Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Cowboys, Vikings, and Ticos

Once again everything seems to be rushing at me at once. I'll have my fair share of Cowboys, Vikings, and Ticos in the next few days. Tomorrow is Thursday and I leave to Dallas for a day. The Vikings are playing at Texas Stadium tomorrow night. Since it's the one time that Cullen will be in Texas, I obtained a few tickets and some of us are going up for the night. Call it blasphemy, but the four of us going will be cheering for the Vikings. I'm sure there's quite a few budweiser drinkers at Texas Stadium that aren't going to like that. I've never been a Cowboy's fan. I was an Oilers fan, then we lost them, so I was teamless for years. Once Cullen signed with the Vikings I started getting back into the NFL thing a bit, and have claimed the Vikings as my own. If he decides to move elsewhere after his contract is up this season, then my allegiance will follow. Call me fair-weather if you will, but the professional game just doesn't stand up to College Football. There's nothing I enjoy more than watching Texas Tech, or Texas playing on Saturdays.

We'll get back Friday afternoon, then it's time for some serious packing. I'm going to try to pack as light as possible. With me though, that usually doesn't happen. There are so many things that I think I'll need, then once I get there I won't use half of them. I've decided I'm taking one rolling bag, and my backpack. If I can't fit something in there, it's not going. I leave here at 7 in the morning Sunday. After a short stop in Houston, I'll roll into Costa Rica at 1 o'clock Texas time on Sunday afternoon. That's the Tico part I was talking about. Costa Ricans call themselves Ticos. So for a month, I'll be hanging with those folks. Everyone that I talk to about the trip that has been has absolutely nothing bad to say about the place, so it's making me even more anxious to go. I put a link over to the right of the school I'm going to be at. I'm doing 4 weeks of classes for 6 hours a day. If I'm not way better at Spanish when I get back, then it's a lost cause.

When I get back, it's back to wedding time. We had a pretty tight group of friends in High School that were in the class of '99. As of now, there's only 3 of us that aren't married, or soon to be married. What are these people doing? Tomorrow all three of us will be together. One of these days, but sheesh, not yet. If I was already married, I sure as hell wouldn't be going to Costa Rica...Maybe for the Monterrey wedding, my Spanish will be stellar!

Things I'll miss in Costa Rica:
My Dad
My Dog
My Friends
Dove Hunting <--big time, I hope I can get some done when I get back
The Guadalupe
Astros Games
College Football/Vikings game

Things I won't miss:
English
The dry weather <--although, it'll rain almost every day I'm there
CAMPWISE <--Camp database that drives me nuts (only because of the slow connection I used to have.)

I'll try to update as often as possible. Y'all know how to get a hold of me! Have a good one!

Monday, August 21, 2006

notes

Another exciting day here at work. I'm the only one in the office this morning and there is absolutely nothing to do. I ran across this online radio station called radiofreetexas.org that I have playing on my computer all day now. It's a fun station that lets you request music from Texas Artists. As I write this, I've got Mark David Manders playing. I haven't seen him play in a couple of years probably. He just stopped going to Lubbock while I was there. I wish he'd play somewhere closer to Kerrville.

Another exciting thing about this site is that Sean Kendrick is on there. For those of you who don't know Sean, he's a local guy. He actually worked here at camp for 3 summers around the turn of the century. He picked up the guitar one day and hasn't set it down. Now you can request his music on this station. He's actually one of the most requested artists. One of his songs is at #21 on the request list right now. I've probably requested it 7 or 8 times, which means that a lot of other people have been doing the same. So if anyone gets a chance, go to the site and request some Kendrick.

Onto other things. Since my last post, things have worked themselves out for the most part. The move is over! We haven't unloaded every box, but we're close. It's beginning to look a little more like a home now. Minus the furniture that is. Hopefully today a trip to San Antonio will fix that. We got television hooked up over the weekend, which was a God send because I had been getting so bored without it. I'd actually picked up quite a bit on my reading. It seems now though, that there isn't anything entertaining on the TV.

I made a trip to San Antonio yesterday that didn't exactly turn out as planned. I was supposed to go and take my Mother out to eat, but she never answered her phone, and somehow slept all day, so I ended up just going to a few stores and buying things I don't need. I did get a new pair of shoes though. I'm excited about them. They are the fratty New Balances, the grey ones, and they are comfortable as can be. I also bought a new book, A Confederacy of Dunces. Which I'm excited about. I remember seeing it on someone's favorite books list, and ran across it in Barnes and Nobles so figured I'd get it. I haven't started it yet, but it'll be one of the ones I take to Costa Rica with me.

So Costa Rica...Classes start 2 weeks from today. I'm a little nervous about going, but as each day rolls by, I get more and more excited. I'm also pumped that after I'm done with classes a friend of mine is coming down for 7 days or so, and we're going to do a quick tour of the West Coast. If anyone else is interested, start working on your passport and let me know!

That's all for now. I don't know if I'll do any updating on here until I leave for Costa Rica. I'll try to update while I'm there though. I don't know if I'll be able to put any pictures up or anything, but I'll try. If not, I'll put them all up when I get back. Leave me a message on here, email, or myspace or facebook me if you want to get a hold of me while I'm down there.

Over 1200 views now...Does anyone actually care what I think?


Talk to all of you soon...

Thursday, August 10, 2006

It's been forever

Yeah, yeah so it's been a while. I would say that I haven't had anything important going on my life, but that's not quite so true. I've just been tired, like real tired. Go to bed late, wake up early. I'm finished with the majority of that routine, I'm actually going to bed at a decent hour now, but it'll take me a while to catch up. The summer is over, or at least my summer. The one that we do prep for 10 months out of the year and during those 2 months of showtime pull everything together. This summer was a fun one. I don't know if I'd say it was the best I've ever had here, but it wasn't far from it.

I actually miss the days of being a counselor. I spent a lot more time outside, and had way more interaction with the kids. I like being a director, don't get me wrong, but here and there I'd like to have a little more time with the kids, and a little less time with parents who want to call everyday asking why their kids haven't written them in two days.

Now it's back to sitting in the office, looking at my window waiting for someone to walk by, or the phone to ring next. I've been waiting for some random kid to come by and knock on my window to ask a question that I've answered 10 times already, but it isn't gonna' happen. Not for another 10 months, and probably not to me again. If things go as planned, which they never do, but if they do, this was my last summer here. That's a bittersweet feeling to have. I've grown to love this place so much, the people, the family, watching these kids grow up. I've also literally grown, ready to get on with things. There's not much higher I can get in the pecking order, so maybe I ought to get out and start anew.

It seems for me that everything is happening at once. Nothing bad, it just appears that everything is coming together at a similar time. Camp being over, means that I've got about 3 more weeks to work here. I'm about to head out of the country for more than a month. I've got a wedding to go to in Monterrey which might lead to an awkward encounter (which I'm probably worrying about way too much). Then on top of that, I'm moving out of the house that I've lived in for 15 years.

Three weeks left of camp, I wonder how things are going to work out in a few months when a part of our full time staff is gone. I'm very optimistic about the running of this camp, and the future of the camp. I hope that I can be a part of it in the future, or at least be able to send, refer, or aide with the enrollment somehow. There isn't anything else that's gone on in my life that has been as good for me as camp has, I just hope that someday I can remunerate this place. I don't want to say I've lived a rough life, but I sometimes wonder how I've turned out like I have. Camp, and the people here are huge factors. I'm trying to be as noble as I can about what I say, but no words can be put together can fairly represent the importance these past seven summer have had.

I finally pulled it all together and am in the last stages of my Costa Rica planning. I'm going to be leaving in early September, and won't be back until early October. I'd probably stay longer, but there are a couple of weddings that I not only need to come back for, but really WANT to come back for. More on one of those in a bit. I've looked at going to a complete immersion program for like the last 5 years, but either couldn't afford it, or had other things going on. Now, I've got nothing else going on, and can afford to do it, so why not? I'll do 4 weeks of classes (either 4 hours a day, or 6 hours a day). I know I can't speak perfect Spanish in a month, but maybe it'll move some of the pieces I've put together over the years closer, and I'll at least be somewhat sufficient.

Well the weddings, I've got three of them in October and November. I know I've said it before, but my friends are all falling like flies. Not too much of a bad thing, it just makes me wonder if somehow behind the times. Naaa, I'm still young. One of the weddings is in Monterrey. Which is a place that I haven't been since the girl I dated for four years and I called it quits. Two camp people are getting married to each other there, and they are both mutual friends of the ex and myself. I really want to be at this wedding, because there aren't many people that I've met at camp who I actually like more than this guy, so I'm planning on being there. The awkwardness in seeing the old girlfriend is something that has been bothering me though. Surely I'm over reacting, I have a tendency to do that. It just creates a bit of a cumbersome reunion with someone I didn't think I'd see again. I'll make the best out of it though.

Now the moving. My Dad has talked about selling the place where I grew up for years. I remember coming home my Freshman year of college, and finding the drawings of the house he wanted to one day build at our ranch. It got me all excited and fired up, ready for the new place that would be coming very soon. Well days turned into months, and months to years, and now almost 6 years later it might finally happen. It's been an irritating time because we have to be out of the house only 10 days after I finished work for the summer. It's hard to pack up 15 years worth of accumulation in 10 days. Plus there is all the other stuff that I didn't get to do this summer that I want to do now, but it's all pushed to the backburner. We're moving into this little rent house in Kerrville that hopefully will just be temporary until we get a start on building out at the ranch. Like I said before though, days turn to months, and months turn to years. Hopefully that doesn't happen again...I'm excited, and cautiously optimistic on the outcome of that.

Yeah, so these are a few things on my mind, and some of the thoughts going through my head. I'm hoping that I get it all figured out in the near future, or just that everything would happen already...