Campers are back and, as promised, I will never complain again since they aren't families. In the end, Family Camp wasn't as absolutely awful as I'd originally complained, but I was still happy when they left and I was thrilled when a bus of children showed up yesterday.
This is our biggest week so far this summer. We only have 100 campers, which is HUGE for us, but I used to work at a camp that averaged 150-180 campers per week, so really, HUGE is relative. Remembering the other camp helps me keep perspective when I am scheduling and think, "oh, there are so many"... um, not really...
Yesterday went very smooth considering we have so many more campers than we are used to. Counselors have gotten the hang of everything and they are able to take initiative without me there to lead. And that's good, because, as always, I spent the day running from place to place.
There were parents to speak with and phones to answer. Our Registrar had just returned from vacation and was slightly overwhelmed by the mound of papers on her desk, so I spent some time on the phone with her, and then sent her an encouraging email. This week we have two extra people helping out- a new kitchen helper and a new lifeguard. Both are 16, young, excited, but, well, 16, so I had to explain/babysit more that usual. Run, run, run...
Out of the blue, a guy showed up to talk to me about our roofing situation, and I wanted to tell him to make an appointment, because I was in the MIDDLE of something (hello, Interim Exec... What? You didn't think that's gotten old yet, did you?), but the roof situation is a priority, and he was offering a pretty sweet deal, and, while I like to blog about being an elitist Interim Exec, I'm not really living that out. I appreciate every little bit of help, so I dropped everything to talk to him.
In our kitchen, we have two head cooks, who plan and prepare meals, order food, etc. We also have two 16 year old helpers. During the day, the cooks prepare dinner, and then the girls put it in the over and serve it at dinnertime. As the fifth (of 10) table went through the line last night, I heard, "how many tables do we have left, because we're out of taco meat?" You should have seen my head snap around when I heard that. So I ran back into the kitchen to find out what had happened. Apparently there was a miscalculation or something, because, indeed, no more meat. "Um, like, vegetarian tacos?" was the suggestion from the girls. "Um, like, no way" was my response. They suggested we re-heat some corndogs from lunch. I suggested they find me some hamburger and a big pan. I spent an INTENSE 15 minutes browning 20 pounds of hamburger to make more tacos. Actually, the really miserable part of that whole experience was for the staff keeping hungry, impatient kids busy as other kids were eating around them. So I wasn't really complaining about my job.
After dinner, I worked on schedules, dropped schedules for a half hour while I listened to a counselor who had a bad weekend and a bad day and needed me, worked on schedules, went to the opening campfire for a little while, spent some time with the Leaders in Training group, worked on schedules, and was in bed by 1am (which isn't bad for a Monday night).
This morning I was up and in my office by 6:50, finishing up a few last minute changes to schedules, checked voicemail and email, and so on and so on... I am so glad to be back to normal.
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