Early Bedtime is the Best Time

This week has been a blur. Most of the days have blended together because not much has happened.

Does this outfit make me look tacky?

Tacky Day: Term I

Monday was Tacky Day. I remember I got to put a bunch of TIPsters to sleep on this day, but I don't remember much else.

Decades Day: Term I

1950's polka dot ladies

Tuesday was Decades Day, my personal favorite. A ton of student issues happened and I had to sit through at least ten disciplinary meetings, most of which were minor situations. Some of the things that students get in trouble for are pretty funny. Hickeys, using the wrong staircase, filling up water bottles with shaving cream... But some of them are more serious like using inappropriate or derogatory language, disrespecting staff members, and being disruptive in class. It was interesting to sit in on these meetings and listen to our OSD talk to the students about learning from these mistakes and making action steps to take moving forward.

Decades Day: Term I

After these meetings, I sat in on one of my RC's group meetings to talk to the students about practical jokes. I had to explain to these young boys why it was not appropriate to hang a sock off of their RC's door. The TIPsters were so worried they were in big trouble. I'm not going to lie, I loved that they were scared of me, but what I loved even more was that they were no longer going to disrespect their RC or play jokes on them. I received a ton of "Yes ma'am", "No ma'am", and "We're are so sorry, ma'am" from the TIPsters. They were so polite, which is something I am not used to seeing much anymore from teenage boys.

Once the meeting was over, I walked around the building looking for trash. We had told the TIPsters on Monday that for every piece of trash we found, it was a minute early bedtime for the entire camp. We had found nine pieces and the GroupMe was blowing up with the bedtime countdown. As I was walking around telling the TIPsters that bedtime was at 10:36PM, I found another piece of trash. 10:35PM! The TIPsters were not pleased that they were sent to bed early, but the staff sure was excited.

After the TIPsters went to sleep, a few staff members went on an adventure to Walmart and Cookout. I caved for one day on my 'no sweets until Saturday' thing I've been doing and got an oreo mint milkshake. (It was worth it, but I only had about 1/4 of it.) I also got hush puppies, which are little bits of heaven. I don't think we really have them up North, but it would be awesome if I could figure out how to make them.

I came back to Myers and hung out with my staff on the balcony for a little while. We watched "Don't Touch Me I'm Scared" and a few other weird youtube videos. When I had my fill of strangeness for the day, I headed to bed.

On our way to Jurassic World

Bar in the movie theater... WHAT!?

Wednesday was my day off. I slept until about 12:30PM, grabbed my laptop from the office, and then watched OITNB until about 3:30PM. My best friend, Tess, FaceTimed me around 3:30PM and told me all about her journey to Durham, NC, where she will be a Teaching Assistant for a Documentary class for a Duke TIP Field Studies Program. I'm so excited for her to fall in love with TIP and to hear all about her experiences.

Around 5PM, I headed to dinner with a few staff members. We planned to leave for the movies to see Jurassic World at 6:15PM and wound up getting four of us together to go.

The movie theater had a freaking full bar in it. WHY ISN'T THIS A THING EVERYWHERE!? I decided to get Bacardi and Coke for the movie just because I could. (Solid decision, I might add.) The four of us split a huge tub of popcorn (my favorite) and wound up killing it by the end of the movie. We had a nice time out and I'm really glad I finally got to see Jurassic World.

Side note: There was one part of the movie where two brothers were having a heart to heart and it reminded me of the conversations I had with my brother before I went to college and then away to Cape Town for  summer. It hit me right in the feels. Miss and love ya, Jordan!

After the movie, I came back to Myers to find out that the TIPsters received another early bedtime, but this time it was 10PM, forty-five minutes early. Apparently they were all entirely too loud during free time. Hopefully this will calm them down from here on out.

Today has been a pretty slow day, thankfully. It's our OSD's day off so I'm happy nothing catastrophic has happened (knock on wood). I'm hoping evening activities and free time run smoothly tonight.

Tomorrow we have the DAWGfest Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. May the best team win!

This weekend is going to be jam-packed, but hopefully I'll be able to write on Sunday evening when things slow down.

Oh, and I almost forgot: Shout out to my little brother for bringing up his GPA this year and getting A's and B's in his classes. I'm a proud big sister!