camping?

I have spent the last three weeks trying to arrange a location for the Brownie troop and Daisy troop to camp together. It has been fraught with misunderstanding and miscommunication, getting priorities out of order and just plain bad timing, but I think we have finally succeeded.
It all started with exploring the state parks and their reservation website. It was very easy to see that this was not an option for us. Daisy scouts in our council must have raised beds and/or four walls in order to camp. We needed cabins, obviously. Lots to choose from, but they were all full. I was stunned at how many people camp! Next I looked into Youth Primitive camping at individual parks, each accessed by its own phone number. Several nice rangers later, that proved fruitless as well.
Next I directed my phonecalls to the GS council headquarters and that is where the 'fun' began.
At first, it looked promising; one site for Daisy scouts was available. When I got preliminary go-ahead from my troop leaders, I confirmed that there was also space for the Brownies and I learned that there were several sites available. As treasurer, I cut a check to reserve half the camp and started planning meals and activities. When the paperwork hit the council office however, it was a different story. 'So sorry, that is not available that date' What?!? I pleaded and cajoled, but could only reserve as much as I wanted by switching the date of camping. I did agree to switch, thinking it was better to take what we could get rather than give up. Wrong decision! They locked in a date that turned out to be very wrong for us. Then they denied a refund or even a check hold for a future date. Dangit, we were about to lose our deposit because of some scheduling screw-up! I felt like a victim of bait and switch!
Finally, after more phone calls and emails, we are allowed to switch back to our original date of camping. We don't have half the camp; in fact our number of campers is limited, but at least we didn't lose all our money.
Now we just need our paperwork in, and we can start getting excited again! Yay, camping!

Brownie Girl Scouts and me

It was our first meeting, with the parents (moms) filling out forms, and writing checks and the girls cautiously getting to know each other, seeing a few familiar faces. No fewer than forty girls because we are combining the financial and managerial functions of both a brownie troop and a daisy troop. I get to be treasurer, so that will be interesting, and more of a role than I have had as a mom in the past. As I look at all these girls, I wonder how they are going to learn about each other and grow closer as friends. I know on the first day of daisies last year, it looked hopelessly confused, with many shy girls, and I figured this would never form one unit or that half the girls would drop out. And I was glad to be totally wrong about it. The same ten girls came almost every week, and they mostly came to the weekend group events, and they all learned each other's names and personalities, and it worked great, even for my shy girl. So it is with a new hope that I look at all these girls, some shy, some loud, some open, some nervous, that we can know all of them, appreciate all of them, and get them to bond with each other. I am not sure how the dynamics of friendship will work out. With my daughter being a little older, she has started to care more about her friends and wants to be with them more. I hope she will reconnect with old friends, but I hope she finds some new ones too. Without that connection, there is no point to scouts.
The brownie troop is allowed to have up to thirty-five or forty girls. If you think about it, that is double the current classroom size. And lest you think its not the same concept, oh wrong, we are here to teach them things! At least there are two leaders, but I sure hope there are moms who are willing to stay and help some! Of course I will, as I did last year. The moms who hang around and jump in to help with crafts and games make things run so much more smoothly.
We have a very full schedule already too - right up to February already. We are going camping, and more than once! Sometimes, I don't like being tied down to a schedule or having to stay close to home as this will require. However, I want my daughter to have stability and a routine that will ground her with these new friends.
Of course, I am biased. I don't want her to miss a single meeting, and definitely not any event. I want her to experience it all. That may just not be realistic. I doubt that the all the girls that came tonight will make it to a majority of the meetings. Particularly in brownies, there always seem to be drop-outs. I worry that my daughter will want to drop out, particularly if she feels on the outs of a clique or if one person makes her angry. I have to remember that it is okay if not all the girls come every time, and that its okay if my girl doesn't make it sometimes. Its just that I know how much they are missing when they skip. Each meeting brings the girls closer, each activity enriches the bond, each big event becomes a legend in their share memory. They don't realize at their age, but I see it at mine. That is why I am so pro-scout. I root for anything that encourages friendships that can deepen by shared events and experiences. Its the reason why girlfriends weekends (and trips) work so well for me and my friends. We reconnect and remember all the things that make us friends in the first place. That plus experiencing a new setting together enhance our connection and build memories. And the laughter, its essential!
I look forward to it. I am awed by the potential...but I will take it one meeting at a time.

the results are in

The results are in and ...
we are gifted!
Yay!
Okay, I say 'we' but mean my daughter of course. But you have to admit, it is something you can take credit for at least a little...
Our excellent combination of genes has lead to this culmination of perfection...yes, going overboard now.
Actually, the even better news is that dear daughter is being kept busier in school and has less time to be bored. And Tuesday she starts going to enrichment math/science that will challenge her even more. So while she does complain about the amount of homework, she has been relatively quiet on the amount of classwork. And I have had the first look at some of the work she has been doing in class, and it is awesome! It is a lot more challenging than last year's work already, and she is meeting that challenge (so obviously she is listening a little better in class, too!)
Yay!
Good year for us!

Pat Conroy books

I have not read all of Pat Conroy's books, but I did enjoy Lords of Discipline and I did make it through Prince of Tides, Beach Music, and most recently, South of Broad.
One thing I like about his books is how realistic they are. His descriptions are long, sensory experiences. The plot is frequently saddening, but not in an overly tragic way, with a glimmer of hope at the end of each. For the most part, they are compelling reads, too. I didn't want to stop reading the last one, and, even though it took me a couple tries to get into Beach Music, I ended up liking it too.
There are some things I don't like about Conroy's books. Each one starts with a long monologue that is about the most depressing reading in print to be found anywhere. Every book starts with this downer! Sometimes, it puts you off the whole book. Another thing I don't like is the dialogue...because it is too good. It always has the feel of a witty, snarky, new-york-style play. Every line is a zinger. No one ever stutters or fails to say exactly what they mean. It is too perfect. And I don't like it because it is such a contrast with the realism of the rest of the book. The plot is intricate but believable, the twists are easily conceivable, but no one I know speaks like a character from any of his books. No one I know is that cutting or cruel or dead-sure. So, while I am reading, I am taking in these verbose descriptions, getting a real sense of things, and then people speak, and its suddenly brought home that this is fiction. And I do like to get lost in the story, wondering how true everything I am reading is, wondering how much is autobiography. But I know these conversations are not the truth. They are honed, sharpened, distilled essences of the truth that we rarely ever meet in our daily lives. Its what we say in our heads hours later, usually preceded by, "what I should have said was...". The characters in Conroy's books are either too good or too evil, and rarely a mixture of both. The main character is always a wonderful person. In fact, almost too wonderful. Maybe that character is always supposed to represent our better selves. It is our selves if we did always make all the tough decisions correctly. The main character of a Conroy book is never fatally flawed, and that is usually what keeps the book from being a tragedy.
One of the reasons I love the Harry Potter books is, that HP is NOT perfect and he makes some stupid mistakes and errors in judgement in each book. He does learn from them, but it makes him more likeable to see him pay for his errors, and grow.
I never get the sense that the main character of a Conroy book is growing, learning or changing. Its more like he is weathering, enduring, and hoping against all hope, but he is a complete person in the beginning and a complete one at the end, and ultimately, I find it hard to identify with!
So while I like reading Pat Conroy books, I find that I don't love them, I wouldn't reread them, and yet they are all memorable and haunting.

Barbie - Fever

My dear daughter has a wicked virus that has given her a fever yesterday and today, so I relented and played Barbies with her. It is so sad when kids get sick because they are so energetic otherwise, and they get brought so low when they are feeling badly. I just felt so sorry for her, but we did get to watch a lot of Studio Ghibli films. She was feeling better this afternoon, so I got to sew blue jeans for her dolls (the third try looked a lot better than the first two. She has decided that most of her dolls are high school age and they must comply with the dress code. Daughter's dress code is denim, so jeans must be worn. This is the same girl who literally did not own a pair of blue jeans in kindergarten or first grade. However, since she has been horse-back riding...denim is now the must-have fabric of the season. And, sad to say, I am getting old eyes. I cannot see as well trying to hand-sew snaps to these tiny seams.
The fever seems to have broken, but not the passion for fashion!

And we're walking

I forgot to tell everyone...I am torturing my dear daughter this year by making her walk, yes walk on her two legs, walk to school (just one way for now - still way too hot in the afternoons). So the first day went well...we made it in about 25 minutes. The weather has been very cooperative in that it has been cool, and we leave early enough (to get there on time) that the sun is still not up. So I don't start sweating until I make the return trip home. She only complained five times the first day, and each time I started a lecture on the benefits of walking for health, evolution of walking people, etc... No surprise she shut me down each time, but she also quit complaining! The second day went well too - took a little longer because there was a gecko to catch and release. She complained only twice and only at the end, but begged to bike ride on the third day. Still, she asked to run around the block this evening, so she cannot be too bad off. Meantime, I walked to the voting place and made the long trip home...about four miles total, and I was SORE. So, we will both be complaining tomorrow...but we are walking!
Please tell me you voted, people. If not this time, promise you will in November!

more computer issues

I was reading over my old posts from this year, and realizing that I have yet to tell 'the rest of the story' (thank you Paul Harvey) about my computer problems. So for six months, my desktop worked fine. I reloaded all the software, most of it available by download. I had replaced the mother board, power supply, hard disk, and upgraded the RAM, and all it was all working well. Until my computer just shut off again in the middle of web searching. So, obviously I had not fixed or replaced the correct component, even after all that trauma. Back to the drawing board. I figured that it was fairly unlikely that one of the new components failed, mostly because the main symptom (computer just shutting off) was the same. Still, I kept the possibility of inadequate power in my mind. So the only things I didn't replace that had to do with power and computation were: the power strip connecting the box to the wall, the AMD chip (the processor) and its cooling fan, and the video card with its cooling fan. My stepdad reminded me that a hot chip will shut down a system fast, and so, after replacing the power strip, I ran the desktop with the side panel off to watch the fans. And there was the problem...the cooling fan on the AMD chip was not spinning. And the chip could take some heat, but when I was doing a lot of intense processing, it couldn't cool off, and it shut down the system. Good news was that everything on the hard disk was still okay...because I hadn't tried to reboot right away with a processor that was still hot. If it shuts down while trying to load Windows, that is when you get those nasty 'hive' errors.
Still, it was time to fish or cut bait, and I decided to quit cutting bait and start fishing for a new desktop. So now, I have a bunch of computer parts to build up dear husband's older computer, and I have a new computer with an AMD Athlon II, Windows 7 (making the switch wasn't bad at all), 5 Gigs of RAM and a Terabyte of hard disk space. Oh and a beautiful new monitor. You may envy me now.