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| I thought "Executive Director" would include more business suits and power lunches... |
Here's a run down of my day:
7:05- Wake up
7:15- Go for a run with Assistant Director 'A'
7:45- wake up dogs, feed them, make breakfast
8:15- go to the dining hall where kids are WIDE awake, singing, asking questions and READY for the day!
8:45- grab some shovels and a pitch fork and head to the mud pit with 'A'. Once a week, the kids compete in tu-o-war and then jump in the mud pit. To get the mud pit ready, you have to dig and turn up the dirt, while mixing it with your feet. Eventually, it ends up sticky and muddy and about knee deep, but it takes at least an hour to get it that way.
10:00- the kids tug-o-war and then jump in the mud. At the end, inevitably, they all start chanting my name and I make a big production about not wanting to go in, shouting no and looking surprised they would ask. I dip a toe in and ask if that is enough. And then of course I go in face first and the kids go wild. It is actually pretty fun, despite the mud in my teeth and eyes.
11:00- wash off at the beach with the kids and then head to my house to SCRUB the rest of the mud off my body.
11:25- One of our board members and a potential donor show up unannounced. Spend the next hour showing them around camp. All of the activities were going SO well and I was very proud.
12:30- lunch (still entertaining board member and guest)- kids are SO loud. The guests love it and are very impressed.
1:30- Thank board member for coming. I have not yet actually been near my computer today, my phone has been ringing the entire visit and rest period is almost over so I don't have much time before I have to go help lifeguard. I am starving and my head hurts. I have given up gluten, dairy and yeast this summer, so I don't actually eat in the dining hall. I eat before or after. I rush to my house to eat quickly and my dogs are upset that they haven't gotten to play yet.
1:50- Head to the beach to lifeguard. Get stopped on the way there by 'A' who has been trying to mediate two campers and their very unhappy counselor. She has been unsuccessful and so I bring the girls into my office (first I switch around some staff to take my place at the beach) and then we talk about behavior.
2:15- bring the kids to their activity. Quickly check my voicemail (there are 8 phone calls that need to be returned) and my email (there are about 17 of them).
2:50- The third period canoe group has been struggling this week, so I have decided to take over and get them organized. I take half of the group and head out in kayaks. It is a gorgeous day, they are slow enough that I am able to mostly kick back and work on my tan in between short bursts of paddling.
3:50- Meet with the 2 counselors and two campers from earlier to mediate the behavior situation from the morning.
4:00- The housekeeper's phone went missing this morning and I have been doing some detective work to recover it. 'A' and I go into the oldest male cabin to do some secret searching.
4:15- Finally take the dogs out to play for a little bit while answering some phone calls.
5:00- Cook dinner while discussing evening programming and cabin assignments for next week with 'A'.
5:30- Dining hall. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays I have "staff dinner" where groups of counselors join me at the lead staff table for dinner and check in.
6:00- Bring the oldest male cabin to my office to interrogate each camper one by one for information about the missing phone. No luck with the phone but I learn that I am scary enough to intimidate 15 year old boys.
6:45- Work on emails and phone calls. Get interrupted by SCREAMING. There are ants in one of the girls' cabin. The counselor is HORRIFIED because it is ATROCIOUS and she has never seen such an infestation. The girls move to an empty cabin in full on crisis mode. If the building was burning to the ground and they were trying to save all of their most prized possessions, several kittens and a few orphan babies, I imagine the reaction would be similar to what they were doing. I hurry to the cabin, expecting to see the walls black, covered and crawling, but there were about 20 ants in one area and 10 in another area. It was a decent amount of ants, but I personally would have swept them into a dust pan and told the girls to chill, but I take their crisis very seriously, help them frantically grab everything and RUN out of the cabin and promise to alert our property manager first thing in the morning.... No, I do not think it is necessary to call him at home and have him return this evening.
7:50- set up for the dance party and dance for a few minutes.
8:15- back to my office to write 12 elf letters (camp has an elf- if you write him a letter and put it inside his tiny door, he will write you a tiny little letter back. A very fun idea and the kids love it, but it requires me to write tiny letters to put into tiny envelopes which takes more time than one would imagine). 2 of the letters are in spanish and require translation- apparently the elf is bi-lingual this week.
8:45- start camper showers. This process involves me sitting in the bathroom, reminding every single girl to brush her teeth, go to the bathroom and then stand in line, making sure she has her towel, soap, pjs, etc. We have 6 showers, so getting 45 girls through the bathroom requires efficiency and a lot of me yelling, "ladies in the shower, you have 3 minutes left.... ladies in the shower, you have 30 seconds.... ladies in the shower, if you don't hurry up, I am going to turn the water to this building off and you can go to bed covered in soap...." I don't actually have that ability, but it sounds less creepy than, "I am going to drag you out of there" which I also have never done- I actually can't really do anything to them if they are in the shower past my time limit warning, so it's a bit of an empty threat, but overall, it keeps them moving.
10:15- The last few oldest girls get into the shower and so I leave the bathroom. Their counselor can deal with getting them to hurry up and finish. I go to the office to pick up my computer and go home. I try to answer a few more emails, write the daily blog post for our website while brushing my teeth.
10:30- talk to my boyfriend on the phone. I get terrible reception in my house, so I have to call him back several times through the 10 minute conversation.
11:00- turn off the light.
There were a few other things in between all of that, but that's a pretty typical day. During the rest of the year, I generally work 9am-3:30pm and get flack from friends for having a cake job. But I make up those hours during the summer, so it evens out compared to their 9-5 jobs.
Bring on the next day of adventure.
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