Reasons to let someone else do the driving

Speed. My friend is not the fastest or most aggressive driver I've ridden with, thankfully. But he drives faster than I do. Of course, I'm fairly certain that both of my grandmothers drive faster than I do.

Entertainment. Give a man a five-hour energy drink and he is now properly prepared to talk for the next five hours. I ended up holding my school book rather than reading it. No regrets. 

Friendship. Spend thirteen hours locked in a steel box with someone (especially someone hyped up on energy drinks) and you'll get to know them better. This increased knowledge may make you like them less, but your knowledge will still have deepened. (Just to clarify, I don't like B any less. We know each other better and I suspect we're better friends because of it.)

All in all, it was a successful Michigan trip. I'm back in Milwaukee, blogging instead of reading. Seriously, the biggest problem I have with Belinda right now is that the book is sooooo looooong. And considering some of the other things I've had to read this semester, that's not really a problem. I should bake for my 8 o'clock class tonight, but I'm tempted to put it off until Thursday. That's because I'm a procrastinator.

quick review of many events

A lot has happened during the past couple of weeks. I went home and visited my family. I went to my Auburn Hills home and visited that family. I mixed up Gaylord and Grayling in my head. I made it safely back to Camp.

We are now midway through the second week of spring cleaning here. Both weeks I have been assigned to the chapels. This means that I get to clean some of my favorite places at camp and that I have an overwhelming, and unexpected, desire to play ping-pong. I blame it on the fumes from the Murphy's Oil Soap.

This weekend was stuffed with guests and good times. Amanda, Nathan, Claire, and Zeke all made the journey up to see me. Well, me and The Hunger Games. We also went shooting early Saturday morning to celebrate Nathan's new pistol and Kevin's birthday.

Obviously, I was taking this picture very seriously.

I will leave you with a brief story. Today I was washing the East Side Chapel platform when LB came to join our crew. He looked at me, "We've been trying to get you on your knees at the front of chapel for years!"

Terrariums with Cherry

This afternoon, Cherry and I embarked on a terrarium-creating adventure. I embarked with a modicum of trepidation, as I am known neither for my craftiness nor my neatness. And terrariums have dirt as a main element - dirt, moss, and lizards (no reptiles were harmed in the making of these terrariums.)

Our ingredients await.

Dirt is amazing stuff. It's amazing how quickly it spreads.

We placed the dirt, more or less carefully, in the glasses.
One of us was more successful with the tidiness factor.
One of us scattered dirt across the counter.
I was the messy one.

We then took the moss and laid it gently on top of our soil.

Cherry's lizards lay peacefully on top of their moss, secure in their new homes.

My lizards tried to make a break for it.

Finally, all was completed. Pieces of springtime rest on the counter.

PG arrived home to be greeted by our terrariums.
He was intrigued, "Is this what's for dinner? Lizard pie?"

Cherry and I both, I believe, enjoyed our adventure greatly. The dirt resides within its boundaries, the lizards remain where placed, and all is well. All photo credit goes to Cherry. Read her blog post about our time at http://chirpchirpcherry.blogspot.com/2012/03/fun-with-friends.html
photo credit: Cherry

What do you do when you're home alone?

I don't really have much to say this week. It's been a fairly normal week. I cleaned, did the laundry, and said goodbye to Lydia. It was great fun having her visit for a week and very sad to see her go. Now my life looks like this:

This is me sitting all alone in my bare living room.

The Dalek and I notice an enemy in the distance . . .

Exterminate!

Ok, so my life is not quite like that, but doesn't that look fun? Living alone this season has been a little different, and often, a little too quiet. However, I do leave the house occasionally and socialize with others. And sometimes people come and stay with me on the weekends. The past two weekends have been packed with friends, fun, and very late nights. This upcoming weekend brings two friends - Claire and Clara (yeah, that won't be confusing) - so the fun continues.

There are only two winter retreats remaining, so thoughts have begun to turn to summer and summer preparations. HIS-Ability week is already completely full and Lee Brown has had me start to work on the oodles of necessary paperwork.

Staffing interviews for summer are in full swing. I believe we have over fifty applications that have been submitted. We're still praying for male counselors - we only have about eight applications - and piano players - zero applications. However, yesterday at Staff Fellowship, we were told that the need for female counselors has been met by an influx of applications and that need has about been filled at this point :)

Where on Barakel property can you spot this fellow?

an assortment of stories

My apologies for the lack of a post last week. As a traditional procrastinator, I kept putting it off from day to day until I ran out of days. Since this was brought to my attention, I have kept careful track of my weekend in order to have the maximum number of amusing incidents to relate to you.

My Friday evening in the Skate Hut was brightened both by the arrival of my sister, Lydia, and the amusing statements of a staff kid who has asked to remain anonymous. I offered a name change and the offer was eagerly accepted, so for the purpose of this blog post, the staff kid in question shall be known as Wendell.

Wendell eagerly informed the Skate Hut occupants of the susceptibility of Native Americans to our diseases. At first, we were in complete agreement with this. Then, we realized that Wendell meant their current susceptibility, not their historical - i.e. when European settlers brought over smallpox. We attempted to explain that the reason for the vulnerability was due to the isolation of the Native Americans from the Europeans.

Wendell apparently accepted this, but then queried, “What about in Montana?”

Laughter.

Wendell waited for the laughter to die down. “Canada?”

Saturday afternoon brought guests to my house. Having been trained in proper hostess behaviour, I offered them beverages and snacks. Kevin accepted a muffin. We carried merrily on with our conversation until it was interrupted by gagging sounds from Kevin.

I spun.

He held out the muffin, missing a single bite. The bite was missing both from the muffin and the surrounding wrapper.

My failures as a hostess instantly became clear. Always remove the muffin papers. It will help your unwary guests.

As mentioned earlier, my sister is visiting me for the week. She, Naomi, and I enjoyed a cosy sleepover on Sunday night. A regularly intermittent beep provided the only strident interruption. We endured it throughout the night. However, when morning brought no cessation, our sanity became threatened.

The great beep hunt began.

The first suspect was the smoke alarm conspicuously situated, white against the knotty pine, on the paneled ceiling. It demonstrated its silence quite convincingly.

We spread throughout the house, and even into the connecting hall of the triplex. Nothing. The beep continued. We listened intently, casting about for the source and finally met by the back wall. Nothing was there. No sign of anything that could beep.

Inspiration flashed across Naomi's face. She reached out and opened a cabinet, formerly hidden, disguised by the pattern of the paneling. She rooted through the cabinet and brought out the culprit - another smoke alarm. There was much rejoicing.

And that was pretty much my weekend. I did the usual work. Campers had the usual amount of fun. A good time was had by all.

Teen retreats this weekend!

Snow and Friends

Camp's plethora of snow meant that it was the inaugural weekend for the ski trails, and the Ski Haus. I spent a busy saturday stacking skis and knotting boots back together. The morning was quiet, but the after lunch rush was insane.

If you are interested in skiing here, I would recommend renting in the morning - then you'll be set for the rest of the day and not have to wait in line with the ninety other people who decided to rent skis right after lunch. Just a friendly hint.

I really enjoyed the Ski Haus. Fortunately. I'm scheduled to spend my entire Saturday there again this weekend.

This weekend, I also enjoyed a visit from Amanda and Claire. We frolicked together in the snow. None of us had ever been snowshoing before, so Amanda and Claire convinced me that it would be a grand adventure and that we all needed to go together. They are persuasive people.

This is Claire, buckling on snowshoes for the very first time.

This is Amanda. It looks like she's putting snowshoes on but she's actually taking them off.


Claire and me not falling over.

Three snowshoes! And snow!

I can now cheerfully recommend snowshoing to any eager inquirers.
We had a great weekend together.

I can hardly wait for them to come back.

Wait.

Amanda is already back.

I have good friends.

A Friend Comes to Call

This week, I was blessed by the visit of an actual person! See her? Way down there, right by the bright spot of orange.

This is Amanda at the bottom of the Thunder Express - her very first time on it.

This is Amanda almost all the way back up that very steep hill. She was a very obedient Thunder Expresser and always remembered to ring the bell to signal that it was safe for someone else to go down. We were the only people there, but it is important to maintain standards.

Amanda arrived Sunday evening and we optimistically ventured down to the waterfront for some star-gazing. This optimism remained unfulfilled, as the clouds covered most of the sky. Still, we survived going straight down the pathless hill behind my house with no injuries. That can only be a positive. Sadly, we also did not see the bear. I don't believe I will get to see it this fall. Maybe in the spring.

Monday is my day off. We spent the morning visiting the afore-mentioned Thunder Express and wandering through the woods. We made a brief stop at Crosscut Lodge, the most recently constructed building at camp, where we discovered a beautiful pile of mushrooms. Mushrooms are not usually what I think of when I ponder beauty, but the structured fragility of this casual heap is beautiful, in a way beyond standard aesthetics.

After Crosscut, we rambled down the old railroad grade to the north end of the lake. Clouds still blanketed the sky, drowning out the sun's rays and darkening the day, but gray is a colour too. It's a colour of contentment and serenity - of acceptance and calm. Shear Lake is lovely in every colour.

Amanda also discovered the perfect hiding spot.

I enjoyed every minute of Amanda's visit. It is great to be here at Barakel, but it can be lonely as well. Friends are scarce in the isolated Northern woods, especially ones who are unafraid of bears, beavers, and beeing beaten at Boggle. In the interests of full disclosure, I should mention that I did not win a single game of Skip-bo. She is the champion.

Amanda stayed even longer than I had hoped, not leaving until Wednesday morning. She took me to town on Monday, helped me with my work on Tuesday, and always claimed to be having a good time.

Last night, PG was talking to me about Amanda, "So, she is a true friend, then?"
"Absolutely."
Thank you, Amanda, for being a true friend, for being what I have been looking for since the first time I read Anne of Green Gables - a kindred spirit.