Leadership & Adventure Coordinator

 Dear Diary;

I kept myself busy last week. It was better. My brother took time off last week so he came down and stayed here for a few days and we got to hang out and watch movies (The Kings Speech= amazing) and play games.

Davern

I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I think I must have- I am going back to Davern this summer. Here’s the scoop…

A few weeks ago I had started to inquire about what would happen in the summer when the schools closed and the After School program ended. I was basically told that there wasn’t going to be any hours for me for those couple of months and that’s when I immediately started thinking of Davern. The only issue I was faced with was the fact that I still had work on Friday mornings at the Activity Center and that job goes all summer long with the exception of a 1 week summer break. I sent out a quick email to the new director and basically told her that if she hadn’t hired a wellness coordinator yet, I was interested in going back. She wrote me back and said she wanted to get in touch with me because she had heard some brilliant recommendations about me from several people and we made a phone date.

When I got talking to her on the phone, she told me that she had already hired a wellness coordinator, but that she wanted me back and it was just a matter of finding a position for me. She mentioned Counselling Coordinator/ Assistant Director and we made a date to get together and chat in person. We met at Starbucks one day before I started work (she drove to me!) and she told me that she was in talks with someone for that job already and that SLJ was still deciding whether she was going to accept it. At that point I was feeling a bit jerked around- she was telling me I could do certain jobs but then later letting me know she’d already had someone for that job… but I kept talking with her and it came down to this…

She wants me at Davern and she’s decided to create a position for me. She has no problem with me leaving to go to my other job on Friday’s and although she doesn’t really like the idea of having anyone with the title Assistant Director, she sees me in that type of role. We chatted about what my role would be at camp and as of this morning, she’s given me the title Leadership & Adventure Coordinator. The L&A Coord. is responsible for overseeing all things to do with Leadership and LIT’s (including designing the program for the future and being the main resource for the leadership counsellors.. who are resource themselves). It means overseeing all things to do with Adventure and the Adventure program- including being the resource for the Adventure PCA counsellors and it means overseeing anything and everything to do with the Coop, tripping, ODLS and the Wellness Center (simply because the wellness co is new this year and wants guidance). It sounds like it’s going to be a HUGE job where I can get my hands into a little bit of everything (which I love) and I am excited for the summer to get here.

 

Work

As of Friday, we are down a staff at the After School Program. I won’t go into great detail, but there have been several conversations between my "boss" and myself about another staff member. Personally, I get really uncomfortable talking about co-workers and their performance at work, so I watched my mouth and was really careful not to say anything that could get me into trouble. My boss kept bringing it up though and would ask me to tell her truthfully how this other staff was doing. Eventually, she just started telling me things that she was noticing and asked me if I saw them too- which I told her I did (because it was the truth). After week of this, my boss told me she had talked to the boss above her and let her know how she felt, to which this other boss replied that she understood completely. Apparently this staff had been shuffled around to the different houses many times in her 3 years working for the company because she wasn’t doing her job up to the standards they’d wanted.

Don’t get me wrong, I really liked this staff as a person and I thought she was really nice and it was nice to have the extra person on hand (even if she didn’t do much except drink her coffee and sit around), but other than having someone chatty to talk to, I don’t think we’ll miss her- in terms of needing the extra person to handle the kids. As of Friday, she was not fired, but moved to a different position and put on "probation".

Since today was a snow day and the program is closed on snow days, tomorrow will be the first day with just K and I working it again. We’ve done it before, I’m sure we can do it again.

 

Boots

Two weeks ago tomorrow I had to put my cat, Boots, to sleep. He had severe kidney failure and the instead of milking us for money to treat him, the Vet was honest and said that it was the worst case he’d seen and recommended putting him down. It was the most awful experience and I still get upset thinking about it.

I think I made the wrong choice to stay in the room when they injected whatever it was that killed him. Picturing that…. I can’t. It was horrific and the image of him still haunts me every night when I go to bed. I realize now that I wasn’t strong enough to handle that and it kills me.

We brought him home in a box and before my dad buried him in the backyard with our dog, Jodie, I snipped a piece of his hair and it’s in a ziplock bag tacked to my wall. I don’t know why I wanted it… but I did. He was still warm when I handed him to dad to bury. I’ll never forget that either. I sat in a rocking chair with that box on my lap for a good 40 minutes before I could hand it over to dad. I just couldn’t let him go.

Occasionally, I’ll hear things in the house that remind me of him or make me think he’s still here. Little clicks on the floor in the hallway make me think he’s going to come around the corner and into my bedroom. Out of the corner of my eye I sometimes see shadows and turn my head thinking that it’s him. One night, I swear I heard meowing outside and wanted to get up and open the door to let him in. I can’t bring myself to go downstairs because his litter box still sits there with paw prints in it.

It still hurts, but I’m getting better at putting it out of my mind. Maybe it’s not the healthiest thing to do, but not thinking about it at all makes it easier to go on.

 

Spring Forward

I’m really looking forward to Spring. I’ve had enough snow, I’m so over winter at this point. I still hav

en’t found a pair of winter boots that fit me and that I like, so I’ve given up on my search for this year and I’ll worry about it next year. I just hope that the snow goes away soon and I don’t have to wear boots anymore.

I’m really, REALLY looking forward to the time change in a couple of weeks. I can see the days getting longer already- but it will be nice to leave work and still have a bit of daylight for the drive home. It can only get better from here, right?