"a g-u-n, a switchblade, a fire launcher and a bomb blaster"

"hogan knows best" is the new Osbournes and i think infinitely better than its predecessor. it's just so damn funny. on the last episode i watched with great enjoyment as the hogan family tried adopting a baby chimpanzee. it was pretty fine until he started shitting in Hulk's gym. poor little guy didn't stand a chance after that for that is "the holy hulk's domain". at one point hulk put "harry hogan" in this little Hulkamanic muscle shirt. it was ungodly cute. as of this moment now their newly minted 16 year old son is driving his dad's hotrod sports car down the street without permission. in my opinion this can only end in some scenario which will make for really superb reality television.

The summer camp i'm working at for the next 4 weeks officially started and it was pretty wild today. i hung out with this kid christopher for like 40 minutes and he told me all about his favorite movie, Treasure Planet. and i mean all about... as in scene by scene plot description. the best part was that everytime he came to the word "gun" he would spell it under his breath. however, he freely and frequently used "switchblade" "fire launcher" and, my personal favorite, "bomb blaster".

today also consisted of a field trip to Ravinia, the summer home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. first i would like to say taking a group of inner city adolescents on a field trip the first day of summer camp is by far the dumbest idea i have encountered. as bad as i feel saying it those kids need training and maybe some time to adjust to summer camp life. so we arrive at Ravinia; this idilic and serene setting in one of the richest suburbs of chicago and basically just unleash the chaos of 100 1st - 8th graders from Cabrini Green and Henry Horner, the two roughest neighborhoods in the city, onto this beautiful scene. we served bag lunches which kept the kids under control for about 6 minutes and then they just went nuts. i'd look one way and two little boys would be wrestling and punching eachother while in my peripheral vision 4 little girls were doing back flips down a hill. literally. that is not an exaggeration. the teachers didn't seem worked up so i just tried to pretend i wasn't. somehow we got them into lines and into the concert hall to hear some music. this group of young artists played mozart's string quintet in g minor which is actually one of my absolute favorite pieces of music. when i realized what they were playing i was just thrilled. unfortunately the cellist had a rather robust way of expressing her music through her motions which our kids found exceedingly and unbearably funny. talking began about 6 minutes into the piece and by the end i thought they were just going to bust. as i sat there trying to listen to this beautiful quintet i just had to laugh at the snickering, rustling and barely controlled madness that was the kids of City Lights Summer Day camp. i couldn't help but notice the wonderful irony of having these kids listening to music in the same hall that music officiandos and master musicians had played in. after the music the MC of the concert asked if any of the kids had questions. the kids in the two other groups at the concert politely and quietly raised their hands while one of my personal favorite kids, Teh'Rayquan, shouted out "Yeah, over here, why ya'll moving round so much?" good god. i just let myself laugh. it was too much.

i'm hoping that not everyday will be as moderately out of control as today as but i'm also hoping it will be. what better way to spend the usually dull days of summer?

my significant other and i were grumpy with eachother on the phone tonight which is pretty unusual. i complained a lot. boring. no more complaining from me... i really have nothing to complain about and i care about her too much to ruin what little time we have to talk by being a downer. i wish i could call her back now but she's sleeping. i'm feeling bummed about this.

47 days

i have to be at work at 7:30 to make copies for 1/2 an hour. i'm strangely content with this.