The Month of May(hem)...

So, I began thinking about writing this post at the beginning of the month...and haven't had time to sit down and write in awhile. It's been awhile since I've posted, so I'll do my best to fill in the last month.

After I had my weekend of trials and tribulations, I was back on the island, and I haven't left since. By the way, island fever is a real thing...and I've got a touch of it. I haven't been off the island in a month and I miss civilization. There's really no place to escape here - you are stuck in one place almost all the time.

It's been so long since I posted that I'm having a hard time remembering what has happened in the last month. Camp is camp...and I haven't been teaching much, which is partly fine but partly sucks with me being in the office allllll day every day. I do have a new form of transportation though. I'll post a picture soon, but I have a purple  electric bicycle/moped sort of thing that I ride to the office a few days a week. We have decided to name it Nudibranch. If you don't know what a nudibranch is, look it up. They have to be some of the coolest things ever.

I also caught a halibut one weekend. Totally made life AMAZING! It was a weekend where I didn't know what to do with myself, so I went to say hi to Cari (aquarium intern) and ended up getting to go shark fishing! I didn't catch a shark, but a halibut nommed on my squid, and I reeled him in. :) His name is Lenny and he now lives in the Rocky Reef tank in the aquarium.

Easter went by quickly, and it definitely didn't feel like Easter. Although I did participate in an Easter Egg hunt! I haven't done that since I was a kid, and it was hilarious. I ended up being crowned the queen of Easter as I ended up with the most eggs. I definitely did miss home a lot though.

The rest of the month has been fairly uneventful - 2 trips to Avalon in a week (1 business, 1 pleasure) a lot of movie watching, and quite a bit of work. Exciting, right? :S 

Anyway, I'll try to update a little more as the last 3 weeks of the season go by. I hope you all are doing well. I miss you!

On our way to Avalon!

Hats!

These two are hilarious. :) 

Tales of Misadventure

So...apparently I spoke too soon last weekend about how good it was going to be. I had worse luck all weekend than I've had in a long time. Let me regale you with our tales of misadventure.

As soon as I shut my computer after posting last weeks blog, I got up to leave the Coffee Bean and realized my keys were locked in the ignition. Nothing like knowing your spare is 2000 miles away. So I called the police department (not 911) and they gave me the number for the locksmith. Thankfully he said he would come in about 10 minutes, but I knew I would need more cash, so I ran to the ATM in the grocery store next door. Unfortunately, I cannot remember my pin number and my dearest mother couldn't find the slip in my desk drawer. So I was basically screwed. I met the locksmith in the parking lot (a very nice man by the way), and realized that I should just keep blood pressure cuffs and a hanger in my backpack, because that's basically what he used to open the door. When I asked him if he could accept checks, he said "Not if it isn't local." Ugh. Thankfully he had the resources to take down my credit card info. Problem solved.

Friday night Melodie and I ate wonderful food and watched "Enchanted April"...apparently her day had been a nightmare too. And I got to sleep in a gigantically wonderful bed.

Saturday, we woke up late, ate waffles and went to Griffith Park and Hollywood, since I had never been there. We stopped at the Grove and met her sister Natalie for lunch. Great right? It was, but we ended up being 1 1/2 hours late for MSA's 2 hour fundraiser. The restaurant took forever, we ran into traffic, and then we got pulled over for speeding. (Thankfully it wasn't me driving.) Then I had to drive back up to Hollywood to pick up my car to head over to Riverside, where we stayed at Mary's house.

Sunday, we slept in again, streamed church online, and then left for Cabrillo to catch the 2 p.m. boat back to camp. No problem...except for stupid LA traffic again. Where were all those people headed on a freaking Sunday?? We had planned on being there by 1, but it ended up being 1:30, and I still had to park my car and get picked up. So I dropped off Mary, Ryan and Julia, told them to hold the boat for me, and parked in my spot by 1:45...and then waited for Melodie. Around 2, Annie called and said they could only hold the boat for 15 minutes. Melodie came around 2:10, and we sped back across the 2 bridges to Long Beach (thankfully no speeding ticket this time...although we were going much, much faster than the speed limit) and parked at the Pike. We immediately began running to catch the boat, and Annie called again, saying we had a minute to get to the boat. "We're sprinting!" I replied and hung up the phone. Now, picture Melodie and I sprinting as though there are a pack of crazed wolves behind us down 4 flights of stairs in the parking garage and down the street. Just to give you a better image, I am in flip flops and have a very heavy backpack strapped to my back. Not exactly Olympic-approved gear for the 100 meter (more like mile) dash. We had to stop to cross a huge intersection, and as we panted for breath I gasped out "We aren't going to make it. Annie told us we have a minute." Melodie took off as soon as cars stopped, I worked as hard as I could to keep up. We did make the boat, but it took a good 20 minutes into the ride for me to stop wheezing, and the rest of the day to stop coughing every now and then. The worst part is, when we got to camp, the Boy Scouts said we were early. EARLY.

The rest of the week was alright - nothing major happened, but it was long since I didn't have much of a relaxing weekend. I'm working to change that now. I did nothing all day but grade a few journals, lay out on the beach in my bikini and have a spa night with the girls. We've been wanting to paint our toenails for awhile, so Julia went crazy with it and gave us each a foot/calf massage. We ate dark chocolate and watched a bootlegged copy of Wicked. Amazing. And totally what I needed. I'm praying that tomorrow is more of the same.

Love you all!

Coffee...and snow.

Ugh. I cannot escape from the stupid snow. I was summoned to the mountains for the second half of this week, and I barely made it out today because it was snowing so ridiculously. It was heavy, it was wet, and it looked like Dip 'n Dots. Literally. It was coming down in little balls. Thankfully, I was done with work for the day and as soon as I was down the hill just a little ways it was fine.

So here I sit at the Coffee Bean. I was planning on heading back to San Pedro tonight and seeing Jane Eyre with Mary, but she stayed on the island an extra night, so I'm headed to Melodie's tonight instead. We are planning on watching movies and eating chocolate and ice cream. :)

So this week's recap: I was in the office a little, wandering Emerald for awhile, and then headed up to the mountain to work with Annie and to lead worship for the new staff. There are 4 1/2 newbies...I say 1/2 because Jeremy (our new Waterfront Director) came out to the island for a week before heading to the mountains. So, while he is still new-ish, he isn't completely an unfamiliar face. They seem nice enough, but it's definitely going to be weird when they come to the island.

Besides heading to Melodie's tonight, we are heading back to San Pedro tomorrow because there is a fundraising luncheon thing tomorrow and if we go we get free Armenian food and 1/2 comp day. Sounds good, right? I think Mary and I will head back to Riverside after that, and we'll go see Jane Eyre with Sarah. We don't have to be back until Monday morning, so who knows what the rest of the weekend looks like.

Alright, I'm headed up to the San Fernando Valley, so I'm off. Have a great weekend!! And enjoy the pics - the first three I took on a walk at sunrise on the island, and the last I took leaving Forest Home today. :)

Ups and Downs

It's been another couple of long weeks. But as of tomorrow everyone will be in camp! Last week we had some people in the mountains and one on vacation in Hawaii, so we've finally got almost everyone back. :) So nice.

Let's see what's happened lately. Some not so good things...
   I got the Expedition stuck in the mud on the way into Two Harbors
   I was almost the only MSA staff member to stay on the island last weekend (thankfully
   Mary & Marcus stayed too)
   I cleaned a dirty microwave

And some great things..!
   I taught another Vert/Invert lab (and no one collapsed!!!)
   I watched Disney's Peter Pan with Melodie
   I listened to some good choir music and soothed my soul (thank you Eric Whitacre)
   I did laundry with Mary and we sang "Matchmaker" from Fiddler on the Roof
   Fran let me drive Zalophus (MSA's boat) - totally the best part of my week. :)


This place is crazy. And exhausting. And when you are exhausted, it's really easy to be crabby. Toward the end of the week, everyone is dying for the weekend, and Friday lunch is so silent because everyone's energy crashes as soon as the kids leave. Speaking of energy crashing, David took Nyquil or some similar product after dinner tonight and then was trying to get a sugar high so he could make it through the trust walk. I felt bad for laughing, but he was so sadly pathetic (I'm using the word in the best possible sense: that it was evoking pity/sympathetic sadness) that I couldn't help it. I've definitely made that mistake before and it SUCKS. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. We have a high school group coming in this weekend. So some people won't get to rest...and next week is going to be loooonnnnng. I haven't been told if I'm working at all yet or not, but my fingers are crossed. I need the weekend.

Anyway, that's about all I have. Apart from the fact that it's supposed to be 80 degrees tomorrow!! (Don't worry, it goes back to about 65 for the next week.) I miss you all and hope you are doing well. Can't wait to hear from the midwest!!

Another Island Weekend

I suppose it's time to update people on my life since it's been almost two weeks. I probably shouldn't have waited until now, especially since I'm having a hard time remembering exactly what I did last week. And I only know it's Friday today because our kids left on the boat today. It's really hard to keep track of time here. 

Let's see. Last week I spent a couple of days in the office (still trying to get my bearings) and the rest of the time running around camp trying to help out everyone that needed help. I actually spend a lot of time in the camp store when it's open. The more help the better when there's a mob of kids rushing to get candy. Melodie and I also spent a lot of time last week working on the store display. It looked a little dismal before we decorated. We added the sea, sun, Garibaldi and the sea star...plus some birds at the top. (The sun and the sea star were my fabulous handiwork.)

Friday we left on the boat with the kids, and I was at Mary's again. Her sister Sarah was in a play called "The Reluctant Debutante" which was a lot of fun. I also went to see "The Eagle" and "Beastly." Definitely a weekend full of entertainment for me. 

Sunday night we were back in San Pedro and we did some "training" on Monday and Tuesday. I honestly think they were just trying to keep us paid while we didn't have any campers in. We really didn't do a whole lot those days. 

As for the rest of the week, we had two more schools come in, and I had the opportunity to teach my first class - Vertebrate/Invertebrate Lab. It was actually a ton of fun...despite the fact that a kid collapsed because of dehydration. In the middle of the lab, when the kids were looking at fish in a couple different tanks, one came up to me and said "I feel dizzy." So I told him to go sit down, and he didn't even make it to the chair 20 feet away. Once he got onto the chair, I asked him how much water he'd had, and apparently it hadn't been that much. So one of their chaperons went to get water, and I went on with the class. 15 minutes later he was totally fine and back involved for the rest of the class. Between this and the bird lab where I fell in, I'm starting to get a lot of stories. Apparently everything happens when I am part of it. Anyway, the chaperons wanted to get a picture with me and the kids, so I asked if they would take one with my camera too. Here it is. :) They were so much fun!

As for this weekend, I'm planning on reading, sleeping, and playing guitar. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, which stinks since I was planning on kayaking and a possible hike to Parson's, but we'll see. Also, if it's cloudy tomorrow night and I miss the super-moon, I'm gonna be all sorts of upset. :) It's already ridiculously bright. Anyway, I'll close with a couple more pictures. Have a great weekend!

My bed...complete with ridiculously lumpy mattress and towel wind-screens. 

The rest of the Poly. (Short for Polynesian) We haven't had much time to decorate.

Our bathroom!

This is the road to Two Harbors. So much fun when another car comes. 

Another view of the road. You wind around a lot of small harbors, so this is from one side looking over to the other. 

A Perfect Day

Ok, I think it's about time to make you mid-westerners jealous. Just kidding (kind of). It really is unintentional, and I must preface this by saying that God has TOTALLY blessed me with being able to spend my year on Catalina. Without Him, I wouldn't be here and so I am utterly grateful.

In case I haven't mentioned this before, MSA rents out Emerald Bay from the Boy Scouts. So there are people representing the Boy Scouts here all the time (not necessarily Scouts themselves - right now they just come on weekends), but there are staff here all the time. And this weekend, they had a bunch of arborists come out to trim and plant trees. So we had a flurry of activity today.

I slept in (ok, only until 7:30, but it's still a half an hour), got up, and sat in the sunshine ALL MORNING. Melodie and I sat and just watched the activity until lunch. It was so warm and sunny today that it was all I wanted to do. She eventually busted out her ukulele and egg shaker. Lunch was a cookout with amazing watermelon and cookies...it seriously felt like summer! And then there were a bunch of us that kayaked to Sandy Beach and laid out for awhile. I am definitely a lot more pink/reddish than I was this morning.

And if I thought breakfast was a feast, dinner was a banquet. (Is a banquet higher up than a feast? Because dinner blew lunch out of the water...) The kitchen staff started roasting a pig and a goat around 6 this morning, so by 5:30 it was succulent. Here's what was on the menu. Chicken thighs and drumsticks, fish filets with seasonings and lemon, rice, goat, pork, rolls, cookies, and fruit platters with pineapple, strawberries and kiwis. I may have totally overdone my protein limit for today, but it was totally worth it. It was basically a luau on the beach. :)

Anyway - island life on the weekends is incredible. I wish I could share it with you all. But you'll have to be ok with pictures for now. If you ever get a chance to come to Catalina, you should take it. :) Love you all!

The front of camp from the pier

Island Hair

Yes. I have island hair. And yes, it is awesome. For those of you who don't know what island hair is...my hair is starting to curl slightly from the ocean water. Finally, a little body! Although I do feel like I will forever have pruny fingers with the amount of time I've spent in the water over the last few days. I'll give you a little recap of life since Monday.

Mary and I got up on Monday morning at 5 and left Riverside at 6 in order to make sure we made it to the boat at 8:30. And if it hadn't been for the carpool lanes, we would've missed the boat (even with it leaving well over an hour late). Anyway, we enjoyed a breakfast of yogurt and tabbouleh in the car...found my parking spot and made it out to the boat in plenty of time. 

On the way over to Catalina, we saw dolphins swimming on the side of the boat, and we also passed a buoy with a bunch of California Sea Lions around it. And then we got to Catalina. [Commence chaotic afternoon.] Since the boat was so late, we dumped our stuff and jumped into labs. I was shadowing Fran with the other "trainees" and we started Bird lab. This lab includes a kayak around Indian Rock...

 ...which started out great. But, we had a couple stragglers, and so the other trainees and I were sent to help them along. One of the kids I was trying to help got too tired to paddle, and he kept drifting farther and farther away from the group. So after trying to encourage him to paddle and having no way to get anyone to help since I had no radio, I ended up towing him over halfway back to the group. And that is not easy when you are paddling against the current with a huge drag behind you....I had no idea how to lash him to my kayak, so he was just holding on to the back handle, forming a T with our kayaks. Fran finally came over and as he was going to lash the boy to my kayak, mine happened to flip, thus dumping me into 53 degree salty ocean water. Ugh. I spent the rest of the day/night freezing. I seriously felt like an icicle. 

Yesterday was better. We started out with squid dissection, and then headed back into the water for a fish lab snorkel. This was also my first time snorkeling (what a week for firsts...not my fave...) my mask was a little loose and kept getting water in it, which was a total downer. But I did get to see some sweet fish. We then got to stay dry for the rest of the day. We also got a heater in our cabin, so it isn't 40 degrees in there at night anymore. :) These kids were really tough to work with though. We had 107 kids from 5 different schools within a charter system, and they seriously would not shut up. Every time there was a pause in the lesson (and even when there wasn't) they were jabbering away. We yelled at them quite a few times, and they didn't care. They were also pretty disrespectful. I told a couple students to hurry, and they just looked at me and kept walking slowly. Ugh. I wanted to slap them all. Thankfully, there were a couple kids that made it worth it, and they are gone now. Which means I get to start my real job tomorrow!! Although I must say that I did enjoy this week's activities. We went on another snorkel today and I saw a lot more fish. 

Anyway, that's about all I've got. I'll leave you all with a few pictures that I've managed to snap so far on our minimal breaks. Love you all!

View of the courtyard and ocean from the dining hall patio

Beach with the kayaks

Whale's Tale and the ocean

Melodie, Mary and me (wearing David's hat)