The Scenic Route

So I recently started a new job. It's not really AT ALL what I went to school for. But it's fun, it's gonna pay the bills, I'm learning a lot, and best of all...I LOVE IT! In a nutshell (is that one word or two?), it's my job to make things happen. And I like that.

As a result of taking this job, I've been asked a lot the past three weeks what my eventual career plans and life goals are. I really don't have an answer. I have no big idea of how to gauge the success of my life when it's all over. And I think that's fine. I'm perfectly happy to meander through life without a big plan. I am certain of a few things, though...

I want to help people.
I want to be a good friend.
I want to always remember to laugh.
I want to feed people.
I want to live out loud.

So when people ask what my plans are, I tell them I plan to take the scenic route through life, and to enjoy wherever it takes me.



Also, I'm pretty sure Taylor Swift says it best in her song "A Place in this World"...

I don't know what I want
So don't ask me
Cause I'm still trying to figure it out
Don't know what's down this road
I'm just walkin
Trying to see through the rain falling down
Even though I'm not the only one
Who feels the way I do
I'm alone
On my own
And that's all I know
I'll be strong
I'll be wrong
Oh, but life goes on
I'm just a girl
Trying to find a place in this world
Got the radio on
My old blue jeans
And I'm wearing my heart on my sleeve
Feelin lucky today
Got the sunshine
Could you tell me what more do I need
And tomorrow's just a mystery, oh yeah
But that's okay
I'm alone
On my own
And that's all I know
I'll be strong
I'll be wrong
Oh, but life goes on
I'm just a girl
Trying to find a place in this world
Maybe I'm just a girl on a mission
But I'm ready to fly

Wake Up Call

Ok so the other day I woke up. To the sound of my very own laughter. I'm not even close to kidding here....I mean, who could make this up?

So anyway, I tried to remember what I was dreaming and this is what I pieced together...

I was walking into Walmart (an old school, non-SuperCenter one, where the customer service desk and restrooms are right inside the only entrance and to the left) with my cousin Dave. He's not really my cousin. We have the same last name and play the same instrument in marching band. In Kentucky that means you may as well be cousins since everyone assumes you already are. Oddly enough, I haven't actually seen Dave in a couple years, so who knows why he made an appearance in my dream. But that's neither here nor there.

We ran into another friend of ours, Andy. Facebook had recently told me that he just popped the question to his girlfriend who then became his fiance. Dave and I of course congratulated him on the now-impending nuptuals. And Andy is a funny guy. The kind who doesn't even TRY to be but always has you laughing. I wish so badly that I could remember what he said. That's the trouble with dreams, though - they're always fuzzy.

But whatever it was that he said, he said it right as I was taking a drink of water. So the water of course came pouring out of my mouth and all over the floor of Walmart. I kept laughing and the water kept coming until I was standing in a pool of water.

And that's when I woke up. Laughing. Hysterically.

Wanted: Gene Pool Lifeguard

If you want to drive a car, bus, tractor-trailer, motorcycle, ATV, snowmobile, boat, or plane, you have to have a license. If you want to hunt, fish, or go scuba diving, you need a license. If you'd like to own rare animals or a large number of pets, you need a license. You need a license to prepare someone else's taxes, practice medicine, defend or prosecute a case in a court of law, perform CPR and basic first aid, lifeguard, own a gun, be a mall cop, pierce ears and tattoo people, chlorinate a pool, or operate a ham radio. You also have to have a certificate in order to teach in public schools.

Last time I checked, parents are the most important teachers. But there's no certification or licensing process to become a parent. No requirement to learn basic care or lifesaving techniques. No law that says you actually make the effort to think about the best interests of your children. Nothing. So long as you are physically able to make a baby, a parent you shall be! But when will enough be enough?

I realize that this does not apply to all parents. For that I am grateful. I also realize that any sort of parental licensing is outlandish and completely unrealistic. But I think about these things, so I will share those thoughts with you.

This has been on my mind lately for a couple of reasons. The first was this past Saturday night. I went to a party at a friend's house. The kind of party where women invite all their friends over to see a demonstration or two and then buy a bunch of make-up/jewelry/home decor/kitchen products/etc. so the hostess gets a bunch of free stuff. I love that kind of party! One of the other women there brought her one week old son with her. He was sleeping peacefully in his little car seat carrier thingy and I'm sure Mom was glad to get out of the house. That's not the problem. She was going to change and feed him so she picked up him and his diaper bag. Something fell out of the bag and when she bent over to pick it up, I noticed that she was just holding him under the bum with no support for his back or neck. That poor infant's head was rocking and rolling all over the place.

ISN'T SUPPORTING THE NECK AND BACK THE NUMBER ONE RULE OF HOLDING INFANTS?!?!?!?!?! My only explanation for this behavior is that her first time holding a baby was when her son was born a week ago. I gathered from the things she said throughout the party that she was around 30 years old. CAN YOU BELIEVE A THIRTY YEAR OLD WOMAN DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO HOLD A BABY!?!?!? Yet here she is, with a kid, about to RAISE A CHILD without the first idea of how to take care of his basic needs.

Another instance of parental idiocy happened today when I went with my sister to see New Moon. I know that women and gay men of all ages are obsessed with Bella and her selfish indecisiveness and constant attraction to danger. That's fine. But get a babysitter for your seven children under the age of FIVE. Unless it's a kid movie with lots of colors, slapstick comedy, and very little plot, leave them at home! It's not even that I mind the crying and little voices during the movie. It just isn't fair to expect a toddler to sit still through a two and a half hour movie that's dark, slow-moving, and uninteresting (to a two year old anyway).

On another note, I keep hearing ridiculous names that parents give their children:
Ever (just like it's spelled)
Urine (yur-een)
Heaven (wishful thinking much?)
Neveah (Heaven spelled backwards)
Female (rhymes with tamale)
La-a (la-dash-uh)
S'nc'r'ty (Sincerity?)
Shithead (shith-eed)

REALLY? You named your kid SHITHEAD? That one came from one of my high school friend's mom's classes. (I hope I used those apostrophes correctly.) And then there's all the famous people who feel they have to name their kids things like Pilot, Apple, Lyric, Aspen, Lark Song, Fifi-Trixibelle, Peaches, Pixie, Atherton, Nico Blue, Rumer, Satchel, Brawley King, Dweezil, Chance Armstrong (no relation to Lance), Diva, and my personal favorite...Moon Unit (I guess that's how it feels to be Frank Zappa's daughter). No wonder regular people are naming their children crazy things...they're trying to live up to Hollywood namesakes!

I can respect that parents don't want their children to be one of seven Michaels in their class at school. Whatever. But sometimes I think parents are so eager to give unique names that they fail to realize what that name is going to mean for that kid. Now, there is always speculation on some of those names I listed above. I don't have firsthand knowledge of all of them, but I'm only three degrees of separation at most. I just really wonder how those kids feel about their names when they're all grown up.

I wish people were responsible enough to spend even a minute thinking about what they're doing before they decide to have children. I had a teacher in high school who would sometimes stand in the hall during class changes, blow a whistle at kids doing stupid things and tell them to get out of the gene pool. It's too bad he's not the real deal. Some kids might actually have a chance at not being raised by idiots.

And on a completely random side note, Shithead did not come up on spell check. :)

Kicking the Habit

I have been a nail biter/cuticle chewer since I was knee high to a grasshopper. I've never really thought much about it. But I've recently decided that it's super gross. So I really tried to think about when/why I do it.

I remember the summer after high school graduation, my nails grew so long so fast. Probably because I literally had not a care in the world. I also like to fool myself into thinking that I don't stress out about anything.

HA!

It's been a long time coming for me to realize that I stress internally over EVERYTHING. Which is fine. I guess. It works for me. But I am determined not to let that translate into me having disgusting fingernails anymore!

So two nights ago I did the unthinkable. I painted my nails PINK. So far, it's working for me. I mean, the pink scares me a little, since I rarely do anything girly. But whenever I find my idle hands finding their way to my face I remind myself that as soon as that nail gets between my teeth, the polish is ruined. And I certainly don't want to spend more time than I have to painting my nails.

We'll see how long this lasts.

Summer School

As I sit here in the den of my maternal grandparents' house, watching my mother and aunt play Tetris, it just doesn't seem that the past four months actually happened. The summer at camp having gone so quickly, finished by an instant transition to life without it, has got me wondering if it really did. But then I think about everything I learned this summer and am reassured that I did not, in fact, miss out on three whole months of my existence. So here's what I learned, in no particular order:





1. Give credit where credit is due. This one seems pretty obvious on the surface. But all too often I find that people will knowingly take credit for someone else's work. Aside from being an inherently jerky move, it's just not cool. Some would argue that it's better to accept praise from someone for something he or she thought you did than to make it awkward by correcting them. On the contrary....redirecting that praise to the deserving party proves not only politeness, but integrity.


B. Bee stings hurt. And they're annoying. I've been stung by wasps several times before in life. But this summer was the first time I was ever stung by a bee. A cute little fuzzy buzzy BEE. And I wasn't even doing anything to him. In The Secret Life of Bees, Queen Latifah (my wanting-to-be-her-when-I-grow-up aside) told me that no life-loving bee WANTS to sting you. So maybe this little one was suicidal? Alas. The actual wasp stings initially hurt more. They hurt for about a week and that's that. But the thing about bees is that their stings linger. They hurt for a couple of days. The pain goes away. And then they itch like crazy for approximately 2-7 weeks. But bees are just SO CUTE, I can't be mad.

3. Swine Flu really isn't THAT bad. I say this as a supposed survivor. That's right....I'm pretty sure I had the swine. And we're pretty sure Emily had it twice. I got it at the beginning of the summer....around Family Camp/Orientation time. It basically knocks you out for 3-4 days, usually with the middle two days being the worst. Then you cough for a couple of weeks but eventually get back to normal. (Normal, of course, being a relative term) When a gazillion of our staff members got the swine and the VD (vomiting and diarrhea....not to be confused with venereal disease...even though I wouldn't be surprised.....) we had to close camp. It was definitely an interesting few days trying to get the campers picked up, camp cleaned, dealing with the health department(s), and all the while keeping the rest of the staff happy, healthy, and working. So, while the media hype is making swine flu sound super scary, I've had cases of bronchitis that made me feel worse!

4. Facebook rules the world. All joking aside, it's pretty much true. I'd be willing to bet that within a few years we will be able to shop, bank, trade stock, job hunt, make dinner reservations, order pizza, refill prescriptions, book travel, renew driver licenses, and check credit scores on facebook. Well, perhaps that's a tad bit extreme....but you get it. I mean, facebook is so integral to everyday life these days, I find out about things happening in my life from FB before I learn it in real life. It's outta control....but not necessarily in a bad way. With the way it's growing and changing (the average age of users has risen DRASTICALLY over the past two years), there's really no telling what's next! You can also check the Facebook Blog to see what's going on behind the scenes. Mark Zuckerberg may have received a C on his original web design assignment at Yale...but he gets an A in world impact.

5. Opportunities are not for wasting. Sometimes you only get one chance to say or do something. It's not always easy. But you just have to grow a pair or spend years regretting it. Although, it helps if you have nothing to lose.

6. Steve Carell was right when he said, "Plan to be surprised." Basically, just when you think you've seen it all....you learn that you haven't. Like when I thought I'd seen just about every outlandish thing that could possibly be flushed down a toilet (clothes, bedsheets, toothbrushes, pool toys, diapers, and soap dispensers...just to name a few), and plunged a toilet for over an hour only to have the maintenance guys pull a swimsuit out of the pipes. Yes, a swimsuit. One of the campers had stolen his counselor's swimsuit and flushed it. We have no idea why. Or how about the staff members who are so shy and reserved when they first get there that we don't think they'll make it through the day much less the summer, and they end up being some of the best ones we have. And of course there are also those days when nothing goes right, the power goes out, and somebody poops in the pool....but then Rick, the friendly UPS man shows up with a package 0f goodies from your best friend and all of a sudden it's the best day ever. So in the end, I've stopped expecting anything and just wait to see what comes my way.

7. It really sucks when you have to poop and you're wearing a one-piece swimsuit. Just trust me on this one.

8. People will always make assumptions. I had the pleasure of answering the office phone when a particular parent called the office looking to speak to a nurse. When I told him that no nurses were available to speak to him (since it was a day off, after all) and offered to try my best to help in their absence, he told me that while I sounded very eager to help, he doubted I was educated enough to answer his questions. Now, I don't offend easily. In fact, I have a rule: take anything anyone says to you as a compliment and you'll never be offended. When the little guy from Israel tells me that I don't LOOK like someone who likes to eat vegetables...I think, 'Awesome. That must mean I look like a fun person who likes to eat exciting foods.' Or when Emily tells me that I look awful and need to go shower and sleep, I just take it as her looking out for my well being. But when the man on the other end of the line assumed that just because I answered the phone I was uneducated, I was speechless. I guess people will always go on assuming things about people they don't know. That's alright. We'll just go on proving them wrong.

9. Getting people to recycle is harder than you might think. It seems to me that dropping an empty coke can into the recycle bin instead of the trash can RIGHT NEXT TO IT is really not that difficult. Apparently I am mistaken. I'm not sure where I went wrong. Three years ago I talked Jonathon into buying the bright blue recycle bins complete with the hole-in-the-middle white lids that read 'CANS ONLY.' I put paper recycle bins on the sides of all the trash cans in the office. I volunteer to wash dishes to avoid using Styrofoam plates and disposable cups whenever possible. Even though it rarely works out, I try really hard to consolidate trips to town to save on gas. I even did an entire session during orientation on the environment and what we can do to help.....and finished it by sending everyone out to the woods to hug trees. But to no avail. I still found myself picking coke cans and bottles out of the garbage and putting them in the recycle on a daily basis. It's either laziness or apathy and I don't think it really matters which. I'll blame it on the fact that we're dealing with the 'Millennials' and will just wait patiently for the next generation which is being raised on green living.

10. Everything really DOES happen for a reason. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. It's the cliche of cliches. But this summer solidified my belief in fate/karma/destiny/serendipity. No matter what we call it, it's what makes the world go round. I mean there had to be a reason that crazy Tom McDougal (or whatever his name was) from Australia felt the need to "follow his heart" to England, freeing up a spot for Ronan on LT. I'm certain that a higher power was at work when Garrett and I randomly chose to do our evening rounds backwards that one time and came upon a cabin in crisis. The fact that we happened by just as they found a [non-epileptic] camper who had fallen out of bed seizing and [because my blackberry is attached to my hip...literally] were able to call for an ambulance right away is no small miracle. Not to mention the one day I told Barry to go swimming during rest hour instead of staying to work in the office, he was standing in exactly the right place to catch Erica, whose wheelchair drove her straight into the pool (aided by a rogue lifeguard tube). So no, I don't believe that those events were matters of coincidence. Not at all.


I suppose that in the end, it was perhaps the most interesting, educational, stressful, and fun summer on record. It's nice to go out with a bang! :)

Life on the Mountain

So I've been here in the mountain paradise for slightly over two weeks now and while time seems to drag by minute by minute, it's hard to believe that it has gone so fast at the same time. The majority of leadership team is here, along with the TR interns (one from Frostburg State and one from Penn State) and the kitchen staff. Family Camp starts tomorrow afternoon/evening, followed quickly by staff orientation beginning on Tuesday morning. So much to do, so little time before then!!!

The most interesting thing to happen to me since I've been here is an incident of which I have absolutely no recollection. A few nights ago, as I lay sleeping peacefully in my cabin, some suspicious vehicles drove into camp (unbeknownst to me). Apparently Emily (my sister) saw one of the cars drive away followed soon by Bill (the director) sprinting barefoot across the Greentop. When he came over to the cabin to talk to Emily, I sat up in bed and explicitly asked what was going on and then immediately laid back down and continued my slumber. Bill called the park service to alert them of the suspicious activity.

That's the back story. About 20-30 minutes after that happened, another car pulled in and stopped by our cabin. Emily got up to check out the situation and realized it was one of the park rangers following up on the call Bill made earlier. She chit-chatted with him for a bit as I proceeded to get up out of bed, don my glasses, and ask Lauren (another cabin-mate) - in a confused voice - what was going on. Emily finished her convo with the ranger and came back in the cabin. Here's what happened next (and this is me telling the story based on what they told me, so I can't be certain of its accuracy):

Me: Who was that?
Emily: That one ranger with the blond hair, I can't remember his name.
Me: Jeremy?
Emily: That's it!
Me: (sprints over to the window and yells) JEREMY!!
Jeremy: Yep?!
Me: Congratulations on being a father!
Jeremy: Oh, thanks.
Me: Was it a boy or girl?
Jeremy: A boy.
Me: What did you name it? I mean him?
(At this point he is standing outside the window by my bed, I'm sitting in my bed, and push my glasses up on my head.)
---Now, nobody knows what the baby's name is because neither Emily nor Lauren could hear---
Me: Oh nice, so I thought you were still on paternity leave.
Jeremy: No, it's my second day back and this is my second middle of the night call out.
Me: So are you on patrol or just on call.
Jeremy: Oh, I'm on call...I was in bed sleeping when I got this call.
Me: You always get the shit jobs. Like last year when that guy came in the middle of the night to repo a car from one of the marines at Camp David.
Jeremy: yeah...
Me: Ok well I guess we'll see ya later sometime.
Jeremy: Night.

I guess after this I got back in bed and immediately began snoring. They tell me that about 15 minutes later I was fidgeting with the stuff on my bedside table and then said, "I'm HUNGRY! Do you guys have any food in here?" When told no, there was no food in the cabin, I then reminded myself that we did have cheesesteaks for dinner and that there were likely some left in the kitchen. But then went right back to sleep again. So when I woke up the following morning, I heard Bill talking to Holly (another ranger) on the road outside the cabin about the suspicious vehicles that were at camp the previous night. Em was in the shower so I asked Lauren what that was all about and she immediately cracked up because I didn't remember a single thing.

Aside from that, things have been somewhat uneventful. Only two black snake sightings so far, and no major issues otherwise. Summer 09, here we come!!!

Dear Mr. Pennington

Dear Ty,

I have been a fan of Extreme Makeover Home Edition for quite some time now. I try to catch the new episodes and I watch reruns on CMT. I cry everytime....sometimes even before you get to the 'Move that bus!' part. Watching the show never fails to restore my faith in humanity and the American spirit.

I pray you realize just how lucky you are to be able to spend your life improving others. I can only hope to do the same.

Sincerely,
Bekah Carmichael

Something New

Well here it is...my first post for the blog I promised all of you who wanted me to keep in touch. Seeing as though I am an aspiring nomad, there really is no telling where I'll be in life or when I'll be there. But here goes...



Since finishing up grad school a week ago, I've kind of been in a daze. Everything just moved so fast the past two weeks: finishing school work, finals, moving out, graduating, road trip, unloading, organizing, and getting ready for the summer. Somewhere in there I realized that for the first time in my recollective memory, I am not between school years. And let me just say right now that it is very strange.



This week I will head back to Camp Greentop for summer #6. So, although I've done this five times already...this time isn't quite the same. I'm very excited for it - my own personal summer paradise - and can't wait to see what adventures and unbelievable events it will bring. Once the summer gets underway, I will be blogging for CGT at campgreentop.blogspot.com so feel free to check that one as well. It will be geared towards the parents and families of campers and staff, but it will give you an idea of what I'm doing every day (if you're that much of a creeper!).



SO. The coolest (and I mean that both figuratively and literally) thing I've done lately is the stop my family made at Niagara Falls on the way from Terre Haute to Watertown. I had never been before this past Monday and am ever so glad that we decided to stop by. It is one of the world's most famous natural wonders, and rightly so. Before going there, I had seen it in pictures and on TV and thought that I understood just how colossal it is. But I had grossly underestimated the enormity of the falls. If you ever need to be reminded of how small you are, just take a trip there. We rode out into the river on the Maid of the Mist and it was just amazing. The force of the wind created by the water pouring over the cliff is completely unexpected but totally enjoyable. 750,000 gallons of water take the fall every second. That's 45 million gallons per minute. I could go on forever about the awe-inspiring sights that are to be had, but it's better to see it for yourself!














(Photo credit to my sister, Emily)