Wesley Woods Week Monday June 24th

Aight time to start the Wesley Woods Church Camp blog posts!! But, some background info first.

Each summer (for many years now) I have volunteered as a Junior High counselor for my church's five day long bible camp. Honestly the "bible" part isn't incredibly prominent, the camp part is. This means I am responsible for children from ages 12-13 each June while they swim, run around, cause chaos, horseback ride, and everything else in between. It is exhausting and I love it! So now audience let's dive into the 2013 Wesley Woods experience. Forewarning, these posts are going to be lengthy.

Monday morning I found myself at the First United Methodist church in DG ready to go to church camp. This year I decided to not drive up myself since we had a light staff and it would be better for me to take the bus with the kids. Need to look after them. Plus we only had fourteen junior high campers on the roster, much lighter than our typical 40-50 count.

The ride up was smooth enough and only lasted for two hours. I sat next to Esther a girl I've known since she was three years old who was now also one of my campers. She insisted on decorating my nametag on the bus with colorful duct tape. The duct tape nametag thing became popular a few years ago with the campers, it hasn't died yet. It's better to surrender your nametag early since then it's done.

We arrived at camp on time and everyone began to unload the two buses. I called out to the Junior High campers to help assist in the unloading process. A chunk of them didn't. Heh, those girls were going to be whipped into shape. Least some of them, Outrageous was a handful to say the least. For the privacy of campers I have taken the liberty to call some of them by their "adjectives" from the name-game icebreaker. Thus this particular girl will be known to you all as Outrageous. Clever I know.

So the first day's schedule was different from the others since we didn't have a morning rotation. It was essentially shorter. We had the kids go around to various stations that lasted thirty minutes. The first on the schedule was nature.

Some of my adorable campers playing with mold.

Now nature was an interesting activity for the kids. Rather than being outdoors (only the obvious) it was inside. Being the Junior High group we were a few minutes late. The nature leader Miss Kay made sure to remind us that tardiness is not tolerated, at camp. She kept reminding us throughout the kid's activity (they grew mold) and at the end. It's camp! No one cares except you if a group is two frickin' minutes late!! This type of behavior towards Junior High would continues throughout the week, joy.

The other stations went much more smoothly. Art was making mailboxes for "care card" notes (mine said House Scale on it which only Jason understood). Swimming and boating followed where the kids took the swim test and learned some kayak basics. I would not be joining them on water related activities due to my recent metal addition to my body, heh heh the perfect plan to avoid the scummy swim area water.

Becky (mermaid) and Maddie (artist) two of my fellow JH counselors

It was then time for dinner, finally! As a counselor the highlights of the day are always meal times. I swear after eating a full plate of food I am never full, not even close. Instead it is as if my stomach reverted into a black hole and absorbs absolutely everything leaving me empty and starving once more. Ah well, part of being a counselor. Sides I frequently steal blueberry muffins as in between snacks.

We then had the "All Camp Activity" which was my least favorite one, counselor hunt. Here's the thing about the counselor hunt, I don't want to go out in the woods just to sit among poison ivy/oak while waiting for children to find me just so I can initial their check-off sheet. It's not fun for me or my skin. This year I did the smart choice and climbed up one of the old high-challenge walls and sat there far away from the bugs and toxic plants. Sure several kids found me but what do I care? They love racking up points and I'm happy to have helped.

Now afterwards was probably one of the most memorable events of camp, like ever. It was nearing seven o'clock meaning time for the six game of the Boston Bruins and Chicago Blawkhawks Stanley Cup Finals! Most people gathered in the mess hall eager to watch the game. I was one of them as was Jason who was appropriately decked out in Hawks gear (I stupidly forgot my Corey jersey at home). Unfortunately we all hit a snag; we couldn't stream the game through the projector.

We tried every method we could think of, I even called my dad for the Slingbox username and password, but it was all to no avail. The game had started and we decided to see if the TV in the corner received NBC. It did. Phew, that was lucky. I know what you're thinking audience, why did you use the damn TV in the first place? Well we had a crap ton of people in the room and the TV was rather small in comparison. It ended up working out fine mainly because Jason and I shouted multiple times at the young children gathered in front to, "Sit your butt down NOW!" I'm pretty sure we terrified them for life.

The game itself was spectacular. I mean one of the most heart pounding exciting nervous and ferocious few hours of my life. I swear I'll die young due to hockey giving me a heart attack. A worthy death though. In any case many of the kids the next day told me that I was more exciting to watch than the game. Heh, I had slightly lost my voice due to all the shouting and yelling. Oops.

Church Camp's first day ended after Andrew Shaw lifted the Stanley Cup while blood dripped down his face. Oh Andrew your beautiful face now has a gorgeous scar that marks you as an NHL champion for life. If only I had been able to sleep that night. Sadly the weather did not allow me that happiness.

Until Tuesday.

June 21st Intermission

Audience this really won't be a post. Not really. A long long time ago in a blog far away I made a video of me reading the fairy tale Brother and Sister. It was completely ridiculous. It's buried somewhere around here and is something like eleven minutes long. Oy, I can't even finish the damn thing. Hey Mare, learn to trim videos properly! You'd think she'd be more to the point, least the intermission is amusing.

Anyhow I have another video for all of you only if you're interested. It's under three minutes and is simply my reaction video to Game of Thrones Season Three Episode Nine.

!!!!WARNING!!!!

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

IF YOU DON'T WANT GAME OF THRONES RUINED

THEN OMIT EVERYTHING BELOW AND LEAVE

SERIOUSLY LEAVE NOW!

still here?

hmmm

fine.

ALLOW THE SPOILAGE TO COMMENCE!

So I did trim the video a lot. I started recording while Bran was hiding in the old mill with everyone and uses his awesome warg powers to control the wolves. Basically that was WAY before the Red Wedding scene which is what everyone was reacting to. My video stops short of when Rob's wolf is slain because, 

I'll be straight with you audience it was too embarrassing for me to post online. I started yelling at the screen, "not the wolf! Please for fuck's sake not the wolf! Oh mg god, they just killed the wolf. NOOOO! Ayra why didn't you release it when you had the chance?!" 

Ahem, I didn't want footage of that online, or in my computer, really existing at all. It's destroyed, forever. What's below is entertaining enough. Now, after that long-winded explanation here is my reaction video. Told ya she needed to be more concise. 

P.S. This post happened because my family and I watched the season finale of season three today. Tis all.

June 19th & 20th

Now audience you've heard plenty about two of my female bestfriends, Suzanne and Natalie. It is time however to switch to some of my male bestfriends. Not without a few minor explanations though. Warning, this may weird most of you out.

Back in high school (all those years ago) during my sophomore year I was a part of stage/tech crew. Basically I built sets and operated the soundboard. It was a lot of fun too. Well I made friends while on stage crew but namely I made "family". It started with my friend Alex (not my Romanian friend Alex) who was having a difficult time because of friends issues outside of tech. Being who I am I took Alex under my wing and soon enough he began to refer me as "big sis" (the hilarious thing is he is much taller than I am) and I called him "little bro". That is where it started.

My junior year of high school I still participated in crew and we had several new members (Tim even joined) namely Mike/Mikey, Dennis/DenDen, and Brian/Bribear. Dennis and Mike were friends of Alex's and I had met them the year before; Mike is completely mental (don't give him Full Throttle unless absolute chaos is what you're going for) and Dennis is kind of rough around the edges. Both are a year younger than yours truly and are good guys once you break past the first impression.

Brian, he's a near and dear friend of mine who is two years younger. For the longest time I called him "Freshie" since he was the new freshman on crew. He was similar to Alex where he started off in crew with a few ups and downs between his friends. I took him under my wing as well as Dennis and Mike. Essentially I mothered the three boys and this developed into me earning the nickname "Momma/Mom/Mommy". It's a bit weird (non-conventional for sure) but it is how it is. So, today I spent time with my lil bro and two of my three sons. That's where this was going.

The day started off with Dennis early-ish that morning. We took a walk round the Y-field near my house and had some lunch at Downers Delight together. He then (while terrifying me with his driving) u-turned the car and took me to Brian's house since Brian was at home. There Dennis was given the tour while I talked to Mrs. Kelly and her sister in the living room. A few times I shouted at Dennis to watch his language. Yup, definitely his mother.

The three of us then spent a few hours in one of my favorite parks walking around and talking. Around four a "surprise" happened which was why Dennis, "kidnapped Momma in the first place." Alex appeared which was shocking and fantastic all in one. I hadn't seen Alex in over a year due to his work schedules and college. I was swept up into a bear hug by my lil bro.

And then it was four. We all walked around the park more and ended it with some soft serve ice cream. I was then (after much persuasion) taken to T-Bell (Taco Bell) for dinner. The only reason I agreed was Baja Blast. Well, also Mikey wasn't there so two reasons. He had caused some incidences at Taco Bell which have since made me reluctant to go with this group of friends. In any case we ate there and everyone behaved themselves, surprisingly.

That's where the day ended. Well I was given a ride home by Alex which was sweet of him and then played some Old Republic with Pete and Brian; essentially it ended there.

Alright that was Wednesday, time for Thursday. Don't worry, it's not as long. Basically the big moments that occurred on Thurs were my mother's homecoming from her business trip in Atlanta, and finally watching Wreck It Ralph.

When my Mom arrived I gave her a big hug before she left for her training session at the Y. After she returned we all had a nice big dinner of burgers, corn on the cob, and a mixed salad. The salads were enormous, my mother and I didn't actually finish them. More veg for tomorrow!

Later on Brian arrived with a blu-ray of Wreck It Ralph. After several minutes of me trying different combinations I finally found the correct settings for the blu-ray player and projector. Seriously, it is hard. You try figuring out my Dad's entertainment system, even Pete has issues with it. Warning, there are probably spoilers below on the film.

Once everything was setup Wreck It Ralph occurred. I could've watched the menu screen for hours just such a cute animation of an arcade game. I found the film fantastic. All the gaming references were beautiful, naming the different arcade games during the montage, almost crying over Q-Bert being unplugged, Sonic loosing his rings when hit; it was magical. Though my favorite moment was when the Konami code was used. Watch the film and enjoy it for it's gamer glory of arcades. Makes me want to pay Galloping Ghost a quick visit.

That was Thursday. Again it ended with some Old Republic with my brother but otherwise it was a straight forward day. I love technology; the ability to talk to someone miles away for free because of Steam or Skype is amazing. Sure it can be frustrating when it doesn't work but it's way more reliable than a fax. Hint hint France.

New age tech and retro nostalgia make for a great day.

June 17th & 18th

It's time for a Suzy Nay Dominated post! Basically what that means is the two days covered (Monday Tuesday) in this post were dominated by my darling Suzy and Nay. Heads up, these posts could quite possibly be frequent.

Where to start. Monday kicked off with my usual routine before I met up with Suzy for some shopping. I was actually late for meeting her because Subway's queue was so freakin' long. Was worth it for a six-inch Italian herbs and cheese sub with grilled chicken and honey mustard. Also I shot her a text telling her I'd be a bit late. See, I'm courteous.

I grabbed Miss Suzy and we headed off to Yorktown Shopping Center for some much needed shopping. Alright, I might have overdone it just a smidge. My closet is now filled with new tops as well as a few dresses and a bikini from Pac Sun and some Spencer's drinking glasses and a witty pin and yeah. That's a lot. The mastercard had some exercise which my father wasn't too happy about. My mother ok'd it though and she's the one in charge of my wardrobe.

Sorry dad but this was my overdue shopping spree for new clothes that will last me the summer and the school year and a few years after. It was much needed, says the spoiled twenty-one year old. And I'm totally alright with that setup.

That was shopping which lasted hours and even bled into Oakbrook (after a few wrong turns were corrected). Suzy and I split for a little bit just so we could wind down in the comforts of our own homes. I then left my home for Suzy's for another girl's night. Nay joined us of course, can't be three amigos without her. Though I prefer the three caballeros. They sing and include Donald Duck.

The night was spent laughing and drinking about and lasted until four in the morning. It started round nine o'clock PM so it went on for a while, strictly speaking. I had my camera on me and several no, dozens of pictures were taken of the three caballeros. I believe Suzy is Panchito (wild energized bird) and Nay is Donald (makes the craziest faces), seems to fit well. That leaves me with José the parrot who is constantly trying to score free meals otherwise known as food obsessed. Wow we really are the three caballeros.

Sadly audience that's all I can say about the night. We talked, devoured brownies, and took pictures together as best friends should. It was magical though, somehow magical. Fear not, they were normal brownies from Wholefoods.

We are such lovely ladies

That sums up Monday rather nicely. Time to move on to Tuesday. Oh man this was a funny day.

So I've been wanting to have my belly button (navel) pierced for a long long long time audience. Since I was about fifteen to be exact. The reason I didn't have it done was because, well it's kinda pathetic. Bare bones, I was with a boy at the time who thought they were "gross looking" and told me not to have on done. He even told Natalie "No offense Nay." I know, what a tool. Anyways adult Mary has learned that it's her body and her choice alone regarding anything that happens to it. Piercing ahoy! 

After a few more wrong turns, the three of us ended up finding Skin Gallery Tattoo and Piercing Parlor. I parked my beautiful LT and the three of us entered the place only to find Brent! My jaw dropped and I smiled. Alright none of you understand what that means or who Brent is which is perfectly sound. 

Brent is my neighbor and childhood friend. Our meeting dates back to kindergarten or about five years old. I had just stumbled into the parlor where Brent works and had him pierce my navel. This world is kickass! 

He did a great job and even gave me a cute rod (rings are not good starters for the navel) that was all sparkly. Nay and Suzy commented on how it was a great starter. Thanks again Brent, hope to see more of you this summer. Now I finally have a piece of jewelry that I've wanted for many years. Awesome audience, simply awesome. 

The rest of the day was spent doing low key activities. I dropped Suzy and Nay off, called my brother, and even talked to my boyfriend over skype for a while. Oh yeah, for those of you who are newer-ish readers my boyfriend is a guy I met while I was studying abroad in France. His name is Jonathan, he's British, and he digs Tolkien. Plus the charm, the wit, and handsome face. Can't forget those qualities. In any case if you want to pass judgment he writes his own blog which you are free to check out audience. 

Glad that's cleared. After all of that I really just pattered around my house cleaning bits here and there. I began to download the MMO The Old Republic but the damn file took so long that I fell asleep before it finished. Oh well, there's always tomorrow afternoon. 

Tis all I got audience. Les Trois Caballeros crient "Ay caramba!" Ah, il ne marche pas en français au moins pas par rapport à l'espagnol. Cependant Mare ne sait pas l'espagnol. Dommage.

June 15th & 16th

These two days were busy busy busy. Heh, Frosty the Snowman Christmas special. Anyways they involved both a graduation party, a nuclear energy documentary, and father's day. That's a three course load right there. Breakfast this time round shall be a well seasoned nuclear energy documentary with a side of smoked bacon and orange juice.

So for all of you who don't know (which could possibly be many of you audience) my mother is a nuclear engineer who has worked at Argonne National Lab for her entire career. I know, that's rare these days. To say the least she is EXTREMELY knowledgeable when it comes to nuclear energy. My entire life my brother and I have grown up with her facts as well as her co-workers/bosses facts about nuclear energy which gave us a pro-nuclear viewpoint. That viewpoint is often the non-favorable one to the public. Sigh, it's been annoying whenever anyone brings the topic up (especially when I do it cause I don't shut up). The point is I'm pro-nuclear energy (not bombs) and it just so happens a new documentary on nuclear came out called Pandora's Promise.

For all of those who are interested in the film here's the website which gives all the details on the film including reviews, showtimes, and the cool movie poster image. We saw the film in Chicago at a small independent theater located near a Jamba Juice. Very important location, they have awesome smoothies.

I was excited to see the film since pro-nuclear energy films are rather rare. Instead we find environmental documentaries promoting solar, wind, and hydro power or as they put it "clean all-natural energy". Aw man I want to spoil so much in the film but I'll hold my tongue and allow you to be the judge of what clean energy is. Quick tip though, the people interviewed in the film are environmentalist who were originally strong anti-nuclear supporters who have now switched as well as experts in the field including one of the original engineers who worked on some of the first reactors; they know more than politicians with "scientist friends".

Kay I'm done, this isn't a blog to push my opinion...wait...it kinda is a place to push my opinions or least my thoughts onto you. Ah, well I'll stop with this one, it can become overwhelming. My finals words though are, "banana break, who wants a banana break?"

So later on I went to Phil's (a good friend of mine) college graduation party with Suzanne. Unfortunately Nay was unable to attend due to work constrictions though she'll see Phil later in the summer. How do I know this audience? I'm gonna have bonfires and both are sure as hell gonna be there. Plus other events. In any case the party was really mellow (most of his relatives were there) meaning Suzy and I could relax with food and drink as well as chatting up Phil's college friends.

One of the girls (forgot her name) was cool and jumped in and out of our conversations. She apparently was going to med school and had a habit of discussing lab experiments with Phil. As soon as she mentioned that he turned a bit green. Guess Phil doesn't have a strong stomach for that; learn new things everyday bout your friends.

That was basically Saturday. Suzy and I ended up at my house to watch the final periods of the blackhawks game over some pizza. However, we were so exhausted from growling at the screen (Seabrook watch your back) that we called it a night then and there. The next day was Father's Day. It was nice.

My dad and I started the day by attending a 50th Wedding Anniversary open house at our church. It was a quiet banquet that had cake and punch. I was bad and had some cake, fortunately turned out to not be a lie. I also cheated and took stomach meds later on. Also congratulations to the Picketts for 50 years of marriage. That's impressive and touching.

After we left the open house my dad and I decided that it was time for dinner, even though it was only a little past four in the afternoon. We chose a Mexican restaurant off of 75th near the dead Wolf Camera that we had been to several times before.

The food was fantastic, like actual authentic Mexican fantastic. My dad and I split this fajita combo meal that had grilled shrimp, marinated pork, beef, and chicken all on this hot plate. We couldn't finish it (I gave a good effort) and ended up taking a good chunk home for leftovers. The margaritas were good too.

Once we arrived home my dad opened his present from my mother which was a collection of special sauces (namely a ketchup) as well as a few recipes for a vegan diet. My dad is often a loyal vegan but it was Father's Day. My gift is still in the works and will hopefully be finished before the end of summer. I've just been busy busy busy and don't want things to become messy messy messy. Sorry, I really love that Christmas Special.

Tis all for now audience. Cheerio.

Ok that goes on the list of things Americans cannot say.

June 13th & 14th

It's a Thursday Friday mash-up! Don't fret my dear audience, this is something that will often happen on this blog. I don't have crazy days everyday and sometimes it is better to combo two of them that have only small dosages of crazy in them. By crazy I mean interesting. Let's start with Thursday.

I finally was blessed with blueberry pancakes for breakfast. Egg Harbor you are one delicious breakfast cafe with the best pancakes in town. Sorry Downers, I still love you but you can't beat the fluffiness of these flapjacks! Plus, uh blueberries.

Before breakfast I did a light workout (really just this daily thing that ensures I'm not the size of a whale) and baked myself in the sun for a few minutes. I used sunscreen for two reasons; it's probably a good idea to protect my skin from burning and I'm tanning some very pale skin. It will be a gradual process of coloring but one that will guarantee an even coat.

Boring stuff aside I later on after breakfast had some ice cream with my Bffafa Timmy (Tim for the rest of the world). Technically we had smoothies instead of ice cream but that's not the point. It was great just walking and talking with my best friend.

Moving on to the crazy, the real crazy. I finally witnessed the beauty that is the musical of The Book of Mormon. I will not spoil anything, not my style audience. All I can say is that the show goes down as one of the greatest events of my life. Now I can at last listen to my Book of Mormon soundtrack! Ah this is fantastic!! Thank you Matt and Trey. Also I look forward to the Stick of Truth!

Friday time. So most of the day was spent catching up on Game of Thrones. To answer the question, no I have not seen episode nine yet. Chill.

Later on I went over to Suzanne's house for some barbecue dinner. I was greeted by an adorable little Suzy and her loving family. Mrs. Segredo's potato salad is on my list of delicious; I ended up finishing the bowl. Suzanne then took me downstairs for some drinks and we then-

Shit. I can't actually talk about that. Private information in fact.

It Starts June 11th

Oh dear, I've woken up at five in the morning naturally. Damn, that's my consequence for passing out round nine after BWWs with my parents and Tim and Brian last night. The wings were amazing by the way, still have a few leftover for lunch today.

Ah, where are my manners? Hello audience old and new and welcome to my Summer blog. I'm assuming most of you are old readers but perhaps we shall acquire new comrades as we go along. If you are new then I suggest you skim through my Spring Semester and Fall Semester blogs in France since I will be referencing people and events from them. Or don't. I probably wouldn't, there are a lot of fucking posts.

That brings me to an important point, I swear. A lot. In fact I can be rather creative about it, least I think so. Since I am back home in beautiful Chicago and surrounded by my American college friends it will only worsen as the summer progresses. I think of you as on level with American college students thus the swearing will be present. If you can't handle it then do the only rational thing possible on the internet. Leave a raging comment about how my blog should be taken down blah blah blah and how now your ten year old is calling you a mother fucking cunt licker because of my use of words yadda yadda and then wait for my reply in order to once more leave a raging comment. It's a vicious cycle really. Or you could just not read the blog. I wonder which is more fun? Probably the first option.

Anyways back to this beginning this new start to a blog. Uh well I did mention how I had woken up at 5 AM. The cause? Jet lag. Oh it is a bitch indeed for travelers. Especially student travelers as tired as I was yesterday. Did you know that I almost didn't make my second flight because Dublin security refused to open a second line? Hmm I suppose you didn't know but now you do. It's true, the lazy sloths (ouch double the inactivity) caused me to be the last passenger aboard the flight. The check in woman actually said, "You Scale?" Five minutes later the plane took off. At least they had beef pasta for lunch on the flight; didn't have time for BK in Ireland.

Once I landed yesterday I was processed rather quickly through customs. I almost was stuck with the same slow officer that I had dealt with in December but fortunately I was herded to the guy next door. Dodge an apathetic bullet there.

I then found my parents (surprised my mother in fact with a hug) and was taken to the magical place of BWWs. I ate, I drank, I was hugged by Tim and Brian, all before I almost passed out on the bar stool. It was a great first night back.

Now today, yes yes today. I began a rather weighty project that is turning out wonderfully. Since I was up and not able to fall back asleep in the early hours of the day, I decided to start clearing out my closet. I don't have a before picture (trust me it was gruesome) but to give you an idea of how many clothes I decided to chuck into a donation box just look below.

As Miss Steele would say Oh My!

That is the process my poor bed was going through. Guess what that means, I wasn't finished thus not all of my clothes are piled in that photo. However, all is not sad. My efforts continued throughout the day with a bit of laundry thrown in and whatnot. This is the current result in progress of my closet.

Aw yeah that's looking nice!

It's a great start just as this blog is for my summer adventures. Hopefully you'll all stick around to absorb my random activities as I post them onto the internet for reasons unknown. Audience, it should be a bumpy ride with twists and turns. Least I hope so.

Second Semester Blog in France

First Semester Blog in France