Goddess of Inept Cookery and other crazy shenanigans
Why, hello you. I have returned triumphant for a glorious three days in which I can sleep all night without insane housekeeping staff members talking for hours at a time in a lovely outdoor voice, cook for one person instead one hundred ninety, worry only about my own food preferences/intolerances and have AIR CONDITIONING.
Oh camp. You are so insane. And understaffed. Seriously. We were understaffed last year, and this year is so much worse for that. We currently have no dishwasher, both person and machine (my environmentalist heart cries every meal as almost two hundred styrofoam plates are sent to the dump), no laundry person, so few counsellors that some people were on their own with twelve campers, and only the bare minimum of housekeeping and kitchen staff. It's inSANE. But also infinitely better than last year because all of the people who are there are dedicated and fabulous. If it wasn't for the mad amounts of work required, I'd never want to leave.
A brief rundown on this year's kitchen staff, because I am badly needing a shower and sleep:
- Lindsay, the head cook. Utterly, completely, stark raving mad. I love her intensely. It's frightening how similar we are, actually, in terms of food and cooking, interests, music, and sense of humour. Seriously. She's very red in the face and practically glows like a stop light when she giggles madly, which is very very often. Someday she will explode, and we will all be very sad. She also has lavendar hair with silver tips, and has had hair every colour you can think of. We have founded our own church with myself as goddess (naturally) and her as High Priestess. It started as an offhand joke about my godlike prowess at my job (muahaha), and has evolved into a scarily involved past time. We're coming up with creation theory, hierarchy, and of course ridiculously long titles for everyone involved. We even have two official enemies of the church! ...hey, we have to have something to keep our spirits up when the kitchen reaches the internal temperature of a fully cooked ham roast.
- Ashley, my fellow Special Diets and roomie. Most impossibly adorable person ever. I know I say that a lot, but I'm serious. She loves rainbows and sunsets and puppies (I'm not kidding) and is so tiny and cute. She's a highland dancer, and I walked into the room one night to find her dancing with her headphones clamped firmly on her ears. She has a car named Betsy. SO. CUTE. GAH. She also talks a mile a minute and adores me, making her the exact antithesis of my roomie last year, Nicole. Not that Nicole didn't like me, but Ashley LOVES me. And I love her. Soooo much.
- Amanda, current dish bitch (her own creation) and general kitchen helper. She was the dishwasher last year and is frighteningly good at it, but she refused to take the position again when our first dishwasher quit. It's a shame because she's so good at it, but she's also a really hard worker in the rest of the kitchen, so I didn't want her to take it anyway. She's extremely rough around the edges and a little hard to take at times (product of an abusive childhood, I'm sad to say), but she has a really good heart and loves me a lot. So there.
So yeah, the kitchen is currently running with four people. Last year there were six. So insane... I'll post a longer write-up of the first camp tomorrow, but now I'm going to lie in the tub in my own bathroom and blissfully soak. Woot.
Oh camp. You are so insane. And understaffed. Seriously. We were understaffed last year, and this year is so much worse for that. We currently have no dishwasher, both person and machine (my environmentalist heart cries every meal as almost two hundred styrofoam plates are sent to the dump), no laundry person, so few counsellors that some people were on their own with twelve campers, and only the bare minimum of housekeeping and kitchen staff. It's inSANE. But also infinitely better than last year because all of the people who are there are dedicated and fabulous. If it wasn't for the mad amounts of work required, I'd never want to leave.
A brief rundown on this year's kitchen staff, because I am badly needing a shower and sleep:
- Lindsay, the head cook. Utterly, completely, stark raving mad. I love her intensely. It's frightening how similar we are, actually, in terms of food and cooking, interests, music, and sense of humour. Seriously. She's very red in the face and practically glows like a stop light when she giggles madly, which is very very often. Someday she will explode, and we will all be very sad. She also has lavendar hair with silver tips, and has had hair every colour you can think of. We have founded our own church with myself as goddess (naturally) and her as High Priestess. It started as an offhand joke about my godlike prowess at my job (muahaha), and has evolved into a scarily involved past time. We're coming up with creation theory, hierarchy, and of course ridiculously long titles for everyone involved. We even have two official enemies of the church! ...hey, we have to have something to keep our spirits up when the kitchen reaches the internal temperature of a fully cooked ham roast.
- Ashley, my fellow Special Diets and roomie. Most impossibly adorable person ever. I know I say that a lot, but I'm serious. She loves rainbows and sunsets and puppies (I'm not kidding) and is so tiny and cute. She's a highland dancer, and I walked into the room one night to find her dancing with her headphones clamped firmly on her ears. She has a car named Betsy. SO. CUTE. GAH. She also talks a mile a minute and adores me, making her the exact antithesis of my roomie last year, Nicole. Not that Nicole didn't like me, but Ashley LOVES me. And I love her. Soooo much.
- Amanda, current dish bitch (her own creation) and general kitchen helper. She was the dishwasher last year and is frighteningly good at it, but she refused to take the position again when our first dishwasher quit. It's a shame because she's so good at it, but she's also a really hard worker in the rest of the kitchen, so I didn't want her to take it anyway. She's extremely rough around the edges and a little hard to take at times (product of an abusive childhood, I'm sad to say), but she has a really good heart and loves me a lot. So there.
So yeah, the kitchen is currently running with four people. Last year there were six. So insane... I'll post a longer write-up of the first camp tomorrow, but now I'm going to lie in the tub in my own bathroom and blissfully soak. Woot.