For all of you out there who read my blog and don't know that Polly Waltner had her baby ... well, she did. Sam Waltner was born last Saturday, June 25 very early in the morning. I was out of town when all this was happening, but I think everything went very well. My mom even told me Polly wanted to go to church the next day. I don't know why you would want to go to church one day after having a baby, but I guess I'm not Polly.
A few months ago Polly and I were in a baby store and we laughed at this thing called a "Boppy." It's an inner tube shaped pillow a mother can put around her waist. The baby rests on the Boppy and it is supposed to make nursing more comfortable. The baby can also use the Boppy as a pillow / bed / soft-thing-to-play-on. It doesn't sound that funny, but believe me, it seemed pretty silly in the store that day. Well, I got her one sort of as a joke and sort of because I think it could actually be useful. I picked out one with cows and horses on it because Polly, Kyle and Sam live on a farm. When I got home, however, I realized there were also zebras, elephants and armadillos on the Boppy. Oh well, it is still probably going to be the bestest gift Sam will get ever. Forever, the best gift. I'm serious. I just hope no one else saw the Boppy and beat me to it. If any of you were thinking of getting her a Boppy, just forget it right now.
Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Frustrations
Well folks, today I experienced working at Pioneer Day Camp. It's a yearly camp run by the museum I work for every Tuesday in June. The kids - ages 7 to 12 - do a variety of "pioneer" activities, such as fishing with bamboo sticks and cork bobbers, candle dipping, sewing quilt squares, playing games, cooking and making ice cream.
Today I joined the Education department out at Beaver Creek Nature Area east of Sioux Falls to help staff the camp. I got a cool green shirt (my favorite color) to wear and keep so that was a plus. My duty, along with the Collections intern Alicia, was pioneer games and apparently last week the kids really liked croquet (which is old, but not exactly what one thinks of when one thinks of pioneers, buy anyway...) so that's what we played. Most of the kids really enjoyed it and the ones that didn't played card games, button games and pick up sticks.
I really enjoyed the groups of kids and did not have any behavioral problems. The staff was another matter. It disturbed me how highly unprofessional and superior some of the staff acted toward the kids. One kid did not take ice cream and apples because he does not like apples and therefore he did not have a bowl. Later, when he came back just for ice cream he got yelled at for not having a bowl. I did not like the apples either and did not take a bowl with apples in it. Were they going to yell at me too? No, becuase I am a staff member. This kind of stuff kept happening throughout the day.
One staff member insisted on inforcing gender roles by telling the boys they weren't man enough if they didn't do certain tasks the whole day. He also kept making the kids say thank you to the staff "like they really meant it." Well, they probably didn't mean it if he had to force them to say it. No one wants to thank crabby, bitchy staff who are yelling at them all the time. A volunteer told kids he was going to kill them if they tangled up their fishing line. Another staff member found absolutely everything to yell at the kids about. It was really ridiculus. At one point there was lunch trash on the tables and she made the kids pick it up while all the staff was just sitting around. How fair is that? I know we are the ones in charge, but that never made us better than them or gave us the right to boss them around for our own pleasure. Those kids' parents paid for them to be there. Now if some of the kids had been out of line, I would understand a little more, but I never had terrible behavior problems at my station.
Another problem I had was just the general bad attitudes when the staff was all together during the parks department program and lunch. There was all kinds of camper bashing going on. What if those kids overheard some of that? Also, the bashing by some people led to bashing by other people and a whole atmosphere of pessimism. Nothing offends me more than people who think they are better than other people. We all have different skills, abilities, and levels of knowledge but that never makes anyone better than anyone else because where someone falls short, someone else suceeds. Treating people, including kids, like shit is unacceptable in my book. If I was a Pioneer Day camper, I'm not sure I would want to come back. Seriously people, get some customer service / public relations training! I feel like this stuff happens fairly often at work and I think if those staff members are that pissed off at the people they are serving in their jobs then maybe it is not the job for them. Look into something else.
Another frustrating thing that happened to me today was I found out my parents bought my brother a $15,000 car which they seem to be willing to pay for. I can't help but wonder what Nick has done to deserve this amazing pouring out of money on their part. If he tried a little harder to make money so he can afford the things he wants I would feel better about it all, but I have not witnessed him trying very hard yet. This last year he got a job mowing lawns in the spring, but before that he had work study jobs that amounted to about three hours a week. Nick lives at home during the summer and last summer barely worked at all. This summer he is supposed to work, but I'm not sure that has even started yet. None of this is a problem for me, until he thinks he should just get things handed to him on a platter.
My financial situation is fucking stressful right now. I got a second job to supplement my income and here Nick sits on his ass, barely works, does poorly at school and gets my parents to spend exorbitant amounts of money on him. It's crazy and it pisses me off. Mostly because my parents already have their own debts. They could use that money to pay off their own loans. In my opinion Nick does not need a $15,000 car at this point in his life unless he has the funds to pay for it. When he can afford it then he can have it.
On the bright side of things, I rearranged my room last night and it looks much more spacious. I would like to save up for an arm chair so I can create a fun reading nook. I am also very excited about my trip to Kansas for Jeanette's wedding this weekend. It will be great to see those college friends again.
Today I joined the Education department out at Beaver Creek Nature Area east of Sioux Falls to help staff the camp. I got a cool green shirt (my favorite color) to wear and keep so that was a plus. My duty, along with the Collections intern Alicia, was pioneer games and apparently last week the kids really liked croquet (which is old, but not exactly what one thinks of when one thinks of pioneers, buy anyway...) so that's what we played. Most of the kids really enjoyed it and the ones that didn't played card games, button games and pick up sticks.
I really enjoyed the groups of kids and did not have any behavioral problems. The staff was another matter. It disturbed me how highly unprofessional and superior some of the staff acted toward the kids. One kid did not take ice cream and apples because he does not like apples and therefore he did not have a bowl. Later, when he came back just for ice cream he got yelled at for not having a bowl. I did not like the apples either and did not take a bowl with apples in it. Were they going to yell at me too? No, becuase I am a staff member. This kind of stuff kept happening throughout the day.
One staff member insisted on inforcing gender roles by telling the boys they weren't man enough if they didn't do certain tasks the whole day. He also kept making the kids say thank you to the staff "like they really meant it." Well, they probably didn't mean it if he had to force them to say it. No one wants to thank crabby, bitchy staff who are yelling at them all the time. A volunteer told kids he was going to kill them if they tangled up their fishing line. Another staff member found absolutely everything to yell at the kids about. It was really ridiculus. At one point there was lunch trash on the tables and she made the kids pick it up while all the staff was just sitting around. How fair is that? I know we are the ones in charge, but that never made us better than them or gave us the right to boss them around for our own pleasure. Those kids' parents paid for them to be there. Now if some of the kids had been out of line, I would understand a little more, but I never had terrible behavior problems at my station.
Another problem I had was just the general bad attitudes when the staff was all together during the parks department program and lunch. There was all kinds of camper bashing going on. What if those kids overheard some of that? Also, the bashing by some people led to bashing by other people and a whole atmosphere of pessimism. Nothing offends me more than people who think they are better than other people. We all have different skills, abilities, and levels of knowledge but that never makes anyone better than anyone else because where someone falls short, someone else suceeds. Treating people, including kids, like shit is unacceptable in my book. If I was a Pioneer Day camper, I'm not sure I would want to come back. Seriously people, get some customer service / public relations training! I feel like this stuff happens fairly often at work and I think if those staff members are that pissed off at the people they are serving in their jobs then maybe it is not the job for them. Look into something else.
Another frustrating thing that happened to me today was I found out my parents bought my brother a $15,000 car which they seem to be willing to pay for. I can't help but wonder what Nick has done to deserve this amazing pouring out of money on their part. If he tried a little harder to make money so he can afford the things he wants I would feel better about it all, but I have not witnessed him trying very hard yet. This last year he got a job mowing lawns in the spring, but before that he had work study jobs that amounted to about three hours a week. Nick lives at home during the summer and last summer barely worked at all. This summer he is supposed to work, but I'm not sure that has even started yet. None of this is a problem for me, until he thinks he should just get things handed to him on a platter.
My financial situation is fucking stressful right now. I got a second job to supplement my income and here Nick sits on his ass, barely works, does poorly at school and gets my parents to spend exorbitant amounts of money on him. It's crazy and it pisses me off. Mostly because my parents already have their own debts. They could use that money to pay off their own loans. In my opinion Nick does not need a $15,000 car at this point in his life unless he has the funds to pay for it. When he can afford it then he can have it.
On the bright side of things, I rearranged my room last night and it looks much more spacious. I would like to save up for an arm chair so I can create a fun reading nook. I am also very excited about my trip to Kansas for Jeanette's wedding this weekend. It will be great to see those college friends again.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Correctionville
I have to apologize to my regular blog readers for my lack of posts recently. I update my blog from home (except for that one time I did it on a Friday at work when I took an extended afternoon break — let’s just keep that between you and me) and I have not been home much in the last two weeks.
Last weekend I went to Correctionville, IA for a family reunion on my mom’s side. Correctionville was having its sesquicentennial (150 years) celebration at that time so we all got involved in that too. My Grandma Hoppe (Sue’s mom) has six other siblings. Each family associated with each sibling wore a different color t-shirt. Since there were seven families they picked the seven colors of the rainbow. The Hoppes were blue. Because the whole Utesch (my grandma’s maiden name) family is large and Correctionville is a small town it was neat to see so many people walking around town with bright colored shirts on. As hokey as the whole thing sounds, it also helped me figure out who was who and belonged to what family.
As part of the sesquicentennial celebration Correctionville had a parade. There were over 200 entries in the parade and most of them were old tractors and cars. One of the floats was the Utesch family reunion float that portrayed a picnic family reunion – imagine that. It was actually really well done and won the Mayor’s Award. What exactly that means no one could decide.
I rode in the parade with my mom in Grandpa’s 1979 green Dodge pick-up, which is still in very good condition, especially since it was used on the farm. Last weekend was the first time I had ridden in a parade since my homecoming float elementary school days. I remember the Pet Cemetery movie theme resurfaced at those homecoming parades almost every year. The Marion Bear would be burying the Bridgewater Wildcat or the Centerville Cougar and there would be gravestones and blood all over the place. Did anyone else ever do the Pet Cemetery float?
Anyway, after the parade I went to a quilt show in the local Methodist church. The pews were just covered with quilts old and new. Grandma Hoppe, in her floppy “pioneer” hat, kept running around scolding people for touching the quilts. Even when the quilts had plastic covering them people would pull the plastic off and touch the quilts. Then, when they were scolded, they acted like they had no idea no touching was allowed. I mean, seriously.
I worked at the golf course last weekend too. I worked a close shift on Sunday. I had never done that before so I called Trent about five times on his one day off to ask him questions. I felt bad for bothering him, but if I had been properly trained and if they had some sort of manual I would not have needed to call him so often. Tomorrow night I’m bartending for an event at the course and then it’s off to Lake Shetek in Minnesota for another Summer 2005 camping adventure.
Last weekend I went to Correctionville, IA for a family reunion on my mom’s side. Correctionville was having its sesquicentennial (150 years) celebration at that time so we all got involved in that too. My Grandma Hoppe (Sue’s mom) has six other siblings. Each family associated with each sibling wore a different color t-shirt. Since there were seven families they picked the seven colors of the rainbow. The Hoppes were blue. Because the whole Utesch (my grandma’s maiden name) family is large and Correctionville is a small town it was neat to see so many people walking around town with bright colored shirts on. As hokey as the whole thing sounds, it also helped me figure out who was who and belonged to what family.
As part of the sesquicentennial celebration Correctionville had a parade. There were over 200 entries in the parade and most of them were old tractors and cars. One of the floats was the Utesch family reunion float that portrayed a picnic family reunion – imagine that. It was actually really well done and won the Mayor’s Award. What exactly that means no one could decide.
I rode in the parade with my mom in Grandpa’s 1979 green Dodge pick-up, which is still in very good condition, especially since it was used on the farm. Last weekend was the first time I had ridden in a parade since my homecoming float elementary school days. I remember the Pet Cemetery movie theme resurfaced at those homecoming parades almost every year. The Marion Bear would be burying the Bridgewater Wildcat or the Centerville Cougar and there would be gravestones and blood all over the place. Did anyone else ever do the Pet Cemetery float?
Anyway, after the parade I went to a quilt show in the local Methodist church. The pews were just covered with quilts old and new. Grandma Hoppe, in her floppy “pioneer” hat, kept running around scolding people for touching the quilts. Even when the quilts had plastic covering them people would pull the plastic off and touch the quilts. Then, when they were scolded, they acted like they had no idea no touching was allowed. I mean, seriously.
I worked at the golf course last weekend too. I worked a close shift on Sunday. I had never done that before so I called Trent about five times on his one day off to ask him questions. I felt bad for bothering him, but if I had been properly trained and if they had some sort of manual I would not have needed to call him so often. Tomorrow night I’m bartending for an event at the course and then it’s off to Lake Shetek in Minnesota for another Summer 2005 camping adventure.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
Highlights
This post will be pretty random, just some highlights from my last week.
On Wednesday night I did NOT have clarinet quartet practice. I like playing and getting some use out of my old Selmer, but it felt good not to have an obligation that took up my Wednesday night. Plus, half of practice consisted of Teri, Charlotte and Patty just gossiping about local musicians I knew nothing about. So I would just sit there with this half smile (Miracle of Mindfulness, Tich Naht Hanh anyone?) on my face wishing I was at home watching Law and Order.
Thursday night was the Canaries baseball game. The Canaries are the local semi-professional-Northern-League-something-or-other Sioux Falls baseball team. The Old Courthouse Museum just created and installed an exhibit about baseball in Minnehaha County (the county in which I live and work). We included history on the Canaries and sponsored their game this past Thursday so they gave museum employees and friends/families a bunch of free tickets and a box suite. It was a pretty cool set up. In the box they had a little kitchenette which included a small fridge where Paavo, on of my co-workers, stored his cups of beer while he went to the restroom. I asked him if he thought his drinks might warm up too much in the minute it took him to use the bathroom and he said they certainly would. The room also featured leather chairs and couches, a TV, two tables and chairs as well as an outside seating area right above and behind home plate. Kellie and Dustin had different seats at the game, but they came up to join us later. Good times.
The game got rained out, but that didn't phase the SHM (Siouxland Heritage Museum) employees and friends/families. We just moved on inside and kept the party going. It was never really about the baseball game for me anyway. The problem I have with sporting events is I never manage to get invested in the game. I watch for 10 minutes then I get distracted. I try to get back into things, which takes a few minutes, but I always end up getting distracted again so I never really know what's going on. Thank goodness they have scoreboards or I would be completely clueless as to what was going on. Even though I have this problem I still like sporting events because of the atmosphere and I usually attend them with people I like so I get to spend time chatting with those people and it's all good in the end. Anyway, Jeremy and I left the party early because his grandma was at Sioux Valley Hospital suffering through periodic strokes. It is good that we went, but it was kind of sad for him.
Last night Kellie, Dawn, Justen and I were all up for camping. Acutally, Justen was the most up for it. He had been planning, packing and purchasing all afternoon for the event. I am glad he was so excited, he injected some vigor into our tired group. He also fell out of his poorly crafted chair twice which was very entertaining for us. It rained last night and Kellie's big ass tent held up well - no one got wet. This morning it started raining again so we headed back to Sioux Falls for the day, but they are going out again tonight. I have be a bartender at the golf course for a function tonight so I won't be able to join them. Too bad, but the bartending thing could be interesting.
I rode with Justen on the way home from Palisades State Park and he had to stop at work for a minute. Justen claims he is a pilot for Business Aviation and flies cargo to various regional spots. He is often full of shit so we never really knew whether or not to believe him, but he knew the code to the Business Aviation building so I think he might be telling the truth about this one. He showed me the planes too and that was pretty cool.
Schrag ... OUT.
On Wednesday night I did NOT have clarinet quartet practice. I like playing and getting some use out of my old Selmer, but it felt good not to have an obligation that took up my Wednesday night. Plus, half of practice consisted of Teri, Charlotte and Patty just gossiping about local musicians I knew nothing about. So I would just sit there with this half smile (Miracle of Mindfulness, Tich Naht Hanh anyone?) on my face wishing I was at home watching Law and Order.
Thursday night was the Canaries baseball game. The Canaries are the local semi-professional-Northern-League-something-or-other Sioux Falls baseball team. The Old Courthouse Museum just created and installed an exhibit about baseball in Minnehaha County (the county in which I live and work). We included history on the Canaries and sponsored their game this past Thursday so they gave museum employees and friends/families a bunch of free tickets and a box suite. It was a pretty cool set up. In the box they had a little kitchenette which included a small fridge where Paavo, on of my co-workers, stored his cups of beer while he went to the restroom. I asked him if he thought his drinks might warm up too much in the minute it took him to use the bathroom and he said they certainly would. The room also featured leather chairs and couches, a TV, two tables and chairs as well as an outside seating area right above and behind home plate. Kellie and Dustin had different seats at the game, but they came up to join us later. Good times.
The game got rained out, but that didn't phase the SHM (Siouxland Heritage Museum) employees and friends/families. We just moved on inside and kept the party going. It was never really about the baseball game for me anyway. The problem I have with sporting events is I never manage to get invested in the game. I watch for 10 minutes then I get distracted. I try to get back into things, which takes a few minutes, but I always end up getting distracted again so I never really know what's going on. Thank goodness they have scoreboards or I would be completely clueless as to what was going on. Even though I have this problem I still like sporting events because of the atmosphere and I usually attend them with people I like so I get to spend time chatting with those people and it's all good in the end. Anyway, Jeremy and I left the party early because his grandma was at Sioux Valley Hospital suffering through periodic strokes. It is good that we went, but it was kind of sad for him.
Last night Kellie, Dawn, Justen and I were all up for camping. Acutally, Justen was the most up for it. He had been planning, packing and purchasing all afternoon for the event. I am glad he was so excited, he injected some vigor into our tired group. He also fell out of his poorly crafted chair twice which was very entertaining for us. It rained last night and Kellie's big ass tent held up well - no one got wet. This morning it started raining again so we headed back to Sioux Falls for the day, but they are going out again tonight. I have be a bartender at the golf course for a function tonight so I won't be able to join them. Too bad, but the bartending thing could be interesting.
I rode with Justen on the way home from Palisades State Park and he had to stop at work for a minute. Justen claims he is a pilot for Business Aviation and flies cargo to various regional spots. He is often full of shit so we never really knew whether or not to believe him, but he knew the code to the Business Aviation building so I think he might be telling the truth about this one. He showed me the planes too and that was pretty cool.
Schrag ... OUT.
Saturday, June 04, 2005
First Day of Work
Today I started my first day of part time work at Dells Rocky Run Golf Course in Dell Rapids, SD. I know absolutely nothing about golf and it definitely shows. I was supposed to drive the beverage cart around the course today for this large Citi Bank outing, but since it was raining and raining and raining ... and raining that got postponed until fall. When I got to the clubhouse this morning at 8:30 and it was pouring Trent, the manager, said "Yeah, I need your phone number so I can call you and tell you not to come in to work." I seriously thought he was going to send me home after driving 30 minutes just to get to this stupid golf course, but I convinced him to let me do some training indoors for bartending and pro shop sales and the such. I ended up staying the whole shift and learned about a variety of tasks.
I think it was evident I don't know much about the sport of golf. At one point I was trying to tell someone they could only take golf carts on the paved paths and longer grass and not the super short grass due to the immense rain and puddling. I know there are terms to describe these grassy areas like rough and fairway but I kept mixing them up and I just hope he stayed off the short grass. I tried to have Carrie, my co-worker, explain the whole "handicap" thing to me, but she was hung over from some Rib Fest partying she did last night and kept confusing me. Carrie had to excuse herself in the morning to throw up. She was a little embarrassed and kept apologizing saying this wasn't like her at all and she was going to kill her friend who bought her so many drinks last night. Funny. I think there could be some good stories that come out of this job - I will update you as they come.
I think it was evident I don't know much about the sport of golf. At one point I was trying to tell someone they could only take golf carts on the paved paths and longer grass and not the super short grass due to the immense rain and puddling. I know there are terms to describe these grassy areas like rough and fairway but I kept mixing them up and I just hope he stayed off the short grass. I tried to have Carrie, my co-worker, explain the whole "handicap" thing to me, but she was hung over from some Rib Fest partying she did last night and kept confusing me. Carrie had to excuse herself in the morning to throw up. She was a little embarrassed and kept apologizing saying this wasn't like her at all and she was going to kill her friend who bought her so many drinks last night. Funny. I think there could be some good stories that come out of this job - I will update you as they come.
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