I haven't posted in a while, but I thought I should probably do a quick recap of what's been going on. The two of you who read this blog have been actively involved in all of these happenings, but, ya know, for personal record-keeping purposes, here goes-
Summer 2011 was a success. I got a lot of really positive feedback and there was a lot of good. 4 summers complete and I am proud of each one but even prouder that each summer has been better than the one before it.
The last week of the summer, Business Manager J resigned. She got a full time teaching position, which was a great move for her and after a summer of attitude and crabbiness, I was ready for her to move on. It took 2 months to actually hire a new person for the job, which was DRASTICALLY longer than I'd expected, but between me being busy and the board being difficult, it just took a long time. Office Manager S has been in place now for about a month and she is doing well. I like her, I think she is going to be a good fit and even though J has been here since I began, I was happy for a change. J knew a lot and did a lot of work, but her attitude was making my job difficult, so it's a good switch.
I wrote about the donation we received in September. It was life changing for this little organization. About a million people have asked what we are going to do with it and so far, we haven't really done anything. I am happy to be financially stable and not have to dig spare change out of the couch every time a bill comes, so for now, I'm just enjoying a fat bank account. I hired a camp consultant for $12,000 which was a really good investment and something I had wanted to do. She's been keeping me so busy I haven't had time to spend the money, so that's an added bonus.
I'm still in grad school and it is much more difficult to balance work, life and school than I'd expected. I am enjoying the classes and the work isn't hard, but going to the office all day and then coming home to homework is WAY harder than I thought it would be. I am going to be working on this masters degree for the next 20 years because I don't know how I will ever take more than 3 credits at a time. But I'm glad I am doing it and it's definitely keeping me busy.
In September, I was just getting used to having my house all to myself. I love my roommates dearly and miss living together, but it was time for us to go our separate ways and I was ready to live alone. I got back together with the BF and while I generally think couples that break up and get back together are bound for drama, for us, the break was incredibly helpful and our relationship is better than ever.
Just as I was adjusting to my BF and my empty house and pretty much doing whatever I wanted whenever I wanted, my dad got sick and moved in with me. It took us a while, but we adjusted to living together and October and November, my life revolved around taking care of his paperwork, doctor appointments and spending time with my new roommate.
Just as I adjusted to life with my dad, on November 25, he died unexpectedly and since then, I've been walking around like I'm in a dream. I can't seem to get on a schedule or figure out how to be normal. It's been a crazy month and I just keep shrugging my shoulders and saying, "I don't know" to everything. I just don't really know.
My dad was also my property manager of camp and so in addition to losing my dad, I also lost the only other full time staff member. With Business Manager J gone and now my dad, I am just as lost professionally as I am personally. I went to camp a few weeks after he died to work out an arrangement with the neighbor who will be watching over camp, plowing the snow and being my eyes until the spring, when I will probably hire him full time. I am mourning my dad, but camp continues to be my responsibility, so I have to think about the details even though I don't want to.
As of January 1, we are dropped from our insurance, so that's been a pretty major project and also a concern as well. My dad's injury was several hundred thousand dollars, and there have been a few other big claims over the years, so it wasn't a surprise to find out they didn't want to insure us anymore. The board was concerned that the cost of insuring camp could double, but it's actually only going to be about $1000 difference, so that's nothing (we pay roughly $30,000 per year).
And now it's almost the new year and I'm ready to start fresh. I am hopeful that 2012 will be the best summer yet.
