Restless.

Well, it's been about 3 months since my last post... and not much has changed. I'm still searching for a job and traveling around. Since returning from Key West I've been able to spend time with family and friends. I'm doing my best to take advantage of this down time as I'm not sure when I'll be able to travel like this again. So I've been spending time in Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, North Carolina, Colorado & Iowa. It's been pretty busy, but pretty low key at the same time.

I've been steadily applying for jobs, approximately 10 per week... some weeks more & some weeks less. It's definitely a waiting game, requiring a lot of patience. I've had a few phone interviews, and this past week I had my first in person interview. If anything, I'm gaining experience with each interview and seeing which jobs/locations I'm leaning towards. Hopefully something will work out soon. I'm doing my best to remain patient and know that the perfect job for me is out there... it's just a lot easier said than done.

So that's me in a nutshell for now. Just thought I should add an update before the end of the year :)

The quote I'm adding at the end of this post is just a good reminder for everyone, regardless of what point your life is at or where you're going...

"Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy." -Guillaume Apollinaire

It's been a while ...

As the title says; it's been a while. Hard to believe it's the end of August already, seriously sometimes I wonder where the time goes. Some days it feels like I'll never make it to the end of the week, but then days like today I have to stop and think about what day it is. And what a crazy month it's been!

I'll blame my lack of posts on the end of summer crazy-ness, and then on my luck with technology... I'll get into that in a minute.

First, the end of the summer. Wow! Things ended great !! It was a little rushed with all of the end of summer paperwork and having Dessertfest our last week in Key West, but somehow we made it and it was a success. Our theme for Dessertfest this year was a Circus - The Greatest Show on Earth. We didn't go all out in costumes like we did for Toy Story, but the gym was all decked out, nothing left untouched. The girls did a great job getting the campers ready with their songs & skits, and everyone had great feedback. Here's a picture of the Key West Camp A staff after the event. (sorry about the quality)

And now time for the end of summer reflection ... overall it was a crazy, hectic, stressful summer that at times I wondered why I'd signed up for it. But looking back, those stressful challenging times are the exact moments in which we grow. And that I did. I was humbled to learn the lesson of when to say no, and knowing when too much is too much. Not sure how I pulled it off, but I'm thankful for the fantastic staff I had in the Gulf Region. The girls I worked with directly in Key West were all wonderful, and my directors at the other sites gave me nothing to worry about. I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but I know it wouldn't have been a great summer with a different staff. It's hard to see the cloud's silver lining when you're in the middle of the storm, but looking back now I'm grateful for this experience and I know I gained & learned a lot. Hopefully my staff learned a thing or two from me as well ;)

Since leaving Key West I've been bouncing around from place to place, and will continue to do so for the next month or so. I'll be visiting my family that's spread all over the states, meanwhile applying for jobs online. Just this week I've applied to over 30 jobs. It's definitely a tedious process, but hopefully I'll start getting some calls soon :) I'm not being picky on where the job is, trying to focus on East Coast, Florida & Colorado, but I'm not ruling out anything if I'm offered a great position somewhere else. We'll just have to wait and see :)

Oh & I almost forgot to mention, I had ZERO flight trouble getting back home AND my bags arrived on time. That never happens !!! :)

As for the computer drama, my hard drive crashed on my MacBook. I can honestly tell you I've never heard of that happening to anyone with a Mac. Ever. So there's no Mac store in Key West, but I found a retailer that would do repairs. They estimated $303 for a new harddrive and it was debatable whether I'd be able to transfer the data. Since I only had 2 weeks before leaving Key West, I decided to hold off on the repairs and wait until I was in Ohio. Boy am I glad I did!! I drove to Akron to visit the apple store and the guy I talked with was surprised at the $303 quote. I was a little nervous at first because his tone wasn't leading either way, but it turned out only costing $180, YES!! Unfortunately all data was lost, I had most of my files backed up onto an external harddrive in May, but I lost my music & most of my pictures. It's kind of nice to be able to 'start fresh' with a new computer, I just really wish I hadn't lost so many pictures.

Anyway. Things are going good for me now, I'm keeping it low key, definitely enjoying some down time & visiting family (much needed on both accounts). Hopefully I'll get a job soon and be moving to a new exciting city. :)

The quote for this post is one that I think certainly applies to many of us, and for me it can almost sum up my summer :)

"The crisis of today is the joke of tomorrow." - H.G. Wells

July.

It's already July 17th? How did that happen? I've been meaning to post since the beginning of this month, but clearly it caught up to me. So I'll start from the holiday weekend.

July 4th - this year the 4th fell on a Monday, so we had a 3-day weekend and worked the "Bash at the Beach" event on base on Monday evening. It was a fun time, the interns were in charge of the water play this year, which was fun as we got to see a lot of the kids we work with there with their families. I really love seeing the families come out and do things together, our only 'family' time at work is when the parents drop off their children & pick them up each day, so it's nice to see the families have time to do things together.

The only downfall to this year's event was that it was on Monday. Last year the 4th was on Sunday so we were able to watch the fireworks and hang out late on Sunday night while still having Monday off. Not that we were out too late or anything, but it was a bit of a bummer that we had to go to work the morning after the fireworks. But I'm glad it was on a Monday and not in the middle of the week. :)

Here's a picture of our Camp A group for this summer at the end of the event.

Work has been busy, typically I only go on the pool field trips with the day camp (every Wednesday & Friday), but this week the Tuesday/Thursday trips were to the beach. Per Camp Adventure policy we need a supervisor on any aquatics trips that are off-base, for extra supervision & such. I don't mind though, because this was my schedule for the week:

Monday - day at the centers... observations, paperwork & such

Tuesday - beach field trip with the 8-10 year olds

Wednesday - swimming pool trip with the entire camp

Thursday - beach field trip with the 5-7 year olds

Friday - swimming pool trip with the entire camp

Although my 'one-piece-tanline' isn't going away as I'd hoped & I'm a little behind on paperwork, I can't complain about that schedule! :)

This week has also been busy as I had some visitors to the keys! My sister Mary Anne & her husband Joe came to Key West for a week's vacation.

Sunday we went on the Fury's Ultimate Adventure, and the title describes it all. We went parasailing, jet skiing, swimming/inflatable rock climbing & snorkeling. It's pretty much an all encompassing trip for any water sports you'd

want to do in Key West.

Here's a picture of our view while parasailing.

The rest of the week was just as busy, I was able to spend a lot of time with them, show them around the island, do a few touristy things & enjoy a sunset cruise. Here is a picture of the dolphins that visited our boat during the sunset cruise. We joked that they must've escaped from Theater of the Sea or Sea World because they put on a little show for us :)

Mary Anne & Joe left last night & overall I think they had a nice relaxing week. As for me, I've got 4 more weeks here in Key West that will prove to keep me busy. We're planning our big 'dessertfest' for August 10th with a circus theme, so it'll be fun prepping & planning for that. Still no word on where/what's next come August 13th, but I'll keep you posted :)

Today's quote is from a book I received as a graduation gift from my roommate in Iowa. It has a positive quote for each day, I really do enjoy reading them. Some of them make you think or reflect while others just remind you to appreciate what you have. Here's one that'll get you thinking.

"Ideals can be like the stars; we never reach them, but like the mariners of the sea, we chart our course by them." -Carl Schurz

My thoughts- Sometimes it may seem like nothing will ever be ideal, or that we'll ever be able to accomplish anything. But we still need those ideals/goals to keep us going, to chart our course by them so we know we are on the right path & stick to it.

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

Summertime

As you may be able to tell from my lack of posts since March, it's been a busy 2 months for me. I've done a lot of traveling & working and finished my research paper to earn my Master's :) I can officially add "M.A." after my name!!

As far as this summer goes, I am spending one last summer with Camp Adventure working in Key West. This will be my 6th program with Camp Adventure, my 5th summer, and my 4th time on an island. I can't really complain with those numbers :) I'm excited to be back in Key West, to have a familiar program with familiar faces, and although a lot has changed here in the last year, it's good for the program to have some consistency with the summer interns.

This summer will be a little different in a few other aspects though. Although I am still living and working in Key West, I will also be supervising the Gulf Region programs for Camp Adventure. This includes Key West & 3 other day camp programs - Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee, New Orleans Navy Base in Louisiana and City of Marathon Parks & Rec in the Keys. I will be the direct supervisor helping with their programming, risk management, staffing, etc. for each of the day camps there. Each site has a director that I will mainly be in contact with. Unfortunately due to time & money constraints I won't be able to do site visits to each program, but I'm excited to work with directors and have that little something to keep me on my toes ;)

Each program starts at a different time, which is nice for me as it spreads out the paperwork & responsibilities, but it'll also keep me very busy for a good few weeks. Last weekend the Arnold staff arrived & completed their orientation so their first day of camp is this week. The New Orleans staff arrived this weekend, so they'll have orientation this week and will start camp the next week. And then the Marathon staff arrives next weekend, to have their orientation week and then the first week of camp after that, which is also the first week of summer camp here in Key West. So I have a very busy few weeks ahead of me working out the kinks with programming and new staff getting used to the Camp Adventure program, but I have some great directors that I think will do a great job.

As all of this work will inevitably be piling up quickly, I took this 3 day Memorial Day weekend to relax a little. Spent both Saturday & Sunday on the beach, working on my freckles, and took the day Monday to catch up on work & relax. Just what I needed to get charged up for the summer.

I'm really looking forward to this summer and know the next 11 weeks will fly right on by, hopefully having a happy ending with a good job in August :) only time will tell!

I chose one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes to start off this summer, which was coincidentally (or not) one of the decorations in the classrooms when I returned this month. I think it's very fitting for me right now :)

"You have brains in your head and feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own, and you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..." -Dr. Seuss; Oh, the Places You'll Go!