And so it begins...

Wow been a long time - lots has happened since the last post - I went home for just over a week and had a great time visiting friends and family - the only bad part was having to leave Boomer behind - it just didn't feel right driving back to Colorado not having him as my co-pilot. Oh well - I know this is for thebest and he is in good hands. We now have about 15 staff here, so camp is starting to get pretty busy and will only get busier - which is a good thing.

We started program staff training last week which has been pretty good, although it is all old hat for me, so it can get kinda boring, and then we will need to do it again for regular staff training.

Yesterday I finished up my Wilderness First Aid course, which was a lot of fun, however there is a staff member who is able to teach that course here at camp, and he said that the instructor did not really do it right - which I can see, but I still feel I learned a lot. The course was supposed to be 16hours, but everyday we got done at a bare minimum 2hours early - and we were supposed to do a bunch of scenarios and then take a multiple choice test, but we just did the scenarios and then he said we were done and we all passed! haha which was nice, but kinda weird.

Alright I gotta go eat breakfast hope all is well out there!

I need More Money!

So last week, I signed my contract for trips director - $32/day - fine by me 6 dollars more a day that the last time I worked here. Then I looked at the pay scale range and saw that I was going to be at the bottom end of it - so I decided to ask Toby about it - he said that Clint decided that since I was getting a lot of certifications for free and because I had never lead trips before that is why I was on the bottom rung - well i didn't agree with that reasoning, so I summoned up some courage and went to talk to Clint - I asked him why I was getting paid so low and he basically said the same thing - I told him that i didn't agree and he then said he could go as high as 33/day which was good - but i wanted to see how much I could get out of him so I just nodded and didn't really say anything - he then asked me to explain myself further, which I did, and he finally went up to 34/day...haha - and I guess Toby had talked to him earlier and had gotten him to commit to 33/day, but i got him to 34...haha that's right.

nothing else really exciting has gone on since - we are pretty packed with groups for the rest of the time until camp starts, but I will be gone for a week of it, so nothing to crazy for me!

More Debt???

Sure, why not - In the past week, I have as I said interviewed for a grad ass, and much to my surprise been offered a position as an Intramural Coordinator however it isn't actually through UW La Crosse. It is in the sense that by doing this I will get help paying for school and get offered health insurance, but it is actually in coordination with Viterbo and Western Technical College. It is a 15 hour a week assistantship and it starts Aug. 20th which will give me just about a week to find housing and get settled in La Crosse before it starts. At lease School doesn't start until Sept. 4th. So, after much hmming and haahing and worrying about what to do with my life it has once again....drum roll please....worked out as it somehow always manages to do...

So Far So Good

Well I haven't flunked out yet...2 days of water skills are done, and now I have two days of strictly classroom work before I take the actually tests...My Brother came to visit this week, and although we had some of the crappiest weather we've had in the last month, we still had a good time - we spent most of it in Denver as Camp lacks things to do when the weather is crappy. WE ended up going out on Sat., going to Ali's aunt and uncles Easter dinner and to a movie on Sunday, and then to New Belgium Brewery and a Lakers Nuggets game on Monday, so it was pretty fun and packed full of things to do. He leaves today and seems to be ready to get home and sleep in his own bed.

Yesterday I got a call from a representative from Wisconsin's Technical College regarding my assistantship - apparently they have an intramural coordinator position open and wanted to interview me. I told her that today would be good for an interview...Had the interview this morning, and I kind of regret saying I could do the interview so soon, because it has been a long time since I have had to actually interview for a position, and lets just say I was not at my best....to be honest I feel like it was one of my worst performances interview wise that I have had...she said that she has one more person to interview and that she would let me know by the end of the week....If you look at the position requirements, I feel like I am definitely qualified for the position and it seems like it would be easy, based on my past experiences, but she didn't really ask a whole bunch about my work history - it seemed like she just got some common interview questions off the web and picked 3-4 of them to ask me....it was kinda weird, but we will see how everything turns out...until then.

Lifegaurd training...

The test of time has arrived....can I swim a 500 continously using a known stroke....tread water holding a brick over my head for 5 minutes, and dive to the bottom of a pool to retrieve a brick from the bottom of the pool? We'll find out after tonight....it could prove interesting as I tend to sink...but hopefully all will go well...we'll find out!

Self sufficient

my stitches have been removed and I can once again use my right hand/finger....Finally.....life has been good lately beautiful weather means i am starting to get a little tan - without the help of a spring break - so that's pretty cool - work has been the same ol shit different day - I'm looking forward to trips starting up this summer so I can get out and see new places - as always I am starting to get a little stir crazy - still much better than what it was when i was stuck in good ol EC - but just looking to get out and do some cool stuff....Speaking of cool stuff today, as my food supply is running low - i decided I would try my hand at catching my own dinner - as luck would have it I was able to catch two pretty good size trout in the lake we have up here and fried'm up for a pretty damn good meal if i do say so myself - I haven't cleaned a fish in ages so that pretty much consisted of cutting the head off and ripping the meat of the skin with my bare hands, so that was a little awkward, but it worked, so that felt pretty good....Josh flies in on Thursday, so i am looking forward to that - however there may be one hick-up my boss despite knowing that josh was going to be here- signed me and dave up for a bunch of trainings in April and as luck would have it - one of the lifeguard trainings lands on the day that his flight leaves - I'm going to have to tell Mitch tomorrow that I cannot do that training - i'm guessing that is not going to go over too well....ahh well what can ya do...

A week later...

and a week later this is the damage.....first the splint....now i just have some minor blue stretchy wrap and gauze... stitches come out on monday!