So Long and Good Nite

The boat cruise was a good time! It was nice chilling and laughing with everyone from Beaches and the pool, but it was great to have Morgan there too for the moments when I just felt like sitting and chatting. There were a lot of people there I wasn't expecting to see. There was a little dancing, but it was more impromptu, not on a floor like I expected. I ended up wearing a casual tank top and my jean skirt. That's what like everyone was wearing, and the extended time it took me to figure out that outfit really wasn't necessary :). The only thing that would have made the nite a little better was if it wasn't drizzly- a clear sky with stars would have been perfection.

Me and Morgan went out for some nachos and atmosphere after...the plate was HUGE. I am still feeling stuffed and we left a lot on the plate. Special mention: we scored an awesome parking spot like a stone's throw away from the Shoe Shoppe. At the end of the nite, we motored home in the mist with Ace of Base.

Bonne nuit!

Wait a Minute, Mr. Postman!

I was feeling keen after my first day of training, so I was going to blog after each day, but that didn't last long. On our last day practicing at the beach, Breakfast Television came down to film us. I saw myself on it today at 8am. However, this really isn't a big feat, because it seems like everyone has been on BT before. It's like one of those "you know you live in..." things. You know you live in Nova Scotia if you have been on Breakfast television at least once in your life. The final three days were spent getting updated on stuff like the crazy new Red Cross CPR standards- for example, canning the whole idea of rescue breathing and going to chest compressions when someone isn't breathing without a pulse check (I like them now though). We were the first group in Canada to learn them. I felt special, I have to admit it ;). We also practiced techniques at the beach; and I taught one more station on that last day. Beaches open on Saturday, so I am relaxing this week. I was so TIRED after all of the training. We got our uniforms and I have a new favourite piece of clothing, and that would be my rash guard. It's like one of those spandex turtleneckish things that surfers wear. They keep you a little warmer. However, I really only got one cause they look cool. Overall, training was an 8.9/1o.

This week is going to be fun: lots of time with friends, a boat cruise (around our lovely harbour and surrounding areas ;) ), with dinner and a movie thrown in there somewhere. And Tristan comes home. Welcome home buddy! :)

Training Day One (5pm-9pm):

Positive experience. An 8.5/10 as far as work goes. Our Sackville carpool going in and back was a good time. The station that I co-led was pretty decent. We did Secondary Assessment/Vitals. It totally got better (as in it became smooth) as the groups came along, by the last two groups we were excellent :). It's nice to finally be the one to lead training camp. Whenever I teach people anything, I never make them feel stupid if they have questions. I hate it when teachers do that. I met the girls I'm working with, and both girls seem fun. There was actually a change last minute so someone who was supposed to work with us isn't anymore. I was super stoaked to find out that one of my friends that I worked with my first few summers is working beaches again this year (she didn't last year)! It was so great to catch up and hang out during training.

After work, I caught the last 10 minutes of the HCA graduation. Grace Chapel was a sauna! It was really nice to see some people that I haven't seen in awhile. I haven't hugged that much in awhile. I do wish I saw all of it, my little Joshie graduating into high school. In retrospect, I should have blown off work to be a supportive sister, but ah well. He didn't really care either way. As long as I'm there for the grade 12 graduation. Graduations are fun, I like the feeling of graduations...like the mix of nostalgia and moving on to new experiences.

Relaxational- 4 Days of Bonding

Bad things that happened:

• it was windy everyday...WINDY!
• mom broke the cottage key in half
• I jammed Joshes fingers in the car door (all 4 of them)
• while I was showering, someone turned on the water in the kitchen and I got scalded- my back was one huge first degree burn
• we got lost within 5 minutes of arriving in the province
• Josh took a jellyfish to the head

Good things that happened:

• it was sunny everyday
• they gave us a cottage instead of a regular motelish thing (for no extra charge)
• I won a game of horseshoes ("I like to ring it, ring it!")
• Josh tried driving for the first time down some dirt roads and we nearly went off the road only one time
• we discovered some cool picnic places
• I had a nice time with my family
  

Oh They Say If You Marry in June...

Well, I am done at the pool for the summer!! Possibly forever, but I'm not sure yet. I'd like to say forever, I think. I feel like I'm jumping from one job into another without much rest, but our family is taking some time away together so I'll have this next week to relax before general beach training starts (Fri-Mon, yes, it's extreme, full body contact, beach training).

Welcome home, Bek! WOW! Praise God for an awesome missions trip to East Asia. It makes me so excited to hear about how it went. It's so cool that God uses us :)! Sarah, your next ;). I know your summer is gonna be amazing connecting with old friends and sharing with new ones!

Well, for those of us who aren't going away this summer...lets have some crazy times this summer. Party Hardy! Lol, somehow we don't define party the same as most people ;). Fun, there will be fun :)!

Wade, Row, Swim, Tow, Carry

I can assure all those people who are still reading my blog that there will be no more yo mama jokes. Josh was in the same room when I wrote that last entry :). I would apologize, but when I wrote it, I thought Joshes input was hilarious. I really did.

Here are some fun things that I like to do my lake:
1. sun tan on a tube
2. see how far my dog can swim (it's not very far)
3. swim across the lake over and over
4. jump off the diving rock
5. make up new swimming strokes (have you ever tried elementary front??)
6. make up synchro routines
7. play the cannonball game (see how long you can float in a cannonball...it works cause you can come up for air if you do it right)
8. play water volleyball
9. Canoe/row out to Colour Island
10. Put food colouring in the lake and dye it pink
11. Search for Nessie (she summers in Waverley)

OH! This kid in my swimming class made up a really cool game. Head stand contest, but your legs have to be doing whip-kick when you do it. Confession: I didn't make up elementary front either ;).

Haha, maybe I am the only one who thinks that these games would be fun. Fun would reach a new level if we ever got ourselves a motor boat or a sea-do.

Weekend: by Jessie and Josh

Beach Captain training is over. It wasn't as intimidating as I thought it would be. The 2 days went by fast, like as quick as something that is really, really fast*. There are some things that I have to get ready to teach everyone in our regular staff training camp and I think that part will be fun. We spent 2.5 hours in Chocolate Lake. It was really cold, as cold as something that is quite cold*. Everyone was wearing wetsuits, and mine sorta helped me stay warm. More importantly, it made me fit in. Yes, I do feel the need to be cool ;)! Whenever we were out of the water, they kept passing out blankets and sweaters to us. That part was nice, as nice as a big sack of nice*.

Training ended two hours before it was scheduled to, so I made an early appearance to Megha's. Actually, I showed up to her door with a big rain coat on and a towel around my head with another around my waist. She wasn't home, so I used up all the water on her block having an extended hot shower. Feeling came back into my toes after that. A car full of guys honked at me and Megha when we were walking to the corner store. Make that, someone beeped at Megha, because I was looking frumpy in my track pants and sweater. Me, Megha, and Morgan had a lovely time cooking and movie watching. Somehow our baguettes were really heavy and fat, as heavy and fat as your mother*. It was kind of a bread overload ;). Cooking tunes of the night: Aqua and S Club-ohhhh yeah. Somehow we made it home even though it was raining cats and dogs, meow.



*descriptive comparisons care of Josh

Wetsuit Report

Well! I gave the ol' suit a test in the foggy rain today. It really works. I could have swam and swam. This test was quite scientific because I went in the water without it and it was colder than with it on (that whole hypothesis and experimental process took me a long time to think up, jk :P ). I'd say it's warming power is roughly 90% the design and 10% psychological. Josh tried it, too. He was trying it on, and then I yelled from outside his door asking if he needed help zipping it up. He was like, "Jessie, WHY would I need help with the zipper! It's in the front!" The zipper is supposed to go in the back. I just shook my head at him. Actually that's not true, I made fun of him. I was reminded yet again how curvy women are, because he had lots of air room between his stick legs and the wetsuit. Nonetheless, it kept him warm too. I think that all those who get chilly swimming should invest in one. And you wouldn't have to look silly wearing it. I've thought of a remedy for that. Just spray paint it your skin colour and then paint on a bathing suit on top of that. Perfect ;).

If anyone is curious on how to care for a wetsuit, I totally googled it.
1. Rinse it out after each use with warm fresh water and wetsuit shampoo or a mild solution of baking soda and water.
2. Hang it inside out.
3. Inspect for tears or broken zipper teeth.
4. Apply beeswax or candle wax to keep the zippers zipping.
http://scuba.about.com/od/scubaequipmentgear/a/wetsuitcare.htm

Long live my wetsuit.

In all seriousness, I can promise that I will not be buying any wetsuit shampoo or taking any form of wax to my zippers. I don't care that much.

Sniff

Why can I still smell the smell??

Cold? No! Not me!

I have my very first wetsuit! I love it. I don't think I have ever liked something that I've bought as much as this in a long time. I have been wearing it ever since I got home today (approximately 1.5 hours). It was quite a process trying to get it. After using Lolita's and Sarah's Costco cards (we don't have one) and one return and repurchase later...it fits! I am going to take such good care of it. I think I'll call it Bluie. For some reason it smells really fumey, like a mix of paint and gasoline. The smell comes from the black part on it. I'm kinda of used to it now. Hmmm. It'll be fine once it gets rinsed off. The real test of this lovely conglomerate of thread and other man-made substances will be tomorrow when I take her in the lake. Will it be warm, will it be cold, we will see!! Ok, I really need to take this off, I am starting to get a headache.

I'm Singin' in the Rain!

This next week is going to be BUSY. It's close to the end of the session at the pool and that means a truck load of report cards must be written...fighting the temptation to pass everyone and cut my work in half ;). Two weeks left!! Beach captain training is on the weekend. I am going to have to invest in a wetsuit because we are going to be spending time in a lake. Lots of chilly, chilly time in a freezing lake. I might as well let the hospital know now that I will be arriving with a case of hypothermia on Saturday evening. However, this training and the beach captain meetings are going to be parties because lots of people I know from the pool (4 of us in total) are captains at different beaches! So that's sweet. I realized another purpose for lifeguards recently, and that is to be the person who throws balls that have bounced out of the pool back to people in the pool. I was asked to do that at least 3 times on my last lifeguarding shift. Also, let it be known that there is a correlation between attendance and completing a swimming level-understand it, apply it :P.

The Break Up was a good movie with a formidable ending. Amarea and I were victorious in our search for attractive plastic binware. Have an awesome summer at camp, Amarea!!
My little sprouting plants (peas, beans, sunflowers so far) aren't on speaking terms with Mother Nature because of all this rain.
In the span of my life, I haven't had many dreams that I wished were real, but I've had 2 in the last month or so. I've never had a recurring dream before though...usually those ones seem to be the bad ones. Maybe even if a good dream was recurring you might get so sick of it that it would be a "bad" dream, too much of a good thing, you know? Deep. Anyways, I won't go into detail about either one, but in them I was very pretty and they included other pretty people. Haha, and the so-called depth just ended in that last sentence ;).
If you are ever looking for a fun way to do sit-ups or crunches, here's an original idea: pick a song and do sit-ups for the whole song. Then you can increase it to 2 songs after awhile, and so on. This way you don't have to count each individual sit up. I for one, can not excercise without music, it just doesn't happen. However, I have given up on my goal to have a six pack. Another fun thing to do is go for a run in the pouring rain. It's lovely. I wear layers so I can still bring my walkman...that's probably a dangerous thing to do when it is wet out though. I might have to hum to myself next time I run in the rain.
Thats all for today, stick a fork in me, I'm done!