into Madras for groceries. There's talk of going into Bend tomorrow to get dinner and a movie, but we decided to get grocery shopping out of the way tonight. It was so much fun, although Nick is a crazy driver on the scary, scary roads out here. We had a lot of fun laughing in the grocery store and jamming to music in the car. It's been fun getting to know Nick. I feel like I don't get to see the boys a lot mainly just because I see the girls so much. So it's always good to hang out with them.

Now I'm back and getting tired at 11:20. It's way past my bedtime. Luckily, I went to bed at 8:30 last night. No lie. I'm turning into my brother. Or an old person. Which is pretty much one in the same.

My plans for the weekend: sleep, read, unpack from my trip to MO and do laundry. In that order. See you on the flip side.

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!

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!

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!