Boom De Yada Boom De Yada

You might all be wondering why I haven't written an entry in several weeks. I assure you, it's not from lack of interest or material, but from sheer physical exhaustion. I have been working as a camp counselor and teacher at a computer camp in Massachusetts since June 23rd. As much as I love my job, my joints and bones feel like their on fire, ALL THE TIME. Here's a little glimpse of my schedule for today:

• 6:30 AM: Get up, navigate to shower with my eyes still closed, try to sleep in shower.


• 7:15 AM: Walk to breakfast, eat powdered eggs and stale bagels.


• 7:40 AM: Trudge up the "Stairs of Doom," a set of 106 steep stairs that leads to the computer labs. Yes, I counted.


• 7:45 AM: Sit in a computer lab, wait for day campers to arrive. Nobody comes to my lab for some reason.


• 8:40 AM: Climb more stairs, go to "morning meeting." Feel like an old fogey because my knees hurt and I can barely keep up with the kids' conversations.


• 9:00 AM: First period class is RC Cars. The easiest part of my day is teaching. Spend an hour and a half screwing in screws and pleading with kids to clean up after class.


• 10:30 AM: Second period class is Retro Games. Playing outside is considered "retro" now. Spend ninety minutes pleading with kids to play soccer and ignore the wool blanket of humidity that is smothering us all.


• 12:00 PM: Lunch. Just like breakfast but fried and louder.


• 1:00 PM: Third period class is RPG game design. I spent a month learning a special programming language to teach this class. Turns out, I don't need it. Half of my class knows more about the game than I do.


• 2:30 PM: Fourth period class is RC Cars again. Half of my class knows more about the cars than I do.


• 4:00 PM: Two hours of freedom, spent playing World Of Warcraft in my boxers. My laptop overheats right when I'm about to kill a mutated tree monster.


• 5:30 PM: Go to dinner. Still technically my break time, and I deflect any comments or questions by kids with those three magic words: "I'm Off Duty."


• 6:00 PM: Half the kids go to the computer labs to play. The other half goes to the field and asks me when they get to go to the computers. The only popular games are those that involve standing around in a circle, or significant risk of injury.


• 7:15 PM: The two groups switch places. Nothing changes.


• 8:30 PM: Back to the dorm. Making sure the kids don't swallow the laundry detergent, fall down the stairs, or destroy the bathroom.


• 11:00 PM: Bed. Unless we have a staff meeting, in which case I get to be more exhausted tomorrow.

So yeah, that's my day, in pretty gory detail.