"31 and 17 together is what now?... 54?"


i just got home from work and i've decided i'm going to make a sincere effort to remain in a reclining position on the couch for the remainder of the day. that is until i drag myself into my bedroom to take a shower and crawl in bed. i've got cheese crackers, the number for Potbelly delievery, 2 seasons of Law and Order:SVU on dvd, a phone and liquids for hydration. this wonderful list of supplies leads me to beg the question; why would i get up?

on my walk home i saw a bichon trying to sniff a great dane's butt. it looked like the cover to some Hallmark card that would have an inscription like "sometimes you have to strive for what's beyond your reach". or it would be blank and people would use it for all occasions. now that i think about it - i can't think of an occasion i wouldn't use that card for.

at the camp where i am currently employed there are these two middle aged women who ride the bus to and from camp with the kids and, for the most part, just hassle them with constant discipline all the live long day. there's such a cultural difference in the way children are treated and i find it consistently fascinating and amusing. basically they just strutt around yelling at the kids, and one another, in ebonics with accents so thick i can barely understand them. my favorite of the two, venzalia, wears one color of clothing everyday (yesterday was yellow, today red) and paints her nails white with dots of color that match the color of that day's outfit.

today before they could set the tables for the kid's lunches i had to run down to the dining hall and report how many place settings would be needed. i found venzalia and sandra in a heated discususion about venzalia's new man and how he's "disrepectin' her" and "just needs to step off". i interrupted and reported there'd be 31 from 3rd/4th grade and 17 from 1st/2nd grade. venzalia looked at sandra and said, "so, let me think...31 and 17 together is what?... 54?" to which sandra responded, "mmm, yeah girl. we gon need more cups".

i'm really liking this job. it couldn't be funnier or more unpredictable. plus, i'm a pro at the copy machine now. today, for my last job of the day, i performed a combination where i had the copier double side copy, hole punch and staple 75 individual packets of 6 pages each. as i stood there, in a state of dazed admiration at shelves of the copy room which house the myriad selection of colored printing paper which is available to me as an employee of City Lights Summer Day Camp, the massive copy machine behind me completed almost an hours worth of work in not even 1/8th of the time. on my walk home, prior to witnessing the bichon/great dane butt sniffing scene, i took time to ponder over and give thanks for the fact that we, as a people, are so determined to make life easy that we were willing to put a great deal of time and effort into inventing such a glorious machine. the future truly is now - hoverboards here we come.

detectives benson and stabler and beckoning