6/14/2010 What Time Is Class?

Bob and I were supposed to attend a Customer Service Class this morning at nine. Arrangements had been made to have someone cover me in the camp store and all was right with the world.

We drove over the bridge to the Parks and Recreation building only to be told the meeting was postponed until one o’clock. Hmmmm…would a phone call have been too hard to make letting us know? Come to find out half of us weren’t notified and one young lady drove all the way from Wilmington, 90 miles away. I have to tell you, Bob and I are really enjoying our time here but we have never seen such a disorganized organization. The right hand never seems to know what the left is doing.

Back to the camp store I went to work until 12:45 and Bob went home and hung out. I’m glad I only had a half day in the store because it was so slow. Kids are still in school and not many are in the park so that makes for a long day.

We returned to the classroom to find four large square tables that sit eight each. In the center of each table was a box of colored markers, colored papers, straws, a plastic frog, a plastic man, a plastic ruler, a ball and a few other things that I can’t even remember now. Each table has most of the same things but maybe not a frog or a ball but certainly something else in their place. We had to wonder what these items were for.

Bob and I also wondered why a Customer Service Class was being given 6 weeks into the program but then soon realized that half the class was made up of the lifeguards who were in school until recently.

Our class leader, I believe her name was Shelly, was very high energy. She talked fast, she laughed fast, she moved around the room fast, she wore me out just watching her. I have to say she knew her stuff and she truly believed in what she was talking about.

The four tables had group projects to do throughput the three hour class which made us interact with each other and certainly brought some critical thinking into the mix. With all the items in the middle of the table we had to build a structure that was a least twelve inches tall, here is where the ruler came into play, and then we had to tell how this structure represented the State Park system. Bob and I played a big part in building the structure so we left the ‘splainin’ to the others.

It wasn’t too far into the class that I answered a question and was rewarded with a Milky Way. CHOCOLATE!!!! This is my kind of class! A little while later one of the lifeguards yawned so she threw one to him for an energy boost. I picked up on that real quick and called out that I could hardly keep my eyes open….you guessed it, Milky Way # 2.

We had another project to do in which we had to present a skit or just out and out tell what we thought represented our project and viewpoint. We opted to forego the skit. Evidently there wasn’t an actor to be had at Table # 2.

I thought it was amusing to find out that not a summer goes by that nearly all of the lifeguards are asked (and some more than once!)what time the next dolphin show is. Yes, there are actually people who think that when they see a pod of dolphins swimming by, up and down, and up and down in waves, that they think the dolphins were let out of cages and were actually performing for the crowds on the beach. HELLLOOOO! The lifeguards are routinely asked where the cages are, how many are there in the show, can they see them in their cages….and these aren’t kids asking these questions.

The was class was interesting, fun, the time flew by and I walked out with two Milky Ways. What could be better?

After dinner I walked over to the Inlet to see what kind of sunset shots I could get only to find that that part of the sky was cloudy and there would be no sunsets this evening.

I was more interested in watching these kids watch a turtle lay her eggs.

The boy in the center of the picture was just fascinated watching the whole process.

I’m predicting another long day in the store tomorrow when I’m the Ice (wo) Man.

I had the nicest surprise this evening. My phone rang and I heard this voice on the other end say, “Hello, Snookie” I knew the voice but I just couldn’t place it. I got her to talk a bit more and then I realized who it was. My friends Marlene and Sig from Quail Run were calling to say hello. Actually, I didn’t get to talk with Sig but I hope to fix that in the near future. Its so nice to know that someone is thinking about you and they call to let you know right out of the blue. It’s funny, I called another friend from Quail Run, Betty, to get their phone number about three weeks ago but hadn’t put it to use yet. Needless to say I’ll go to bed with a smile on my lips tonight.