1-10...let's try it again.

LDs, I'm not going to Bitch and Moan today. I'm just too frustrated about it. I am, however, going to give you one through ten.

This was originally supposed to be a 30 Day Blog Challenge, but I can't motivate myself to do that.

So I'm going to do ten at a time. Which is why yesterday's postie had 1-10 as the subject. Obviously, I'm an idiot.

Day 1 - your favorite song

Just one? "Amazed" by Lonestar or "The Dance" by Garth Brooks.

"Amazed" was what Mr Realist determined was our song, and it's the one I came down the aisle hearing at our wedding.

"The Dance" was our first dance, both as a couple and husband & wife. Mr Realist went home the weekend of Homecoming his first year in college because a rival school was having their Homecoming and a friend from high school had already asked him to go because it was a group of people they all went to HS with. I didn't get a Homecoming dance (lame, I know...). A couple of weekends later, we were headed to his hometown, and I made a point to say something: "I just think it sucks that Heather got her Homecoming dance, and I didn't...and I'm your girlfriend." Mr Realist stopped the car (we were on a remote backroad), flipped through his CDs, popped one in, skipped to a song, and we danced on the gravel road to Garth Brooks.

Day 2 - your favorite movie

Any of the Harry Potter movies. The Princess Bride. E.T. Steel Magnolias.

Day 3 - your favorite television program

I have two, actually. Glee and Bones. Love love love them, and I'm glad that I can see them on Hulu!

Day 4 - your favorite book

You're killing me, Smalls. Any Harry Potter. Of course, it might be easier to tell you fave authors. :)

Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse)

Stephenie Meyer (Twilight Saga -- I know, most people don't)

JRR Tolkien (LOTR and The Hobbit, and I'm trying to work my way through The Silmarillon (sp?))

Julia Quinn, Judith McNaught, Piers Anthony, Lyndsey Sands, Shane Moore, Dean Koontz, Linda Lael Miller...the list goes on. :)

Day 5 - your favorite quote

I have two: "what would you do if you knew you could not fail?" (seen on a paperweight) and "You can do or not do what you were gonna do, but you can't not do what you did." (Clare, Unspoken for Time)

Day 6 - 20 of your favorite things

these are in no specific order!

1. husband

2. friends

3. wine

4. books

5. sleep

6. imagining things

7. knitting

8. food

9. family

10. daisies

11. dogs

12. horses

13. Camp Ondessonk

14. solitude

15. movies

16. dirt

17. new mown hay

18. clean sheets dried in the sun

19. fresh powdery snow

20. rain

Day 7 - a photo that makes you happy

This is Mr Realist and I at a Cardinals game in July. Gotta love the tickets that are given to you!!

Day 8 - a photo that makes you angry/sad

This is a favorite professor that I will never see again...never see him smile, never hear his beautiful tenor voice, never hear him tell me that I can sing,ever again. David, I miss you.

Day 9 - a photo you took

I took the one of Mr Realist and me...with my iPhone :)

Day 10 - a photo taken over 10 years ago of you

and that's something I don't have on this computer. I'll have to scan some oldies but goodies and show them off to y'all.

Ok...I'm tired, and I have a long day tomorrow - work, visitation an hour north, and darts....

Heepwah, and be safe out there, will ya?

Ms D

O.M.G. O.M.G.

I got my tetanus/diptheria booster shot today. Only ten years overdue :)

Did not hurt nearly as bad as smashing my finger. In fact, other than my arm being a bit sore, it didn't hurt at all. Go nurselady - you fucking rule.

~~

LDs, I'm geeking out right now. And you'll never guess why.

I just got an email (haven't had a chance to check it all day), and it was a positive one.

"Thank you for your interest. I apologize for the delay, but due to budgetary constraints, we are unable to fill the program coordinator position at this time. We hope to be able to advertise for this position come January 2011. Please keep us in mind for future employment."

Can I seriously have a heart attack now??

That's the reason I didn't get a response.

That's the reason it was dropped from the list.

It's not because I wasn't what they were looking for. No one was who they were looking for.

O, LDs, I'm kind of giddy.

Heepwah, and be safe out there.

Heepwah indeed.

Ms D

Dreamlet Weekend

Sorry, LDs. I didn't keep track, nor do I remember dreams from this weekend. I'll have a Bitch and Moan postie up later this evening.

Mr Realist is making BBQ chicken kabobs over charcoal this evening, and I'm throwing some shit away (and labeling it) for Saturday's yard sale.

I want to thank each and every one of you, LDs, followers and readers, for your prayers about the job at Camp.

I didn't get it. Not even a call back or an email telling me 'you're not what we're looking for.' Sat in the shower on Saturday afternoon and just cried. I want to every time I think about it. My status on FB that day was "is resigned. Not has, is." Resigned to that it's becoming more and more like I'll be here, in Hell, for the rest of my days. And I hate it.

But I have to be strong.

I have to make a 60-second video telling a panel of judges why they should pick me to spend a Month at the Museum (yeah, I'm entering a cheesy contest *grin*)...without swearing. LDs, do you vote based on content or visuals? I've already gotten my 500-word essay (down to the word!) and the application completed. I'd like have to film, burn, and mail by Monday. Any thoughts?

Heepwah, and be safe out there

Your trying-really-hard-not-to-be-resigned
Ms Dreamer

Memorable...

Ya know, LDs, we used to go camping all the time when we were kids (Mumsy Dreamer, the stepfather, and Sister). Course, we went camping because we were too poor to do anything else.

I do have photgraphic proof that I am a bookie (not gambling, but like a foodie, but with books). On one camping trip after Mumsy D and the SF's divorce, it was just women. Mumsy, her friend Bette, Sister, and a couple other friends of Mumsy and their kidlets. It's me...on one of those plastic, tri-fold chaise lounges that you can buy at the Walmart...nose in a book...sitting by the fire. The picture, whilst a little dark, is peaceful. Just me and my book and the campfire.

But this isn't the memorable one I am talking about.

This one is.

~~
During one of my two years as a camp counselor at the camp I'd really really really love to work at for the rest of my life, there are scheduled evening activities. This one happened to be on Wednesday - the overnight. You pack up your sleeping bag and your water bottles and you take turns carrying the milkcrate full of bread and hamburger patties and veggies and trashbags and tp to the place you're staying. It's never really too far out, since you do have to get up and hike back before breakfast. :)

We'd finished eating and were finishing up ghost stories and some of the smaller girls were bunking down (C, we might have been at Upper Pak that year - do you remember?), when a couple of them freaked out. I went over to investigate, and one said that she thought she saw something moving through the forest. Another girl said it looked like a ghost. I opened my mouth to tell them that it wasn't a ghost, it was their imaginations, but that's not what came out.

"That's just Chris, my guardian angel." Now, I do have a cousin named Chris, but he wasn't born until five years later. They wanted to know about him. I told him that he keeps me safe, and since it was part of my job to keep them safe, he was watching over them too. I told them that if they saw him again, just to wave, and he'd know that they were ok.

It worked. There were no more incidents of 'ghosts' being seen, and a couple of the girls the next morning told me they'd seen him a couple times during the night when they got up to use the woods.

But before that, one of the girls came to me and said "S is crying, and we don't know why." I went over to her, and she broke my heart.

"You're lucky. I don't have a guardian angel."
"Sweetie, everyone does. Why do you think you don't?"
"Because he didn't keep me safe." Chills.
"Safe from what?"
"My babysitter."

See, LDs, she told me that the boy down the street (who was her and her sibling's babysitter) had touched her where he shouldn't, and when she tried to tell her dad, he didn't belive her. Her teacher didn't believe her.

I did. I'd had that happen to me before, and was too afraid to tell anyone.

I told her I believed her, and that we should really tell someone else who would believe her. She was scared, but she agreed. I sent our unit leader over to her, and S told her. I was shaken, LDs. To my very core.

The next day, I was called to the head counselor's office, and the camp priest was there. I told them my story, and they said it was the same as my unit leader's. They put the steps in motion.

When her dad came and got her on Saturday, I didn't like him on sight. They left, but not after lots of hugs and a 'thank you' from S.

A couple of weeks later, our head counselor called me in again and she was happy.

"She lives with her grandparents now."

Tears of joy, LDs.

And that is why this is my most memorable camping trip ever. It may not have been a trip per se, but we were camping.

~~
I've started reading Mama Kat, and she posts a Weekly Writing Prompt. You post using one of her prompts, then link up on Thursday. Obviously, I picked the most memorable camping trip. I think I'm in love. :)

Heepwah, and be safe out there.

Your bookie
Ms D

of Ondessonk...

Units - where the kids stay during Summer Camp. Names, unit color and type of unit. I inadvertantly forgot one... Daniel would have been first, but I got sidetracked by hiking and the rain.





Brebeuf - royal blue; cabins. They're right next to Amantacha Bridge. I was here for a week when I was a counselor.





Tekakwitha - light blue; lodge. Only campers unit with four walls and screens and a door. Was here most of two summers as a counselor.






Raganeau - turquoise; treehouse






Amantacha - fuschia; treehouse

Garnier (pronounced like the hair-care products...wonder if the creator had anything to do with camp...hmmm) - sometimes kelly green, sometimes dark green; treehouse. They're right off of the Spillway.

Lalemant - orange; treehouse (Orange Crush). Three summer weeks as a camper with Colleen (woo hoo!).

Lakeside. Cabins.

Chabanel - yellow; cave (Captain Cavewomen). Took a strong girl to sleep in a cave unit with bats and bugs. :) Spent a week here as well as a counselor.

Goupil - purple; treehouse. Rumor has it that there's 10,000 steps to get to the top of Goupil (it's only like 67 or 70...I counted).

LaLande - red; treehouse.

Next up...scenery!

Oh, we are the campers...

Just a few shots from Family Camp in September...it'll be a series of picture posts. Please ignore the date stamp in the corner of the pictures...I hate resetting my digital.

Rosebush in LeCoeur, damp from that morning's shower.

Amantacha Bridge (view from the back of a canoe)

Rick and Chris in the canoe, Tom (Mr. Realist) is in the front.

Chris looks excited to be out on Lake Echon (Lake Icky)

Kayakin' Diane!

All right...Chris on the Rock Wall

Doin' good...

Gotta take a small break...

Almost there...

MADE IT!

You'll see that this is what I think Heaven might be like.

Steph (Mrs. Dreamer)