Greetings from camp. I've found myself with a lot of extra free time this week; despite the fact that my contract read that I needed to arrive on June 13, the camp was not, in fact, expecting me until the 20th. Go figure and no worries. They put me to work straight away, and I have been the requisite 21+ year old they needed to drive the camp's leased van to Des Moines each day with my slew of international counselors who work the Des Moines area day camps. When I drop them off at the DM Camp Fire office, I pick up my own 5 rugrats to drive back to camp for their Arts day camp. This week has been digital and regular photography (can you say DPAS?). Good times all around even if the kids are a bit on the weird side. At 4 o'clock, it's time to return the kids back to DM and bring back the other staff. What an interesting time. For real.

For this week, I've been living in the Village Lodge here at Camp Hantesa, and I'm enjoying it. I live with a Kiwi who is in charge of the Apprentices (read: CITs). I enjoy seeing those fine young adults everyday. At one moment they seem so grown up. The next moment (usually as soon as one of their counselors disappears) they seem so 16. Such is life.

Anyway, things are great. Mosquitoes are huge. Hooray for Mastering French for my evening entertainment.

Time is running out. Sure, I’ve said that before, but of course, the times I said it previously were uttered in the context of a Donnie Darko-esque vortex of hell that had engulfed and threatened to swallow me. I leave civilization in about a week (all right, a little less than a week, considering that it’s well after noon, but we’ll say that’s negligible for now) and my desire to visit some of my favorite places and do some of my favorite activities is being held hostage by the Floridian fiery-pits-of-hell heat. Holy smokes it’s hot. It’s Asia-hot, and has been for the last week. Chances are good it will be Asia-hot again for the next week. The ‘World is crowded, too, and with the horrifically oppressive temperatures, I cannot seem to justify a visit to the parks, no matter how much I want to go.



But I managed to go to Disney MGM Studios last night to watch Fantasmic! What a great idea, until the wicked queen conjured up a deluge and the show was canceled in mid-Cave of Wonders. Bummer, but the singing of “Singin’ in the Rain” that I started (complete with a few ‘watermelons’) would have had my good old cousin, Debbie Reynolds, dancing in her slicker. Really, I have no one single person to blame for this beastly luck, so I just direct my anger at the Audio-Animatronic effigy of W. What a dick.