It's for the children, fer fuck's sake.

The kids arrived last Sunday and Session One 2007 is in full force. I'm so happy that the campers are finally here, and I'm sunburned and busy and circusing for 6-7 hours per day and it's great. What's really cool is that, along with a lot of my favorite first session regulars, a bunch of other kids I love who usually don't come until second session came early. Plus there are a bunch of newbies who are great too.

The show we're doing this session is called "Circus Rocks" and all of the acts are being done to different rock songs. We're also hoping to have our camp's tech staff do an airband gag at some point in the show (to cover some rigging, but also because it's funny and those guys are a bunch of hams anyway), and then during the finale we're going to have one of the camper rock bands play. I'm teaching web/rope, aerial hoop (we've been using too-small lyras for years, and I finally got camp to allow me to buy two new proper-sized aerial hoops this year and they arrived today! Yay!), double trapeze (for which I am also basing), ragdoll/adagio (for which I am also a catcher), and flying trapeze (for which I am also ALSO the catcher). It's funny basing a 65-pound 11 year old in doubles after basing an adult all year. Holy cow, these kids are light, but they are also constantly giggly and that makes them floppy. But they are so cute, you'd just want to vomit if you saw them. I'll post photos soon if I think of it.

Anyway, we're also doing juggling, hula hoops, rolling globe, triple trapeze, tissu, tumbling, mini tramp, and meteors in the show. It'll be good.

I've been here for two weeks and one day now, and it seems like I've been here for months already. Funny how that works.

I don't know what the heck is going on outside my cabin. Sounds like the tech boys are maybe having a water fight? They scream like little girls.

We've had all sorts of wildlife encounters already this summer. There are a couple of chipmunks who've built a nest (or whatever you call chipmunk habitats) near where we store our circus equipment, and we also have a lovely robin couple that have moved into the rafters in the same storage area. They apparently have babies, because we often see them flying back to their nest with food in their mouths. Cay-ute.

A couple of bears have been wandering around camp at night too. One was hanging out by my cabin the other night, but I didn't see it because I was inside. I heard it, though, and Chrissymine saw it when she came home to go to bed.

PLUS, there were some coyotes wandering across camp earlier this week too. That's a little unsettling. The bears won't bother you if you don't sneak up on them, but coyotes mean business from what I hear. Hopefully the bears will scare them away.

My first day off is Monday, which also happens to be Chrissymine's birthday. I'm trying to find a way to get us out of town for the day, but since we're lacking a car, it might be difficult. We'll see. Regardless, I'm so ready for my day off I could just about collapse. I'm sure the rest of my staff feel the same way.

Okay, I have to get ready to go on duty. One night each week, each of us is assigned to go sit outside the certain kids' bunks from 10pm to midnight so the bunk counselors can have some time off (except the nights they are on duty, of course) while the kids are still supervised. This year, for the first time, I get to be a head OD (OD stands for "on duty", not "overdose", of course) which means I get to sit in the warm office and make sure everyone knows where they are meant to be rather than having to sit in the cold and/or rain and trying to get kids to be quiet. Awesome. Unless something goes wrong and I'm supposed to handle it. Then it's not so awesome.

So that's all the news from here, pretty much. More later.

People Are Complicated

Camp is fucking crazy sometimes. Remember the bubble speech I was talking about yesterday? Well the bubble is in full effect already. I'm pretty certain that folks in the outside world who have never worked in a situation like this really have no concept of what it's like to live with, eat with, hang out with, and spend time off with the same people you work with. Because of this constant togetherness, it's possible to become really close with people on several levels, and that's totally cool. But it sucks when you have a fight with someone on a personal level, and then you have to deal with them as coworkers as well. And you can't even get away from them when you aren't working. It's a little crazymaking, I think.

Sometimes friends hurt other friends' feelings. Sometimes hearts get sort of chipped or broken in the process. Sometimes friends you thought you knew make really bad decisions that then make you realize they may never have been sincere with you for even a moment in all the time you've known them. Sometimes you think you're being clear that you wish your friends wouldn't behave a certain way or pursue a certain someone or lead you on or lie by omission. Or you suggest they make up their minds about how they feel about...people or situations before the people involved get hurt. But then you realize maybe you weren't clear enough, or maybe you were and the people you thought cared about you don't care as much as you wished they would or assumed they did. And everything kind of goes pear-shaped and you're left with a stomachache or a headache or a heartache and you don't know what to do.

That's how camp is sometimes. That's all I'm saying.

The Bubble!

I'm getting better, you guys! I woke up this morning able to breathe and everything. And my voice isn't totally croaky anymore. Now it's more of a sexy rasp. At least that's what I like to think, anyway.

Yesterday was our first full day with all of the counselors. We had training and I got to meet my staff and teach them some rigging and stuff. It was good. I don't know yet about whether they are going to be stars or superstars, but my hopes are high.

This morning, Geoff (one of the camp directors) gave his famous "bubble speech" about how camp is a bubble unlike the real world. Time works differently here, romantic encounters progress at a different rate, we're not expected to cook or clean or do our own laundry (unless those are our camp jobs), and rumors fly through camp at Mach 5. Anyway, it's a great speech that we returners look forward to every year.

I had a meeting with the heads of camp today too. It went quite well.

Later I got to fly with my staff. It was great for giving me a much-needed attitude adjustment, but I have a lot to teach my staff. They have promise, but very little experience on the flying trapeze. We'll have to see what happens.

Tomorrow we're supposed to be setting up our stage. It's a huge job that requires about 50 volunteers from other departments and lots of heavy lifting. If we can get through tomorrow without my staff or anyone else's staff hating me and/or circus, it will be a job well done!

I feel kind of lonely and I miss home. I wish the kids were here.

Sooooo sick.

Holy jeez, you guys. I am hella sick right now. In fact, I've been sick since about our second or third day here. My throat feels like it's on fire, I can't breathe, my head feels funny...the nurse even came to my cabin to check on me this morning. She says it's probably a virus which is great (yay! I don't have strep!) but also shitty (boo! I can't just take antibiotics and get better!).

What really sucks is that the rest of the counselors arrive this afternoon. So I have to meet my brand new staff while I'm all croaky and sniffly. And it hurts to talk.

I did get to go do a lot of work on the circus lot yesterday, despite being ill. I solved a rigging problem and got the fly net almost usable and did some other little jobs that needed to be done. I hung a web and later a trapeze and played around on them for a bit (I was actually checking to make sure my rigging solution works--it does), so that was nice, considering I haven't been in the air for almost a week.

Chrissymine has been busy beautifying our cabin. She painted the walls and the trim, and yesterday we laid down peel-and-stick tile that actually looks really great and should be easier to clean than the gross, unfinished wooden floor underneath it.

Our friend LilAnna got here yesterday, too, so it's been nice to catch up with her. I love it when everyone starts showing up and we get to see our old friends again. That's why being sick sucks so much. I want to be out there all excited and hugging people and chatting, but I can't really do that when my whole body hurts and I can't breathe. I just hope I'm better by the time the kids get here on Sunday!

At camp!

Wow. It's been ages, I know. The past month went by crazyfast. AerLift happened and was lovely. We made a lot of money for our charities and my performances went quite well. My parents even came out to see the shows and were they were rather impressed with me! Yay! My costumes looked great too (thanks to Chrissymine and Skorstad). Anyway, the whole thing was great.

Chrissymine graduated just last weekend! She now has her MFA in Costume Design and she's walking around all proud and relived, making people call her "Master" and stuff. It's funny. I'm SO PROUD of her I could just explode.

But then it was like time sped up or something. All of a sudden there we were, Chrissymine and me, on a redeye to camp, hurtling toward daylight. And now we're here on our first full day. The rest of the counselors don't get here until Tuesday and the kids don't arrive until a week from Sunday, but we have a lot of preparation to do before everything really kicks in, so it's good we're here early. I haven't actually been down to the circus lot yet even though I've been on camp for about 24 hours. It's always nervewracking, that first walk down there. Stuff breaks over the winter and the guy who sets up our fly rig sometimes forgets and leaves things undone, so I have to go down and survey the damage, if there is any. Hopefully everything will be fine.

Chelsea isn't with us this year, unfortunately. I made a huge error in judgement that ended with us choosing a Delta flight only to find out a few days ago that Delta sucks and wanted to charge us a total of around $1000 to take our dog to and from camp. I could have avoided this outcome if I had done all of my research two months ago when we bought the tickets, but I didn't and now we're here without her. Our friend/angel Skorstad has her in Seattle for the summer. What we did to deserve friends like that is beyond me, but she's a lifesaver.

So that's my update for now. Not terribly exciting, I know, but that's how it goes sometimes. Today is a big day for physical and emotional adjustment. I think I need one more night of sleep before I truly feel like myself again. I hope to be good about blogging this summer, but I said the same thing last year on my old blog, and I ended up writing maybe three times the whole summer! Maybe this year will be better because I know people will actually read it!

Down to the circus lot with me to see what I can see...