Friday, August 28, 2009

Home Safe ♥

SOMEONE surprised me with a stop by the David's house which was GREAT :) they had cake for me... and a surprise secret that I don't think I'm supposed to share but its OH SO exciting!!

Went through pictures with the family, unpacked (which was a great lot of fun... but not really...) and now am just trying to mellow out a little bit before sleeping until whenever I feel like it because I no longer operate on someone else's schedule (at least for the next week or so...)

book purchasing will be soon... maybe... I dunno when.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Survival

So we're off water (and have been for just over a day now) and things went great! We both stayed safe, nobody got hurt, sick or obtained foot rot. (Yay!) Pictures to come?... I'm sure you'll all see them eventually anyway. (I just don't feel like doing it right now.)

Got off water a few hours earlier than anticipated and so we decided to save ourselves a few dollars (due to the cost of room and board) and drive into Woodbury a day early. The rive was a bit long (especially because we got stopped at the border... they searched EVERYTHING of course and it took quite a while... hehe... I bet customs is a little upset they wasted their time on us...) but we arrived in Woodbury just about on time as planned at 11 pm. We were greeted by Aunt Dena, Tucker and Michael; socialized a bit and then headed to bed. (Megan was already asleep and Rick was out of town... how sad.) We had some french toast, bacon and smoothies for breakfast and then we headed over with Aunt Dena and Michael to watch a bit of a scrimmage match for Megan's Volleyball team which was fun and then we grabbed some Subway for lunch, a quick DQ, gas for Dena and then back to Clipper Way to jump in Big Blue and head to Chicago.

Quite a few hours later... we arrive at the Chesecake Factory in Chicago, eat a delicious dinner and then continue on our way to Ted's house :) where we will again stay for a few nights - tomorrow is a day in the cityand then the next we DRIVE HOME with a little detour in Grand Rapids to see the sister and her new room at GVSU. Oh I'm so ready to be back. Almost... Carl just reminded me that I start school two weeks from tomorrow... oh boy. Well... I'm maybe a little excited for it... I do love my psych <3

Friday, August 21, 2009

OMGZ ALMOST!!!!

We are so totally almost out of here.

I thought today would be the longest day ever ... but really it hasn't been too bad. Wake up was a few hours earlier than usual (but I can't complain because there is no rendezvous tonight) and washed the entirety of the history costumes ... but I had to do it in the admin washer because Aaron Connolley was using all the other ones ;) ... but that worked out okay because I got to hang out there and help Ashely out (she has no more office staff anymore). I got to answer the phones :) and enter a few more evals which ended up being a good time (I even got to forward/re-direct calls). During that time, I also managed to finish getting my checkout form completely filled out and have retrieved my staff photo and med form... so techinically, we could leave now. But where would we stay? :)

(wow... a lot of smiley faces!)

After lunch (with Carl of course), headed back down to history area where John and I put clothes away in boxes and took them to the depot. We took the teepee down and harvested some veggies to use with dinner tonight (which is another "special" staff dinner made special and not by Sysco!).

Oh! Another first of the day also included gator driving which was great fun! So now nobody can say I'm not allowed because I don't know how - I do know how!

So overall, not a terrible last day at all (probably because Madison was already gone...). It may have actually been a little -enjoyable- at times. (but shh... don't tell anyone!). There was possible talk of coming back next year to work in the office (because I like that MUCH better...and there's no John...) but I kind of doubt that will happen (sadly?) - classes to take, Ella to watch :)

So... just a few more things to pack still and then just loading it all in the car tonight so we can leave after breakfast for what I think will be the biggest and best part of this entire summer adventure!

Love you all - I'll write again soon (once we're in Woodbury on Tuesday!!)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Cassie: It's wet.

Alec: You should be a weatherperson!

omgz :)

I'm almost all packed up. I just have my bedding, shower stuff and towel pretty much left to pack. Ugh I'm so ready to get out of here! Being packed is making me anxious to do it for sure!

Super special surprise staff dinner tonight... hope its good.

Didn't do much today in all honesty - helped out in the office for a little bit this morning/afternoon and then Carl and I went through the food he had set aside for our trip - we had most of everything and had to go be scavengers in the "use me box" for dinners... it worked out pretty well and ended up saving us some money which is always good :) Last rendezvous tonight... I guess its kind of bittersweet... I'm ready to be done with them most definitely but I'm going to miss the "acting" ... if you want to call it that. I'll find something around home to do some acting though... hopefully. And maybe the scraft wind ensemble? Hm...

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Long time no...

So quite a bit has been happening as we pass through the final weeks of the season up here at the Tier but at the same time, I don't know that I could even manage to remember it all to write about! Maybe there hasn' t been that much going on and it just feels like long days full of events.

Carl's final crew from Boise, ID was great! One of their cars broke down on the way to DQ the night before they were supposed to head home which was unfortunate - it meant about 4 or 5 more days here on base for half of them (the other half headed home in the other car because people needed to be home to work and get to school). They were really great about helping out with daily duties and rendezvous. Sunday, we all took the day off and headed to the Dorthy Molter museum in town as well as the wolf center (where we ALMOST didn't see any wolves but luckily they all came out to play for a little bit before we left!), a few hours on the beach (even though we didn't really swim because it was a crappy day and there wasn't anywhere open for us to change...) and then dinner at the steak house. They really were an exceptional group of kids (plus an adult). I'm glad I got to have some bonding time with them - they helped make the past few days a little more enjoyable.

The internet BROKE on Saturday morning at 3am during routine maintenance and was down until late Monday - I thought for sure the world was going to end the way people around here acted. Now the internet itself is fixed but it won't let anyone do anything on Facebook (oh no!) and it won't let people with Yahoo! mail send emails out... we can read them, we just can't send them.

Carl and I did ALL of our laundry today (except for what we're wearing of course... but its just our uniforms and we will only have to wear those for another 3 days) and it felt good to pack up all my extra clothes into my "Chicago bag" (which will now also be my Woodbury bag...) and to have just the minimum number of clothes and things in my drawer. I'm so ready to be back home! I'm not sure if I'll remember what its like to be a part of a civilization not made up entirely of 20-something Boy Scouts but I'm sure society will survive... maybe if I ease into it :)

Most everyone is leaving tomorrow or the next day... which should be interesting. It means it'll be easier for us to find a parking spot in the staff lot (even though we won't really be leaving our parking spot in the next 3 days) and easier to get access to a computer :) well maybe. I've been helping out with "daily duties" a lot the past few days - working in the office mostly. Yesterday, I helped finish imputing evaluations on the computer and then helped make packets for all of the councils in the country with promo material and summary sheets of how many crews from which council came up this summer... that was fun. I helped put them in alphabetical order this morning and I helped make off water packets this afternoon... there's still a bit of packing up to do in the history department but we'll have to wash clothes before we do any of that which is going to happen... I don't know when. Probably on Thursday John and I will wash clothes and take the tee pee down ... quality bonding time fosho.

Looks like no Kevin Dowling award for me or Carl though. Apparently we're only doing what we've been hired to do and not anything exceptional ... even though some people have gotten the award for doing what they've been hired to do... whatevs. Hmm okay now off to laze my afternoon away. All work and no play makes Cassie ... well... a hard worker and tired girl!!