i'm home...and then i'm gone again...

well i’m home from camp, got home saturday. it was wonderful as usual. Heidi and i had a blast and made some new friends, and made some old ones better. many of the workers from past years didn’t return, so we were the experienced ones (Joel and i were the oldest workers) and that made it fun. i just love it there. it’s a lot of work, but it’s so worth it. i worked the counter in the kitchen again this year, passing out the food, refilling dishes, putting away all the food and cleaning the kitchen. the kitchen was my domain and since this was my 3rd year working counter, i was the authority, under Bob of course since he’s the cook. but to any of the workers…the kitchen was mine. it’s gets a little stressful during the meals when you’ve got dishes coming at you from everywhere and everybody wants more food to take out to the tables, but i managed and i know what i’m doing, so Bob appreciates that. he’s quite a character. i like working in there because of Bob and Annie, the baker. they love me...it’s great fun. Annie saved brownies for me and gave me one, one day and Joel gave me a funny look like, ‘how’d you get that’ and i was just like, ‘hey…she loves me!’ so he decided to ask her who she loved more…and she promptly said Melanie (but she gave him a brownie anyways). poor kid, he just couldn’t win. but he kept me entertained with his singing while he washed pots. he and Jamie were the pot boys, washing pots and pans in the kitchen with me, and they were great fun, kept me going, but they were always untying my apron. hmm, what else is there to talk about. oh yeah, Hans and Paul took Heidi and i fishing one day. neither of us were going to fish, but Hans handed Heidi a pole so she held onto it as we were paddling out into the lake. well…with her luck, she caught a 28 inch northern. that thing was huge and it’s about the biggest thing the camp leaders had every seen taken out of that lake. it was quite the news around camp, but she was a bit grossed out by it, and in the one picture that they forced her to actually hold the fish, not the stringer, she looks like she’s going to cry. that made me and Paul laugh. it tasted really good though, and she was quite proud of herself. after that, Paul and Hans decided we were good luck charms so we went out the next day, but didn’t catch anything. then Heidi and i went out with Paul at 5:30am. we woke up at about 5, Heidi came over to my bed, ripped my sleeping bag off of me (it was freezing in the cabin so i didn't appreciate that), said ‘i hate you!’ and stormed out. sounds bad i know, but it was because she told Paul she’d go if i said yes, and she expected me to say no. so when i told him that i’d go, she was stuck. she didn’t really hate me, but it made for quite the way to wake up…silly girl. well that morning, Paul and i just picked on her to no end, so she gave up fishing and talking (quite an unheard of thing), but i caught a 15 inch largemouth bass, so i had great fun. i don’t know what else there is to tell. we had fun playing volleyball and ultimate frisbee and swimming and boating and all sorts of things. bible hour and the evening meetings were very good with good messages. i almost ended up playing piano for some special music friday night. Steve and Christy gave me some music thursday afternoon to look at, and i could handle it, but knew that in order for me to be comfortably ready, i’d need a little bit more time than i had. And i’m super out of practice, so i decided to pass on it rather than get up there and freak out. maybe next year. i just love that camp though. i wish it was longer. i have such awesome friends there, but i wish so badly that they lived near me cause i come home and end up missing everyone! this year i don’t have much time to miss people though. i leave for europe for 2 weeks on wednesday and have yet to really start organizing my thought and packing. i also am dealing with a cold that appeared the last day of camp; stupid head cold that is going to end up being aggravated by my flight to scotland…grrrr…not what i wanted to deal with. well, i am very much exhausted by this cold and still not recovered from sleep loss from camp...so bubye till July when I get back!
~melanie