Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Das Capital!
Turns out that "viral illness spreading through camp" was not the usual strain of camp crud, but rather, as Kev put it, the R1D1. It came to our little corner of Georgia and took root, not just at our camp, but at many others in the region and the nation. Local rags reported it, as did the New York Times. We took countermeasures. In addition to drugs, people began to elbow-tap instead of high-five, every single person was hit with a glob of hand sanitizer when he entered the Chadar Ochel and soon thereafter washed it off while singing for a minimum of 30 seconds. Taps were operated by elbow, as were doors. Gloved serving continued for the rest of the session at every meal, making them quite long (especially shabbat lunch), but giving camp excellent portion control.
My role at camp crystallized when I started providing more coverage than I considered strictly necessary for Shoafim. Turns out their Rosh went down with said viral illness and I had to step in for a week. While it was an educational experience, it was softened by the knowledge that it would only be one week long (instead of nine). I generally liked my staff, as they were friendly, informed, and many were my old campers. They kept me up to speed on things I needed to know to run the eidah effectively, and I passed down the edicts that I received from the Powers That Be during morning meetings with each group. While I was not in the job long enough to be stressed by it, I could see that it would take a toll on a person if left unchecked. What I found is that when you are a Rosh, everyone needs your time and you get to run a million little errands for everyone because they are all busy being with the campers, which you are not required be as often as they are. Also, there are a million things to keep track of in your head, even though the rosh eidah planner does help (though it looks and weighs in like my law books). I used my contractually-burned day off to be Rosh Yom Hairspray, which was fairly fun, and was not much of a loss at all, as no one was leaving the premises anyway. The next day off was a mandated trip to the MOG, so despite swearing it and multiple-car days off, I drove down with three mini-buses and two other sedans to go see Transformers Two and eat some gross food court nonsense. My third and real day off we went and bought a picnic lunch and then hiked the long version of Talullah Falls which was exhausting and hot and fun.
I was sad to leave camp early, but excited at the prospect of going up to DC.
To get to DC I had to leave camp on Thursday, drive five hours to get home, spend Shabbat at home, then drive up another five hours to DC. I am just glad I did not have to do it all in one day.
Condensed summaries of my thoughts about DC:
My gracious host family is in the Rabbi League, and they are lots of fun, in a rambunctious, no-holds-barred way. Shabbat Dinner is always a wild affair at their house.
I ride the Red Line of the Metro. Two weeks before I moved up to DC, there was something of a horrific accident on this line (albeit on the other side). As a result they are doing extensive testing on the line and it takes about twice as long as it ought to for me to get to work every day. Also, on weekends it will sometimes "single-track" which means further delays and lack of seats. However, on the whole the system is quite simple, useful and somewhat inexpensive.
Driving in DC is another story. Even in the suburbs the drivers are nuts and honk all the time while not paying attention to what they are doing. Driving in the District is enough to trigger insanity. I had the misfortune of driving to work one day so I got lost, overpaid for parking, and dinged my car all before I got into the office. On the other hand, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway is very nice. I-95 is disgusting. 495 has many more curves than I expected.
I am meeting lots of fun people at work and through friends. I am also seeing a scary number (but not scary people) of people that I know from other places randomly around DC. High school throwbacks at a Nationals game and Brandeis kids on the subway.
I have some free time in DC, so I am using it to visit Baltimore, plan a certain party I have in September and run all the errands I cannot on workdays because I am outside the house from 8AM until 7PM or later.
Yesterday I met up with some friends of friends (and discovered it is a very small Jewish DC world) at the Kennedy Center for some Afro Bop Latin Jazz which was cool, though we did not pay a huge amount of attention to it.
Updates as events warrant.
My role at camp crystallized when I started providing more coverage than I considered strictly necessary for Shoafim. Turns out their Rosh went down with said viral illness and I had to step in for a week. While it was an educational experience, it was softened by the knowledge that it would only be one week long (instead of nine). I generally liked my staff, as they were friendly, informed, and many were my old campers. They kept me up to speed on things I needed to know to run the eidah effectively, and I passed down the edicts that I received from the Powers That Be during morning meetings with each group. While I was not in the job long enough to be stressed by it, I could see that it would take a toll on a person if left unchecked. What I found is that when you are a Rosh, everyone needs your time and you get to run a million little errands for everyone because they are all busy being with the campers, which you are not required be as often as they are. Also, there are a million things to keep track of in your head, even though the rosh eidah planner does help (though it looks and weighs in like my law books). I used my contractually-burned day off to be Rosh Yom Hairspray, which was fairly fun, and was not much of a loss at all, as no one was leaving the premises anyway. The next day off was a mandated trip to the MOG, so despite swearing it and multiple-car days off, I drove down with three mini-buses and two other sedans to go see Transformers Two and eat some gross food court nonsense. My third and real day off we went and bought a picnic lunch and then hiked the long version of Talullah Falls which was exhausting and hot and fun.
I was sad to leave camp early, but excited at the prospect of going up to DC.
To get to DC I had to leave camp on Thursday, drive five hours to get home, spend Shabbat at home, then drive up another five hours to DC. I am just glad I did not have to do it all in one day.
Condensed summaries of my thoughts about DC:
My gracious host family is in the Rabbi League, and they are lots of fun, in a rambunctious, no-holds-barred way. Shabbat Dinner is always a wild affair at their house.
I ride the Red Line of the Metro. Two weeks before I moved up to DC, there was something of a horrific accident on this line (albeit on the other side). As a result they are doing extensive testing on the line and it takes about twice as long as it ought to for me to get to work every day. Also, on weekends it will sometimes "single-track" which means further delays and lack of seats. However, on the whole the system is quite simple, useful and somewhat inexpensive.
Driving in DC is another story. Even in the suburbs the drivers are nuts and honk all the time while not paying attention to what they are doing. Driving in the District is enough to trigger insanity. I had the misfortune of driving to work one day so I got lost, overpaid for parking, and dinged my car all before I got into the office. On the other hand, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway is very nice. I-95 is disgusting. 495 has many more curves than I expected.
I am meeting lots of fun people at work and through friends. I am also seeing a scary number (but not scary people) of people that I know from other places randomly around DC. High school throwbacks at a Nationals game and Brandeis kids on the subway.
I have some free time in DC, so I am using it to visit Baltimore, plan a certain party I have in September and run all the errands I cannot on workdays because I am outside the house from 8AM until 7PM or later.
Yesterday I met up with some friends of friends (and discovered it is a very small Jewish DC world) at the Kennedy Center for some Afro Bop Latin Jazz which was cool, though we did not pay a huge amount of attention to it.
Updates as events warrant.
