go the distance

ok, friends! i've decided to wear this dress to abha and pedro's wedding in august. it's half nepali and half brazilian, so i'll wear the cape to the nepali ceremony and just the dress to the second ceremony.

so now i have to decide on earrings. these are my options.. 

A) vintage crystal teardrop  $19.95 (the prices are earrings + shipping, so we can take that into account). 

B) made to look like vintage octagonal crystal  $18.75

C) vintage crystal pearl $8.85

D) these czech crystal earrings from j. crew $41.14

F) trifari gold and seafoam clip ons $18

i'd kind of like to be able to wear them again in real life.. and i'll be wearing gold shoes. thoughts? 

the rage of war

i have to watch a cabin tonight while their counselor is on their break. the 2nd years are working on a 24 hour theater challenge.. and in the past, they've stayed up all night. we decided to let them stay up until 12 and then start again after breakfast. my girls decided they want to stay up all night anyway. cross your fingers that i'll be able to talk them out of it.

not a drop to drink

well, bad news. this morning we went to flag and we heard one of the most distressing sounds you can hear on camp: the buzzer. we use well water, and the buzzer buzzes when we've fallen below 8,000 gallons of water. we usually use 3,000 or so a day for showers, toilets, drinking, the dishwasher and laundry. so now we're on water restriction. 3 minute showers. only flushing the toilet when "necessary.."

at least we only have 5 days to go! home stretch.

heart art

how sweet is this? this guy finds hearts in nature. (i found out via design mom, one of my faaavorite blogs. the photo is from her site).

while we're on hearts.. let's throw in this advice from words of wisdom living.. the best food blog in the wooorld. the man, skip, posts really relevant, interesting information about food, health and wellness. if i had to give up every other blog i read, this is the one i would keep.

(photo/advice from his site). 

hp7.2

the staff has 24 hour breaks once a week or so. mine was from 12:30 friday to 12:30 today, and it feels like i just time traveled because it went by so quickly.

i went home, ate sushi that majjy had bought me and left in the fridge, guillermo came over at like 2 and we went to blockbuster to get harry potter 6. we watched HP 6 and 7.1 for the next seven hourssss, stopping to make delicious pork tenderloin + stuffing + salad dinner at the halfway point. then we went to see the last movie at 11pm. it was really good. especially good because i just re-read 2, 3 and 4 and then watched 6 and 7 so i could actually remember what was going on. some people can tell you what happened in each book/movie, but i can't. i just know i like them.

so we got home at 1:30 or so. this morning i made a smoothie in our new blender ( ! ), showered, and then it was time to go back to camp!

when i got here, all of the program instructors (my title, there are 4 of us), were painted smurf blue. they're currently in the process of trying to wash it off.. unfortunately, they used acrylic paint, so they're all covered in a thin layer of blue residue. it looks eerily like night of the living dead.

and that was my last 24 hours. one week to go!

wade in the water

the second years are back! it was very adorable when they got off the bus and ran up to all of us. sounds like they had quite an adventure. they were at heifer learning center in arkansas for a week. apparently they form a mock global community and they get assigned to various countries. they said it was a lot of fun, but they're glad to be back. 

thailand

zambia

tibet

time for bed. the first dryer i put my clothes in was broken, so i still have to go get my clothes :(

calgary

busy week! i wasn't originally supposed to be teaching the leadership classes again this year, but i asked if i could, so i am. it's been fun. we've gone through the qualities of a leader, introducing yourself and others, and then tonight we started on goal setting and working in teams.

tonight they had to do a couple of team building tasks. in the first, 10 kids stood on a blue tarp and had to flip it completely upside down without touching the floor. lots of kids get frustrated when the team doesn't listen to their ideas so they just shut down. it's up to the group to include them and find a way to make sure everyone is heard.

my personal favorite task is having them retrieve a marker on the other side of the dining hall. they have to move as 'one body' (stay connected). their idea was to move in a big chain.. one kid would lie down on the ground and put their legs on the shoulder of the kid behind them. then they would chant '1, 2, 3, UGHH' and the whole chain would scoot forward 8 inches each time. it took 20 of them to reach the other side of the room. it just looked so awkward. their faces were less than a foot away from the next person's butt. we did have one tooting incident that left us all in tears laughing.

other than that.. they did ropes and we went to the lake. not a bad wednesday.

lake day

spent my 24 hour break at the lake with the fam yesterday. first time out in the boat in 2011.

hungry like the wolves

we took the boys on a tour of fort hood today since it's in our backyard. in the morning, we toured the 1st cavalry division museum. they had uniforms from the civil war, helicopters and tanks from almost every war. lots of interesting things. 

after that, we headed to the kennel. yesterday, the girls watched susie, one of the directors, get brought down by a drug dog. today it was supposed to be sharon, but as the kids were busy watching a demo of the obstacle course the dogs train on, one of the trainers came up to me and asked if i'd be willing to be the victim today. so i did it. 

you have to understand that when i was a small child (and more or less still now) i was petrified of dogs. i could climb up to my dad's shoulders in one second to get away from a dog. now that we have ripley and i know vicious she comes off vs how sweet she actually is, it's gotten better. but it was still no small thing as i was putting on that suit knowing what was about to happen.

it wasn't actually that bad though. yesterday, the guy called off the dog right when it bit susie. they let me struggle a bit longer today. they said i'll have bruises tomorrow. we'll seeee.

spinach

inside jokes:
i told culinary club that i think it's rude for kids to call teachers 'miss' because it implies they don't know your name. last year, a cabin of boys began calling me 'miss megan,' so now they like to say 'hey missss.... megan!' as i pretend to be exasperated.

i taught them how to call a unicorn. it makes a sound that's a cross between a cow and an owl. something like 'mooohooohooo.' only true believers can call them.

spanikopita was delicious today. it turned out very well. the only girl who hated it was the girl who doesn't like spinach. but she did take a bite. they're all very good about trying one bite of a new thing.

the staff was talking about picky eaters at dinner last night. we decided parents who give in to picky kids are the problem. i think i remember having to eat whatever my mom made that night. not like anyone didn't like anything. if you didn't like a certain ingredient, she would usually leave it out for that person. jeff doesn't like fresh tomatoes. i can't think of anything matt or i refuse to eat..
anyway we all decided that if they don't want to eat what you're serving, they should just have to deal with it. i'm sure that once i'm an actual parent of real life children, i'll be singing a different tune, but until then..

the definition of dedication: the kids & counselors were playing 'counselor hunt' (hide and go seek) tonight, and i saw a counselor open a trash can, take the bag of trash out, climb inside the trash can and put the lid on.

no, no, there's no way

we made my favorite quiche today in cooking club--bacon, potato and onion (green and white). it was delicious. none of the kids had ever had quiche before. tomorrow we're making spanikopita. that should be an adventure. you think two hours is enough for cooking club, but it's really cutting it close.

when you work at a summer camp, there's lots of talk about having fun vs challenging the kids. some people fall into the 'this is summer. it shouldn't be like school' camp, some into the 'the whole point is that they grow as leaders' camp. since i'm a teacher with a non-traditional teaching style.. i fall into both. there's no reason to make it too schooly and restrictive.. but kids of all ages want to be challenged. and if you expect more, they do more.

we've been coming up with lots of small competitions to keep things interesting during downtime:
the count how many school colors are used in unnecessary places contest on the college tour. the tiptoe contest. the count the crosses at mary hardin baylor contest. the hold your breath the longest in the pool contest. the no complaining all day contest. food scategories during cooking club.

and that is the news. the fam got home today which means ripley is free. maj said she was thrilled.

sunday

lake day + life guarding for 4 hours in the water under the sun = first sunburn of 2011

have you ever played mafia? it's our favorite game at camp. you usually play with a deck of cards. if you get a number card, you're a citizen. ace is angel. queen is detective. king is mafia. depending on the size of the group, you put in a higher or lower number of mafia. for a group of 10, we usually play with 2 mafia.

so the object of the game is for a) the citizens to kill the mafia or b) the mafia to kill the citizens. to play, at first everyone closes their eyes. the mafia 'wakes up' and decides on someone to kill. the moderator silently takes note of who died. then the detective wakes up and silently gestures toward someone they think is in the mafia. the narrator nods their head yes or no. then the angel wakes up. they get to select one person to save. then everyone wakes up (opens their eyes) and the moderator says who died. then everyone guesses who's in the mafia, and then they vote.

i have some kind of magic mafia 6th sense. when i'm the detective, i almost always guess the mafia. when i'm a citizen, i have an 80% or so success rate. i guess it's easy when you're playing with middle schoolers because they're so obvious when they're lying. they either a) don't say anything and try to blend in or b) get really defensive and c) usually have some kind of odd facial expression when the town first wakes up.

anyway i say that because today we played twice while we were floating in the lake, and i correctly guessed the mafia member on my first try both games. mafia 6th sense.

what's your 20

it has been busy around here! it's always crazy when campers arrive. it has been so much fun to be here as returning staff since i already have a relationship built with the kids. we have inside jokes and they say hi to me from across fields. most importantly, they remember a lot of the skills they learned in the leadership class i taught.

in culinary academy we made open faced quesadillas with lime sour cream sauce, and yesterday we made bruschetta. i think only one kid of 10 had ever had it before, so it was a new experience for them. lots of them claimed not to like tomatoes, but they thought it was pretty good. the best part was when i called over the walkie to tell the staff we had some extra if they'd like to try a sample, and 5 people arrived at the door, panting, in the next 30 seconds.

tonight we're watching a movie in the pool. a dive-in movie. funnnn, fun.

flim flam

a few more. 

the whole fam

gram and spanky's party clothes hanging up in their bathroom

mutti and my cousin ann

us and gram

the kids i taught leadership skills to last year got here today. you always have a secret fear that none of them are going to remember/care about you, but a bunch of them ran up to me when they got off the bus, and they all seem to remember lots of inside jokes. some of them grew several inches. one girl grew so much, she tore a tendon in her leg. 

today we just did opening day check in stuff. tomorrow is low ropes. should be funnn.

new hampshire

random pictures from gram's, part 1.

 peonies from the garden

 our cousin, hunter, and matt

 gram in her nightgown this morning

 lobstah!

 spanky

jeff and i

 the porch

 faj

 uncle rich, fajjy and spanky working on the car

 gram and jeff

 minky

 me

 gram and jeff

 steve and spanky

jeff, gram, matt and i

:)

time to go to camp! i'll try to upload some later in the week, but the internet is incredibly slow there. 

purple mountains majesty

happy fourth of july, all! it is usuuuually one of my favorite holidays, but there's not been a lot of rain in texas lately, so all of the fireworks were canceled this year. they had them at the lake, but after 4+ hours on a plane today, i couldn't talk myself into the hour-long drive. but i did get to see nirav, bec and her parents briefly in the airport in austin. bec & nirav were headed back to DC when i got in to austin.

one story before bed. ..so i came a week ahead of the fam to NH, as you know. they were dropped off by one of matt's roommates, johnny. then he drove my mom's car back to their house, and it's been there all week. i texted him this morning to tell him i'd be there 6ish to get the keys/car. he said ok. they were throwing a big bbq.

matt and his roommates are awesome. arguably the most awesome is david f. he also happens to be the only neat one of the 3 roommates. unfortunately, he's out of town all summer. so when i was dropped off, i walk in to their house, and there is stuff covering every single available inch of counter space. food, dust, cups, etc. so at first, when johnny couldn't find the keys, i was expecting we would pick up a solo cup and see them underneath.

but as minutes ticked by, hope waned. johnny asked a friend, another david, if he had seen any keys. at first, he said no. thennn he remembered they had found a random set of keys the other day. were they VW keys? with a flip key? yep. where were they? maybe david's house, maybe his friend courtney's.

so i took a seat outside, on the picnic table johnny had cut, stained and bolted together the previous month, while i waited for david to go look for them at his house. i chatted with some of matt's friends while i waited. they thought i was his younger sister because i have a quiet voice. i guess one day i'll appreciate people thinking i'm much younger. anyhow, 20 minutes later, david reappeared with the keys, and i was off.

time for bed. camp tomorrow!
ps i can't find my camera card reader anywhere. but frys has them for $5. so i'll post pictures in the next week or so, internet allowing.

sunday

i didn't take any pictures on my phone, so i can't show you anything yet, but my grandparent's anniversary party was today. it was a lot of fun. 75 people.. friends, neighbors, family. it's always interesting for me to go to those things because a lot of people's mental image of me is as a 4 year old with platinum blonde hair running around in dresses with puffy sleeves and mary janes on. they kept coming up to me and saying 'you have to be Megan.' fun to put faces to names. everyone thought jeff was the official photographer because he was wearing all black, walking around with my camera and his around his neck.

jeff and matt and i sat with two sets of neighbors at dinner.. one past, one present. fran and gene, who currently live down the street. norma and her sister deedee, who lived in their neighborhood 30 years ago. gene kept telling me i needed to get married. norma told him to shove it and that she got married at 38 and had her son at 41 or something. deedee never got married and was a VP at time magazine. we chatted about hiking the great wall. they are two cool ladies.

afterward, all of the family ended up at gram's. hunter, our 5 year old cousin, was dancing up a storm. jeff is trying to make this video go viral, so feel free to fwd it to 10 of your closest friends ;)


i fly home tomorrow. dad is staying in NH for the week, and the rest of the fam will be in NY for a bit visiting my mom's family.

ripley is at some kennel while everyone's gone. my mom bought her 'beach club' every other day after hearing she would be spending her days in a small cage all by herself. with beach club, she gets to go swimming and play frisbee. hopefully she's having fun.

lobstah

hooray for lobster day!

lobster is delicious, but man is it rich. once a year is enough for me. we hit the food highlights today. newicks chowder for lunch and lobster for dinner at the house.

matt and jeff also figured out how to make a cool panoramic photo of the backyard.. you should be able to click and drag one side to spin around in a circle and see it from every angle. this was the first attempt.

the second one is from 'down in back' as gram says. it's a little further down the hill.

if you look closely, you might see a hidden matt or two. it's also kind of funny to look down and see their disembodied feet.

1,000

for my 1000th's post (on blondeintaiwan and coincidenceless combined), i'm going to share the secret to 65 years of marriage. this is part of a love letter my grandpa wrote to gram in 1948, 2 years into their marriage:


My very dearest sweetheart;
...
Jean honey I love you so very very much I just could hug and kiss you forever. I think we are more in love than anybody has ever been. Our lives just belong to one another, everything I do I think of you and I know you are always thinking of me because I feel you so close to me even when we are a thousand miles apart.

Please give Richie a lot of kisses and hugs for me and tell him I miss him. I'll call you tomorrow evening.

All my love always,
Len
Goodnight and sweet dreams darling
 

(editor's note: the picture at the top is of my grandparents and some of their neices and nephews, i think. the woman sitting in the chair is one of my great aunts. at that point, they only had one boy.)