This week at camp

This week at camp was nothing short of eventful that is for sure. You know I was so worried about last weeks family camp because of their preceding reputation and turns out they were just fine. This week however was a whole other story. The days of the week were pretty good, nothing major to talk about. Usual camp stuffs, carnival, grand council, the usual for the week Then Friday came, and it was time for family camp.

As per usual they rolled in at 5 and started the registration. The checked in, got some sleeping bags and then a slushie before hopping on the wagon for a ride down to their tipis. I was working slushies this weekend so I spent a few hours alone in the slushie hut passing out sugary beverages. I went on break from 7 - 8 and then headed back up to the hall to serve snack for the evening. After snack we had to go to our assigned sections and make sure the families are settling in alright and have everything they need. I came out of the hall and down the path by tipi town and in the middle of the wide open lake I see two girls smoking. Well for starters smoking is not allowed unless in the designated smoking area. So I stood and watched them for a few minutes. I could see that they were passing it back and forth and each time they inhaled they would hold it in for a few seconds before exhaling. Now I don't know one person that smokes a cigarette like that. I know lots of people that smoke silly cigarettes like that tho. So it was clear that these young girls were smoking pot, and we have a hard fast rule about any kind of drugs or alcohol. The rule is, if we see you with it, you're gone. At the time I didn't have a radio so I yelled up the hill to Lemongrass that was on her way down, to let me use her radio. As soon as I yelled that the girls in the canoe heard me and looked our way and put their hand down by their feet. Lemongrass came over and gave me her radio to radio our manager and Dragonfly came over to see what was going on. As soon as these girls saw the three of us standing there in our staff shirts they started bookin it for the dock. Zaza told me to go to the boathouse and meet them there, so I took off and the race was on to see who would make it to the dock first. Diana our director, who also works family camps with us, was on the other side of the lake already and also had a vehicle with her so Zaza radioed her and told her to head to the boathouse. As I rounded the lake in a near sprint I saw across the water that Diana had made it to the dock, so I could slow my pace a bit thank god. Diana was standing on the dock with her feet about shoulder width apart and her hands on her hips and had her fiery gaze locked onto the delinquent teens. The girls in the canoe also noticed that Diana had made it to the dock before me as I watched them both look up and when they saw her they dropped their paddles for a few seconds. I chuckled to myself over that one, it was pretty obvious that they were caught so they slowly made their way back into the dock to meet Diana. Now I don't know if any of you have been stoned as a teenager, but I will tell you that no one wants to talk to the cops when they are stoned and 16. Although we didn't have the cops we did have Diana, who when she wants to be can be quite intimidating and is the director of the camp. So they girls were not too keen on talking to her and hid on the back dock behind the boathouse. Diana talked to their leader and told her they had to leave right away no exceptions. So about 3 hours into family camp we had our first bust of the season and these girls were sent packin. I thought they were rather silly because our camp is surrounded by woods! If they had of hid behind a tree like a normal person I probably wouldn't have caught them, but since they were sitting in a canoe in the wide open lake it was a pretty easy bust! Just call me Morreeeny the crime dog.

The rest of the weekend was filled to the brim with needy demanding families. This makes for a super long weekend and it is very tiring to deal with. We all kinds of crazy people from the mother who needed a pair of socks for her 14 year old son because he wouldn't get out of the car without socks. To a crazy hypochondriac mother. The woman with the 14 year old son was just down right silly. She said she picked him up from cadet camp and brought him to our camp for family camp. He had forgotten his shoes and all he had was his cadet boots and he wore through his socks. So she needed us to get her socks so her son would get out of the car. I am pretty sure if that was my mother I would have been left in the car and she would have walked away. I am sure he would have come down to the tipi after a bit anyway. So we got that straighten away and they were settled for a bit, but not surprisingly were a needy family for the rest of the weekend.

tipi, she is hurt and we are afraid to move her." My immediate thought was oh shit this lady is unconscious, something was broken that we had a serious situation on our hands. I immediately radioed Diana told her what I knew and told her to meet me at the tipi, and she said she was on her way. I ran over to the tipi to where the woman was. Once I got over there I saw this woman laying flat on her back staring up at the small crowd of people that were around her. I went over and bent down. I asked if she hit her head "No" "Do you know where you are?" "Yes I am at (insert camp name here)" "Can you tell me what happened?" "Yes, I was coming out of my tipi when I tripped and fell and banged my knee." "Okay, is your neck hurt?" "No" "Is your back hurt?" "No." Then my internal voice said, "Then what the fuck am I doing here, GET UP!" What the hell lady! So you fell and banged your knee, get up and shut up! I helped her up and sat her in a chair and had a look. She had just scraped her knee and there was not a single drop of blood to be seen. Diana arrived and I filled her in, and then I left because I had better shit to do. Diana gave her an ice pack and sent her on her way. Later that afternoon before dinner she wanted to know who was going to transport her to the hall for dinner. I felt like saying, you and your two little feet and your heart beat lady. I refrained and told her that we were unable to provide her with transport to the hall and that dinner is served from 5-6 and it was now 4:45pm. She asked if someone could bring her dinner to her. I replied no not unless you want a cougar in your bed, and then you couldn't run from it because of your knee. Her concern was that she wouldn't make it before dinner was finished being served if she had to walk all that way. I assured her I would talk to the kitchen and tell them to save some dinner if she wasn't there by 6, and I left before I cursed at her. Surprise surprise she made it to dinner before it was even being served. I could tell by the size of her gunt that this lady was not about to miss dinner! Her whining was continuous until she said she was going to go home. I thanked Allah and told her it was too bad, but hoped she felt better soon. See-ya! But you know as frustrating as she was I must have been doing my job well because she went and talked to Diana and said that I was so helpful and she really thought I was great.

This family camp we also blacklisted a family because the father was kicking the horses. Yep you read that right, the father a grown man was acting like a sadistic toddler and got his whole family blacklisted from the camp. WTF! This was a super frustrating family camp and boy was I glad on Sunday when it was the start of my days off!