Mostly family camp, but also classes and Swedish chefs

First thing's first: classes.  I have nothing to say about classes, since for my only class today Dr. Ancelet never showed, and we had no communication from him whatsoever.  So... yeah.  Mark and I went to eat at Red Flower (Chinese restaurant) up north of campus on the ghettoier part of Highland.  I gave my leftovers box to a bum on a street bench when he asked for it since I was in a generous mood... I've been doing that a lot lately (with money), and feeling good about it.  This is odd, given my general annoyance with people asking me for money... even odder is the weird flashes of feeling like a good Christian that accompany it.  No analysis from me here today, though, just observation.

So instead I'll talk about Family Camp.  Camp was really quite a good time.  I'm glad of this, since I wasn't really in a mood to deal with camp when I headed out toward Lafayette on Friday... just not in the mood to be constantly upbeat and friendly.  Luckily, even though the first night felt forced from my end, I think I put on the right face and did my job.  The experience of family camp was a little different than I expected - I'd never done this before, so I only knew that this a mini-camp for families (i.e. parents and siblings) to accompany our heart kids and see what camp's all about.  What I *didn't* know was that not only did our current campers attend, but also potential campers who were below our minimum age, so we had a 5 yr old heart kid, a 2 yr old (Andrea, was Remy a heart kid?) and a 10 month old heart kid.  It was great to watch the families talk together and share; the weekend was a sort of bonding and therapy for families who often may not get a lot of support framework in their communities.  I got a direct eye on this when Luke and I were sorting shirts (ugh.  we forgot the list of ordered sizes and winged it) in the same room where Susannah was leading a discussion on various topics.  Also the parents were just great in general; although I'm sure it must be a very difficult thing to have a child with a cardiac problem, they were all happy and cheerful, very accepting of what had come to them and eager to do what was right for their children.

Family Camp was also a good experience for me personally, because it gave me a little time to try and wrench myself into a new mode of thinking.  I've been working at summer camps for a long time, on various levels of authority, but I've always worked in a subordinate position, and it's really one that I'm comfortable with.  I'm very capable of executing orders efficiently and delegating those orders to people underneath me, but I'm not always very confident in my own instincts as to what needs to be done.  As a program director, I need to take a lot more responsibility unto myself without checking back with a higher-up.  I do have superiors, but it's neither desirable nor efficient to rely on them solely for action, so I need to use more self-initiative.  This weekend was a useful transition, in that I was both teaching drama and easing my way into working jointly with Luke to get things done.  I still have a long way to go, but I think that the upcoming training will help with that, as will simply being forced to take on that role at camp -- baptism by fire is often the most effective form of acclimation.

Camp was *also* good for seeing people again.  Riggs came down from Boston, which was unexpected, and I got to see the whole slew of Louisiana folk.  I was especially glad to chat with Geoff (we roomed together), since he's always seemed like a smart, capable guy, but I've never really gotten to know him that well.  Oh, and did I mention the food Fritz and the campers cooked for Saturday night?  Nine fried turkeys with Fritz's superb injection marinade, chicken/sausage/venison/goose jambalaya, and a big pudding cake.  So good.

I had another tele-date with my lovely Swedish chef tonight.  She made a black currant (mmm) and a dill (o...kay...) schnapps, along with a quick gravlax that looked just scrumptious.  Ah, Tina, my love.  (This is a joke, people.  I'm not actually mooning over a TV chef (much)).

I was feeling homesick earlier today, especially after I posted about the GDB show.  To be clear: I was homesick/nostalgic for Ohio, not for Texas.  I dunno, I think it's mostly the start of the semester... it makes me weird.  But all of my friends, be you in whatever state, I love you and miss you.  I'm not feeling homesick anymore tonight, so don't worry about that :)

Tomorrow I have absolutely nothing scheduled.  I must work hard on translation, and get in my fall semester self-eval to Dr. Protevi.