Let's Do The Time Warp Again

Last year, my New Year's Resolution was to floss my teeth each and every day. That didn't happen every day (but it definitely happened more often than it did previously). Luckily, I had a second resolution: take a picture myself every day. Unfortunately, that also didn't happen every day, but had a much higher success rate than the flossing did. I think I only missed a handful of days all year. And after taking a picture of yourself every day for a year it becomes a bit of a habit, so I continued into this year. I only stopped during the summer when my ipod broke and my phone at the time didn't have a front facing camera. My goal when making this resolution was always to put the pictures together in a slideshow to see them altogether in quick succession. And I've finally gotten around to making that video. So here is 457 pictures of me, taken between Jan 1st, 2014 and June 18th, 2015, in 40 seconds.

My New Year's Resolution this year is to write a letter every week, and it must be delivered through snail mail. So far I'm on track, although sometimes I have difficulty thinking of who to write a letter to. Hopefully I can make it all the way to the end, and I will have finally (100% successfully) completed a New Year's Resolution.

'I Want To Walk'

Today I ended up walking to and from campus four times. Which is ironic because the first time I was walking there I told my friends that I wanted to go for a walk. After my first class, I had forgotten that I have a team meeting, so I had to go back to campus. Later I was out in the backyard sitting and doing some of my reading in the sun, and my other roommates left for class and they locked the doors. So then I had to walk to campus to get the keys so that I could get back into the house. And finally I had to go back to campus a fourth time for class. And while not the most interesting route to walk, I'm glad I was able to spend time outside. I'm really excited to be going back up to camp this weekend to help out with the retreat. It will be nice to see Nola again.

Long Time No See

If I tried to tell you all about my summer, I could go on for pages and pages until my hands went numb from typing, and still have more stories to tell. So I'm not going to say much. I loved this summer. It was easily the most exhausting and demanding summer I've had at camp, but I loved every minute of it. And I'm so proud of everything I accomplished. From being nervous about how to do my job, to getting into a routine, to becoming comfortable enough to change the routine just for the sake of changing it. Not many 19 year olds can say they ran the entire kitchen operation of a summer camp for 400 people. I loved all of the people I worked with in the kitchen, and all of the people I got to hang out with in my brief times off. I'm going to miss them, and I'm going to miss camp. As much as we get sick of it, I know I would go back to camp in a heartbeat.

Now I'm in Stratford at UWaterloo's satellite campus. I'm not really looking forward to classes (who is?) but I'm really excited about living in Stratford. It's a really nice town. And I'm a small town kind of person. Some (a lot) have decided to commute between Waterloo and Stratford. It will be interesting to see how that works out and how often they miss class because of the commute.

357. How can I win your heart?
I'm not sure, but you can get close to it with food ;)

358. Can insanity bring on more creativity?
Definitely.

359. What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?
To follow Jesus.

360. What would you want to be written on your tombstone?
Kind of a strange thing to think about. My name, b. date and d. date. A quote, maybe? The reference to my favourite bible verse, whatever it happens to be at the time. 

Wait, Camp?!

Spring is officially done! Our last retreat group left on Wednesday (safe and sound, after surviving a wild thunder storm and a tornado warning). A bunch of us stayed up late on Monday to watch the lightening storm. It wasn't raining and there was hardly any thunder, but there was lightening almost every 30 seconds. It was so cool to sit in the field and watch it flash across the sky. There were some streaks that would go horizontal, which was pretty neat. 
Right now I have two days off, whereas most other people have one day off.  I realized a while ago that there wouldn't need to be any meals served today (Thursday), so Nola (my partner in nutritional provision) and I had no reason to be there. One day off! But then I got thinking and the only person it would affect if either Nola or I were missing would be the other. So if we were both down to do a day on our own, then we could have more days off. So Nola got Wednesday and Thursday, and I get Thursday and Friday. A pretty sweet deal, if I do say so myself. I'm glad I'll have extra time to rest before camp starts. I realized belatedly that I wouldn't be there when all the staff arrive tonight and would miss all the introductions, but I've come to be okay with it. Most people already know who I am anyways ;) 
It's really hard to believe that in 3 days camp starts! We're going to need to make 93 pizzas to feed everyone Sunday dinner. Luckily, I have another oven now! This extra oven is a life saver; we now have double the oven space that we did before. (Where the two ovens are stacked on top of each other we used to only have one). What used to take 3hrs to bake can now be done in 1.5hrs. It is going to make my life to much easier and less stressful. 

I also just found out that the girl who did my position last year is going to come up for part of this week to help out, which I'm really grateful for. I'm not as stressed as I thought I would be. I thought I would be worried about how many people I have to feed (this week it's 312). It will be a bigger number than I've ever done before, but we've had meals during the spring with over 250 people, so it's not a huge jump. And I've become more confident in myself in this position, as well as gained a lot more knowledge about prep time and quantities. 

It's going to be a wild summer, but I couldn't be more excited for everything that's going to happen :)


354. You are at the doctor's office and she informs you that you have one month to live.
a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die?
I would tell my family and close friends. And probably the people at camp as well since that's where I am right now.
b) What do you do with your remaining days?
I would probably want to spend some of it at camp. I wouldn't do FSD, I'd probably wander and do whatever I wanted to do (climb high ropes) and just hang out with people. 
c) Would you be afraid?
Yes, but I think that within the month given I would come to terms with it.

355. What's a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?
Blame It On The Boogie by The Jacksons

356. In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?
Love, honesty, trustworthiness, humour, dependability, basically everything lined out in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8: 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

350. Where is your best friend?
Toronto.

351. What were you doing last night at 12am?
Trying to fall asleep.

352. Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?
If this is to mean would I want a friend with the same personality as myself, I would say no because as a quiet person, us hanging out would just be a lot of awkward silence, I think. But in terms of what I do for my friends and the effort I put into my friendships, yeah I would have myself as a friend. I am not the one to suggest hanging out often, being an introvert, so I would be okay with that. I don't know. This is too much thinking for my tired brain.

353. You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you that if you are late one more time you're fired. What do you do?
For the record, I think punctuality is key so would never be in the situation of late-one-more-time-and-you're-fired. That aside, I would keep walking and not save the dog.

X

Yesterday I went to the Ed Sheeran concert in London with Em and I had a blast. He is so good live. He uses a loop machine, where he will play, hum, or make a beat for a bar, and then it will repeat, so he can make all of the sounds himself. It was so cool to watch him make all the sounds himself. And it causes for more anticipation because when he starts off, you can't tell what song it is until he actually starts playing the guitar, or adds a more recognizable beat. He was the only one on the stage for the entire performance. The opening act was Foy Vance. I have one song by them, but don't know them super well. I enjoyed their music though. It was just a really fun time; it's been so long since I've gone out to an event like that with friends.
Before the concert, I was at my sisters graduation. Congratulations Alison! I'm so proud of everything you've accomplished so far and can't wait to see what you'll do in the future.

A Peek Into the Life of a Food Service Director

I suppose it's been awhile. My go-to thing to do when I'm bored isn't blogging any more...now it's usually reading or Netflix :) But I finished my book and you can only watch so much Netflix at a time, so here I am (also I was told to by a certain BFFLAAT).
This past week at camp was hard and tiring, especially at the end. We had our first school group, Matthews Hall from London. Then we had a couple days with just the staff before a youth group retreat came up for the weekend. I screwed up two times: the first was with Matthews Hall. We made roast beef, but not enough. I panicked and was sitting on the floor of the kitchen not sure what to do. I just froze. Luckily, Nola, my kitchen partner (and debatable more-kitchen-abled) did not panic and/or freeze like I did, and started thinking of a solution. Aaron also helped, which surprised me a bit. It's taken me a while to get used to the fact that he's the go-to person in charge right now, not Reagan. Aaron was the one who convinced me to get off the floor and find a solution. Everybody at Matthews Hall had eaten but the staff had not, so we made chicken tacos for them. They were all very understanding and didn't get mad (at least to my face), but I was still beating myself up for it, and was for a couple days. And of course after that I was nervous every time I figured out quantities because I didn't want to screw up again. Everything was going fine until I screwed up again: this time with the youth group retreat over the weekend. We were having tacos/fajitas/whatever you want to call them for lunch and we ran out of ground beef (clearly beef is not my strong point. Probably in part because we don't order it through Flanagans and is really expensive). So we made more chicken (the chicken we use at camp is already diced and fully cooked, so makes for an easy prep). At least that time I think everybody, except for a few stragglers, had eaten and people just wanted seconds. I dealt with that situation much more professionally than the first. Nola and I didn't end up eating until 2pm. Aaron had gone to town when the beef ran out, and he bought me a sub from subway :)
And then Saturday afternoon happened. Most people don't know about this, because it all happened in the kitchen, and not around meal times. Nola and I were in the kitchen, trying to increase the amount of chilli we had prepared for dinner. We were adding beans and veggies and all forms of tomato: diced, sauce, paste. We even debated adding condensed tomato soup (that didn't end up happening). Now keep in mind that Nola and I had been in the kitchen since before 7 that morning. All of this is being added to a huge pot - easily a diameter wider than my shoulder width and as tall as my torso. We weren't sure how many people it would feed, and there were 160 of us that needed to eat. So we start lining up ladles along the edges and sides of the pot to try and figure out how many servings we
could get out of this thing. We even took a picture to send to Catherine to see what she thought.

(this picture does not do the size of the pot justice)
We had a range of guesses, ranging from 75 to 114. Regardless, not enough to feed everyone. So we start whipping up another pot of chilli. We cooked some more ground beef, start grabbing veggies and all our cans of tomatoes in various forms. The only problem is, we used so many of our cans of tomatoes and beans on the first pot trying to bulk it up that there wasn't many left for this second pot. So we added in all that we had, and it still wasn't tomato-y enough to be considered "chilli". So I start looking up how to make homemade tomato sauce because we have a box of tomatoes in the fridge. I had never before peeled a tomato, and I don't think I ever will again, but it was interesting at the time. Needless to say I did not have the 90 mins to let it simmer on the stove and added it straight into the pot.
So there we were, Nola and I on our step-stool (because the pots are so tall), using wooden juice paddles to stir the pots of chilli (because nothing else was long enough to reach the bottom of the pot), and the sanity had left the building. We said that we didn't have any sanity left, because it was a key ingredient in the chilli. There were also multiple mentions of leaving camp and never coming back.
When it was dinner time, we had to ask two of the guys on staff to move the pot because all Nola and I could do was nudge it in circles on the stovetop. We had managed to created almost another full pot of chilli. I knew that was really too much, but I had been told by Aaron, from Tyler, to "make enough, and don't worry about leftovers". Well Tyler, it's hard not to when you still haven't given me a budget. (As a result, I've decided that if this special meal deal* that Nola and I are doing for the staff goes over budget, camp will step in and cover the rest). Aaron came up to me and asked how it was going, as he has made the habit of doing around meal times, and all I had to say to him was "If they eat both pots of chilli, I'm handing in my two weeks notice**". And I wasn't even completely joking. Aaron, having not yet seen the pots of chilli, said "Don't say that!" I just walked away. He walks into the kitchen, where Em was because she was helping prep dinner, and sees the pots of chilli and goes "Whoooooooooooa..." Em then says something along the lines of 'that's why she's threatening to hand in her two weeks' because THERE IS A RIDICULOUS AMOUNT OF CHILLI.
Dinner starts, and the buffet line starts moving. I keep checking up on the pot of chilli and it seems to be going down at a reasonable amount. Everybody has gone through the line; people start coming back for seconds (more for the homemade buns than the chilli). Nola and I approach the pot. The bottom has just been exposed. We fed all 160 people. With one pot of chilli. I couldn't even get angry because I was just so done with everything. So the camp freezer currently holds a pot of chilli large enough to feed over 100 people.
And still we were not done. There was popcorn for a late night snack, and while popcorn is easy to make, it is very time consuming. My day did not get any better when Aaron said that instead of 9:40, the group wanted their snack bumped to 10:15. Nola and I were joined by Rebecca in making popcorn and putting it into paper bags to be handed out. We started right after dinner, and finished around 9:30. And we missed the fireworks that the group was letting off at the beach. I later found out that the spring staff had taken group pictures down at the beach after the fireworks, so I was bummed that I had missed out on that. At the final count, Nola and I had been in the kitchen for over 16hrs straight.
On Sunday, everything went fine food wise, but then we had cleaning to do. Clean up takes a long time, and people just want to go home, so it's always a rough process. Aaron was helping, which I appreciated because I would peg him as the kind of guy to disappear until everything was cleaned. But the thing that really got me down was that the debrief meeting that we always have after a group leaves was held while people were still cleaning in the kitchen. I know I wasn't missing much, because we just discuss how we felt the retreat went, but I felt really left out. Especially after that weekend, where I had hardly any time to relax and hang out with people.
I know that some exclusion comes from working in the kitchen - that was a lesson I learned last year - but I never felt as left out as I did on Sunday while cleaning up and leaving. I understand why the meeting happened when it did, people were done cleaning and wanted to go home. But I felt like I hadn't talked or even sat down with someone other than Nola in days. People come by to help prep or clean up, but I can't really relax and chat with them then. I can't even talk to people during meals because during the meal we have to watch the buffet and replace food when it runs out. By the time Nola and I are eating, everyone else is already done and gone. Often we just end up eating on the counters in the kitchen because there's no longer any reason to go eat somewhere else. I'm going to mention it to Reagan, because I feel like I need to tell someone about how the meeting didn't happen when all the staff were present. And I just also need to get it off my chest, which this has helped with a bit. Hopefully this upcoming week is better.

*The Special Meal Deal: in hindsight, probably a bad idea on my part in terms of stress and extra work required, but hopefully it works out. Nola and I came up with this because the meals that the spring staff have together alone are dwindling quickly. We pitched to the staff that if they each brought in $3, then we (Nola and I) would make them a meal of their choosing that is not limited by camp's (non-existant) budget or food/ingredients, for a dinner this coming week where it's just spring staff. They were all for it, and so this Friday dinner will include guacamole, chicken breasts with goat cheese, stir fry and some sort of dessert (Nola wants to make cheesecake).

**Handing in our two weeks notice has become something of a joke between a handful of us at camp. A couple weeks ago Em, Aaron and I were chatting about the changes at camp that we didn't like/agree with. We were jokingly threatening to hand in our two weeks notice of quitting our jobs. We all agreed that if one of us did it, the others would. We then went to see Reagan and told her about this. I asked her what she'd do, and without missing a beat she said "I'd hand in mine as well." :D