Sunday, June 14, 2009

Getting back in the swing of things

Last week I spent 55+ hours volunteering at Kidzilla's Cub Scout day camp. It was me, twelve 7 year old boys, 4 youth helpers with absolutely no leadership skills and one half assed helper who showed up 2 of the 5 days. It was heaven and hell all roped into one. A selection of my tweets from the week:

Whooohooo. First day of cub scout camp. Me and 17 new second graders in the woods

The sweet smell of camp- layers of boy sweat, sunscreen, bug spray, chlorine, and wet dirt.

12 mosquito bites, hands tie dyed blue and a 10 pound backpack. Its day 2 of camp.

Its 3 o'clock and I can't remember the last time I washed my hands. Its definitely camp season.

Today at camp I sang songs about donut shops, the army, mosquitoes and milk. And painted with bubbles.


In my previous life, I was a day camp director and prior to that a resident camp counselor, counselor in training and camper. I have a lot of experience with camp. But this was my first time with all boys and learning the "Boy Scout" way of doing things. We swam, we arched (archeried?), shot bb guns, did arts and crafts, played flag football and most of all, I herded boys around. It was much like herding cats. We had the kid whose behavior markedly improved when he showed up with glasses on on day 4. We had the kid who could spot an insect at 50 feet, pick it up and bring it to you- alive. We had the kid who wanted to reapply bug spray every 30 minutes (he didn't return after day 2). The whole experience really reminded me of why I loved and hated my previous job. I'm actually looking forward to volunteering again next summer. I will have to rewatch all three seasons of SurvivorMan and brush up on some awesome outdoor skills to impress the kids next year. I love Les Stroud!

I feel like I have pretty much let go of the aviation wives world for a bit. I haven't been on the forums lately and don't really have any desire to do so. I can only tolerate so much whining and jabs about who's husband is gone the longest and who's got the most desirable job. I am reading Ralph Nader's book Collision Course, about the industry. It's outdated (1993) and makes references to rules and regulations that aren't correct (at this point any way), but it's an interesting read. I will post more about it once I've finished it.

Kidzilla leaves next week to spend the summer with his father in CA. It's a bittersweet parting every year.

4 comments:

Flying High said...

Interesting what you say about not going on the forums, with all the rivalry there. I have the same sort of feeling towards infertility forums at the moment! Perfectly natural, I completely understand.

Take care of yourself.x

Null said...

Ok, so it's not just me that feels that way about the forums. I've always been a bit on the insecure side and thought I was just imagining the undertone.

Kidzilla is really lucky to have a mom like you. That's awesome you were so involved with the camp. I don't think I could have made it through the week. I got a little itchy just reading about it.

The Flying 35 said...

Personally I prefer Man v. Wild with Bear but to each their own. I understand about the forums. I visit one that you are frequent and get irritated with all of the my life is worse than yours.

There is only so much a person can take.

Ex Wife to a Douchebag - disgusted by his white trash fiance said...

As you know, I have hated those forums for a while. I do however, have some sense of enjoyment reading how naive the "newbies" are (enter evil snicker).