Summer in Review Part 3: Soundtrack of the Summer

Last night I said that the three top activities of my summer were working, sleeping, and reading, but I neglected one important detail: through almost all of those activities (even sometimes during sleeping), I was listening to some kind of music.  From the boombox at work to worship in the chapel to my own MP3 library on breaks, music was a constant part of my life, and I loved it.  The variety was huge, but there were a few songs in particular that formed the soundtrack of my summer.  Some were silly, some were sweet, some were just plain awesome, but they all played a big part in making this summer the great time that it was.

Summer in Review Part 1: Housing Arrangements

It’s hard to believe that the summer is already drawing to a close.  Out of the four years that I’ve spent the summer at Lake Ann Camp, this has been one of the best, and even though I’m excited to go home on Saturday, I’ll be sad to leave these three months of fantastic memories behind me.  In the week leading up to my departure, I’ll be updating daily with posts highlighting some of the most memorable parts of the summer, starting with this one about the support staff’s unique combination of temporary homes.  Enjoy, and stay tuned for more!

The Quotable Kora P.

So today, I learned that my friend and co-worker Kora says hilarious things with alarming consistency, so I took the liberty of recording a few of her quotes to post here (with her permission, of course).  Ladies and gentlemen, The Quotable Kora P.!

“What’s a Zombie apocalypse?”
(Me): “It’s when zombies take over the world.”
“I hate it when that happens.”

“I think I just choked on my life.”

“I’m more 90’s than a longboard!”

“You just got graped!”

“If I point my pinkie out like this, does it cancel out my elbows?

“I could make a comment about that, but I’m afraid you’ll quote me.”

Oddly enough, she didn’t say anything else particularly quotable after that.  I can’t for the life of me figure out why.

I’m Not Good At Patriotism

Molly and I were making Rice Krispie Treats for the campers today, and she decided that it would be a great idea to color them red, white, and blue in honor of the fourth of July.  Since we couldn’t really doing anything else to celebrate on account of being in the kitchen all day, we decided that that was a great idea and set about making our patriotic dessert.  The white stripe went off without a hitch, the red stripe was a tad pink, but workable.  Then we started working on the blue stripe and I learned my new thing for the day.

You Deserve

Every year at Lake Ann, there seems to be one worship song that becomes our theme, a song that encapsulates all that God is doing in and through our ministry, and this year, that song is “You Deserve” by Hillsong.  Every Friday night, after chapel is over and before Glory Bowl begins, we sing this song together as a celebration of our amazing God and the work that He’s done in the lives of the campers and staff, and the effect could not be more electrifying or uplifting.  Listen to the song, read the lyrics, and let its truth encourage you.  It really is all about God, and He does indeed deserve our praises and, more importantly, our lives.

…

Sorry for the lack of legitimate posts lately, having a job has seriously eaten away at my free time (go figure).  I’ve got at least three high-quality posts in the works for the near future, but for now I’ve got to get me down to the chapel and listen to Ken Rudolph preach the Word like a boss, so have an ace picture that Frosty drew.  I got to watch on her livestream, it was awesome.

P.S. If you click the picture it’ll take you to her deviantArt page, which I highly recommend.

The Wacky World of Quelf

What is Quelf?  Simplest answer: Quelf is a board game.  Most accurate answer: Quelf is the perfect blend of randomness concentrate and friendship, and it is the most fun you will ever have while sitting at a table.  Here, a selection of choice quotes from tonight’s epic game with fellow Lake Ann staffers Adam, Scott, Christian, Shelby, Jonathan, and Megan.

“That is true, false.  It’s true that it’s false; false.” – Scott

“Quack, quack, quack!” – Shelby (every time anyone drew a card)

“I’d love to play this game at 3 in the morning, when everyone’s like, (O_o).” – Scott

Things That I Learned Today

1. Never tell a joke while brushing your teeth.  You can never tell if people are laughing at your joke or because you’re foaming at the mouth and mumbling incoherently.

2. Be careful when giving out high-fives.  Despite what it would seem, girls often hit harder than guys.

3. Running out of noodles at dinner = AUGH!  Running out of noodles at dinner + “Heart of Courage” by Two Steps From Hell = We can overcome this, and we must… for the campers… for Chefy… for NARNIA!

4. The best kind of thunderstorms are the ones that build up all day.  First it’s just cloudy, then the thunder starts in the distance, then there are flashes of lightning, and then it all climaxes with a cloudburst.  And then the Bohemian Rhapsody gets stuck in your head.  “Thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening MEEEEEEE!”

5. It’s impossible to enjoy Skit Night when inside a metal-roofed building during the aforementioned cloudburst.  Jokes aren’t as funny when all you hear are scattered syllables and *PING* *PING* *PING* *PING*.

6. The freezer is not soundproof.  Apparently everyone could hear me and Jonathan belting out “Prima Donna” from Phantom of the Opera and the Pokémon theme song as we stocked sausages.  It was totally worth it.

7. Owl City’s music is some of the most inherently happy music on the planet, and his puns are splendidly terrible to boot.

8. There are a lot of memorable moments packed into even the seemingly mundane days, we just don’t stop to realize it.

Glory Bowl

I’d rather be writing.  I’d rather be sleeping.  I think I’d even rather be back at work than here.  At least at work I was doing something.  As I sat there in the grass at Glory Bowl listening to campers tell everyone about the decisions they’d made during their week at camp and trying not to be distracted/terrified by the sparrow-sized bee sweeping the area, I thought about everything else I could be doing and sighed.  I love Glory Bowl, it was always one of my favorite parts of the week when I was a camper, but the last thing any sane person wants to do on a Friday night after a twelve hour workday and an hour of chapel is sit silently on the side of a hill for an hour and a half and listen to more talking.  I listened to the testimonies halfheartedly for a while, then a boy stepped up to the microphone in Ken Riley’s hand and took us all by surprise.

“My name is Josiah, and a week ago I was ready to kill myself.”

An Explanation

So yesterday, I posted a post that consisted of a very loud audio recording of people screaming and yelling and the words “I’ll explain this tomorrow”.  It’s tomorrow, so here’s the story behind that odd sound bite…

Yesterday, I went with the Lake Ann Camp support staff to Empire Beach.  It was a very nice beach except for all of the tiny dead fish along the shoreline, but the best part wasn’t the sand or the water or the dead fish or any of the other normal, beach-type things.  It was the enormous and fantastic playground.  This playground had a climbing wall, swings, and, best of all, one of those metal merry-go-rounds that are responsible for 85% of playground injuries and 97% of playground enjoyment.  We spent several dizzying minutes whipping each other around in circles just because we could, and then I realized that I hadn’t written a post that day.  Suddenly, I remembered the phone-to-blog feature on WordPress and decided that it would be a great idea to get on the merry-go-round with a bunch of the other guys and record our ride to upload as the post for the day.

I had to walk back to the bus to get my confirmation code, and when I came back there was a little girl on the merry-go-round.  She introduced herself as Kaylee (I probably spelled that wrong.  There are several hundred thousand ways to spell that name, and parents never choose the one you expect.  Ever.), and she announced that she wanted to ride with us.  We tried to tell her that we would be going really, really fast, but that only made her more excited to do it.  The kid was an adrenaline junkie.  Her uncle was alright with it, so we all climbed on, grabbed onto the railings, and let the madness begin.  If you listen to the audio post, you can hear me argue with the pushers for a moment about which direction we should go, and then it all descends into chaos.  We were screaming and yelling and holding on for dear life, but over the din you can hear a little voice say, “I’m not even holding on!”  That’s right.  Kaylee was standing there, her hands in the air, leaning nonchalantly against the railing and grinning like a mad person.  All of us full-grown men were crying for mercy while this little girl stood there completely calmly, shaking her head at our display.  Halfway through the ride, she got bored and started walking around the edge of the merry-go-round.  I’m telling you, she was like some kind of miniature ninja.  By the time it was all over, most of us had been thrown to the ground by the unmerciful g-forces, but not Kaylee.  She hopped down cheerfully from the merry-go-round and ran off to go play with her brother, Franklin (who was just as crazy as his sister; I’ll write about that another day).  She didn’t even look dizzy.

And that’s how a recording of me screaming like a little girl while an actual little girl makes fun of me in the background was uploaded to the Internet.