Well... sorry to start my blogging off with a short rant, but it must be done! My mom has been having an ongoing feud with our neighbors (long story... I should blog about that at some point!), and it is the only thing she knows how to discuss lately! I swear, she is spending most of her day peering out the window, as if she's expecting their house to blow up at any moment! Seriously... I am really starting to hate Saturday afternoons when I am left at home with my mother! I'll be very glad when my father gets off of work, so she can talk to him incessantly, and not to me!
Another small rant... my blog template is being wonky. I switched stuff over to photobucket hoping it would make things better, and instead everything came out the wrong size. I changed it back and it looked fine, and now it is all wonky again. I really like the autumn template, but if it is still messed up tomorrow, I'm going to have to change it.
******
Okay, so on to the actual Saturday post. I decided that Saturdays will actually have a theme. The theme for Saturday is "tell a funny camp story." I have so many random stories stockpiled from over the years, so why not tell some of the humorous ones?
This story comes from this past summer. It was was the last session of the summer, and it was as we call it "Opening Wednesday," or the first day of camp for the campers of the fourth session. Opening day in the Health Lodge was kind of strange for someone who was used to it being a relatively busy day in a unit, such as myself. In a housing unit, you'd get a steady stream of parents and campers coming to check in through the morning and early afternoon. In the health lodge, we basically sit and twiddle our thumbs for the morning, and then suddenly things get absolutely insane around 1pm, and doesn't let up until around 11pm. Basically from 1pm until 11pm, I would run around like a frantic chicken with its head cut off, doing anything and everything to get us through the day.
It was dinnertime, and myself and my boss Jenn were heading to dinner, ready to pass out lists to unit directors. We had been working for hours getting med lists made and copied, so that the UDs would have a list in front of them of what camper in their unit had meds, and when they were supposed to take them. As we were walking to dinner, I told Jenn I'd stop by the Bernie dining room to give the list to the Camp Bernstein directors. (Quick explanation, Camp Bernstein is the junior camp with younger kids.)
When I got to the Bernie dining room, the kids were going crazy, as any self respecting Bernie camper should be doing when faced with chicken nuggets and macaroni for dinner. I found one of the directors, I'll call her Jess #3 (I worked with numerous people named Jessica this summer). As I handed her the list, she pulls me aside and says "Hey, do you have time to talk after dinner?" I nodded my head and said "Yeah, what's going on? No health problems yet I hope!" She looked at me and said "Something totally random that a camper told us, that I'd like to check on. If we could pull their health form after dinner and maybe give the mom a call, that'd be great." I looked slightly puzzled, I'm sure, but my response was "Sure, stop by the Lodge after dinner and we'll figure it out."
After dinner, Jess #3 came by my office as scheduled. Where Jenn was at this time, I honestly don't remember. When Jess had a seat, she explained to me that a camper informed them that she had a heart condition a few hours ago, after her parents had left. As Jess said, quoting the camper "She says she has 'a total heart malfunction.'" I couldn't help but laugh, I mean, what the hell? "A total heart malfunction? Wouldn't that mean like, I don't know, you were dead?" I said while laughing. "Yeah, that's what I would figure too, but what do I know? That's why I figured we should look at her health form and maybe give her mom a call." Jess explained with a laugh. "Right. Good idea. Maybe she has a heart murmur? Hang on, I'll go up front and pull her form, and see what the heck is going on." I said, still laughing.
When Jess #3 and I looked at the health form, there was nothing to be found. The camper didn't even have as much as hay fever listed as a problem on the form. "Well, okay Jess, either there is nothing wrong with this child, or the parent was trying to hide that something was wrong with the camper. Either way, I guess our only option now is to call home and see if someone can shed some light on this." I said with a sigh. It wasn't that I didn't want to help Jess out and figure out if we had a camper who needed medical attention. I basically had that phone attached to my head all afternoon, and the thought of making another parent call was not the highlight of my evening.
I picked up the phone and waited to hear someone answer. A woman, sounding to be in her 30's or 40's, answered the phone. "Hi, Mrs. So and So? Hello, I'm Tamara, the Assistant Health Director calling from Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Your daughter is doing well, I just wanted to ask you a few questions about a comment she made to the Camp Bernstein Directors this afternoon. She told them that she has a 'Total Heart Malfunction,' and I was just calling to ask you about this." I looked at Jess while saying all of this, and she was leaning eagerly towards me. "What? Blue Lake? What is your name, Pamela?" The mom asked me over the phone. "Ah, no, Tamara. I'm the Assistant Health Director." I said, trying to be a bit clearer. "Camera??" The woman said, slightly shouting. "No, Tam-rah!" I said, trying to be a bit louder without raising my voice.
"Oh sorry. Okay, so tell me what's going on Pamela?" The mom said to me. At this point, I was over trying to correct her. If she wanted to call me Pamela, that was fine by me. "Your daughter says she has a heart condition. I didn't see anything on her health form about this. Is there anything we should know so that we can make your daughter's stay here as safe as possible?" I was trying to not sound as if I was accusing the camper of making anything up, or that the parent left information off the health form. "My daughter says she has what?" The mom asked me. "A heart condition, ma'am." I replied, while looking at Jess. Jess was raising her eyebrows at me. "A what condition?" The woman was again slightly shouting. "A Heart condition." I said, trying not to raise my voice too much. "A WHAT condition?" The woman said, louder. "A Heart Condition." I said, just a little bit louder. "Honey, you'll have to really speak up, I'm partially deaf!" The mom said to me, now almost yelling. Jess was now looking at me, utterly confused. "A Heart Condition!" I shouted. "What, still can't quite hear that!" The mom shouted back. Oh good lord! "A HEART condition!" I was now at the top of my voice, the loudest I could be without screaming. "One more time?" The mom said again. "A HEART CONDITION!!!!" I said, screaming in to the phone.
At this point, I suddenly heard everything around me coming to a complete halt. My staff were no doubt wondering why in the heck they could hear me screaming about a heart condition with the office door shut. I really thought Jess was going to pee herself from laughing at me. I could feel my face turning red, and I was trying to hold back laughing. So help me God, if this woman still didn't hear me, I thought I was going to hang up the phone and call it a day. Thankfully, she replied with "A heart condition?? What in the world would make her say something like that? No, she's perfectly healthy and fine. Heart condition my ass, let me tell you, she's slightly overweight. That's because she's lazy, not because of a heart condition. Oh, she probably just wants to get out of rec hour. Oh no. Tell her she's perfectly fine and that she's going to just have to suck it up and play kickball and jump rope and swimming and everything else with the other kids! She's fine. Thank you for calling! Have a nice evening!" After all of that, she hung up. I slammed down the phone, put my head in my hands, and immediately began to laugh hysterically. Tears were streaming down my face. Jess and I must have sat and laugh for a good few minutes, before she gasped and said "So, does the kid have a HEART CONDITION???" "No! But apparently, she's just overweight. Good lord." I said, still laughing.
Later that evening at the UD meeting, our boss Heidi asked us "So, anything funny happen today?" Jess #3 and I immediately made eye contact and burst out laughing. After Jess told the story to everyone, I could feel myself turning red again, but laughing at the same time. :)
******
That's my camp story for today, hope it wasn't too long for you!
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Saturday, November 3, 2007
Camp Story Saturdays
Well... sorry to start my blogging off with a short rant, but it must be done! My mom has been having an ongoing feud with our neighbors (long story... I should blog about that at some point!), and it is the only thing she knows how to discuss lately! I swear, she is spending most of her day peering out the window, as if she's expecting their house to blow up at any moment! Seriously... I am really starting to hate Saturday afternoons when I am left at home with my mother! I'll be very glad when my father gets off of work, so she can talk to him incessantly, and not to me!
Another small rant... my blog template is being wonky. I switched stuff over to photobucket hoping it would make things better, and instead everything came out the wrong size. I changed it back and it looked fine, and now it is all wonky again. I really like the autumn template, but if it is still messed up tomorrow, I'm going to have to change it.
******
Okay, so on to the actual Saturday post. I decided that Saturdays will actually have a theme. The theme for Saturday is "tell a funny camp story." I have so many random stories stockpiled from over the years, so why not tell some of the humorous ones?
This story comes from this past summer. It was was the last session of the summer, and it was as we call it "Opening Wednesday," or the first day of camp for the campers of the fourth session. Opening day in the Health Lodge was kind of strange for someone who was used to it being a relatively busy day in a unit, such as myself. In a housing unit, you'd get a steady stream of parents and campers coming to check in through the morning and early afternoon. In the health lodge, we basically sit and twiddle our thumbs for the morning, and then suddenly things get absolutely insane around 1pm, and doesn't let up until around 11pm. Basically from 1pm until 11pm, I would run around like a frantic chicken with its head cut off, doing anything and everything to get us through the day.
It was dinnertime, and myself and my boss Jenn were heading to dinner, ready to pass out lists to unit directors. We had been working for hours getting med lists made and copied, so that the UDs would have a list in front of them of what camper in their unit had meds, and when they were supposed to take them. As we were walking to dinner, I told Jenn I'd stop by the Bernie dining room to give the list to the Camp Bernstein directors. (Quick explanation, Camp Bernstein is the junior camp with younger kids.)
When I got to the Bernie dining room, the kids were going crazy, as any self respecting Bernie camper should be doing when faced with chicken nuggets and macaroni for dinner. I found one of the directors, I'll call her Jess #3 (I worked with numerous people named Jessica this summer). As I handed her the list, she pulls me aside and says "Hey, do you have time to talk after dinner?" I nodded my head and said "Yeah, what's going on? No health problems yet I hope!" She looked at me and said "Something totally random that a camper told us, that I'd like to check on. If we could pull their health form after dinner and maybe give the mom a call, that'd be great." I looked slightly puzzled, I'm sure, but my response was "Sure, stop by the Lodge after dinner and we'll figure it out."
After dinner, Jess #3 came by my office as scheduled. Where Jenn was at this time, I honestly don't remember. When Jess had a seat, she explained to me that a camper informed them that she had a heart condition a few hours ago, after her parents had left. As Jess said, quoting the camper "She says she has 'a total heart malfunction.'" I couldn't help but laugh, I mean, what the hell? "A total heart malfunction? Wouldn't that mean like, I don't know, you were dead?" I said while laughing. "Yeah, that's what I would figure too, but what do I know? That's why I figured we should look at her health form and maybe give her mom a call." Jess explained with a laugh. "Right. Good idea. Maybe she has a heart murmur? Hang on, I'll go up front and pull her form, and see what the heck is going on." I said, still laughing.
When Jess #3 and I looked at the health form, there was nothing to be found. The camper didn't even have as much as hay fever listed as a problem on the form. "Well, okay Jess, either there is nothing wrong with this child, or the parent was trying to hide that something was wrong with the camper. Either way, I guess our only option now is to call home and see if someone can shed some light on this." I said with a sigh. It wasn't that I didn't want to help Jess out and figure out if we had a camper who needed medical attention. I basically had that phone attached to my head all afternoon, and the thought of making another parent call was not the highlight of my evening.
I picked up the phone and waited to hear someone answer. A woman, sounding to be in her 30's or 40's, answered the phone. "Hi, Mrs. So and So? Hello, I'm Tamara, the Assistant Health Director calling from Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Your daughter is doing well, I just wanted to ask you a few questions about a comment she made to the Camp Bernstein Directors this afternoon. She told them that she has a 'Total Heart Malfunction,' and I was just calling to ask you about this." I looked at Jess while saying all of this, and she was leaning eagerly towards me. "What? Blue Lake? What is your name, Pamela?" The mom asked me over the phone. "Ah, no, Tamara. I'm the Assistant Health Director." I said, trying to be a bit clearer. "Camera??" The woman said, slightly shouting. "No, Tam-rah!" I said, trying to be a bit louder without raising my voice.
"Oh sorry. Okay, so tell me what's going on Pamela?" The mom said to me. At this point, I was over trying to correct her. If she wanted to call me Pamela, that was fine by me. "Your daughter says she has a heart condition. I didn't see anything on her health form about this. Is there anything we should know so that we can make your daughter's stay here as safe as possible?" I was trying to not sound as if I was accusing the camper of making anything up, or that the parent left information off the health form. "My daughter says she has what?" The mom asked me. "A heart condition, ma'am." I replied, while looking at Jess. Jess was raising her eyebrows at me. "A what condition?" The woman was again slightly shouting. "A Heart condition." I said, trying not to raise my voice too much. "A WHAT condition?" The woman said, louder. "A Heart Condition." I said, just a little bit louder. "Honey, you'll have to really speak up, I'm partially deaf!" The mom said to me, now almost yelling. Jess was now looking at me, utterly confused. "A Heart Condition!" I shouted. "What, still can't quite hear that!" The mom shouted back. Oh good lord! "A HEART condition!" I was now at the top of my voice, the loudest I could be without screaming. "One more time?" The mom said again. "A HEART CONDITION!!!!" I said, screaming in to the phone.
At this point, I suddenly heard everything around me coming to a complete halt. My staff were no doubt wondering why in the heck they could hear me screaming about a heart condition with the office door shut. I really thought Jess was going to pee herself from laughing at me. I could feel my face turning red, and I was trying to hold back laughing. So help me God, if this woman still didn't hear me, I thought I was going to hang up the phone and call it a day. Thankfully, she replied with "A heart condition?? What in the world would make her say something like that? No, she's perfectly healthy and fine. Heart condition my ass, let me tell you, she's slightly overweight. That's because she's lazy, not because of a heart condition. Oh, she probably just wants to get out of rec hour. Oh no. Tell her she's perfectly fine and that she's going to just have to suck it up and play kickball and jump rope and swimming and everything else with the other kids! She's fine. Thank you for calling! Have a nice evening!" After all of that, she hung up. I slammed down the phone, put my head in my hands, and immediately began to laugh hysterically. Tears were streaming down my face. Jess and I must have sat and laugh for a good few minutes, before she gasped and said "So, does the kid have a HEART CONDITION???" "No! But apparently, she's just overweight. Good lord." I said, still laughing.
Later that evening at the UD meeting, our boss Heidi asked us "So, anything funny happen today?" Jess #3 and I immediately made eye contact and burst out laughing. After Jess told the story to everyone, I could feel myself turning red again, but laughing at the same time. :)
******
That's my camp story for today, hope it wasn't too long for you!
Another small rant... my blog template is being wonky. I switched stuff over to photobucket hoping it would make things better, and instead everything came out the wrong size. I changed it back and it looked fine, and now it is all wonky again. I really like the autumn template, but if it is still messed up tomorrow, I'm going to have to change it.
******
Okay, so on to the actual Saturday post. I decided that Saturdays will actually have a theme. The theme for Saturday is "tell a funny camp story." I have so many random stories stockpiled from over the years, so why not tell some of the humorous ones?
This story comes from this past summer. It was was the last session of the summer, and it was as we call it "Opening Wednesday," or the first day of camp for the campers of the fourth session. Opening day in the Health Lodge was kind of strange for someone who was used to it being a relatively busy day in a unit, such as myself. In a housing unit, you'd get a steady stream of parents and campers coming to check in through the morning and early afternoon. In the health lodge, we basically sit and twiddle our thumbs for the morning, and then suddenly things get absolutely insane around 1pm, and doesn't let up until around 11pm. Basically from 1pm until 11pm, I would run around like a frantic chicken with its head cut off, doing anything and everything to get us through the day.
It was dinnertime, and myself and my boss Jenn were heading to dinner, ready to pass out lists to unit directors. We had been working for hours getting med lists made and copied, so that the UDs would have a list in front of them of what camper in their unit had meds, and when they were supposed to take them. As we were walking to dinner, I told Jenn I'd stop by the Bernie dining room to give the list to the Camp Bernstein directors. (Quick explanation, Camp Bernstein is the junior camp with younger kids.)
When I got to the Bernie dining room, the kids were going crazy, as any self respecting Bernie camper should be doing when faced with chicken nuggets and macaroni for dinner. I found one of the directors, I'll call her Jess #3 (I worked with numerous people named Jessica this summer). As I handed her the list, she pulls me aside and says "Hey, do you have time to talk after dinner?" I nodded my head and said "Yeah, what's going on? No health problems yet I hope!" She looked at me and said "Something totally random that a camper told us, that I'd like to check on. If we could pull their health form after dinner and maybe give the mom a call, that'd be great." I looked slightly puzzled, I'm sure, but my response was "Sure, stop by the Lodge after dinner and we'll figure it out."
After dinner, Jess #3 came by my office as scheduled. Where Jenn was at this time, I honestly don't remember. When Jess had a seat, she explained to me that a camper informed them that she had a heart condition a few hours ago, after her parents had left. As Jess said, quoting the camper "She says she has 'a total heart malfunction.'" I couldn't help but laugh, I mean, what the hell? "A total heart malfunction? Wouldn't that mean like, I don't know, you were dead?" I said while laughing. "Yeah, that's what I would figure too, but what do I know? That's why I figured we should look at her health form and maybe give her mom a call." Jess explained with a laugh. "Right. Good idea. Maybe she has a heart murmur? Hang on, I'll go up front and pull her form, and see what the heck is going on." I said, still laughing.
When Jess #3 and I looked at the health form, there was nothing to be found. The camper didn't even have as much as hay fever listed as a problem on the form. "Well, okay Jess, either there is nothing wrong with this child, or the parent was trying to hide that something was wrong with the camper. Either way, I guess our only option now is to call home and see if someone can shed some light on this." I said with a sigh. It wasn't that I didn't want to help Jess out and figure out if we had a camper who needed medical attention. I basically had that phone attached to my head all afternoon, and the thought of making another parent call was not the highlight of my evening.
I picked up the phone and waited to hear someone answer. A woman, sounding to be in her 30's or 40's, answered the phone. "Hi, Mrs. So and So? Hello, I'm Tamara, the Assistant Health Director calling from Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. Your daughter is doing well, I just wanted to ask you a few questions about a comment she made to the Camp Bernstein Directors this afternoon. She told them that she has a 'Total Heart Malfunction,' and I was just calling to ask you about this." I looked at Jess while saying all of this, and she was leaning eagerly towards me. "What? Blue Lake? What is your name, Pamela?" The mom asked me over the phone. "Ah, no, Tamara. I'm the Assistant Health Director." I said, trying to be a bit clearer. "Camera??" The woman said, slightly shouting. "No, Tam-rah!" I said, trying to be a bit louder without raising my voice.
"Oh sorry. Okay, so tell me what's going on Pamela?" The mom said to me. At this point, I was over trying to correct her. If she wanted to call me Pamela, that was fine by me. "Your daughter says she has a heart condition. I didn't see anything on her health form about this. Is there anything we should know so that we can make your daughter's stay here as safe as possible?" I was trying to not sound as if I was accusing the camper of making anything up, or that the parent left information off the health form. "My daughter says she has what?" The mom asked me. "A heart condition, ma'am." I replied, while looking at Jess. Jess was raising her eyebrows at me. "A what condition?" The woman was again slightly shouting. "A Heart condition." I said, trying not to raise my voice too much. "A WHAT condition?" The woman said, louder. "A Heart Condition." I said, just a little bit louder. "Honey, you'll have to really speak up, I'm partially deaf!" The mom said to me, now almost yelling. Jess was now looking at me, utterly confused. "A Heart Condition!" I shouted. "What, still can't quite hear that!" The mom shouted back. Oh good lord! "A HEART condition!" I was now at the top of my voice, the loudest I could be without screaming. "One more time?" The mom said again. "A HEART CONDITION!!!!" I said, screaming in to the phone.
At this point, I suddenly heard everything around me coming to a complete halt. My staff were no doubt wondering why in the heck they could hear me screaming about a heart condition with the office door shut. I really thought Jess was going to pee herself from laughing at me. I could feel my face turning red, and I was trying to hold back laughing. So help me God, if this woman still didn't hear me, I thought I was going to hang up the phone and call it a day. Thankfully, she replied with "A heart condition?? What in the world would make her say something like that? No, she's perfectly healthy and fine. Heart condition my ass, let me tell you, she's slightly overweight. That's because she's lazy, not because of a heart condition. Oh, she probably just wants to get out of rec hour. Oh no. Tell her she's perfectly fine and that she's going to just have to suck it up and play kickball and jump rope and swimming and everything else with the other kids! She's fine. Thank you for calling! Have a nice evening!" After all of that, she hung up. I slammed down the phone, put my head in my hands, and immediately began to laugh hysterically. Tears were streaming down my face. Jess and I must have sat and laugh for a good few minutes, before she gasped and said "So, does the kid have a HEART CONDITION???" "No! But apparently, she's just overweight. Good lord." I said, still laughing.
Later that evening at the UD meeting, our boss Heidi asked us "So, anything funny happen today?" Jess #3 and I immediately made eye contact and burst out laughing. After Jess told the story to everyone, I could feel myself turning red again, but laughing at the same time. :)
******
That's my camp story for today, hope it wasn't too long for you!
1 comment:
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Robin said...
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If you have Beta Blogger, and try to upload the photos to your own site, it will mess the template up. Even if the person uses say Photobucket for example and you do to. The new skins are not compatible with Beta Blogger which is uberly annoying. I just use the persons links they have listed. If they say something to me, then I'll change it. Otherwise I leave it alone. :)
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3:06 PM EDT
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1 comment:
If you have Beta Blogger, and try to upload the photos to your own site, it will mess the template up. Even if the person uses say Photobucket for example and you do to. The new skins are not compatible with Beta Blogger which is uberly annoying. I just use the persons links they have listed. If they say something to me, then I'll change it. Otherwise I leave it alone. :)
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