Thursday, June 4, 2009

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!!!