Campers or Counselors, that is the Question.

This week I embarked on a journey of no return. A 14 hour bus ride with about 52 high school students- and no I didn't get to sit in the front in the plush seat with the pull out table like my 9th grade campers did- I did, however, get to separate boys and girls from "purpling" therefore listening to "99 bottles of beer on the wall.." (and now that I'm actually thinking about it in a state of non-deliriousness, that isn't exactly appropriate for a high school church group...but oh well?) and other loud noises.

FYI: purpling: a mix of red (girls) and blue (boys). Otherwise known as "flirting". 

The most difficult part of stopping purpling was the action of "scolding" the students. I get the "HA, yeah right like I'm going to listen to you, you're just some annoying goody goody that's literally younger than me look".

My fellow counselors, Savannah, Madeline and I got the "What grade are you in" question eleven times- and yes, we absolutely tallied the occurrences up in our head over the week. The first day, we understood. We do look young and really are only a couple of years older than the oldest there so it's no surprise that we would be mistaken for maybe like 12th grade. But 10th? Seriously? I even brought another leader some medicine for one of his students passed along from his mom and he asked what grade I was in. I'm sorry, but why on Earth would I have narcotics for another kid if I was in high school? Really? Day 3 became the most questionable day. At that point, there had been 3 leader meetings so there wasn't much of an excuse anymore. We got asked 3 times on day 3. Even students on the ride home asked Savannah if she was her 11th grade brother's younger sister. They weren't joking either. Like I know we don't have makeup on or whatever but does our face really say: "hey look at me I'm 14"?


The bus ride there consisted of about 18 boys doing as they pleased and girls deciding that they would walk to the back and stay back there as long as their hearts so desired. Within the first 10 minutes of the bus ride, a freshman boy looked at me and said, "Ma'am, I broke my tooth." My thoughts: Uhm I'm sorry but, first- how do you know I'm a leader? Second- Uh of all times why does someone know I'm a leader? The kid broke "shattered" his tooth on a skittle. He was fine but really? So began the nicknames- Skittle kid and tape kid. Tape kid was a boy who decided to tape his entire face for the last hour of the ride there just because some kid told him he wouldn't do it. A challenge at its finest.

Meeting the girls for the first time was extremely uncomfortable for me. Maybe I'm exaggerating when I say that it was awkward but I don't think I am. When we finally arrived in Destin, my co-leader, Savannah and I, lost our students. We searched and searched for about 20 minutes until we finally spotting them walking down the street without their luggage. Our girls also were the only ones not informed that an event was postponed therefore showing up and having to be told by other leaders. We definitely should win the MVP counselors award if there is one.

I'm often forgotten. I'm not sure why but literally every time I've met someone this summer they act like they have never met me- even if we did spend 30 minutes talking to one another. Whatever, that's cool- I guess I just have a good memory? Yeah that's it. This happened twice this week. First, I saw a kid I met the first night of college ministry. I decided to say, "hey we met that one time but I'm Bailey by the way." Response: "No actually I've never met you in my life so that's awkward." Okay maybe that's a little dramatic but he might as well have said that. The same guy also didn't remember his leader from a 2 week long mission trip so there's that. The second time this happened was worse. I had literally met this kid a week before camp and we ate across from each other and bowled on the same team. He is a part of the eleven that mistook me for a high schooler. Cool.


This week was so awkward we caught on to a hand sign our new friend Franny showed us.

  

There are many more awkward occurrences that happened throughout the week, but I wouldn't want to bore you or cause yet another awkward occurrence in my life by someone reading the blog that shouldn't be that's in it because uhhhh that's super awk.

 

Soccer Boy

So there's been a hot guy playing soccer across the street at the park for about 2 weeks now- my aunt and uncle have been making jokes about how my "boyfriend" was outside again today.

It's been hard to get a close up of the guy- but he always plays with his shirt off and the only thing I can tell you is he is pale (not in a bad way- I know this sounds contradictory) and has brown hair.

Anyway- he was out tonight around the same time I decided to go on a run (I promise this wasn't on purpose even though runs are rare for me these days...Texas heat I promise...). My cousins rode their bikes as a I ran around the circle. Fun fact- if you run around it 9 times it's a 5K.

Soccer boy- yeah we'll call him soccer boy- was being  really sweet playing soccer with a bunch of kids. Ages ranged anywhere from 7 to 13. I told my cousin, McCall, to go play with the kids and soccer boy to "check him out" and that I would come over in 5 minutes. I finished my mile (yes mile, I know pathetic, but hey at least I did one!) and headed over to "see what McCall was up to. Yep, I traded in the rest of my workout for a boy. I promise I had originally intended on running more later.

I joined in on the game during a water break so soccer boy introduced himself. We did the casual greeting and gathering of information- where we were from, if we lived close to the park, why each of us were here for the summer and finally- who we lived with.

I explained that I was living with my aunt, uncle and cousins, while I worked at a dental practice in Plano as a marketing intern. It was his turn... "I live with my son during the summertime". Wait. I'm sorry- your what? Your son?? Awkward.  "He's the one on the tire swing," soccer "boy" said as he pointed in that direction. I hid my shock and my cousin gleamed at his son, telling me later about how cute she thought he was.

So that was that. I couldn't exactly back out of the game, so I invited my cousin Sonny over to play too and we stayed for a little while. Of course, not 5 minutes in to the game- I totally wiped out- awesome. 

Battle wounds. 

How awkward can this night get? Hey- at least I wasn't trying to impress him at this point.

No Exs from Texas...

except maybe a pretend one in 5th or 6th grade when I went to a ghetto middle school in Killeen.

I really do feel like I don't have to say much more about how awkward my life is, but this is just too good.

I call my family on July 2nd and my Dad says, "Guess what! We got a surprise for you and Chance!" Thinking to myself.. hmm wonder what that could be. "We bought two kayaks!" Thoughts: Uh uh uh

My parents then explain that they've been thinking about this for a while now and that they're taking it with them to the beach. Were going to the beach in a few weeks in Florida so for a second that's what I thought they were talking about. Then I realized they were probably going sooner and got really sad when I thought they were going to Hilton Head for the 4th without me. They then exclaimed, "Oh.. we didn't tell you? Were going to the Violette's (ex bf's family) beach house!" Yep my family doesn't tell me anything. A couple of weeks before my Dad had surgery on his knee and I didn't find out until I received this text from my Mom, "Dad just got out of surgery, he's doing great!" I had no words but was also not surprised.  The families are still great friends which is really great, just seems super awkward from the outside world. It definitely can be in ways...

I asked Jamie to fill me in on the trip as it went a long for blogging entertainment.

-My brother and Jamie were never all that close, so that was probably one of the more awkward situations. Jamie said they went kayaking alone and had lots of solid "bonding" time.
-The fact that our moms still FREAK OUT when they see each other- so close to tears...
-That awkward moment when the families were watching the NYC fireworks show on t.v. and asked Jamie if he had ever been to NYC. He went with us three years ago around Christmas time...

Then there's the fact that I resorted to texting him to reach my parents because they wouldn't answer their phones, like what is my life?

Chance also decided to text me repeatedly teasing me and taking full advantage of the situation at hand. PERFECT little-brother material. He also pulled a big no-no. He called both Jamie and I out for being Snapchat "best friends". That's just something that you don't talk about. I could almost write a whole new blog on just that and the level of awkwardness that it falls under. The worst part of the recent Snapchat updates is that now you can simply click and see best friends instead of waiting for Safari to upload. This motivates people to creep on their Snapchat friends to see who snapchats who the most- not gonna lie, I do it too. And it's totally okay if you do- they put it out there! However- it's an unspoken rule to not talk about it (give or take certain situations). Also, you just look like a stalker if you do bring it up- so ha, Chance.

A laughable moment for me against Chance:
-That time Memom, Jamie's grandma, hugged Chance goodbye and pulled his pants up as she hugged him, muwahahahah.

But I thought all my Exs lived in Texas?

My Mom, Dad and brother, living in North Carolina went to the beach for the 4th of July with my ex-boyfriend, his sister and his parents. Nuff' said.

Inside Office Jokes

You know those awkward things you tend to chuckle at in the office? If you have a desk job you'll understand what I'm talking about.

Those "oh, crap" I lost my sharpie cap moments- this is for you Yasamin. It's awful when you lose a pen cap, especially one that came from your purse because you can just see it now: the "no lid" pin drawing scribbles all over your purse- similar to the drawing your 5 year old cousin made you yesterday. Let's blame it on him- maybe Mom will get you a new purse. But- it's even worse when it's the cap to a sharpie. There's no going back on this one. Not only the Sharpie draw all over everything, including the cute new dress you bought at J Crew yesterday as you try and dodge it as it falls off of your desk- but it will also dry out. There goes 1 of 3 of the sharpies I purchased in the EIGHT dollar pack because sharpies are expensive. So, when you lose your pen cap, be thankful it wasn't a sharpie.

Those "inside joke" moments you have with yourself (and maybe your family if you end up sharing these moments with them). For me, it's office nicknames. During the first week of work, I needed a way to remember names and a way to explain my day to my aunt and uncle. Here's what I came up with:

-Kardash/Kardashian- a really sweet girl that reminds me of Kim.
-Purple People Eater- this reference isn't because she's a little bigger although it might seem that way... it's mostly because the first day I was working my aunt saw her and deemed her PPE after observing her choice of scrubs, all purple.
-Giraffe- the really tall receptionist that I like a lot. I like giraffes I guess, so it works out.
-Gossip Girl- every office has one, self-explanatory.

Those "inside moments" you have with other people at the office that really no one else would understand. For example, PRAISE JESUS the scan pile is down and it never has been before OMG. People might understand the principle of the matter but no one can truly understand the feeling of accomplishment the scanner person feels.

Other inside moments could be those "dang it Dentrix" ones. That system everyone at your office knows so well because they live and breathe it 8 hours a day. No one else but you and your co-workers will ever understand the frustration that comes with searching a name in the system by birthday. *BONDING Y'ALL*.

Those moments people that didn't work there WOULD understand. Like that time- oh wait just kidding the FIVE times- that purple people eater has asked if I purposely matched my nail polish to my outfit for the day. UHM NO my nail polish is peeling actually, so that doesn't make any sense.

Everyone has those office moments, some are awkward, some are frustrating and some are just plain and simple.

Online class buddies *4 lyf*

Online classes are almost more awkward then group projects at non-virtual school...almost.

The only thing standing between making it more awkward is the computer you can hide behind, and in my case, unfortunately my cell phone.

Why was I talking to people on my online class via text and calling instead of emails and discussion boards? Because I tried to be a nice person and help out a struggling Mexican guy confused (and I'm not gonna lie I was confused myself) about our project after a desperate email.

Jose Flores floresj3841@student.faytechcc.edu via blackboard.com	Jun 23 (8 days ago)
to

Hey there fellow Student, My name is Jose Flores, and i am somewhat lost in these instructions, but I am working right now on one of the Individual roles to complete this project,

this is my Cell phone #: 910-709-0884

PLEASE ... call me or Text me when you have time

i will be here waiting 

thank you

And so it began.

 

So I texted Jose about the project and instead of doing what a normal person would do and simply text back, he called me. I answered carefully, a tad confused and also slightly curious about what was waiting on the other line. According to Alert Carolina! Chapel Hill is currently underwater so I'm assuming we actually got cut off because it was storming.out..there... as Jose likes to say. 

I'm convinced his strange text style is due to a translation app, mostly because of the upside down question mark. 

 

I did this to myself. 

 

Jose attempted to call me to ask about the project on deadline day and I was at dinner with some friends so one of them picked up, pretending to be me and she acted as if it was too loud to hear him and hung up. He then texted me, I guess confused about who he was calling.

Another awkward part about online classes: No one knows the name I go by. I have to remember to use Merriam at all times or people will think that I am an imposter.

 

Judging by the failing grades I've gotten on all of the exams, on a scale of 1-10 how much do you think I care about this group project?

 

So... you've never emailed a teacher before?

This is when Jose asked me to BS citations- something that is actually really difficult when you didn't write the paper and slightly a risk to your academic career if you get in trouble for the "plagiarism" or uncited work. I went ahead and did it to get him off my back.

Instead of going to bed after submitting the project like a normal person would, he called me and asked me to look over it all, stating he "tried his absolute best". Jose, what's done is done. Begging goes on and on until I can't stop laughing and my aunt takes my phone, telling Jose that I have a bed time I need to attend to. He says he understands and the call is over- thank God.

 

Jose calls me the next day and proceeds to be buddy buddy with me about how he also has a bed time and asks me if I had gotten a chance to look over the project. NO. NO. NO. I hung up on him, oops sorry I'm not sorry- that's the difference between an online class and a regular one- you can hang up on it whenever you want.

"Sorry we got disconnected," an easy excuse since we had before. Given the grade I received on that exam, maybe I should have taken Jose up on his offer but why risk it? I wonder what happened to good ole' Armando on the exam this week.

Spin offs on Jose: