Paradise

Remember when I was so excited to be promoted to Executive Director and I bought really nice business cards and did a lot of fist pumps into the air while saying, "Yay! I'm in charge of all of this!"?

Be careful what you wish for....

My dad called me on Tuesday and said, "you need to get in touch with the insurance company." He didn't say it that calmly though. For those readers who are familiar with my father, it was more "#$@^&&*()^&%$%#pipes@%^&*(&*^&^ ^frozen%^$$^&insurance*(*)(*(*(9()%$ #@@@$%%^"

Ugh.

Apparently the pipes in the dining hall were frozen and cracked. I don't know the exact details of how he discovered this because, even now, they are still rock solid, but he figured it out and called the plumber who let him know it wasn't looking good. The two of them shut the water down and have had heaters inside for the last few days and on Monday, the plumber will be back to assess the damage. It turns out that two of the heaters had been disconnected when the Boss had brought in new ovens. Apparently he hadn't reconnected the heaters, so it was SUPER cold in the dining hall, leading to the frozen situation we have now.

Meanwhile, the staff house next to his was also frozen and he learned that the drain from the house to the septic hadn't been properly insulated and needs to be re-done. In discovering that fact, he learned that the drain field for the Director's cabin was also not installed correctly and should be re-done. And somehow, even though it's the opposite side of camp, we learned that the septic tanks in the dining hall are cracked and will have to replaced.

I had to have him explain the situation several times while I took notes because I wasn't sure exactly how it all connected. It doesn't- they are separate problems. The connection is that they are all going on at my sink-hole of a camp.

I felt really bad for my dad who took it as a personal failure. After he was done yelling about the %^&*$&^(!!@$#* camp, he just kept saying, "I'm sorry I let you down kid."

But here's the thing- he didn't let me down at all. It's not his fault. It's that we took over a camp that was practically run into the ground by previous Directors. I've spent the last 8 months cleaning up and we still have a long way to go. Between J in the office finding every mistake in the insurance, taxes, accounting, etc. and my dad at camp fixing every broken and run down building, and me somewhere in between mending relationships and trying to get us functioning as a normal camp, we've made DRASTIC, AMAZING progress. We've cursed the Boss' name over and over, banged our heads against the desk in frustration, vented, imagined walking out and telling the Board of Directors to burn this place to the ground, but mostly, we've just put our heads down and worked. Hard. It's like untangling a giant ball of yarn that is tied in knots. Every time you think it's almost straightened out, you find out about another hidden mess that's causing a bigger mess that you have to deal with NOW. It's so frustrating. I sometimes feel like a failure too.

The problems from this week are because the old Boss (and, in fairness to him, some people before him) didn't do things the right way. They were lazy or incompetent or tried to cut corners. And now we've inherited the mess. It's difficult to remain focused and dedicated when things like this happen. Was anyone paying attention?! Is anyone paying attention now? Does anyone care that our 62year old camp was abused by the guy that was supposed to come in and save it? What kind of magic do they expect me to work with this place? Does anyone realize what we are up against? Hello Board of Directors?! 14 months ago I was a Senior Coordinator. I had 3 levels of bosses above me. And now I'm in charge. By myself. I answer to a Board that is, on it's best day, mostly unaware of anything that is going on. And sometimes that's just a bit too much responsibility for me.

But I love this camp. I mean deeply, passionately love this place with unconditional devotion and unwavering faith that with hard work and stubborn perseverance, it can be the camp it's meant to be. I try to think about camp as it will be, rather than all of the problems there currently are. I believe in this place and I look forward to the future, standing with my dad, filled with pride, knowing where we started and how far we came. We've already come a long way. This little bump isn't the end of the world. Annoying, but certainly not the end of the world....