Braces update

Today I chewed gum–Mentos gum.  Nothing happened, nothing got stuck.  I enjoyed myself very much.  Whoo!

Water World Wonder

I went to Water World for the first time in my entire life.  I had always thought it was overrated, but deep down I wanted to try out the place for myself.

I went to the park with my youth group (……) and another visiting youth group (awesome group of people).  I was excited about the trip, nothing was holding me back–then I found out we were supposed to pay for our own ticket, I don’t remember reading that in the memo.  Someone had to pay my way, one of my friends was not going to get wet, and everyone was wanting to ride the Great White (death thriller).

First things first I went to the restrooms bath huts and changed clothes. Some psycho lady–who I am pretty sure knew I was in there–put her hand in over (not under) my stall and felt around and then tried to open the door.

The first real stop (bath huts do not count) was to a water slide.  I must say I was very afraid of my flipping and/or decapitating myself.  The young, not so hot lifeguard was flirting with a pair of older girls (honestly, I think the dude was like fourteen, even I think that I looked older than he) was not doing a good job of watching the children.  There was an angry mother at the scene who was considering talking to the manager and I had been elected to slide down first (the things I do for friends/acquaintances).  ‘Twas not as bad as I thought it would be.  True, I did hold my breath all the way down, and yes, I also had a conversation with myself, and also yes, I did scrape my elbow but really, it isn’t so bad.

My next visit was to the wave pool.  Of course, I was not aware that it was a wave pool until after the waves had begun.  I stood in the five foot “chatting” and listening to conversations.  Someone suggested we move to the deepest level.  Of course, I not wanting to distance myself went along with the group.  Eight feet–which I might add, is a level at which I cannot stand–, I was in eight feet when those waves started. I swam for my life to the bars.  I think I did at least twenty pull ups in the pool.

Last but not least is the Great White.  Truly I guess it isn’t that bad.  We stood in line for a long period of time watching and wondering what would happen to us when we tried it.  As I said before, I went along to be a good sport, well, I got paired up with someone who I believe also went along to be a good sport.  I think she might have been more afraid than I was.  We walked the five flight of stairs with a freakishly heavy tube.  I said to the girl (for my benefit as well), “You’ll be okay as long as you don’t look down.”  That was a mistake, she is freakishly afraid of heights.

We reached the top.  The lifeguard greeted us with a warm welcome by saying, “You’ve never done this before, have you?  You look nervous.  It will all be over in a second. ” Huh, nice of her, don’t you think?  I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.

“Chins tucked, bottoms up.”

Now what the heck does that mean?

And we were off.

My butt hit the surface and it hurts like crazy.

Water World is overrated.

Camp Victory part 1: Life as a CIT

Summer, oh the summer.  I would not even say that mine has been busy, but of course I have not written much at all.  The one blog that I did write was very short and honestly crappy (pardon my pun).  A few days ago, I was surprised to find three blogs written but never published.  I would publish them now but they are so far into the past that it would be silly.

The summer has been full of ups with only a handful of downs thrown in here and there.  This summer I had the privilege of working at Camp Victory as a CIT–it was such a joy.  I met new people and feel as though perhaps I made an impact in someone’s life.

In a previous blog I mentioned my walking into an “I Hate This Girl!” club–I’ll call this female Vicki so that she remains…innocent. I did not understand the other girls hatred dislike for Vicki.  God is funny, for Vicki was my partner for the week.  I still did not understand why they did not like her…but I guess it just might be a girl thing.  I mean sure, I will admit that it felt like I did more of the work a lot of the time (butIthinkthatshewasonherperiod..), but she is really nice and fun to hang with sometimes.  I think I got along very well with all of my fellow CITs.

During the week, the CITs went to the challenge course.  I always enjoy this,  I enjoy the talks we have afterwards–especially the part about leaders and followers.  On this particular trip I was most definitely a follower–I fear we had a few too many leaders this time.  We had an activity which consisted of getting the group from point A to point C without touching the ground and with only two blocks of wood.  It was difficult to figure out but I was embarrassingly surprised at how quickly the group became frustrated.

My cabin was wonderful.  The girls were well behaved and that made my one week (*sigh*) of work more fun.  There was only one first year camper–one whom I felt sympathetic toward.  See, she tried to fit in a little too hard; even I shared in the girls frustration.  That little girl and I had the same pajama bottoms.  The other girls complimented mine and not hers.

Girl 1: Charita, your pajamas are so cute!

New Girl: I have the same ones!

Girl 2: Charita, your pants are totally awesome.

New Girl: Hey, I have the same ones!

Girl 3: Charita, I like your pajamas.

New Girl:  I’ve got the same ones!!

Me:  Hey guys, don’t you like her pajamas too?

Girl 1:  Your shirt brings out the color more.

I almost started to laugh, right in their presence.

The only thing I regret is my inability to stay up late into the night.  It is sad that I went to sleep before my campers did.  I guess I just wasn’t in the mood to tell blond jokes until midnight–but I still wish I could have stayed up.  Another thing that I need to improve is my talkativeness. The girls in my cabin commented on my quietness.  I honestly thought I was extra loud that week….

I also had the opportunity to share my testimony with my fellow cabin mates–God did things that night.  My testimony prompted another girl to share, and another, and another–every girl shared her testimony.  It was amazing!

Detox

Recently, I have been at home with nothing to do (always something to do, just either 1) not worth doing or 2) I am procrastinating) and watching the numerous infomercials that come on television.  Every Saturday and sometimes Sunday they have two or three on the subject of Detox.  They make me laugh ever so much.  I have never openly talked about bowel movements, nor have I seen anyone who did–from size to thickness to color.

You have these supposed doctors (I’m not quite sure what they are) trying to convince you, the person lame enough to be watching an infomercial in the first place, to by their product–usually pills.  They tell you that your colon is clogged up and needs to be emptied (how they know about my colon, I’m not quite sure).  The answer to this problem is their new pill.  But oh no, it is  not a laxitive–makes you poop your guts out–but definitely not a laxitive.  The doctor(s) got very defensive when this subject was brought up.

I learned many other things about the (my?) body.  For instance,  if the colon is not properly detoxed on a regular basis the fecal matter that has not been properly disposed seeps back into the body.  It stays there hardening; the body tries to rid itself of the unuseful substance and sometimes it seeps at the skin.  Do you have embarrasing marks on your body?  Maybe you should detox!!

Staff Training

This week of Staff Training has been terrific.  I found it spiritually refreshing, informative, and I also made plenty of new friends.

I was nervous on Monday.  I wanted to be well liked and accepted (without the weird look in one’s eye).  As previously posted, my brother is extremely popular; I just found out how much.  I sort of shadowed him that day (and probably the rest of the week:).  I got plenty of “Hey, you’re Makario’s sister!  You guys look so much alike.”  I took it in stride, knowing that it would come and choosing not to care.  I made friends, met somebody’s special friend (and gave her my blessing), and ate. I like camp food.  We had a “get acquainted” time in the chapel.  We were supposed to tell 1) our name 2) our current location 3) pick something off a table and tell what it represented to us.  I had the best thing in mind too.  I was going to pick the toy guitar and say, ” I picked the guitar because I don’t play the guitar.  If asked to do so, I probably wouldn’t because I don’t know how.  God wants up to get out of our comfort zones.”  BUT the girl in front of me chose that object so I had to think of something else at the last moment.  I picked up the calculator (because it looked cool) and said, “I picked this calculator because God wants us to be..uhh….smart.”  The entire chapel errupted with laughter.  Can you say embarrasing?

The next day I had Dining Room Crew.  I learned how to properly set the table and how to pitchers on the table so that they would not bother ADD people.  Being a CIT has wonderful privileges.  Free food and coffee (I have had five cups in the past two days–decaf though:).  There wasn’t too much to do with dining room.  When I think about it though, there is not too much to do with any of them.  You just have to learn where things are.  There were many classes.  One class that I found most interesting was a study of courtship vs dating.  Boy was that interesting.  There is a fine line between the two and I think that is what I shall stick with.

I suppose another positive thing that came out of it was,  I faced my phobia of canines.  My phobia of dogs is still alive and well, but now, I suppose it is feeling ill.  There was a stray dog that followed me around.  I was freaking out and did not know what to do (but apparently, I hid it well because the dog did not have a clue).  They gave an announcement that morning saying “Please do not pet the dog(s).”  Almost everyone broke that rule (except me, why pet a canine, that just makes no sense).

Josiah and I got to hang out a bit.  We went on the swings together and were going to go boating but that didn’t work out.

This years theme is AmazinGrace (based on the actual games).  We were competing against other cabins.  Some of the sections were particularly memorable. There was this one part when only one person could participate; the rest or his/her teammates had to pick out food for the other person to eat.  The choices were a raw potato, saltine crackers, vienna sausages, and baby food –we had to choose three out of the four. I could have done it.  Timan’s food really doesn’t taste that bad, but I didn’t volunteer.  We also had to put a tee shirt on a pig.  I am starting to wonder if I accidentally wrote “Not an animal person” on my application.

That is pretty much the highlights of my week (and I am tired of writing).