Update from London

Hello all!

So many people told me I had to update my blog while in Europe. I am on my sisters computer on internet we had to pay 20 pounds for! And we blew out the power in the room trying to charge this computer, but here is the blog.

I've been keeping extensive notes in my phones blogger. It's the only thing I can really use my phone. Oh and a camera. For which I am eternally thankful to photo track my journey. When I return I'll put up my long long blog and try to organize it for easy use. I've been very satisfied with our choices and visits so far on the trip and so I hope others can use the blog as a suggested sites to visit. I'm not going to talk too much about my trip right now though besides a brief stint in the next paragraph, knowing that I'm publishing a play by play later this week upon my return.

Just a brief snapshot though, I've been in Ireland for 5 days and am now just arrived in London this afternoon. The trip has been all that i expected which was just to be blown away by the architecture, the statues, the parks, the history, the churches, and the grand castles and buildings all around. The food has been good and the traveling been relatively painless. Overall I'm having a great time. I think I'd need a year in London to be satisfied and I am even more jealous of Brock living here than ever before. My goal is to see a play while I'm here.

On to the musings! Traveling with family makes you really analyze your role in the group. I have found that I am the translator and peacekeeper. In our family of five I am the middle one, though of the children I am the oldest. This means I am the leader to my siblings but sometimes the odd one out because they are closer in age and my parents are a team. As I've mentioned before I am also the "smart one" (my brother the funny one my sister the cute one/girl) We are like the Warners from the Animaniacs really. This means I can be intimidating to my siblings and they don't tease or pick on me much because I tend to get them back. Sooner or later they are going to figure out that they are just as quick and witty as I am but until then, I get an older brother bonus to our bickering. And we tease and tangle a lot. Its part of our relationship. My sibs also make fun of my parents, something I never do, and I guess that also sets up weird lines in the battles that inevitably follow lots of time together.

I jokingly told them I was going to keep a tally for how many times my sister, Cheeky Monkey, would get into a fight with my brother, Jules Drewe Yorke. This turned into how many times she'd fight with my mom. And then with my dad. I think the tally, which I'm barely keeping but constantly reminding them that I am, is around 12 or 13 between the sibs, 9 or 10 between my mom and her, and 3 or 4 with my dad. It has often been my job to translate what mom or dad want from her and to a lesser extent Jules, and relay that information in language that is patient, understanding and comprehensive. For example, CM got all bent out of shape because we went to this nice manor home and ordered drinks. She doesn't like a lot of alcohol yet (she's only 18 and can drink here but not at home) and so she didn't really want to spend this trip acquiring tastes. So as we are sipping our good irish whiskey, she opted for nothing. But she felt that my dad rushed her to make a choice of what to get because the waiter was coming and that he would give her crap if she ordered a super fruity drink. The night before she had a pina colada and that cost more than two shots of high quality sipping whiskey. It was my job to explain that my dad wasn't rushing her and is only teasing, not serious. I also had to explain that its acceptable to ask the waiter for more time. My mom just got mad at my sister for being angry, which pissed her off more and my dad kept trying to get her to order anyway, which her pride wouldn't let her do either. She felt better after talking to me and enjoyed herself more.

I'm not telling this to brag about my peacekeeping skills (besides sometimes i instigate the battles hehehehehehe). It's more about family roles. My sister will grow out of her feuds with my parents (though never my brother) as she gets older and moves out of the house. It happened to Jules too. My role is just to keep everyone understanding everyone. I was navigating my father across Ireland and he, having some trouble with driving on the left side of the road, kept veering over a line. My mom kept backseat driving. I, terrified for my life at times, still was patient and supportive of my father, knowing he needed that not the constant criticism from the three in the back seat.

There are times where I cause trouble too. Especially when I get on my independent streaks and what to move at a certain pace or don't like it when my family asks me personal questions like the ever-popular whats going to happen to you and Tenshi when you move. We're dealing with it, we'll carry on is sometimes along the lines of my terse reply. I don't know why such inquiries get under my skin. They just do. And I have to be more open with my family and continue the patience. I'll try to work on that for a bit the next few days. Or go explore London on my own alone. One of the two.

Well I have to go. I have to give this computer back to my sister soon and its pretty late here though its only 340 there (1140 here). I will say I miss all of you and hope to have a nice return party where I can show you pictures and share a drink from a foreign country. I'll be super jet lagged but maybe in early July. Until then, I leave you with this limerick I wrote while in Limerick, Ireland. Cheerio!

There once was a limerick from Limerick

That touched every soul with its rhetoric

At dawn break it had fled

From the poor poet's head

And so vanished Limerick's great limerick.

Listening to: beatles led zeppelin and muse and any other british rock music i can

reading: Strange signs on the street (toilet not restroom) in british accents in my head

playing: Chrono Trigger on the DS, if i can charge my DS...

Adventures in the Evening

The next two weeks in this blog are going to be kinda weird. Not bad weird, its just, i'm traveling.

I don't travel often. You may recall my anxieties around traveling from earlier posts. Its just stressful until i get there. This time i'm going the furthest ever in my life. My family and I are going to england and ireland.

First, I want to say this is a dream come true. I was an English major, so this is like returning to the motherland. It's also nice to get away from work with a real vacation and spend time with my family, which as I talked about a few blogs ago I don't do as often anymore. That sad thing is leaving Tenshi behind as well as missing out on things like Heavy Spy's birthday, Summercamp reunions, and most of Spotty Sisters visit. But then again its a trip to Europe.

I do have an adventure to talk about tonight but I figure in light of the fact I'm going to spending two weeks with them, I'd talk a little bit about my family. I've discussed Jules Drewe Yorke, my younger brother a bit before. He is almost 4 years my younger and studying business in school. He's probably one of the funniest people I know and as we've gotten older we've gotten a lot closer too. He'll come to my parties and knows several of my friends pretty well, and recently I made it out to his 21st birthday bash and it was touching to hear his friends say I've heard so much about you. I think I talk about my brother a fair amount but compared to how much it sounded like I'd been discussed, I do my brother injustice. We've always had a lot in common. We share a lot of the same interests in music, video games, usually if he likes a movie so do I. We can talk about a lot of things too, something we never used to be able to do. As an older brother, I never asked for help or advice from my siblings (I have trouble asking for help in general) but they come to me. And when people open up to me I'm more apt to do the same, so our relationships as brothers has continued to flourish. And we still stay up late playing video games or watching TV (this post is so late because he got me hooked on The Office, watching season 2 the season I missed between watching one and three with Tenshi). And there's always teasing Cheeky Monkey.

My sister is the shortest of the three of us, the youngest (6 years younger than me) the cutest and in many senses the wisest. She is the best judge of character and really understands people, relationships, and most importantly to a fail older brother like me, fashion sense. She tells it like it is but is also pretty sensative, unless you're her brother. Then she's brutally blunt. It's only fair because I tease her endlessly too, though I'd like to think I have a balance between a teasing brother and one looking out for his sister. A cute story about my sister, the first thing I can ever remember praying for was a little sister. I used to pray every night to have one, as I already had a brother. God granted me that prayer and I truly have a blessed life because of it. I love both my siblings but I have a special place for each of them in my heart, especially my little sister. She and Jules are closer (2 years apart) and they went through high school together, have mutual friends, and tell each other a lot more. They also look at me as the older brother who is more like a parent than a peer, which unfortunately I sometimes take that role. Lately though I've been more of the peacekeeper between my siblings and each other, and between them and our parents. We all have firey tempers from our mix of York and Latino blood, which gives us a great stubborn streak too. But of the three of us, I have the most patience and my line of work involves counseling and translating feelings a lot, so I guess its natural.

I love my parents. Not just like the normal love you have for your parents but I mean I actually get along with and enjoy their company. My dad is the smartest guy I know. He is practical, alert, and logical to a fault. He is patient and understanding. I see a lot of him in myself and I am proud of that. He is the person I look up to and want to be like as a parent. Sure nobody's perfect and I've learned about about his faults, like being difficult to debate with because of that stubborn streak and his challenges in being patient with us when we don't understand something as fast as he does. But he loves us so much and works so hard to provide for us still. The sacrifices he made to send us to Catholic school, help us live comfortably, and now even to take this trip are things I will never fully know. He is a strong, firm, but fun loving dad who I think on this trip we are all going to see in a new, more adult light, again because we have gotten older. His drive and will to succeed are traits I want to emulate. He started his own business for goodness sake, taking his engineering background to public relations and is very successful. From him I get my public speaking abilities, my practical approaches, my patience, and my comfortability when called to lead. Whenever I have a problem with like say getting lost, or a question on my car or money or job decisions etc, I call my dad first. He has the wisdom and experience that I trust to never lead me astray. I thank God for him. I really do.

My mom is also the best. She the mom that all your friends like, not because she's trying super hard to be cool, but because she treats everyone with respect, dignity, and understanding as equals not as just my son's friends. All my cousins love her the best for this reason too. I'm sure my sister may disagree with some of these assessments, but thats because she's living at home and they fight almost daily. Latin tempers. But my mom is the person I go to for social advice, relationships, family drama, whatever. She has the eye and the ear to really understand people and guide them to things maybe they don't get themselves. Sure this means she butts into her children's lives a little more, but what mom doesn't want her kids to be happy and know whats going on with them. From my mom I received my love for reading, my understanding, my yearning to get other people's points of view, and my passion for education. She is an administrative assistant, but as a mother, she is a life educator through and through.

It's also been great getting to know my parents as I've gotten older. One funny story before I move on. We got my parents a Wii for Christmas. We wrapped it a put it out for Christmas morning, leaving half eaten cookies and milk, and footprints made out of baking soda as if Santa came in from the snow and dropped the present off. Just as they had done to us when we were little. They loved it and loved the Wii too. Now they play the games almost daily and sometimes they are too busy to talk to me on the phone because they are playing games. My how the tables have turned!

So wish me luck with them in the UK and Ireland. I'm sure we'll be sick of each other after a bit but I anticipate a blast. My dad knows Ireland well because his business is based out there and Brock gave us tips for London (he lived there for a year). Clark says I'd make a good adventurer and explorer, so we shall see. I may not have a blog update next week, but if I can get internet, I will be sure to post.

And now the adventure I promised you:

So El Bandito, Heavy Spy and Dungeon Daddy came by to play Brawl the other night. It was a night of Smashed Smash and after El Bandito passed out we decided to stop. Dungeon Daddy left for some Jack in the Box and the night was over. I went to bed. Just before falling asleep, around 2am, Dungeon Daddy (I'm going to call him DD for the remainder of the post) calls me. His car had died at Jack and he needed a jump. I hop in my car and drive the 3 miles to his location. We try to jump his car, which has been pushed to a back alley. However, his cables don't fit in my car. Whoever designed my car put the battery under the washer fluid container (yea that makes sense) and his cables couldn't reach the nodes. We were already a little fuzzy on how to jump a car and I've never been the car that was in good condition. I've always needed the jumping. But we figure that if we remove the washer fluid container, we can reach the battery and jump his car.

I drive back to my place, get my tools and drive back to him. 30 minutes later we take my car apart and finally, barely reach the battery. If you know anything about jumper cables, you have to connect them in the right order and theres a good change you can get electrocuted. That's in ideal conditions. Right before we did this it started to mist as a heavy fog rolled in. Great. Well, we've done this much work we had to try, even though I half expected to die from electrocution we connect the cars and try to jump it. Nothing happens. Not a sound comes from DD's car. So we concede and call a tow truck, who says he'll come in 45 minutes. It's already 4am by this point but I wait with DD in my warmer car, after of course reassembling my washer fluid (which even more useless, doesn't even work. I almost left it out of the car completely) An hour goes by and we call again. 10 minutes off. 20 minutes later. He is 10 minutes off again. Serious ETA fail.

Finally at 545 the tow truck arrives. I move my car to make space then walk out to see if DD needs anything else. Its so late its early and I'm tired and have work the next day. In the time it took me to move my car out of the way, the tow truck drive had jiggled some connections on the battery and the car was running! Less than 2 minutes!! He said next time troubleshoot before calling him! Nobody that we called thought to tell us to try that?? For all you car noobs like us, if you try to start a car and it makes no sounds at all, try jiggling the battery connectors. Something might have come loose. If there is sound but no start, then you may need a jump. Too bad we learned this the hard way. We almost died to get that knowledge.

This lead us to believe that if cars were computers, we wouldn't have had this problem. We know how to troubleshoot computers at the basic level. And if not, we could ask someone who could describe basic troubleshooting pointers. No insurance company is going to tell their customer to play around with the battery wires. But adjusting firewall settings or granting administrative permissions to address a computer problem, that's easy! Well at least we aren't dead.

But that leaves me with my last point. 6am is the worst our of the day. If you are getting up at 6am you are like ug its so early. Why am I up this early? For school work whatever. Terrible time to have to get up. If you stay up that late, you are like what did I do with my whole night?? I wasted it! 4 am is a good party. 5 is something got your attention, like youtube videos or games, or a blog or something. But 6, that's just ridiculous. The only reason that's good is you get to see the sunrise. And the sunrise is usually prettier at 7 anyway.

And on that note, I sleep. On the air mattress here at my home. Because there is no bed here for me. Oh and did I mention in my haste to come here, I left my passport back at my apartment. So I have to drive back home tomorrow anyway? Oh fail. I better sleep before that drive. Goodnight friends! See you upon my return :)

Listening to: Something by the Beatles. Jules and I want to see Abbey Road during our tour and any other classic rock landmarks.

Playing: I picked up Mario Galaxy 2 to finish it off.

Reading: Got a few books lined up for the trip. I'll be sure to tell you about the two Wind books next time.

Cooking With James... Did I just make Vegan Nachos?

I've been in a blogging mood this week and the dining halls have been closed so I've been cooking more. While neither of these stories merit their own blog, with their powers combined, I hope you'll find my continuing adventures with cooking amusing.

First, about a week ago I volunteered to make salsa for my end of the year pot luck with my coworkers. Thing is, I didn't know how to make salsa. I figured, how hard can it be.

I looked up some recipes and picked one I thought sounded good. Then there was buying the ingredients. I think the produce aisle is the most confusing and misleading area of the supermarket. First the prices are lies. If you look closely, most prices are based on weight. Except these days there are no scales around because nobody actually bothers to weigh things anymore. Most shoppers just know how many or how much of something they want by looking at, or "eyeballing" it.

But you know how they do this? They've gone to the produce section every few weeks for years and years and years of their lives. I've never developed this magic "eyeball" that everyone else seems to possess. So naturally it takes me like an hour to buy like a few chilies an onion and a can of tomatoes. Anyway, I finally buy the produce and go back to make the salsa.

Following the instructions, I start to make the salsa, then immediately change the recipe. A whole onion was just too much! Or maybe I bought too big an onion. Garlic cloves are supposed to be finely chopped or use a garlic press thingy. What the heck is a garlic press thingy? Do you know hard it is to chop garlic?? I wasn't even sure which part of the clove was the edible part. Thank goodness for garlic salt. Also, chopping onions, my eyes were ok. Then I chopped peppers and my eyes were a little foggy. Then I chopped cilantro and my eyes burned. Nobody warns you about the cilantro!!

After slicing, dicing and hoping everything I eyeballs would suffice, I threw everything into a big pot and turned my stove on. Yes, the directions called for cooking the salsa, which I think is counter intuitive, even if you are making roasted salsa (which I don't think I was). It said bring the salsa to a boil and then cook for a minute or two. So not long. I turn the stove on high and walk to the living room while it heats up. Clark was watching an episode of 30 Rock on Netflix, so I sat down to watch a clip or two. 5 clips later I was like, OH CRAP THE SALSA! I never thought I'd miss commercial breaks so much! I ran back to the stove and smelled the unstirred salsa bubbling.

That's right, I almost burned salsa.

Fortunately I saved it and stirred it and took it off the stovetop and called it done. It actually turned out really good and I even recreated it with my leftover ingredients. I got a lot of compliments, though half the people couldn't eat it cuz it was too spicy. Their loss.

Speaking of salsa, I finished the last of my second batch making myself nachos. After a harrowing evening about which I will relay on Sunday, I went into work late, so I had lunch here first. I knew I was going to play basketball later, so I wanted some starch. I also wanted to eat healthy so I wanted some veggies. And I wanted to be not hungry, so I needed something substantial. Solution: Chips, microwaveable frozen veggies, black beans, cheese and my salsa. I had some chicken but it was frozen and would take too much time.

I cook up the beans and microwave the veggies. No problems so far. I get a big bowl, knowing that a whole can of beans before basketball was a bad idea, so I wanted something that when I was full would be easy to store. I toss in the chips and veggies and beans. Then I went to get some cheese to melt on top. The only cheese in the fridge was some white cheese. Not ideal but OK. Check the expiration dates. 2009?? WHY DO WE HAVE CHEESE FROM 2009!! DID WE EVEN LIVE HERE IN 2009??

I am the only one in my household that even inconsistently clears our the fridge and throws old food away. So I was hungry so I continued making my nachos. I was like, ok vegetarian nachos. I can live with that. I just had all you can eat Brazilian Steakhouse on Saturday. This would be good. Then I was like, but wait. No cheese. Did I just accidentally make Vegan Nachos? Are they even Nachos if there's no cheese? They not 'cho nachos if they got no nacho cheese. Sorry I had to try to make some stupid pun there. Well I ate it anyway but still, vegan nachos? Sad.

That's all the cooking with James today. One more fun little cooking moment. Though I successfully barbecued a bunch of burgers and hot dogs on my little bbq grill, I did have one mishap where for the last two hot dogs, I tried to pick both up with my tongs and sent them both spiraling to the dirty floor. Sad but amused at my failure, I placed the two weiners in Brocks garden to help it grow.

And with that probably Jamesism, I leave you. I say goodday!

Free to live the memories

Its late on a Friday night but I'm starting my Sunday blog early because it was an important, surprisingly emotional day. Today was my last day in Summercamp. Summercamp has been a staple of my life and this blog for the past two years. I haven't quite gotten around to my university memories part two, but when I do there may be many more Summercamp tales. For now, I just want to honor my lifeshaping experiences with this weeks blog.

First let me say i'm not really an emotional person. I don't cry. And before you get excited, I didn't cry on my last day either. However, I know i'm not some stonehearted or heartless monster because while I may not actually shed a tear, I often get my heartstrings yanked around. Recent examples include toy story 3, Up, certain scenes in World of Color. And today.

I am moving to Ohio state next fall for a degree in higher education and student affairs. The reason im doing this is because of my experiences in Summercamp. The work we do, the impact we have and the developmental focus drive my work to make college students have a successful career. And at the heart of that has been my Summercamp team. So in this blog, I'd like to highlight a few individuals who have made my experience and my life so wonderful. To all of them I want to say thank you, from the bottom of my heart, which does hurt to leave such wonderful people behind.

This blog is all about the characters in my life. When I studied English, it was the characterizations that I was always most interested in. Who was who and what made them who they were. It is the same in my life. I may not know all the big picture themes, but the characters around me shape my world. So in reliving the memories of this past year, I want to talk about the characters that made it special.

First there is Pandita. I bring her up first because it is now Saturday and I just came from a wonderful graduation party of hers. She comes from a big Mexican family and it was nice to see what I associate with the more traditional Mexican party. My latin blood was happy to hear a lot of salsa music (I am far more likely to dance to that than any other music). And her wonderful welcoming family made us feel at home. And that is how I can best describe the sweet, loving, Pandita. With her, you always feel like you are safe at home, and they plays the role of mother, sister, and daughter well, both in her family and at work. She spoiled us with baked goods and her warm laugh. And while I loved teasing her for never coming to our biweekly one on one meetings, I also trusted that she didn't need to meet with me to be successful in her work and with her students. I hope to always stay in touch with her and look forward to see her impact the lives of every single person she meets.

Next I think I'll mention Missy Sunflower. Missy hasn't been alluded to at all in this blog, but as it is late and I'm feeling nostalgic, I may just go through everyone that made this year grand. I wish I got to work more with Missy. She and I have a lot in common. She worked in teh position I did my first year in the department, so I took a special interest in seeing her succeed as our liason to the community. I loved hearing her stories and connections and reminisced on my days as a new staff member. She also shares my positive outlook and religious slant on life and I had great conversations with her about life love and the pursuit of bringing happiness to others. She was also so sweet and grateful for even the littlest things I did for her and I'm so happy to see her going on to great things. So, thank you Missy for trusting me as your supervisor and your friend.

Royal Rose has a very nice real name herself, and even though I didn't get to know her as much as I wanted I was proud to see her grow into a leader. My favorite memory is sitting down with her to do her RA app. I'd been up late reading and reading applications, helping edit and fine tune them to be the best possible. Everyone's needed lots of work. When Royal Rose came to me with hers, I was pleased to see her great insight and well written essay. She was so worried about a few details but I was like, Rose, you are in great shape, let's tweak this and that and youl be fine. That's how it is with Rose, she always hits the ground running and was competent and capable in everything she did. Best of luck to her in her RA role next year.

There were plenty of others I'd like to recognize. Green Trickster, Hungry Brawler, Britney Bell, Shy Rider, Beatboxed Arms. And my good peoples from last year, Chai Ducky, President Futballer, and Punk Sister. But I have a splitting headache right now and need to sleep. I'll finish this Sunday but if you read this before well know its not done.

Continuation Sunday...

Captain Peanut was one of my programmers. I have a lot in common with him, not the least of which is our shared love for video games, especially smash brothers. While we only played Brawl maybe two or three times total, Captain Peanut and I shared many a great conversation about pretty much anything we wanted. While an exception programmer who was always on top of his work, Captain Peanut also has a great perspective on life, looking at problems from different angles and always thinking outside the box with his logical approaches. He has a great sense of a humor and always phrases things in witty and insightful ways. Some of my favorite moments with him include playing "Presidents" and the hundreds of times I got him to give me to say "James, that's not funny. You people shouldn't be laughing at that!" after I made some very corny, pun or play on words, intentionally so bad it was kinda amusing.

Nobel Dancer was another one of my really high performing staff members. Like Pandita, she's one of the sweetest people I know. Considerate and thoughtful, she always has something nice to say about everyone and everything, rarely getting angry. She is also a great dancer and singer, talented like a Bollywood superstar. I'm positive one day she will win some kind of Nobel prize for her outreach, compassion, and dedication to helping those in need. She will change the world and she definitely helped shape my time in Summercamp. We had this ongoing point system where I missed one of my meetings with her (I even wrote a text telling her I'd be late but forgot to send it!) and she was like, James, you lost 100 points there. I spent the rest of the quarter trying to re-earn those favor points back (yea who was the supervisor here? I know) and ultimately caught up by attending her phenomenal dance recital at the end of the quarter. I have fond memories of conversations about life and love as she drove with me to pick up something or drop someone off early in the year, and that shaped our relationship, even if later she didn't want to tell me stuff because she knew I knew the person. Oh well, I would just listen carefully and find out later. I'm going to miss seeing this great person, but I'm sure she'll continue her own blog and video posts, so we shall stay in touch.

Naysayer P Smith called King Wrangler my little brother. This was mostly because he is half Latino half White like me. Generally, we had a good amount in common though he is a stats major, or statistician as he likes to call himself, and I was an English major. But we both had very positive experiences as student leaders and call more than just Summercamp our home in the past (they called my old residence hall Jamesville or something like that). When he's not wrangling data or working on his memory palace, he spends his time with his girlfriend, Fall Girl, who's got the sass and sarcasm to deal with King Wrangler's constant rants and verbal meanderings complaining about some minute problem with supposed big picture implications. Needless to say we always found his ravings very entertaining. King Wrangler would just walk into my office and say James York, I have a question for you. And then go off on a wild idea about how he could create a better system or address a problem in a better way than the department, school, politician or whoever was doing now. Often they were very insight if a bit extreme in a humorous way. In fact, my best memories are with King Wrangler and I would sit and chat about anything from social justice to the best restaurants at Disneyland and have very nice chats. I'm going to miss his humor, his sarcasm and his wild ideas that I never took quite seriously because he never did either. Someone who talks for the sake of talking but its funny, unlike some of my other friends who talk for the sake of hearing themselves speak. King Wrangler, my 'little brother' I hope shall be someone I run into often.

These last two are perhaps the hardest to write. Of all my staff members I think I've gotten the closest to them throughout our year of programs, one on ones committees and just fun hang out time. I have loved every staff I've been on but something about this years staff has definitely made them the most... recent. And very tight night, and these two have been the heart of it. I love everyone and don't really play favorites, but these two I feel I know the best and they know me the best.

Ironically, there was a running gag within the staff that these two were the same person. Maybe that's saying something but I'm not sure what...

Red Button: I heart Red Button. She is high performing, on top of her work, and balances a lot of committements beautifully. I don't know anyone else who is so involved and so often volunteers for things and is still days ahead of her homework. Moreover, she is a genuinely good person. We actually share a lot of perspectives on life, usually looking for the best in people, staying positive and supportive, and a love for telling stories that are really only entertaining to us. Often when there were communication break downs in our staff or someone tried to do something that didn't make sense, I'd hear Red Button starting to make the same suggestion to help that I would, and vice versa. We'd always go "See that's that connection we have". Practical and on the same page. This made for a great working relationship and fun one on ones, which for her were usually two or three on ones because King Wrangler or Pokeboss or both would crash her meeting times. These were great times, though I was always behind in the rest of my work because these meetings lasted so long. She also often walked by my office and no matter what she'd stop by with her big smile and bright red hair (no eyebrows interestingly enough) and she "Hi James" I'm planning such and such or I have a question about this and that, always thoughtful and always proactive. It was such a pleasure to work with her, and I'll cherish those moments when I really saw her shine in her position, with her many roommate conflicts in particular. Her thank you notes and heartfelt tears made it very hard to say "goodbye" to this wonderful person. I know we will always have a bond over baseball, which nobody else on our staff ever seemed to understand. We will continue to root for the home team and even though our team time together has ended, the memories and relationship built will last a lifetime I'm sure. I wish the best for her in all her endeavours and hope she considers the potential calling in student affairs and maybe we'll be on a team again.

Pokeboss oh Pokeboss. As any of you reading the blog lately will know, Pokeboss also was a constant visitor in my office. She often likened me to her big brother, saying if we ever met we'd get along famously. Perhaps that's true, but my experiences were with her, and I suppose I did see her a little sister. I think back to the first time I drove my staff to one of our many bonding activities. Pokeboss needed to ride with me because I was going to drop her off at her family's home for something. I remember being annoyed that this student didn't seem to have the passion and committment to the position and was considering missing the bonding activity for family time. My offer to drive her allowed her to have the best of both worlds (a concept I strongly value and will probably unpack next week). After two fairly long drives, an accidental leg grabbing as I fumbled for a box of kleenex, and the first of a series of soundbitten conversations, I decided that this kid was alright. Thus began a year long series of growth and bonding moments between the two of us. From hours and hours of one on ones to facing new Sporcle challenges, Thursday meals at Awesome Burger Chain to my "helping" her keep meeting minutes by pushing keys at random, I think Pokeboss was present at more individual Summercamp memories this year than anyone else. I even helped her drive on our jampacked freeway and swapped music tips and discussions. Like a lil sis, she also would drive me crazy at times, refusing to tell me information after alluding that she had some (perhaps my biggest pet peeve) and sometimes having rants and being angry about things that aren't really related or affecting her just because she dislikes them on principle (another pet peeve of mine). That said, I'm sure I drove her and many of the staff crazy with my politically safe answers to questions they had about the department and the minimal information I would give them, especially compared to Naysayer, who would often tell them much more (even though he was the one who instructed me not to share information!). Pokeboss once in her comfort zone with the staff, single handed helped shape staff development with her biweekly staff newsletters, birthday posters, and even starting a kickball tournament. She was the one I trusted to communicate things to the rest of the staff and my liason to the many dinners I had with the staff later on. I was always excited when she would visit my office, even if it meant no work would get done, often because more staff members would soon follow. Like me, she would spend more time bonding and hanging out with people than working, and I think that fact solidified our friendship, one I'm sure will stay alive even after I leave for Ohio State.

All my staff members defined my positive experience in Summercamp. I will sorely miss all of them and hope to stay in touch as much as possible. Though now I am no longer their supervisor, I hope to continue to call them my friends. I haven't forgotten Naysayer P Squirrel, my boss through this entire time. I think he will continue to be a prominent player in this blog. He hates goodbyes, but for us, I don't think there ever will be one. On our last night as his supervisee, we had a huge marker war which involved physical abuse, lots of ink, and the use of a blind man's walking cane as bludger, among other things. Even on our last day he taught me an important lesson: he is willing to go to any extremes to win, while I learned long ago to pull my punches and try your best not to hurt anyone if you are play fighting. In other words, know the rules of the game. Still I think it would have been bad if I had actually pulled the feet out from my boss and knocked him on the floor. Not just because it could have hurt him, but because it would most assuredly have hurt me in the long term. Remember the pie story from last year? Yea, same thing.

Still on our last night Naysayer P Squirrel bought us pizza and we actually reminisced with staff members from last year, including some old residents and Chai Ducky, who happened to be visiting. I felt like everything had come full circle, and while I was having flashbacks to my own graduation, I again felt that intense nostalgia and hesitation for change, something that Pokeboss and I had discussed her fear of in our first one on one.

The fact is, when in September Pokeboss said she was afraid of change and she dreaded the year's end, I thoroughly agreed. While I stayed positive with her assuring her that our year would be long and that it will all work out, things I also believe, I too was scared. I didn't realize it until this weekend, but once again I am afraid of change. But I guess as a sign of my own growth, despite this fear, I know that change is good and I will not let fear paralyze but rather encourage me. I shall be cautious and appreciate each relationship I have and that fear of change will show me I did good. That was one of the many things I shall be taking away from Summercamp.

One last thing on Naysayer. He has put me on a career path. He has helped me grow and develop as a leader, a supervisor, a supervisee, a coworker, an administrator, a judicator, and a person. He has read resumes for me, given me advice on life, love and everything in between. He taught me how to "play the game." He has been a mentor, an almost father figure, a boss, and a friend. I'm glad he doesn't like goodbyes because it means we will always stay in touch. So I give a special thank you to him.

Thank you. For everything.

And now I say goodbye to Summercamp. It will be sorely missed. For the first time in my life I am free. Free to not have Monday meetings. Free to work normal working hours. Free to not have to worry if a program meets fire marshal guidelines, if a staff member is going to fail out of school, if my student leaders have good chemistry, if I missed a timely, important email, if I was supposed to be at a one on one right now, or if I was going to be yelled at for working late even though I had a lot of work to do. Free from all of that which I have loved about Summercamp. Having freedom implies I had bondage. Well I did, I bonded to Summercamp. And now that I am free to change I am also free to live the memories that have developed me so. I look forward to new reasons for nostalgia and new memories to make. Goodbye Summercamp, until we meet again.

-JTY

Once last lesson to my staff: Remember Freedom is one of the basic needs for humans along with survival, power, love and belonging and that last one that I just don't care to remember. Take that choice theory!

Reading: 100 Bullets Book 7, though I'm stocking up Shadow in the Wind and The Name of the Wind for my flight to England and Ireland with the family in a week!!

Playing: Super Mario Galaxy 2, the first game on my summer docket I need to finish.

Listening to: Wicked Little Town from the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It was first playing on my drive home from Summercamp at 4am on Friday and really just matched my nostalgic mood. Even though I've only seen half the movie, I think it was fitting. Maybe I'll watch the whole thing soon.

Music and Marriage

It's another phone update. I'm out of town until tomorrow with no laptop. Man I love this phone!

The reason I'm gone is for Jabbertalky's parents wedding. I know that sounds odd but his mom and dad have been divorced since he was in middle school or maybe before. When I met him in high school his moms boyfriend already played a prominent father figure role in Jabbertalky's life. senior year of HS, the bf proposed to the mom. However, with Jabbertalky going to college, they wouldn't get enough financial aid with a two parent household. So they put off the marriage until he graduated. They didn't even set a date until a year after the graduation! His mom is very devoted to her only son (for good and for bad). Now, though, finally, they are married.

Its been interesting being with him all weekend. He's not called Jabbertalky cuz he's quiet, but actually I haven't seen him too much. He's been running around playing father of the bride (he walked his mom down the aisle), best man (he's not the best man but is taking care of a lot of stuff) and chauffeur to the family. Instead, he left me with his friend, who id heard of but never met before. We hung out all weekend and actually got along well but still it was kinda weird. We also had to tag along to a lot of stuff that we had no interest doing, like an afterparty with the bride and groom and their friends who are surprise surprise my parents age. We'd much rather hang with the select few younger folk and drink and explore the casino. Sigh. Jabbertalky gets his mouth (both excessive talking and the mouthiness that makes him tough to deal with) from his mom. So he's at her whim and we are at his. Which is also guided by his ever present women troubles and attempts at rebound women. Oh well it was a pretty wedding with good food and an open bar. If I were the kind that liked to get plastered that woulds been great. Im not and worse I had to drive so I didn't even get to indulge much. I guess this hasn't been the best trip ever but im not complaining about the free food and being up $40 from craps. Its nice to hang with good people too. Some of them just need small doses.

I know I make Jabbertalky look kinda bad in these blobs. He's genuinely good guy but his mouth gets in the way sometimes. He's gone through a lot and good or bad his mom is a huge influence on him. Now if he'd stop chasing girls he has no business chasing and just have some fun, we'd all be happier.

The wedding just wasn't targeting my generation. There were maybe 15 unmarried people vying for the bouquet and garter total. And there was no music played from after 1988. While I like the Beatles and chicago and earth wind a fire, I don't really want to dance to them all night. It takes a lot to get me to dance anyway. And since I had neither the alcohol to coerce me, the peer group to comfort me nor the catchy music to entice my latin blood, I wasn't going on the floor for more than one dance with the bride. If Tenshi were there... but alas.

This made me think of the many epic music conversations I've been having with Pokeboss. We have discovered a mutual love for classic rock though she does have a different taste then me. Hotel California is my favorite song but she can't stand it. She doesn't like the super popular ones but respect that I like them because of true love not just cuz they are "the popular ones". she's big on Bruce Springstein and a couple of bands I don't think of initially when I list my favorite classic rock bands. I don't really like the boss but to each their own. Its nice chatting classic rock with people again. Spam Boa was in town last week and he's the only other one I hold good old school music convoy with. I in turn have introduced pokeboss to muse on levels deeper then the radio hits, just and tenshi did to me. Oh music. You bring people together. Maybe that's why you are a running theme in my blog.

Im tired of typing on my phone, so you get and early update.

I don't have a good Brock quote but at last weeks bbq, he bough 24 hot dogs and 6 hamburgers. He also bought 24 hamburger buns and 8 hot dog buns. Oh Brock.

Listening to- sadly Britney spears, don't know the name of the song. I'm publishing this blog pool side and they are blasting pop music.

Playing-portal 2 coop with spam.

Reading SHADOW IN THE WIND. A gift from Yellow Piggy for my birthday years ago and I am finally finally reading, also poolside.

Have a great week in june. It finally feels consistently like summer!

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.8