Hump Day.

The title says it all. Wednesdays = hump day. Sometimes it feels like the longest day of the week, but once you get past it you've only got 2 more days until the weekend. Some weeks it seems that knowing it's hump day makes it that much more difficult, just gotta make it through hump day and you're almost there. Almost.

Today is not only the hump day of the week, but the hump day of the summer. Exactly 6.5 weeks completed here in Key West, 6.5 more to go. Phew! I'd say things have been going well, I'm still waiting for things to slow down... it feels like I keep saying 'next week will be better because...' but then something else comes up, making that week just as long as the one before. Things have been gradually improving, but there's always something.

Looking back on how these past 6 weeks have gone, I'd say we've come a long way. I've been given a lot of additional responsibilities than what I'd originally anticipated, which has definitely kept me busy. Supervising day camp programs off site is a new experience that I'm definitely still working the kinks out with, but as things are going well, there's always room to improve.

As I look forward to the next 6 weeks, they'll definitely be busy, but I'm looking forward to what's next, whatever that may be. I've been steadily applying for jobs since arriving in Key West, about 2-3 per week. Haven't heard much yet, but hopefully something will work out to give me a full time position in the fall.

The quote I'm ending with tonight is a good one for me here in Key West. Sometimes with the long days and busy schedules it's hard to really get to know the girls I'm working with here. It's not a bad situation, but one that leaves room for improvement. Remembering this quote can remind us that the simple things matter most in friendships.

"Laughter is the shortest distance between two people." -Victor Borge

All at once.

The title to this one says it all... all at once. It seems that everything we'd been anticipating here in Key West happened at once.

1- Site visit from our Project Director (supervisor above me). She made her visit for 1 day here in Key West before heading on to Marathon to do their visit. She arrived Wednesday night (the 15th) & observed and had meetings on base on Thursday the 16th.

2- Accreditation visit from NAEYC for the CDC program. This visit is a huge deal, so that the center can earn their accreditation status. When we first arrived in Key West they informed us that the accreditation visit would happen before the end of July. Everyone was in full force to get things done for this visit. This visit also happened on Thursday the 16th. It was a 2-day visit so they came on the 17th too, thankfully only visiting the CDC though.

3- Midterm. As the summer moves towards our midterm week (the 'hump day' of the summer is June 29th) there are evaluations and additional paperwork to be done. Naturally Camp Adventure likes to have things done early, which means everything should be completed by the 24th, so it needs to be worked on starting the 15th so that the meetings, discussions & reflections can take place before the paperwork is due...

4- New staff. Finally! The school-age program has been hurting for more staff to cover ratios, finally the newest staff member hired can be in ratio full time as of the 15th, but it's still her first few days so she's learning, oh but she's been on vacation this week, returning Thursday.

5-As if that's not enough, in additional to the typical weekly tasks, Michelle got sick. I had to take a day to 'rest' on Friday the 17th. I visited urgent care, per their diagnosis I have an infection, but I'm not convinced it's a sinus infection. With a prescription nasal spray, an antibiotic & few days later I'm still feeling pretty exhausted and headaches come and go as they please...

Oh, & 1 more thing, one of my counselors here had to go home for a family emergency, so she left on Saturday and will return tomorrow afternoon.

I'm tired just typing all of this, let alone reliving these crazy days !! I'm thankful they're past me, for the most part. I swear there will never be a dull moment in Camp Adventure. I'm trying to play catch up with anything & everything, but there always seems to be something. Take last night for example... 2 of the counselors decided they were going to go snorkeling after work to finally use their new snorkel gear they'd purchased here. About an hour after their excursion began I got a phone call (which is never good...) One of the girls slipped on the rocks and cut open her knee. At first it wasn't something to worry about, but after I saw it & the girl consulted her parents & a few others, we decided to take her to the ER, and 2 hours later we left with a prescription and 4 stitches. That's what I get for planning to have a productive night.

Overall though, as hectic as things always seem to be, I think it's going pretty well. Definitely keeping me on my toes and testing my juggling abilities, but for tonight I think I'm coming out on top. Hopefully I'll agree with that statement tomorrow.

"None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm." -Henry David Thoreau

Prep.

Hard to believe I've already been in Key West for 4 weeks now. Time sure does fly. Although we've been here 4 weeks and have been full time with the children for 3 weeks, we're just getting started on Monday. For the past few weeks the counselors working with the school-age program have been spending their mornings at the child development center (CDC) and their afternoons with the after-school program. Starting Monday the full day summer camp will start. We've got the programming done and field trips ready, but it's going to be one rocky week. The CDC is up for their accreditation visit any day now, and the youth center is way understaffed. Technically there's only 4 people (including my staff) assigned to the 60 school-age summer camp kids. That's fine for ratios, until someone needs a break during their 8 hour shift. It looks like I'm going to be spending a lot more time in the classrooms than I did last year, but thankfully they have 1 additional MWR staff hired that will start later this week.So far things have been going well, here in Key West and at the 3 additional sites I'm supervising. As I said in the last post, it's a lot of work & keeping me on my toes, but time sure is flying, just 9 more weeks!

This past weekend (Memorial Day) we took a group trip up to Bahia Honda state park, it's about 40 minutes north of here on Big Pine Key. It was a nice relaxing trip, and also got a little work done as I did a risk management check of the site as the day camp will be heading there in July.

This weekend I didn't do much. Friday night I went out with a few of the girls at work, we went to this amazing sushi restaurant called Ambrosia. It was a little pricey, but soo good. I'll eat sushi every now & then, but I'm not too brave when it comes to trying new types. This group, though, were regulars at this restaurant. So I decided to have blind faith in their ordering, and ate what their favorites were. None of the sushi I tried on Friday were any I'd had before, but I loved them all. Now if I only knew what we ordered! Here's a picture of one of the platters (there were 7 of us), so good!!

I felt a little under the weather on Saturday so I stayed in and caught up on my sleep, Sunday was spent going to Church in the morning and wandering around the island. I'm definitely keeping my weekends low key, but it's necessary as the work days are long and the weeks even longer. I'm continuing the job search for August, as I find the time/energy but there doesn't seem to be much out there right now. Hopefully within the next month more jobs will be posted with August starting dates. Only time will tell :)

I'm going to end this post with another Dr Seuss quote. This is one that I cut out to decorate the 2nd classroom at the youth center (the picture is kind of hard to see, but it's below) I think it's a fun one & great for the kids!

"Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is youer than you!" -Dr. Seuss