June - Sports Camps

This summer i returned my dear Sports Camps, this time as a Dorm Counselor, which meant a lot more responsibility but also a lot more agency, which i appreciated. 

This was the first check-in of camp. just me an mah homie Cosmo, chillin. 

newly engaged, my phone was full of pictures like this:

Our first field games! First time blowing up Zorb balls (we were all siling because we had no idea what we were about to do, or that we'd be doing it for the next 8 weeks.)

I never get tired of these mountains. 

Crocs fo lyf3

the campers always went NUTS over these things. They didn't realize how long it took to inflate them all and set them up. It was worth it to see everyone having such a blast, but that didn't make the prep any easier. 

the devil's work. 

at Sports Camps, i climb into things. 

last year:

tuesday mornign rolled around, and i had a lot of dirty laundry that i wanted to clean. Downstairs in the dorms there are a ton of washers and dryers. 

"no worries!" I thought. "I'll clean them here."

wrong. 

they wouldn't take my debit card, or my Sports camp ID thang. But i had an armful of dirty clothes that i'd already poured detergent onto. 

i turned, discouraged to the door. 

BUT LO, AND BEHOLD, THERE WAS A SINK. 

so i filled one side with hot water and set to work. then i drained that side as i rinsed each piece in the empty side with cold water. then i rinsed them again in the old hot side. then i wrung them out one by one and laid them on a plastic bag on the floor. 

...

but then i realized that i had an armful of soaking wet clothes, and no way to dry them. I went back to my room, thanked the high heavens that i didn't have a roommate that week, and draped my wet clothes all over. ALL over. 

I'm glad i took a picture of the clothes' pile, because 'd almost forgotten about it all. 

The first Wednesday came, and Wednesday at sports Camps means SIX PEAKS!!! (a water park actually named 7 peaks) there was absolutely no sign of rain, so i was pumped. 

I went early to help rachel set up the literal hundred of pizza boxes. 

Once they were empty, 

I arranged them into a little text for Karlitos :)

After this, I had an accident on a slide and ended up with a giant gash in my left leg after nothing short of a miracle which kept my life. 

I'll make that a separate post. 

This is me the first Friday morning of camps:

exhausted/fulfilled. couldn't believe one week was already down!

We (The DCs) spent a lot of time in the emergency room with campers who'd gotten hurt. which also meant we spent a lot of time getting to know each other in waiting rooms. 

that's how Erin, Amber, and I became so close!

I continued to send pictures of heart shaped things to Karl.

white light makes me happy. 

So do the scriptures. 

one of the DC duties is watching campers' bags while they eat, since bags aren't allowed in the Cannon Center. i wrote in my journal a lot, and read books. 

I had a fixation with shadows this summer

I like to make memes. I think they're funny, and i like to think that I'M funny, and this gives me a chance to show that off. 

I posted this picture on the Sports Camps counselors Facebook page:

ONLY BECAUSE IT IS THE TRUEST THING I'VE EVER SAID IN MY LIFE. 

and because Zorb balls. those nasty things. #Thedevil'swork

our head counselors aka my bosses minus Derek aka some pretty exceptional humans, doin' business. 

I think i already posted this picture. oh well. I like Karl and i would send him cheesy things like this all da thyme. 

litter after a movie night in the Tanner building. tsk tsk tsk. preteens these days. No respect for other people's property!

*shakes cane angry at children*

Okay this was adorable. 

So every day i would walk to the Sports Medicine people for each of the sports i was 'over' for the week and ask them what i could do for them that day. 99.9% of the time the answer was an unenthusiaastic "we're good" accompanied by an eye roll.

i would flash a smile and thank them for their time while mind-screaming:

I AM CAPABLE THANK YOU VERY MUCH. DON'T TREAT ME LIKE AN INCOMPETENT HUMAN. I KNOW STUFF.

One day i was walking to a sports medicine person and i saw a group of boys huddled around a bush along the side walk. 

sketchy. 

so naturally i go over there, hoping to bust them.

"Hey guys, what's going on?"

There were 2 or 3 older boys, and half a dozen very young boys. like mayyyyybe 10 years old. one of the young boys turned to me, worried, and said, "please don't move it, we were just trying to cover up so no one bothered it."

???

One of the older boys said, "it's okay guys, you can go to practice, i'll explain everything." and all the other boys nodded at the ground (?) and walked away, looking resolved or something. proud maybe? too strong. pleased. whatever. 

i was confused and a little annoyed that the older boys told all the others to leave. 

usurper. 

but then this boy proceeded to tell me that he and his friends had come up on a scene much like the one i saw. but it was just the little boys, huddled around a bush. the older boys asked the little boys what was going on, and they parted, to show the older boys a dead bird laying on the ground. 

"We found it here, and we don't want anyone to hurt it, so we're just standing around it until everyone is past an at practice." they told the older boys. The older boys said they'd help. They also felt a little weirded out by the dead bird, so they suggested a burial. 

All the boys got a handful of dirt from a DIFFERENT patch of ground and then poured it over the bird. And then they waited for everyone to pass by. 

enter me. 

okay, so maybe that's weird. 

the bird part is definitely weird. 

but i thought it was cute that the older boys were helping the little boys. 

__________________

Dear Karl, let's have a bunch of sons and let's teach them to be really compassionate like you are, so that they will protect younger kids like these boys. okay thanks, bye. 

__________________

the boys:

the bird mound:

(ps i tracked down some grounds-keeping people and told them about the bird so they could dispose of it safely. bird diseases. gross.)

In other news:

I loved walking on this bit of path every day. this little valley of trees is nostalgic to me.

DC life is taking a shower with the hospital radio in the bathroom because you're still on duty and you don't want to miss a hospital call.

Erin and I Tron-ing. I don't remember why we did this but i liked the picture, and i like her, so i'm posting it. 

hi, Bambi. NBD. 

JEDI!!!!!!!!

This boy was one of my homies from my first week ever last year. He was one of Dylan Shawhan's boys, and he inspired the name "The Jedi Council" He was also like, THE boy. you know the kind. all the girls were over him. 

I felt pretty exclusive having INSANE, LOUD, GIANT dance parties under the stadium every week with over a thousand people. 

but in case you were wondering, yes, dances are a lot less fun when you're engaged and yo man isn't there. dances last summer were awesome because it was prime show-yo-real-self time. 

didn't need to get into crazy melissa mode this year. 

ah, swig. your soda is mediocre, but your cookies are supreme. 

maybe it's just that i feel lukewarm about any soda and white hot about all cookies. 

meh. 

I've heard it both ways. 

Sports Camps in June were SOOOOOOO nostlagic for me. everything reminded me of last summer. last golden, golden, summer, and all my friends and all my campers and all the times i felt the spirit and prayed so hard to know what to do and felt God's voice in my heart guiding me along. 

Last summer is special. 

Last summer is sacred to me. 

I got to feel tiny glimpses of that in June, but i've been learning how to appreciate the good old days without letting the current ones losing meaning. 

I'm grateful for that, because THIS summer was very special, too. 

I'm still finding out a lot of little things about it that make it even more wonderful. like the collection of little things in this post. 

my life has many great things that are big; my faith, my husband, my family, my job, my education.

But my days in life have many great things that are little. 

I am sad when i miss them. 

I'll try to share some more with you soon.