loopylupin4

enter my train of thought
2003-07-28 14:28:12 (UTC)

workcamp

so... i just got back from a week at workcamp. man, it was
awesome. so laurens been going ever since her freshman
year, and she has always told me i should go. and last year
i didnt really wanna go cause i didnt think it was my
thing. im not really big on social things where i dont know
anyone...especially for a week. but then i decided to do it
this year, although for the wrong reasons... i decided to
do it mostly because i wanted the CAS hours it would give
me. but thats definitely not all its good for. im not
saying i made 8000 new friends there and i miss them like
crazy, cause i didn't. really, i only made a handful of
friends and i probably won't end up staying in touch with
most of them. but i guess it was just the whole experience
that i thought was awesome. i mean, what normal kid wants
to pay $150 to give up a week of their summer? and then
spend that week waking up in the morning to hacking and
coughing noises or really loud annoying music like
spongebob or bob the builder or lion king played over and
over? or get up every day at 6:30 and go spend 7 or 8 hours
working hard to fix up someone's house? and then spend the
evenings being forced to dance around like fools to
christian music, and then spend the next two hours talking
about god or doing activities that build faith or listening
to scripture readings or telling your crew members (who you
work on the house with and have never met before) something
about them that you appreciate? i mean, i dunno about you
but i thought it sounded crazy. but its not. you meet your
crew on sunday night and get to know them really quickly
and really well. and you hang out with them all week, so it
can be cool or not, but most people get along well. and
the "energizers" as they call the singing and dancing in
the evenings, are really fun. cause the pump you up. and
there's no worrying about " oh man those kids are gonna
think im the biggest freak in the world, im not dancing
around like a fool" because everybodys dancing around like
a fool. and everybody looks stupid. so its ok. and as for
all the talk about god and jesus and love and scripture,
well its a christian camp. but they make it a lot of fun,
really.

i did make one really good friend, one of the girls in my
crew. and we spent the week together, and she helped me
find john (i'll explain john in a sec) whenever i wanted to
talk to him. but its really sad, because she's moving to
oklahoma so she won't be back next summer. so im gonna have
to make new friends all over again. but then again, thats
part of what its all about.

so about john. john bragg. the most genuinely nice guy i've
ever met. he was so awesome. i'm going to go on and on
about him, so if you don't really care than just skip to
the next paragraph. but before you get the wrong idea, let
me tell you he's a staff member, not a camper. and he's
probably around 25, maybe 28, somewhere in there. so no, im
not totally in love with him, i don't have a crush on him,
whatever. im just... obsessed with him i guess. haha...
maybe like a melillo thing, except i can relate to john
more cause he's only 10 years older than i am and not like
50. and john's a lot cuter, no offense to mr melillo! so
john was the tootsie roll pop guy. i didnt really form a
first-name basis relationship with him til about wednesday,
but thats ok. on monday and tuesday, he brought tootsie
roll pops to our crew at our worksite. which really isnt
anything special, cause most of the staff brings some kind
of treat sooner or later. but something about john just
struck me... i mean, both times he came, he put his hand on
my back and asked me what color i wanted. but he asked like
he really cared! ok, so i know that sounds stupid, you're
all like "ok anna, its just tootsie roll pops..." but
seriously. how many older guys do you know that put there
hand on your sholder/back and look you straight in the eye
while they ask your opinion? even if its about something as
trivial as tootsie roll pops? i dunno about you, but i'd
never met anyone like him before. so then on wednesday, we
get a half day of working and go bowling in the afternoon.
and john didnt come to our site wednesday, and i really
felt his absence. so i confronted him in the bowling alley
(which is where we basically introduced ourselves) and once
again he put his arm around my shoulders and looked at me
while he was talking to me. anyway, so we had officially
met. and then on thursday, me being the klutz that i am, i
ran smack into the lock on the fence at our worksite, and i
got this little tiny cut but a monster bruise that's about
3 inches across right above my knee. and it hurt like a
mother. but john didnt come that day cause he didnt have
enough time. so when my crew got back to camp, we went over
to the cafeteria cause it was almost time for dinner. so
for the 20 minutes until dinner i sat at a table with ice
on my leg. and john's sitting at the next table with a
bunch of other staff people. so he sees me sitting there
with ice, and asks what i did, and i showed him the bruise
and he made a really nasty face (cause believe me, its
ugly) and asked me why i didnt fight the fence back. and
then he was like "man, thats gonne be ugly." and im
like "john, its already ugly!" and he says "well yeah, but
i mean in a few days its gonna be really REALLY ugly!"
which of course made me laugh. and i thought it was cool of
him because what he said made me feel a lot better than any
sympathetic words he could have said. anyway, so then on
friday john didnt stop by with the lollipops either, and
when i saw him that night after dinner (i was sitting on
the steps with some friends watching some guys play four-
square and he was walking back from dinner, so he passed
me) i was like "man, you didnt get out there with the
tootsie roll pops today" and he says "oh man, im really
really sorry, i didnt have enough time" so we both laughed
and i was like its ok. and then he went inside. but then
like 2 minutes later, he comes back out and sneaks up
behind me (since my back was to the doors) and puts his
hand on my back (thats how i knew it was him) and sticks a
tootsie roll pop in my face and says "here ya go, i went
and found one just for you!" so i turn around and he gave
me a really big hug, cause he understood that it wasnt just
the lollipop, i wanted to see him too. so he's great. and
we had other interesting conversations too, which were
cool. and then saturday morning before we left he gave me
another hug and told my friend to take a picture of us
together. so now i have a picture! yay! and hopefully.....
really, really, hopefully... he'll be there next year! that
would be so awesome....

ok im done with john. i know i didnt really do a good job
describing what an amazing guy he is, but its just really
hard to describe some of the stuff about workcamp. you just
have to experience it yourself.

so. i've kinda been waiting for pam to get online the whole
time i've been writing this. im supposed to go pick up my
90day license at school today, and i was gonna ask her
about the whole procedure.... but she hasnt gotten on!
hmm... i dont really wanna go into in blind, but i suppose
there's nothing to be done about that...

oh yeah, im gonna get my license! haha i just said that,
but i said it without really thinking about it... i've been
waiting for this forever! but now that its here.... im
kinda scared about driving alone, actually. oh well, im
sure ill get over it!




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