The Odd Summer
Last night another in a long line of storms blew through. And me? I was sitting in the kitchen of a very, very quiet camp, watching a movie and toasting granola for breakfast this week.
It was about ten-thirty as I was walking back to my cabin that the storm took out the camp's power and I was abruptly plunged into darkness unlike any I had seen all summer. Not a house light, not a floodlight, not even the light from the cross up on the rocks. Heck, even the lightning only managed to light up the clouds. I may have been lucky to not wander off the bridge and into the creek, because let's face it, that would have been a very "me" thing to do.
The staff cabin is otherwise empty now Things have come full circle -- I was the first summer staffer here and I'll be the last to leave. Of course, it was during that first week here alone that the maintenance man went a little nuts and got himself fired. Hopefully these last couple of weeks are a bit less ... eventful.
The full truth is that the entire summer has been ridiculously intense and it's a relief to have some space again. For a couple of weeks, I have a quiet building and my own bathroom. No sharing, no tiptoeing, no worrying about who I'll wake up when my alarm clock goes off at 5AM. It's kind of fantastic.
I told the Bossman that I probably wouldn't be around much on my days off and so far that's been accurate. Yesterday I did adult things -- helped Shorty move back to his dorm, got the oil changed in my car (finally), bought shampoo. In a fit of wanting to spend money, I also stopped by our local Borders ... which, like so many other Borders stores, is going out of business.
It was almost surreal. The massive yellow sale signs are everywhere in this store that kept me sane all through college. Aside from those, it looks eerily similar to its former self -- the same shelves, the same arrangement (for now) ... No cafe, no lingerers, just manic shoppers and huge sales. It was a bit Twilight-Zone-y.
That seems to be a theme this summer. From the day the maintenance man left, things have been sideways. There was Fifi's wheeler crash in June and the guest services woman resigning. Even the little things have seemed particularly odd -- one day I'm finding a bandage for the freezer repairman who seemed to think it was a good idea to stick his hand in a fan, and the next I'm buying a cheese Danish from a vending machine at a horse sanctuary. (Let's face it -- there are few widely accepted things stranger in American culture than preserved pastries for $1 from a machine.) There have been stops at Sonic to eat our Taco Bell, trips to the lake with kayaks and a homemade sailboat, an abnormally large amount of time spent watching "Doctor Who," and the tossing of parachuted plastic Army men from a third story balcony. Now I'm spending my time having tea and a scone while looking for jobs online and talking to you folks.
Considering that a year ago I was still being an engineer and doing engineer-y things, nothing about this summer feels quite normal.
Of course, I'm not alone. It's been fairly sideways for everyone else at camp as well. Heck, in the rest of the world. The British were just rioting. The British. If that doesn't signal that we've gone collectively off the deep end, what else could?
It was about ten-thirty as I was walking back to my cabin that the storm took out the camp's power and I was abruptly plunged into darkness unlike any I had seen all summer. Not a house light, not a floodlight, not even the light from the cross up on the rocks. Heck, even the lightning only managed to light up the clouds. I may have been lucky to not wander off the bridge and into the creek, because let's face it, that would have been a very "me" thing to do.
The staff cabin is otherwise empty now Things have come full circle -- I was the first summer staffer here and I'll be the last to leave. Of course, it was during that first week here alone that the maintenance man went a little nuts and got himself fired. Hopefully these last couple of weeks are a bit less ... eventful.
The full truth is that the entire summer has been ridiculously intense and it's a relief to have some space again. For a couple of weeks, I have a quiet building and my own bathroom. No sharing, no tiptoeing, no worrying about who I'll wake up when my alarm clock goes off at 5AM. It's kind of fantastic.
I told the Bossman that I probably wouldn't be around much on my days off and so far that's been accurate. Yesterday I did adult things -- helped Shorty move back to his dorm, got the oil changed in my car (finally), bought shampoo. In a fit of wanting to spend money, I also stopped by our local Borders ... which, like so many other Borders stores, is going out of business.
It was almost surreal. The massive yellow sale signs are everywhere in this store that kept me sane all through college. Aside from those, it looks eerily similar to its former self -- the same shelves, the same arrangement (for now) ... No cafe, no lingerers, just manic shoppers and huge sales. It was a bit Twilight-Zone-y.
Considering that a year ago I was still being an engineer and doing engineer-y things, nothing about this summer feels quite normal.
Of course, I'm not alone. It's been fairly sideways for everyone else at camp as well. Heck, in the rest of the world. The British were just rioting. The British. If that doesn't signal that we've gone collectively off the deep end, what else could?
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