7/10/2002:

One would think that as I am off on the weekends, I would have more time to do Scrubs than during the week. I thought so too, but I didn't count on my busy weekend schedule of napping and staring at the wall, dazed at how much free time I could enjoy. It passed way too quickly, but it was a memorable weekend.

This strip is first in a series (perhaps only 2 strips long) that I completely realize is a ripoff of the concept of Tech Girl's film, My Pants. But, as I lost my green striped shirt on Sunday, I feel that I can relate, at least a little. The jokes are my own.

So, since last time, a new crew of campers has arrived. They're a larger group and a bit older and more full of attitude. It was a bit of a shock, especially since our only overnight holdover from last week is the nicest kid ever. He walks around, seeming a bit lost with this new crew that is much less friendly than the last one. I'd blame the kids, but that would be a bad instructor thing to do. I blame numbers of kids. When we didn't have too many, they felt more comfortable being good. WIth larger numbers, they feel the need to perform to boost themselves or something.

Who am I to talk about performers?

As I type this, I'm in charge, as the director is taking a much needed night off. I have all the director shtuff, from the cell phone to the mighty backpack. I keep waiting for something really bad to happen.

I had a bright shining spot in my day, and that was playing Frisbee with the one kid I'm teaching Director this week. He was here last week, as a day camper. He is ten and incredibly smart. Today, I was going to play soccer with everyone else playing outside after lunch, but I saw him throwing the Frisbee and then running over and catching it and it really broke my heart. So I played catch with him and we chatted a bit. And as I threw it, I contemplated asking his parents if we could time share him or something. Like another big brother or something. I tried to think about times I'd played catch with my own big brother and came up short. But we did other things on the weekends, like shooting GI Joes with a BB gun or getting custard at Kopp's. Plus, catch wasn't really an activity that showed off our strengths.

I'm teaching two other kids Javascript. They've never taken programming, so it's a bit of a mind melter. I burned them out so badly this morning that in the afternoon, they were completely dazed and had to take a pretty long break. I guess there is more to this teaching thing than I thought.

-kip