Men wearing ties? I know we shouldn't have given them voting rights.

Today was a complete waste of a day off. Huzah for everything.

It completely sucked because half the day I spent sleeping in. Which means now I am still wide awake and its like 2am in the morning. Which means tomorrow I will be absurdly tried and depressed I'm not ruining in the New Milford 8. Which means less happiness all around.

The most exciting thing that happened today was calling up my bank when $900 of charges were made to my credit card because a company kept trying to process a payment that didn't go through and now all the funds are being held even though nothing has been charged. I am Jack's complete lack of surprise. The only payphone I could find was behind this pavilion where a chorus of 50 people were singing SEASONS OF LOVE from RENT. So I spoke with some dude at like 4pm in the USA, which made it 6am in Australia. Which means randomness.

I also saw Dinner for Schmucks. Which I laughed out loud to a few times. Which means I really enjoyed it.

I also broke my toe. Which means it is bleeding.

I also slept through breakfast and dinner today, leaving me with milkshakes, coffees, cookies and more cookies for food. Which means i'm feeling blurgh from food.

Fruit of the Moment: Cherry Vanilla

That's the BOOM! I'm Out

Once again, I'm so exhausted.

Pub was a blur of nodding off all day. My hour off was taken in the morning to participate in the second session clown show. Its always interesting to have the work you've done over the past 20 hours blurred away to oblivion.

My knee continues to be absurdly and depressingly sore.

And I cannot begin the express the difficulties I've been having with a custom button making company online. Seems, after I made some cool buttons for Buck's Rock allot more people started wanting them. So I looked into purchasing a stock of 500 or so.

This one company just had no frigin' clue. They kept on charging me for full colour prints even when I sent them multiple variations of the same 2 colour artworks, including colour separations ready for press. In the end, my frustration won and with a 20 second call to a different company, I had a cheaper price for more buttons with a faster delivery time.

After dinner, I spent some time hanging out with our CIT Amy.

After this, was the first meeting of the Staff Play. We got around 40 people involved and I get to put on NINE-THIRY-SIX again!! Hopefully the guy I'm after for the final part will be interested.

Fruit of the Moment: No Nugget Lunch

You guys stay right there

Something that has been on my mind for quite some time was officially taken off the worrisome shelf it has been sitting on and passed on into the realm of others. That waiter was certainly glad to get rid of his wine bottle.

The no sleeping at Buck's Rock has begun. With very little sleep due to the Birthday Party in Emma's Bed and no running due to a very injured left knee cap, I could barely make the 8am breakfast call. I made it; unshaven. Albeit depressed that my brokenish knee prevents me from running this Saturday. Sad Face.

Pub was crazy town today. I helped our ex-CIT-turned-theatre-CIT complete a program for tonight's second session play THE WISE MEN OF CHELM. It was his first program after years of being involved in theatre. And it was beautiful. Clean, stylish, and simplistic. Also, new Pubbie Louis powerhousing was through the designs for the Yearbook dividers and Mark got cracking on a Buck's Rock Reunion invitation with a pressed flower collage.

Tonight, Kenny Murphy took Becca from Photo, Phil from Evening Activities, Random girl I don't know from Video and I out for ice cream, coffee and Bouncy ball purchasing. It was absolutely fabulous. I even got soap from Big Y.

It was unfortunate that we misheard what time our Pub shop would be playing board games tonight. Kenny, Carson and I thought it was 10:30pm. But really, it was 8:30. We were very ashamed to miss out on it.

I made myself stay up and write a proposal for a new theatrical endeavor.

Fruit of the Moment: BOOM!

Why would my Grandparents send me a picture of my Aunt's rabbit?

My day just got better.

DOUBLE BOOKSTORE... WHAT DOES IT MEAN?!?!

We had Pub Trip 2010. An amazing idea by Leslie, The Pub Staff and CITs took around 40 campers around to 6 Connecticut bookstores. Visiting independent boutiques, Second hand places, book exchanges, rare books, chain stores and local venders. I managed to find a book at every stop. And it was a massive bus drive.

We even fit in Stew Leonard's for lunch, which is like David Jones food hall combined with Franklins Big Fresh.

I managed to eat so much sugar I was on a complete high for the remainder of the day. I feel I'm still riding the wave. Cookies and icing and milkshakes and all sorts of amazing awesomeness.

Tonight I performed THE GIVING TREE for Second Session Staff On Stage. I just read the book to the audience in the best way I know how. For those of you playing at home, The Giving Tree is about a tree that gives all it can give to one boy until it is a mere stump in the ground. Selfishly, the boy never gives anything back. I had prepared several layers of clothing to wear on stage and took one layer of clothing off whenever the tree gave away something selflessly. When the T-shirt came off, it was nice to hear a wolf whistle in the audience, but I am SO glad I had cunningly prepared a singlet underneath.

Fruit of the Moment: Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Put them in someone's mouth

With little sleep I plodded to breakfast; Spencer's Birthday gift in tow. As America does not sell custard powder, The box of custardy awesomeness was well worth the slug from Australia. And a Happy birthday to the amazing Spencer: Doer of awesomeness and watcher of the Golden Girls.

My first stop on the road to a better mood was on the email from a gay mate of mine, who had

a) taken the time to read yesterday's blog and

b) went to the trouble of emailing to cheer me up.

It was very much appreciated. Thanks Corky :)

Next, a British kid named Louis stepped into Pub as his first choice of shop for the summer. Little did he know of Photoshop or such. Before he left today, He had personally laid out 8 year book pages in Photoshop unassisted and assisted with 4 more. It was Amazing! I have a crony. I personally took him around to introduce him to all the other shops he should also visit before locking himself in the world of the yearbook, which he will be doing. Because he is awesome.

And whats the best way to avoid your own worries? Take on other people's woes with advice of your own. Which was precisely my lunch hour. SO MUCH lust and incest going on in this camp. I can play Agony Aunt all day and still have too many patients to see.

I ring Nanny Tess for the first time since I've made it to America saying I miss her allot before jotting off to Office duty. (I must adjust that I had also phoned my father the other day and love him as well as anyone else I mentioned previously)

Next, I try Kettlecorn brand Popcorn and die of delight.

Finally I watch Die Hard 4.0; a romantic tale between Justin Long and Bruce Willis.

Now I'm in quite the happy mood (despite my incredibly itchy toe...) OMG IT ITCHES!!!!

Fruit of the Moment: Not-so-vegetarian "vegetarian" bake

Things in butter usually make me happy

Ah, the fine air of sunday morning as it passes me by.

Prior to sleep yesterday evening, I was snagged into a pre bar-hopping party by infamous ex buck's Rock staff member Nora. I say infamous as her epic sacking a few years back was a result of much controversy, given her popularity with the staff and campers and such.

In anycase, she visited last night and was unsuccessful at getting me to visit places that serve alcohol.

"Are you saying no to the best night of your summer?" She asked

"i'm afraid so" I inform.

Being tired is a powerful mighty ally. Even though she had brought along a very handsome male friend.

Today in Pub was all about the Christmas card. I also managed to fit in a bit of D&D within shop hours. I also saw all the new campers of 2nd session arrive! I also slept on the pub floor.

I took Catan with me to 10pm Snack. Got to play 2 whole games. Won me BOTH of them! Its a frigin' miracle.

In other news; i'm very tired. I'm tired from lack of rest and tired from lack of good food. Tired from people stealing Pub's hammock, tired of trying to make the yearbook work in colour and tired of Buck's Rock in general. It's staring to turn out to be not fun at all.

Fruit of the Moment: Harry Frickin' Potter

If you felt we were closer just now, Its because I just added you on Facebook

Ah! a day of unmotivated nothingness.

I had line duty. Rather Barnaby had line duty; making sure kids stayed in their line and soapy foam got distributed prior to handling food, stopping the spread of diarrhea. But apart from that it was pretty mind numbing.

Also, I got to watch the first 30 minutes of A VERY POTTER SEQUEL which was easily the most exciting thing today.

Try as I might, there was no awesome Yearbook designing. Although, I did read 12 Angry Men. A play by Reginald Rose. Its pretty awesome.

Oh! Also, half the campers went home today. Changeover we call it. That's kinda sad. OH! And I kinda went around and took down all the old shop posters after dinner. OH OH OH!!! And I didn't go out to the movies with the staff tonight because I had seen both Inception and Salt.

Fruit of the Moment: Weird blueberry tart things

I'm sorry, I'm so confused. Link get down.

This morning, was not all together frustrating.

In fact, I ran 8 miles. Which is awesome. I was congratulated by a nice elderly lady out for her morning walk at the 6 mile mark. It was super satisfying.

Sadly, the Barnaby situation had not been resolved as I discovered a ransom note and video attached to my pub computer. I wrote the following letter and sent it to everyone I knew who could spread the word.

Dear all,

Thank you for the efforts you put into making the Barnaby hostage video. It is appreciated on some creative level.
Unfortunately, last night he was required for a music shed performance. And today being my day off, I had originally planned to go out for dinner last night. I stayed on campus specifically for the mushed concert and couldn’t perform thanks to you.
Im not on campus today, and have informed Mickey of the prank.

-Kenney.

I left the camp and walked for 50 minutes into town for breakfast. Granola and real coffee was on the menu. So gosh darn amazing.

And then, if you will... a further 40 minute walk to Wallmart further in town.

Aside from the rain and a car almost killing me as I jumped out of its swerving way mere centimeters from impact... Today was a fabulous day. Oh yeah, did I mention the leet skills in kung fu jumping out of the car of death's way? I was all like I'm gonna jump away from you, and I did and it was all like cool and shit.

I spent up big in every shop I visited. I now own sandals that have no seemliness. Also, a few more books. And a ton of more sugar.

I met Kenny, Rebecca and Lesley for dinner at SALSA. Mexican ahoy!

Tonight, upon return (post driving back to camp!!) I found my Dance program to be amazing. The print turned out so much awesome. I also got an amazing postcard from miss VEE. Actually, no. PUB got a postcard. But I still love it always.

Barnaby turned up at the staff meeting locked in a cage. The prank was over and Carson ripped him from the bars made of electrical tape.

I also called Louise and Leila. Two very important people. That I love and miss very much.

Fruit of the Moment: Water Shots

GRANOLA!

Today was great. A very slow Pub day. but great.

I had one program left for the session and not much to achieve. I helped a few CITs (councilors in training) in their indesign/photoshop efforts and got to really concentrate on a nice design for the dance program.

It WAS great until of course I discovered that Barnaby had been stolen by our driver; Jason for a prank. Tomorrow being my day off, I had planned to go out to dinner until the Music Shed asked me and Barnaby to perform in a Muppet Medley with the "More than Forty Fortes" Band.

Unfortunately due to the prank, I:

a) couldn't perform

and

b) couldn't go out to dinner anymore

rendering my whole night off pointless. So so ANGRY.

AND when I confronted Jason about it, he said he was "busy" and couldn't help me.

So storm clouds raging, I for the first time had a temper tantrum at Buck's Rock. I ran to my quarters, punched the wall a few times, slammed some doors and went to bed early to avoid screaming at people I'd regret tomorrow.

Fruit of the moment: Amy's Gift

If you saw Equus, you'd find this funny.

Hey blogger fans.

Today, my t shirt was too tight for comfort. Super.

Also, I slept for one whole hour in the pub hammock. Amazing.

Also, I dealt with more printer issues. Period.

Also, I had a long conversation with Bob about how I'm finding the summer. In which I described my disappointment for the lack of Vee and Amanda. I also got a letter from Krispy and missed Coconut allot. I think Buck's Rock is missing Coconut. I feel I may have pinpointed the exact thing missing from my 2010 summer. Yeah.

Also, there was a gigantic downpour and I ran around in the torrential rains laughing hysterically. For real.

Also, we had our third Dungeons and Dragons meeting. The result of which is we are still trapped inside the gaol, but found a hidden trap door, killed a creepy old dude who attacked the monk when he insulted him, and tore out his eyes to keep. We left it at that while we slept next to his burning body. True story.

Fruit of the Moment: I am an asteroid

Why do you think I'm walking this way?

Pub Breakfast number 2!

Running the camp loop was a crucial event this morning. Breakfast contained so much waffle that I nearly burst. In fact, I'm still busting at the seams right now. It was a good thing the kitchen had forgotten that half the Buck's Rock population was vegetarian today because I didn't need a scrap of food. Seriously; deep fried fish, chicken and beef were served on a stick for all three meals today and we again were left out in the cold without an option.

Oh, wait. I apologise. Our option was mixed vegetables.

And once again it was dessert for mains. Except of course for the wonderful breakfast Bob cooked up for us. Bob is awesome.

Pub had a busy day. I got two programs printed. Both GODSPELL and THE CLOWN SHOW. I like the CLOWN SHOW design better, and probably will enjoy the performance more too.

It's the second GODSPELL design I have done after this one. I never thought I'd be in the position where I would be forced into this, but here we are. Above is my response to the show. An abstract design that leaves you in the same state as if you were watching the show itself. WTF?

"The clown shop presents lady business." was so much more dun to do. Think 70's MOD. Think Rock Hudson & Dorris Day meets the REAL WIVES of New Jersey. Think ORANGE.

Oh, also, Pub got a hammock today. And it is the most amazing invention since the butter knife. I has so much happy right now.

I also had an offer today from Andrew and Emily to stay with them in Washington after camp. Sounded like awesome. I'm now in the stew that is thinking about it.

Godspell was predictably awful. But since I expected it to be, I funned it up by bringing a tambourine to clap with and enjoying how illogical the whole show is/the pretty lights. Also, The kids were pretty good at singing. Also, props goes to the guy who played Judas (The only guy in the musical). So it wasn't unbearable but I still left at half time. Totally converted to the ways of the lord. I AM SAVED!

Fruit of the Moment: Forbidden Frappes

What the hell is this?

I was so gosh darn tired this morning, let me tell you.

It was more than a massive effort to get myself down to breakfast. I arrived RIGHT on 8am. Possibly, the latest I have ever arrived for breakfast.

Meanwhile, Pub got real slow today. Not much could advance forward until information came in and I had massive printing issues with toner not setting to the paper. Streaks and lines and smudges over multiple print outs equals not a very fun morning.

So, in general it turned out to be a bit of a nothing day, where I once again ate too much and got to do office duty. Which I'm at now.

We even had to shut down Pub for the first time this summer because of looming thunderstorms threatening to fry our sever/computer equipment. Yeah. The storms here are that epic. Nothing had happened yet, though I'm told the golf ball hail is arriving shortly.

Its an often occurrence that I find out when people are talking nastily about me behind my back. I don't know why peeps tell me when it happens, but people do. I often don't mind nasty comments directed my way but I find it harder to look the nasty party in the face. So whatever. Who gives a hoot about pleasing everyone anyway?

Fruit of the Moment: DINO NUGGETS!

Viagra and condoms in the same game

This morning was a good morning to run to my hearts content. The loop around camp did nicely and put me in the best mood.

I decided since I was 40 minutes early for breakfast to design a shop t-shirt for set shop. Seeing as though they don't have time to even visit meals, its the least I could do. Last year, the Set shop had a "practicing safe set" t shirt. I considered a similar pun, when it occurred to me that they had lost a member of the crew due to their (what the French call) incompetence.

So a tongue and cheek I SURVIVED SET t shirt fit the bill nicely. Paired with a chainsaw and the font from the EVIL DEAD logo, and you got yourselves a keeper. They were hopefully tickled pink.

Pub had another busy day, although it was more productive than chaotic I found. I zoomed through several looming programs including Dance, Clown, Godspell...

Sarah QUILTY Dupuis came to me around lunch time with hope of a late notice program for this evening's camper recital. Originally a full colour print had been ordered, bust since it hadn't been completed by today I slapped together a one colour quirky fluro print above. I'm quite proud of it actually. Also, seeing as though two Pubbies were performing, how could I not help make a program for them? Both Olivia and Brian were awesome.

Tonight was our second round of Dungeons & Dragons. It was an epic 2 hour session which had our party finding the over turned prisoner carts just outside the gaol. More sinister than originally thought, the goal is now abandoned and apparently haunted. Our group is currently locked inside the main building freaking out with weird ghost shit happening everywhere and an old man laughing at us from the outside informing us casually of our impending doom. Rodger was great at creeping the whole group out too. Lots of whispering and tapping of shoulders and creepy hands.

Fruit of the moment: Gelatin Oh NOES!

Who the FUCK put the Backboard in the scrapheap?

So, not much sleep was had this morning.

I did however manage to stick to my regular routine of 7am shower and heading for 8am breakfast by 7:25.

It was a ferocious day in Pub. There was so much last minute work to do it was like chaos on steroids. And most of it was magnified because the printer was slow, our printer Ian kept asking for plates and our Junior Councilor Leslie couldn't keep up with the new and excitingly boring world of plating. Its the small things that only come with plenty of experience of plating that got her stumped. It was a shame because everyone else in Pub had an awesome outside-board-game afternoon. I didn't mind staying inside the shop working in sweltering heat. I feel on reflection however I should have sent Leslie outside to join in.

Today was also a day of Cameron McFee! Astonishingly I got to hold a few conversations with the most awesome man at Buck's Rock. This, I assure you is usually the most difficult thing to accomplish. As head of Set shop, Cam never sleeps and never stops working. Its almost a miracle he never collapses. Especially when his set crew keep dropping off one by one like flies. When I feel like I'm overworked, I generally think of how hard Mcfee has it.

I sucked hard at clown impro night. Nothing was coming to mind. I kept drawing blanks when it came around to my turn, it was most likely the lack of sleep and being zoned out for the whole day.

I also betrayed an amazing actress when I saw her star as Rosencrantz (or was that Guildenstern?) In the very slick production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The performance was inside the Actor's Studio, and boy did it get hot in there.

When at around 10pm I started to feel like I couldn't stay awake at the wheel, I suddenly felt overly stupid for choosing the front row. A very unfortunate result of which is now Zoe is never speaking to me again. She was amazing. I just was so exhausted and with the heat? I'm so embarrassed for doing what appeared to be the nodding-off-dance-of-boredom its not even funny. I just don't know what to do.

As a side note, I must have been in a funny mood yesterday. I have resolved not to ask straight members of staff out on a date for reasons of sanity.

Fruit of the Moment: Rudely Opened Graham Crackers.

You don’t know how nuts until it’s too late

Its my day off. So, logically I stayed on campus to participate in the following super fun activities:

a) Finally cracking, I stopped the insanity that was my vegan/raw diet. By eating the muffin. And the poptarts and the cookie. I love non-raw food and plan to indulge in more.
b) I furthermore created over 80 posters for the set of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.
c) Also, with some spare hours I completed my print exchange. Each year, you sign up to make 50 prints of the same artwork and swap them around in a group so that you get 50 unique artworks on a theme. It’s kinda neat. My example is above.

The heat today sucked a little and by the end of the day people were still surprised I hadn’t left camp on my day off. But here’s how I see it:

• I haven’t got a car, so I cant drive anywhere of use.
• New Milford is pretty dull and once you do a day of New Milford, you’ve pretty much seen everything.
• I can’t walk into town for a movie because I’ve seen them all. So, there’s no real point.

Kenny and Carson got Photo Rebecca and I to go with them to SALSA this evening instead of JEWISH THANKSGIVING dinner. Every friday night is Jewish Thanksgiving. There's turkey and cranberry sauce and meh-ness. Unfortunately, the amazing Mexican restaurant in town was booked out. So, Royal Buffet it was. Especially when Kenny got really excited about Scorpion Bowls.

A Scorpion Bowl turned out to be a cocktail the size of a large watermellon, with a volcano in the middle on fire. Everyone decided to have their own flaming volcano. Hence, I had my first experience of driving on American Roads on the way home. This epic event coincided with my first ever experience driving a van. So it was kinda crazy. Driving a massive vehicle on the wrong side of the road with the break and go faster pedals switched over. It took me a while to adjust.

Tonight we had to suffer through a staff meeting. It was then I realized why everyone was so keen to get wasted beforehand.

Also, I’m thinking of asking a staff member out on a date. You know, because I like making a fool of myself. I was thinking coffee.

Fruit of the Moment: Bananas in Blood

Are you a hypercondriac?

So this RAW diet is awful. I'm super dooper weak.

As in 'it-takes-effort-to-type-these-words-for-you' weak.

The problem may be that I also gave up coffee. This has been giving me splitting headaches all day. Or maybe its the lime that I may have contracted. I found a red disc on my ankle with a red spot in the middle. Im keeping an eye on it for tomorrow.

Pub was amazingly busy today. I was attending to everyone's projects but my own. Plating and editing and printing and adjusting and fixing the printer and paper jamming and such.

Plus I must have a spider in my bed because I keep getting bitten with those vampire bite marks all over my legs.

When it came time for close of shop, I had all of three spoonfuls of salad before jotting off to my room to sleep off the tiredness. I was preparing for the midnight screening of INCEPTION. Which was the matrix sequel I always wanted. Not much eye candy tho. There must have been at least 30 staff members at the Danbury cinema. Which is kinda cool.

Fruit of the Moment: Pepper Poppers

That was me being max I hoped it worked

Today I started my RAW food diet. Nothing cooked for a week. I was more enthusiastic about this at 7am than 7pm, but whatever. Currently, I have a blueberry muffing calling to me from the Pub fridge. It is saying things like "I am delicious" and "why are you neglecting me?". I am staying strong to the diet and hope to feel better next Tuesday when this whole shebang is over.

To clear things up, the american summer camp food plan has not been agreeing with me. And much pain has been had so far. The weight gain side effect is in additional to this, but mostly it is my upset innards that have gotten me to the need for some cleansing.

Pub was mostly dull today. I got a few things done, but the internet was annoyingly down for most of the day. Above is a ROVE live inspired logo for the dance show.

Distractedly, I was looking forward to tonight's performance of EQUUS. While I definitely enjoyed CURIOUS SAVAGE more so, I have to admit the choice was ballsy. And the set was mind blowing. Even though when the stage split apart at half time and audiences were told to cram into the tiny space forcing around 20% of us to stand craning our necks in the back row. It was a beautiful 180 degree space. Brava.

The entrance of the characters screamed of VIEWPOINTS. I frigin' LOVE Viewpoints. But the acting method gradually wavered throughout the performance, which is a shame.

The EPICLY INFAMOUS "naked" scene was handled with skin coloured boxer shorts. Which is still pretty darn awkward. Especially when the actor was stripping onstage in silence. Props to the kid who did it. I mean, its not like a normal theatre where you never see the audience again. He's going to be at breakfast tomorrow. And the whole summer. I could never handle that sort of shit.

Most importantly however, Drew the Set designer loved my program design. Which was significant to me since I used his original sketches in its construction. I hope he and Cam and [insert others who put in over time] get the 12 hours sleep they deserve.

Fruit of the Moment: Iodized Table Salt

Shut up you look sexy; Sit down

Epic day.

Epic Program. Epic Eating. Epic still not playing Dungeons and Dragons. Epic Internet Fails. Epic mosquito bites.

My run this morning was ran at half capacity. The French Toast that followed was awfully delicious but at the same time awful.

We had our pub lunch today and Emma found peace with Three Brothers. My “meal” which was a waffle and cream cheese icing. Call that a meal if you will, was sprinkled in chocolate and followed by a slice of cheesecake.

I think it is time that someone took me by the hand and forced me into a salad diet. Saddie is doing the raw food diet for the week. Maybe I should see if I can last a week on raw foods.
Raw foods are anything uncooked. Fruits and Salads and grains and nuts are all on the menu. Cheese and Milk and Butter and Desserts and anything cooked is out. Lets try this. For real. I gotta do something because I’m just eating crap all day and I really want it to stop. One week. I’ll give myself coffee.

Tonight was board game night in Pub. Amy, Brian, Spencer and Bex all gathered round the $5 Smartass board to battle it out trivia style.

Brian being the youngest beat us all with his insanely powerful pool of general knowledge. Basically, you’d want this guy as your millionaire phone a friend or Trivial Pursuit partner.

Smartass.

Happy Birthday Leila. May the Power of the Birthday be strong with you.

Fruit of the Moment: 24 Value Pack o’ Poptarts

Are you listening to this? Because this is important.

Last night, the stench in my room when I got home was so foul that I couldn’t bring myself to be in there for more than 30 second periods.

It seems my roommate finds not showering before bed acceptable. Shame.

Long story short, I used the common room couch as a bed and woke up worried I’d missed the gong. Also I woke up lonely. It felt really good to get a long e-letter from a nameless friend. Just what the doctor needed.

HAPPY MOUSTACHE MONDAY!
The one happy day of the year where all staff get to look like creepy, creepy people.

Breakfast was cautiously small this morning. One bowl of oatmeal was all it took to get me full. Come lunchtime, three pizzas were not enough to feed my hunger. So I really cant win in this place.

The Pub buttons arrived in the mail today! And Emma returned. I feel however Emma returning from Las Vegas far more important. I know this because I gave someone welcoming back to Emma a button and there was this pause in which I realized I had interrupted and it was rude and I do this all the time. Interrupt people when I’m over excited about something.

In any case, Emma back. Buttons good.

Tonight was Office assist. From 2pm onwards, we lost the internets. Apparently It’s back on now, but I cant access it in Pub. So I’m typing away in Word. The lack of internets made me take a laptop and my collection of DVDs to the office as Spencer and I had ourselves a movie. Law Abiding Citizen was on the menu. As was a thousand interruptions from concerned parents who were afraid their little one was anxious about sleeping away from home. It’s kinda the only thing you do for Office assist. Take messages and talk to parents calling after hours.

Post Office duty was my second game of CATAN!

I discovered two very important rules tonight:
a) you can’t leave the robber on the same tile ever, he must be moved each turn. And
b) you can block someone’s longest road by placing a settlement in the middle of it.

I once again lost, but played a fairly awesome game. I got to 9 victory points.

Fruit of the Moment: Unexpected Venti Coffee Frappuccino

Isn’t it exciting hurting yourself?

It is a great feeling to wake up in the morning and take a run that you’ve been missing out on for the last few days due to lack of sleep. It’s even more amazing to have a running buddy along for the journey. Maintenance Monkey Stephan offered to buddy it up this morning at snack last night. This is great for two reasons: a) He’s fast and actually kept me focused on my pace and b) he won the New Milford 8 last year. I would like to have added that he’s a slice of nice on the eyes but that’s merely a cosmetic bonus.

The day seemed to fly past. Being a Sunday, shops opened an hour later and I had signed up to go witness Sweeney Todd at Barrington Stages. It was labeled as an evening activity and I was told a 6pm time slot that was workable when I signed up. This morning I found out it was a 2pm departure and a 3 hour bus trip. Bob was the most awesome boss evah when he took into consideration how late I stayed up for the other night in letting me take the additional shop hours off. This was further rationalized as I have accumulative hour breaks that I never take.

Sweeney was however, not worth the 3 hour bus trip. A little messy in direction and Sweeney himself seemed to fixate on a perverted sexual lust for Mrs. Lovett. Which is, of course totally against the point. In anycase, the cast was tight and amazing.

This evening was a planned D&D session but upon arrival at Radio, I discovered Roger had cancelled it. Dejected, I managed to continue onto late night snack where the topic of conversation turned to sexual frustration at camp. Turns out there’s more than me in this boat. And as one guy put it: after 48 hours if you’re not paired off with anyone its two months of solitude.

The Pub Internet is once again failing me so; yay.

Fruit of the Moment: My Sugar

I'm in puberty, I'm perverted.

Blind Panic.

Utter chaos.

4:30am is the time I killed Pub. The laser printer suffered the same fate as two days ago with the dead fuser. Now I know the printer is cursed. CURSED I SAY!

I left Bob and Ian all the notes I could think of incase I took Bob up on his offer of sleeping in after staying up to plate all that work. However with all the stress, I couldn't muster more than 2 hours of restless sleep before surrendering and heading down to breakfast.

Once again, I skipped my run. Not fairing so well.

The weather today made me homesick. Cool temperatures and lots of rain was the order of the atmosphere. I got caught in costume shed when the first drops hit. I managed to stay until the costume girls fashioned me a beautiful garbage bag raincoat with the words "I ♥ Costume" on the front and "Kenney 2010" on the back.

Without a printer and without a means to print the reverse of tonight's Curious Savage program, I was forced into using the office photocopier to make up the 150 quota for the evening. They weren't in chocolate brown ink as originally planned, but when we fix the printers this coming Wednesday we shall complete them properly.

Tonight after a really cool staff improv session with the Clown shop, I checked out the first play for the Buck's Rock 2010 season.

Tamara presented a beautiful play: The Curious Savage. Age appropriate, witty, dramatic and engaging peice presented with the panache of a beautiful set. I walked in mesmerized and left moved. Set Designer Drew and Construction Team headed by Mr McFee have just raised the bar this summer for more gorgeous work to follow.

Fruit of the Moment: En Gong Guarden; Pandora's Revenge

He went home for a "family emergency"

A very long day indeed.

Currently I am sitting at my Pub desk after printing 20 full colour pages. This, for those of us playing at home consists of printing four colour separations for each page. I get out four peices of plate plastic and print the separations one by one until CYAN, MAGENTA, YELLOW and BLACK are all done. These plates also need to be heat set by running them all through the printed three times to seal the toner on the plastic. Thats 80 pages!?

Kenny here is posing in four colour plates. When you run the plate through the press, the cyan ink will stick to the black toner on the cyan plate and then stamp onto the paper. When all four inks have been pressed onto the page, the result is below.

This morning was my day off.

I got to go into town with Kate and do normal things like eat Poptarts, shop at Walmart, check out Goodwill/salvos and get a haircut. Starbucks as I recall was also involved on our walk from Walmart to New Milford town square.

Kate and I eventually got to see the double feature Despicable Me and Eclipse. During the break between features, I amused myself with a peppermint iced coffee and a visit to the bank so I could activate my american key card I received in the mail after arriving home last year.

We are both very happy that Eclipse came second. It was amazingly amazing. I feel the need to gush on about Rob Paterson until sunrise. Also I found the engagement ring to be quite suitable when he explained where it had come from. What perhaps made the movie amazing for me was the book marks of the exact same conversation with a different result due to the content between the repeat. beautiful cinematography and awesome Return.

Its almost 4am. I gotta get me some sleep.

Fruit of the Moment: Strawberry Champagne Cookie

Usually you can tell if a 15 year old is underage

Not much more to report upon folks.

Emma left today for Vegas. Bob left for his home. Ian left for a camping trip to god knows where and I'm officially living it up on my first day off as of around 5 hours ago.

Breakfast was deliciously awesome. Custardy French Toastness rocked my breakfast boat for sure.

The printer dude from Rush came in and upgraded our printer from "dead" to "repairable". Which is, not that inspiring I guess. But better than nothing.

Our paper order came in today. Half of our paper order. All 27 glorious boxes of card, text and Print stock. Seeing as though 2000 pages can fit inside one box, thats allot of paper.

I finally saw Toy Story Three and laughed and cried and found it to be not one of pixar's finest moments, but worthy of my $11.50 Adult charge. Turns out iI was once again the third wheel on a date to the movies. I went into town with Kate and Steven, not knowing they were an item until after we returned to Buck's Rock and everyone commented on the third wheel nature of the date.

And LATER this evening was the opener of our BR Dungeons and Dragons run. Its exciting to find new people to be a Bard with. Climbing trees and hiding when the monsters attack, followed by a healthy dose of singing in victory. Our Party had began to investigate how a party of 7 guards and x number of prisoners were attacked by the side of the river mere miles away from the penitentiary they were being transferred to. It has been two weeks since either guard or prisoner were seen, and most people suspect giants. On route to investigate the scene of the crime, we were infiltrated by three ill-tempered mutated giant toucans. Within the encounter, i managed to successfully hide, silently move towards trees and scale them for the duration.

Fruit of the moment: Choice of Charity

Kiss me Kate? I mean; hello?!

The heatness that was hot of today was so hot that I am still heating in hotness.

I tried to eat like a sane adult today. This failed. By around 6pm at dinner time when, for the third night in a row there was no vegetarian option, I caved in and opted for like 5 slices of cake. The slices here are like the size of a $1 postage stamp. So it was like eating a normal piece of cake. I shit you not. Also the 4 bowls of fruit loops at 10pm snack did not help in any way.

The amazing Mickey Morris approved Pub's $4000 paper order this afternoon after we purged the shop last year of all our old paper stock ranging all the way back to the 70's. This year was always going to be an expensive paper year. But when I discovered we were 500 pages short of a full run of Black card for the Equus program, I had a sad. A very big sad. More sad than when the printer died in the ass today leaving the whole shop crippled. Crippled in 38 degree heat.

The moral of the story is that I did my research online and I found a company that could deliver the extra black paper needed by Tuesday. With a small appeal to Laura and Mickey, I had no more sad. I had happy. So I made the above artist's interpretation of what the program will look like.

Below is the file I am actually working with. For those of us playing at home, the pink lines represents the magenta plate while the black lines are the black plate. Both plates will be printed in silver using opposite edges for grips and bleeds to give the illusion of full bleed.

I was trying to use line drawings of horse heads to simulate a creepy brain/vein/tessellating motif.

This evening I was gaming up for more CATAN, but failed to start a game as everyone was too busy. After this, I did not has a sad because I has BLACK PAPER! Horay for Black Paper. Also, Drew is a dirty liar who wears pirate pants.

Fruit of the Moment: Gangsta

D&D tonite after put to bed?

Today I had no chance of survival. With the 100 degree fahrenheit heat and the Pub shop computers and the lack of sleep thanks to an over-enthusiastic game of CATAN and all the potatoes I ate, it was no wonder that bed time for me was 5:30pm.

The Pub garden played host to the 2nd Yearbook meeting of 2010. The 2nd meeting for those of us playing at home is the big theme decider. I went into the meeting with one theme and came out supporting another. Its not often that my mind can be swayed, but somehow it was achieved.

Originally, I was after a Heros & Villains / Comic Book theme. It would have been super happy fun easy to get campers involved in layout with little chance of it turning into an epic battle of difficultness. I'm all about continuity and flow. If pages don't connect for me, it's something I lose sleep over. In anycase, comic book would have both been easy to represent on the page and print on the offset presses we have.

Bob was the catalyst of change in this instance. He suggested Garden as the theme. Carson and Kenny Murphy have been re-landscaping the pub garden and Bob thought it could be a good tribute to its opening. Garden instantly opened up a world of enthusiasm. Paradise; the original Eden; Buck's Rock. Campers as seeds, waiting to grow. Thorns and weeds and twisted vines.

Im quite excited about the theme. Although upon reflection it may turn into a hideous mish mesh of non sequitur connecting pages if i'm not careful about monitoring the document.

I had planned to stop eating like a 12 year old on Monday, but as it turns out I will give it my best shot tomorrow. After skipping my first Buck's Rock meal of the summer tonight. Sleep will be welcomed. Very much so.

Fruit of the Moment: 6 month anniversary

I'm an acquired taste

Run Run Run.

Fat Fat Fat.

There is definitely not a balance between the amounts of food and time for exercise at Buck's Rock.

Its okay because realistically I doubt there is anyone at camp this year who would be superficial enough to judge any of my resulting weight gain. But then again, there is returning home to consider.

Today I desperately wanted to start the program for Equus. I've got this fabulous four side 2 colour bleed idea which I REALLY want to experiment with. However, shitty things kept on getting in the way.

The heat for one. It was close to 34 degrees on the old thermometer and hot as heck. And coupled with a rushed plating job for a full colour print book, things got a little hectic in Pub. My right hand toenail even decided to half fall off today. Leaving me with half a nail. I shall spare you all pictures.

My first office assist was this evening and I managed to not screw up entirely. I was however a little hesitant when a 50 year old "family friend" signed a camper out over night. I'm totally checking up on that one tomorrow regardless of signed permissions or not.

10pm snack was amazing. Not only did the wonderful kitchen staff provide me with a happiness bowl of granola cereal upon my distress of the lack of said granola, but I also unleashed the AMAZING POWERS OF CATAN. My Settlers of Catan Board game arrived in the mail yesterday and I've been hungry to play ever since. Two new CATAN peoples joined the ranks as I once again lost the battle.

Fruit of the Moment: Birthday Twins

Despite What People Say About Naked Horses

5:30am was the time my alarm was set to ring. Fortunately, my very tiredness kept me asleep until 6:42am. Bob has asked I meet him at 6:45am for a trip to the flea markets and the whirlwind that followed my sleep-in woke my bunk buddy who, from the look of it had a very rough night out "bowling".

"Bowling" is the code term we camp councilors use for all-night-binge-drinking.

The flea markets were long. 7am through till 9:30am was a little overkill for me. I did manage to spend $19US. I bought doll house chairs for Emma and Marie, a Jerry McGuire Video for Clown shop, A GIANT oversized novelty children's puzzle and a new board game for PUB.

Pub was productive. We had our first program printed and approved. YAY for Josh. Who approved it. And YAY for Ian who printed it. We managed to go with chocolate brown and RUBINE RED! Rubine Red for those of us not playing at home is the same colour that plagued my every waking moment at GAZAL. I TOTALLY know what pantone colour it is now :)

More importantly, the very attractive and awesome Kenny took his car out for a Starbucks Coffee Run at around 3pm. I had decreed that 37 degrees warranted one less staff member in the shop.

After dinner I decided to avoid any involvement in the Diversity Day music performance, favoring open shop night for Pub. Apparently, the founder of Buck's Rock was an Austrian who fled Germany during the 2nd world war after being captured by the Gestapo for airing an anti Hitler radio show. He came to America and started Buck's Rock refusing to celebrate any nation pride holidays. Amazing man Ernst was.

Tomorrow I look forward to a) shaving and b) having time to wash my hair.

Fruit of the Moment: American Flag Rainbow Icing

When I went to Cancún this winter, they had some of these things

Today was a day for running. But post the three miles of loopage, I was done for. That was it. I wanted to crawl up and get back to sleep.

I of course had made arrangements with Spencer the night before to have our 7:30am breakfast, which I thoroughly enjoyed. What I enjoy about breakfasts are the long periods of time where I can be seated, watching both staff and campers hurry about their business. It's the only time of the day where I can afford to sit and think calmly. Also its one of the only times during the day where I feel I'm allowed to converse with performing arts staff.

Pub was a little slow. All our CITs were out on their annual out-of-camp trip and Emma had taken them. With very little direction and projects, there was not much to achieve. Lucky I got to hang with all the cool Pubbies who make my Buck's Rock day worth living.

The water at Buck's Rock stopped working at around 11am. The water tank broke and we were left without toilets, showers or means of cooking for 500 people. Dinner was a little haphazard, but nice. The water has since been repaired and rerouted.

Tonight, I performed in the Staff on Stage concert with four other people in an impromptu vocal ensemble. I felt a little down about it. We all still had our sheet music and didn't really have the proper amount of time to rehearse. I figured since The Arcadians pulled the same song together in a few hours, I could in a week. Oh well. It was cute but I was tired and missed most of my harmonies. And worst of all, the campers up the back heckled me for not having Barnaby on stage.

I left the show almost immediately. We are supposed to go to the local bar tonight as a staff but I definitely need allot of sleep. I'll be sad about missing out on the fun. The game is to guess who has a fake ID and who has a real ID. Have fun Buck's Rock Staff. Im off to the lea markets tomorrow morning at 6:30am.

Fruit of the Moment: The Thing with the Stuff and the Things

I feel like I was better at this with smaller hands

Last night I fell into the gravitational pull of a Clown party vortex.

I understood the fact they were speaking English for most of the time, however it was fascinating to observe such a unique vernacular. It was a blend of old scripts, stand up routines, in jokes and returning staff general knowledge.

After another 3am night out, I couldn't stomach a 6am run. So, I made my way to Publications for the first Pub Breakfast of 2010. I have been waiting for Bob's famous waffles all year long. And it was certainly worth the wait. We also had this amazing sugar encrusted whipped cream, blueberries and irish butter toast.

I had several Theatre assistant directors come to Pub today to organise their programs. It was an onslaught and due to the lack of internet all day. One such new program was for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The director wanted a coin on the edge about to fall with a hand coming to smash it. Above is the draft I'm working with. I started working with a digital manipulation of a coin from Google, when one of my many trips top the bathroom today from far too much coffee inspired me to visit the metals shop and make my own coin from scratch. Poorly I might add. I kept breaking the saw blades I used to cut the coper into the circular shape you see above. I even hammered all the individual letters too. After a few photographs of the coin wedged into the wooden floor boards of pub; voila.

Once again, much food was consumed but its just a simple fact of camp. Unavoidable. Like my expanding waist.

Fruit of the Moment: Seeded Risotto Rissoles

So, you like sugar huh?

I felt much better for running the 3 mile loop this morning. Got stuck between two oncoming cars at about the half way mark, but avoided any hit and run scenarios.

I had forgotten that I spent my breakfasts last year with Spencer from 7:30 onwards. Unfortunately, Spencer HAD remembered and was waiting for me from 7:30 at the dining hall. He forgave me... just. The campers who arrived on the breakfast gong formed a line that would rival the great wall of China. A very rare occurrence for breakfast I assure you. Its either due to first day excitement OR a camp full of early risers. Please let it be excitement.

Pub lost the internet today, and we felt a little useless when campers kept turning away when they couldn't use it. Thankfully, The true Pubbies stuck with us (and more importantly) we had our new delicious printer delivered with streak free laser printing awesomeness.

Rebecca and I kept our cookie pact until of course dinner, when the dessert was a gooey home baked cookie. Then I had three. so, err.. whatever. It was awesome.

I got some heavy program stuff done and above are two drafts for the 8 day show; The Curious Savage. I like the one of the left the best.

If you're interested in following Pub's online HAPPY HOUR BLOG, you should do so. Carson and I are running writing and web comics every day.

At dinner, I got discussing the social situation with Max, who pointed out a new potential tribe member to me. I hadn't considered the guy he suggested on my potential queerbies list, so i'm off to investigate. I'm actually a little hopeful I turn out to be the only gay in the village. That would be kinda a cool claim to make for 2010. Especially for a creative arts camp.

Fruit of the Moment: Breakfast Request

Can you make me into an animal?

Camper arrival.

The missing elements of Bucks Rock have arrived and are currently eating their welcome home ice creams before put to bed.

Today I ate too much again and I didn't get any exercise in thanks to a lack of sleep last night. Today, being the first Wednesday was also meant to be the start of Wife Beater Wednesday but I chickened out of wearing a singlet all day.

Campers were meant to check out Pub today, however not many turned up. Photo was swamped out with guests but all the peeps we received were the returning pub-bies.

And let me say how amazingly awesome it was to see all the kids I had worked with last year grown inches and feet taller with broader shoulders or stretched limbs or longer hair or shorter hair. It was such a beautiful day of meetings.

Pub therefore was rendered pointless without Emma who turned her hand to the annual trunk and traffic crew for the day. I basically accomplished nothing save for advertisement and greeting people who ventured through the shop.

This evening was the orientation video, which I featured briefly in. Which is more than not at all last year.

Bex and I made a cookie pact this afternoon. No cookies for good. They're not that nice anyway.

Fruit of the Moment: second egg breakfast