cheer captain

long time no see! it's been busy around here.

fair today! second to last day. the first year kids put on a little fair for the second years. it lasts an hour and a half. last session it was rainy and gross so we had to have it inside and it just kind of fell apart. but today it was sunny and not sweltering hot.

the booths were a lot better this time, too. we had slushies, ice cream sundaes, tie dye and a water balloon fight.

i was attacked during the water balloon fight. it's hard to tell in this picture, but my whole left half was soaked.

we've all been cleaning like crazy in preparation for the kids leaving and camp shutting down. today i disinfected 60 binders, labeled 22 bins with spray paint and cleaned out two big rooms.

one more day! pretty excited.

we wear sneakers

what's a girl to do when she:

a) needs to find a "real job" soon.. or at least one with health benefits

b) wants travel to be a regular part of her life

c) wants to settle in austin, at least for a while

right now i'm thinking of looking into teaching. i have kid skills. the schedule is right. you can transition in and out and onto other things.

four more days of camp!

wake up in the morning

countdown til the end of camp: 5 days.

i came back from my day off last night at 6, went to a campfire ceremony, and thennn a girl tripped and fell on a rock pathway and thought she seriously hurt her knee. so hayley, the lifeguard, and i pile her in the suburban and head to the ER. hayley stayed with her while she had all sorts of tests done, and i waited in the waiting room.

all sorts of crazy injuries walked through the doors while i waited. toddlers with blood pouring from their faces, a drunk man who had been stabbed by his wife, a girl who had terrible manners.

but then at 2, hayley came and got me and i waited in the back with them. we waited something like 4 hours for various x rays to be taken and the results to come back. first they decided she didn't need stitches and then ended up changing their minds 5 hours later.

the short version is that we walked in at 9:30 and walked out at 5:30. so hayley and i have been sleeping all morning/day and it's now almost 2. time to rejoin the day. feeling a little off though.

everybody jam

my henna is almost all gone which is sad. i kind of got used to having decorations on the inside of my hands. it almost makes me understand why people get tattoos.

it's starting to hit everyone that we only have a week left. a lot of people keep mentioning how they're going to be so sad, but i'm excited to move on to whatever's next. i need to find something to do for august that doesn't involve spending money so i can travel on september and not freak out about my bank account the whole time. we'll see. everything seems to work out well.

9 minutes til midnight and i think my laundry might finally be done.

grand finale

these are some of my favorites of the remaining pictures.
john, becca, andy, abha and i have been friends for foreeeever. we've been through picnic lunches, many zilker park trips, boyfriends and girlfriends, diets, etc. hard to believe high school was 7 years ago!
the ring pillow had the real rings on it :)
super beautiful reception room


that's my bouquet. and my faaavorite picture of all is below:
perfectly sums up the day/marriage.

today was crazy at camp. i left for the rental car place at 4:30 and just got back at 10:30. we ended up having to go through a car wash, wait to renew the rental, get an oil change, then drive into austin to pick up a staffer whose car broke down. kind of a nice break, kind of hard to sit in a car for 5 hours. but i was with one of my favorite people, so it wasn't too painful.

one more week of camp! hard to believe summer is almost over. then back to real life. kind of excited though.

hindu ceremony

the wedding day was an extravaganza.

in the morning, we all woke up early to say hi to becca before she went to take pictures downstairs. then we all got wrapped in our saris which was pretty funny/challenging/involved bazillions of safety pins. (below is marissa, who's 8 months pregnant).

so once we were all wrapped and ready to go, we went downstairs as the barat was happening. nirav rode in on this horse:

(those are some of the wedding planners) and there was a little ceremony with a coconut and stealing of his shoes, so that later, during the ceremony, when the veil is dropped.. he won't see becca (for the first time, traditionally) and run away.
we weren't allowed to be part of it.. so we peeked through the windows as the parade passed us. it was pretty funny actually because my high school friends were standing right outside, so we were knocking like crazy on the window until they saw us through the curtain and waved.

we all agreed that the indian ceremony is much more interesting than the christian one. it's all in sanskrit, there are lots of different parts, they get up and walk around, race to see who can sit down first (becca won, which is supposed to symbolize that she'll wear the pants in the marriage).
we all commented on how now we want to marry in to another culture. so much more interesting. and look at her new extended family!

mehndi

five henna pictures.
it took 5 hours to do becca's hands and feet and all of our hands.
then we all had to sit and let it dry without touching anything for two hours. it was a challenge for all of us, but most of all for the pregnant bridesmaid, marissa.
very pretty! bazillions of strangers asked me about it when they'd catch a glimpse of the inside of my hands, and then when i got back to camp, all of the kids asked. they knew to look for it though.
so weird to be back here. trying hard to get back into the swing of things. i think i'm teaching my class tomorrow. that will be a jump start.

wedding

hi! i'm back! turns out you can't use majjy's power cord with my laptop.

i need to leave for camp right now so i get there before bedtime, but here's a taste of the wedding week. i'll post by category for the next couple of days :)

home again, home again

it is so weird how when you're home, it's like camp doesn't exist.. and when you're at camp, you forget about home. but tomorrowww, it'll be a whole new world in DC! i am beyoooonndd excited. both sari tops are packed. i've been doing laundry all night. the whole fam is home because faj is in austin all week.

i'm bringing my laptop and the fancy cam, so you'll be up to date.

she's like texas

none of us were older than 5 in the '80s, but this was our version..

the guys had limited options, so they just kind of did whatever seemed right.
two days until i leave for DC! getting so exciteddd!! i haven't seen those friends since march.
even though there will be a lot to miss at camp, too.

schedule

a day in the life.

7:45 am flag

8 am breakfast

8:30 am chores

9 am my leadership class!

10 am games

10:30 am second class, usually about college or leadership

12 pm lunch

1 pm nap

2:30 pm snack

3 pm third class

4:30 pm free choice

6 pm dinner

7 pm evening activity

9 pm chat about the day

10:30 pm lights out

tomorrow is '80s themed. we're armed with hot pink eyeshadow, side ponytails and whatever else we can think of. should be interesting/fun.

we hold you in our hearts

these pictures are from closing campfire. it's hard to choose ones without kids in them. these are their makeshift lanterns. they get them second year.. it's supposed to show that they can protect the light of leadership.

well it was a nice surprise today that it didn't rain. it looked like it was going to, and it felt really humid most of the day, but it ended up being sunny and hot. we couldn't swim because of the thunder, but i was glad not to have to carry my rain jacket around all day. and i'm literally the only one on camp with an umbrella. ..why did i get voted most likely to stay in a hotel on a camping trip? it baffles me.
(guillermo and ryann)

still trying to get used to this session. i keep looking for the old kids. but the new ones are warming up to us. it doesn't take long.
(zack, me and uche)

countdown to DC: 5 days! (let it be said that i had to check my phone to see what day of the week it was.)

iphone fail

my phone quit sending and receiving texts yesterday afternoon :( bummed me out. it still isn't working. i've "surpassed my time period for free customer service" so i can't even call tech support without being charged. thank goodness for the internet.. even though so far, it hasn't been helpful.

but the new kids are here! everything they told us turned out to be true. they're a lot more chill (so far) than session 1. we have a lot less of them. last time we had 70ish. now we have 45. it feels like people are missing. i still find myself searching for familiar faces. but these kids will be just as amazing as the ones before. excited to get started with them.

the rain is back. it's been raining for the last several hours. kiiind of puts a damper on the whole summer camp vibe. but it's cooler which isn't a bad thing. i took a much needed nap with the rain hitting the tin roof above me.

countdown to DC: 6 days!

it's only time

fourth of july was insane. hilarious, fun, crazy. almost the entire staff went to our cabin on the lake and we just had the best time. it was exactly what we needed after a long session. the first night was crazy but the second night was much more relaxed. i think everyone was in bed by 11 that night. not too many casualties. the jetski was briefly out of commission when the rope got sucked up underneath it. but we fixed it. you gotta love boys who won't stop trying until they complete something.

yesterday we were all pretty exhausted but we had to do an epic relay race. 11 stations. mine was setting a table for 8 and then making butter out of cream with a mason jar. it was me against 2 other people and it was sooo funny. the intensity level was so high. it took us 10 or so minutes to make it. i had sweat dripping off my face, it was exhausting.

today we worked on general stuff and the lifeguards had an inservice to work on deep water spinal evacuations. it wasn't as bad as i thought it was going to be. it's kind of challenging to get the back board underneath someone when you're treading water. then tonight we all laid down on the ground in a giant line of 30 of us and barrel rolled over everyone one by one. kinda rough on your knees when you're laying on concrete.

kids tomorrow! can't believe this day is already here. summer is flying. hope everyone had a fun fourth

flower pot falls from a window sill

..we've started playing minute to win it games in our free time. hayley successfully stacked 3 golf balls (and a funky monkey) the other day and then the camp director came by and shook the table. if it was anyone else, she would have freaked. but she just had to bite her tongue. hilarious.

talent show tonight. there was a whole lot of cross dressing. two sets of boys dressed as female counselors. below are two female counselors dressed like two of the male counselors. they were pretty spot on.

my favorite cabin of boys did a poetry reading. they had each written a poem and their counselor (who was wearing a blonde wig for some reason) played an african drum. it was heart-melting. one of the kids in their cabin wrote a really awesome poem during one of the activities a couple weeks ago, so he kind of helped them all out. so sweet.

staff did a skit about people who keep walking into a doctors office and transferring our illness to geoff, in blue. it was kind of random/not camp related at all.. but funny.

two more days with the first group of kids before they leave! this morning was my last leadership class. it was kind of sad. i hope they remember everything they learned when they do the evaluation tomorrow morning!