Snapshots

It's been a busy last few weeks. Since I last posted I have spent two weekends out of town; the first was Easter with my family and the second was Camp School. Here's some highlights:

Northworst: I hate Northwest Airlines. The only reason I flew them was the price. Taking off from Milwaukee was funny, though. For whatever reason, the flight to Detroit was on a 50-seat regional jet. As usual in MKE, the flight began to taxi on time, but then stopped inexplicably on the tarmac and people were being asked to move around the cabin, specifically overweight people. Fascinating. Apparently the weight has to be redistibuted better in relation to the center of lift so the those folks were moved. The downside was that one of them took the empty aisle seat next to me. Upon sitting down he asked that the armrest between us be put up for his comfort. I obliged, but muttered something under my breath, I don't recall what, that caused him to go from chatty to quiet real quick...Most likely something about the invasion of my personal space.

Otherwise the trip home was uneventful. It was nice to see family and friends again. I had forgotten how much the roads suck in MI, but got the reminder quick enough.

The week between trips was busy, but not particularly noteworthy. Mostly meetings and talking.

Camp School: Awakening at 5am on Friday was rather a shock to the system, but I had to be west of Racine by 8am and there is construction between here and there. Thus began a long weekend. I was attending the Day Camp Director National Camp School in Camp Lake, WI. The site was a Salvation Army camp that was the ideal of a Hilton-camp. The room I shared bore a striking resemblance to a typical hotel room minus the TV and alarm clock. It even had the wall-mounted HVAC system and a sleeper couch with the two full-sized beds. Class ran from 8:30am to 9:00pm both Friday and Saturday, most of it boring. There was some amusement, however.

Part of it was the Cub Resident Camp Program Director class. These were mostly college students or not much older (like myself) with a good sense of humor. Their cheer which they used frequently was: "Enthusiasm! H-A-P-P-Y! We love our job!" every time the word enthusiasm or a derivative was used. I plan to teach my co-workers that cheer for the next staff meeting... My den ended up being the other rowdy group such as it was. We were the first with a den cheer ("The Crossing--The meeting of great minds."--our assigned symbol was a RR Crossing sign) and flag to go with it that I created. Having heard the enthusiasm cheer, we devised and used our own: "Fun! F-U-N! Fantastic Unbelievable Nonsense! We're here to have fun!" every time fun was said. Eventually the staff had to put the kibash on such cheers for certain parts of the training (Interfaith service, case study presentations, graduation, etc.).

Even though I was bored for a lot of the class and didn't get much sleep, it did recharge my batteries a bit to focus on the part of Scouting I enjoy most--camp.

Till I post again.