Well it’s the end of FWF 2004. I never thought this day would come. About a week ago I couldn’t wait to leave the place. But about 2-3 days before the end, I started wishing that it was just a little longer. I’m really going to miss not only the other counselors I’ve made friends with, but also the kids that I had been taking care of.

My third session kids were so much better behaved. Thank God too, because I didn’t want to end my French Woods experience on a bad note. Except for Igor constantly picking fights with Dylan and vice versa, all went really well. Hugh, the new counselor from England, was also a godsend. Gotta love that fro!

Oh. The other day Toast stopped me and wanted to introduce me to his dad, Steve…Buscemi. Jimmy was with me and we both spent some time hanging out with him during the afternoon. But I walk up to him and he says, “I know you, I took your picture!” I almost started laughing. So I went on to explain to him how nobody believed that HE took my picture. So we got a picture taken TOGETHER this time. So for those of you who doubted me, here you all go!

And for those of you who don’t know who Steve Buscemi is, get out from underneath that rock and watch a good movie like Big Fish, Resevoir Dogs, or Fargo.

On Saturday morning, I directed the final dance performance of the season. I’m so glad that’s over with. I think sometimes I find myself as a better dancer than a choreographer, although I do enjoy the latter regardless. It’s just that it’s naturally more stressful. Later that night, the final performance of Chorus Line was shown. It was simply amazing! The one kid’s monologue was so honest and sincere that it drew in nearly the entire audience. And I’ve never heard a more boisterous applaud come from a French Woods audience. Later that night I stood on my head at the acoustic festival…pointless I know. But whatever. I didn’t get to bed until like 2:30 because Adam, Tyrone, and Hugh all had to pack their bags for the morning.

Me, Christof, and some other miscellaneous drunk person hanging out on our last night together. Note that Christof is the director and producer of the Academy Award nominated documentary short “Left Behind”.

FWF up in flames!

My co-counselors didn’t even say goodbye! The little punks. They all left while I was sleeping. So in the morning, I had to clean up the bunk and sign out. I was soooo ready to get out of there after all that. Alex’s parents took me to Aaron’s summer home near Yasger farms (where Woodstock was held). His place was so freaking nice. I could’ve shot a movie there. Anyway, the story goes is that Aaron’s father, Tibor, was friends with a 4 other hippies in the 70’s. They jointly bought that piece of property as it used to be a camp. It had a huge house with outlying cottages and a lake. And since then, the 5 friends came every summer to hang out. Now is that friendship or what?

The interior of the large house.

Aaron in his treehouse.

Alex’s parents drove me to Newark Airport and I was off to Washington, DC for my connecting flight to Pittsburgh. How that’s cheaper than flying nonstop to Pittsburgh beats the heck out of me. The flight gets delayed for an HOUR and I miss getting on my plane in DC by less than 3 minutes! ARGH! I seriously have the worst luck flying. And that’s not a good thing at all! Then these other people who were heading to Greensborough offered me to stay at the Marriot with them. Nothing like spending the night with 4 perfect strangers. At least I got to talk to Jenny again since like forever! Too bad I was mucho tired and grumpy though.

So now here I am waiting standby for the 8:30 flight to Pittsburgh. I was supposed to get there and go straight to my apartment at school, but that obviously wasn’t the case. Now I’m going to be missing most of my morning classes, not to mention behind on unpacking. I just hope I get on this flight, because if I don’t, I’m here until 12:45 for a confirmed flight. So I’m going to have to find ways to kill time if I don’t get on. Argh! Sometimes I hate flying.

I just can’t wait to get to school already.

I’ve lost my voice! Yep! For the first time in my life I’ve actually lost my voice! It’s quite painful actually and it’s really frustrating trying to get your kids’ attention when you can’t speak! But that’s besides the point.

Delaney offered Aidan, Cos, and I a ride to the outlets at Woodbury and the mall at Middletown; so we jumped on that opportunity. Aidan and Cos, both my friends from the magic department, taught me a few coin tricks that I basically messed around with the entire day. In fact it was really really fun hanging out with them because they can just make a joke out of everything. So they made me laugh and vice versa all day. Delaney’s pretty good at magic himself, actually.

I got myself a cool looking Asian-looking um…shirt from Kenneth Cole. I love that place! There’s so much stuff I want to buy from there and Armani, and Versace, and Donna Karan, but walking into those stores is more like a tease than anything else. Over 2\3rd’s of the things in there aren’t under $2-300. Although I would save up my money to buy a leather motorcycle jacket from Kenneth Cole any day!

Later on, we all went to eat at the Outback Steakhouse. Aidan got really quiet in the car all of a sudden and none of us were sure why. It was odd because he usually never shuts up, considering he has a witty remark for just about everything. But the past few days, I’ve been connecting with not only him, but Jimmy, Monika, Hugh, and a lot of other people around campus. Anyway Cos and Delaney already went in to get their seats, but I stepped outside real quick and noticed that Aidan was in tears. He never really said why, though. So that got me really worried. I think I know how he feels though because I’ve felt it these past few days: I really really want to leave and yet I really really don’t. I’m ready to go back home to see my family and friends and start up school again. But at the same time, I look and see the really close friends I’ve made here and it’s heartbreaking to know I have to say goodbye to them in a few days. It’s a concoction of both homesickness and the sorrows of having to part. One in itself is unbearable let alone both.

So anyway he shook it off as most of us have to do. And we went in to eat. I feel so bad for our waitress because we gave her such a hard time. Aidan being all witty and just all of us in general performing magic tricks for her. And finally at the end we had her play my game that I bought from Spencers and she got shocked. I think we crossed the line there though, because I think she was nearly in tears and ready to kick us out of the restaurant. I think she even mentioned she wanted to sue us! Hahah. Oh man I feel so bad. But I can’t help but think of the look on her face when she sees the $30+ in tips we left her and how we folded all of the bills into origami shirts, rings, ties, and hearts. She had it rough with us so she deserves at least that much.

Anyways…I’m exhausted, voiceless, and dreading the fact that I’m going to have to teach my dance class tomorrow without being able to speak to them. *shivers*

Sign language anyone?

Tonight was the banquet night as well as our staff show. I thought the banquet would be this really big, really cool thing but the food actually wasn’t all that great. It was all…healthy. No, actually it was all just too fancy and I couldn’t tell what half the stuff was. Everyone was dressed up for the event, so while some people had dress shirts and ties, I put on the most dressy outfit I packed, which wasn’t all that impressive to be honest. Hey! What can you say? I didn’t think I’d have to dress up for anything. although I must say that the majority of the people got their tuxedos and what not from the costume department. I’d rather look shoddy than smell like mothballs. Heh heh.

Beth pulled me aside to do this photo shoot audition for Trace magazine and some other magazine. So the photographer took a few pictures of me. I find out on Tuesday if they want me. Although I’m going to have to say that they probably won’t because it was totally unexpected and I wasn’t prepared at all. I didn’t even take a shower prior to the banquet because everyone used up all the hot water!

Lastly was the staff talent show and me, Chris, and Ryan put together a breakdance routine. What I didn’t know was that Ryan was also on fire staff. So it was interesting to see him sort of mix together elements of breakdance as well as his fire routine. Tomorrow’s our day off so that makes me real happy. Although at the moment, I’m feeling REALLY ill and I think I’m about to lost my voice!

Today’s also Tre’s birthday. I hope she got her card that I sent her.

PIC UPDATE:

Me and Julie at the banquet looking like movie stars.

Me and Toast…aka Lucian Buscemi. Yes…Steve Buscemi’s son. Or wait…maybe it’s Jay from Jay and Silent Bob.

Kate came to visit on the 15th too, but Hurricane Charley swept through later that evening and we got split up. Literally, the entire place was flooded. The bunks next to us got totally flooded and the water was almost waist deep. The rain wouldn’t let up so there was definitely no way we were going out. I don’t know what Kate ended up doing that night. Anyways, I hope she had fun visiting.

I went to DC yesterday with a bunch of my friends to check out the sites. More truthfully, however, we just wanted to get the heck out of FWF for the day. The monuments hadn’t changed at all since the last time I went to visit DC, so it was mostly just having fun and being total goofballs all day with Aidan and the rest of the magicians in the magic department.

I’m aching all over and considering I’ve had only 4 hours of sleep these past few days, I’m really glad I’ve got at least the evenings off thanks to Isaac.

UPDATE:
Pics from the trip!

Chris and I stealing power from McDonalds. Hey, they’re good for something after all. Well…at least until we got kicked out for doing so.

This is Mr. LeBlanc, the albino secret agent squirrel on duty right outside of the White House.

Aidan, Jack, me, Chris, Candace, and Tammy standing in front of the Washington Monument.

This was funny so I had to put it in. Reliable!

So yesterday was my birthday, and I must say that it was definitely one of the more eventful birthday’s I’ve ever had. Most of the day involved me working in the lab and teaching dance in the studios. But later on during dinner, all the kids in my bunk as well as my co-counselors went up and made an announcement saying it was my birthday. But prior to their announcement were these kids that announced their friend’s birthday. It went something like “17 years ago, lightning struck England, and our friends was born.” And a cheer. Then my kids went up and said something like “21 years ago, lightning struck Asia, and our counselor was born.” Everyone laughed and cheered. It was great. Nobody’s done anything like that for me.

Then later that night, all my friends took me to the clubs to celebrate. And nearly everyone was buying me drinks. Afterwards though, we went to Leon’s like around 2:30AM. All of a sudden we see Ron come and totally trash the party by throwing beer bottles everywhere. Nearly everyone ditches except for Ritchie who pops his head out of the door and says “Hey Ron, want a beer?” Talk about a deathwish! The next morning we find out that him and one of the theater directors gets fired….and then RE-hired later that night!

Awesome! It’s stuff like that that makes the summer so much more interesting. Here’s to a 21st birthday living on the edge!

Also, Tre caught me online and wished me a happy birthday. Didn’t think that would happen but that was nice of her. And Gemma totally went out of her way during her vacation and sent me an e-Card! Thanks so much for remembering Gem! Stuff like that makes me feel special! Ironically though, I didn’t get anything at all from my parents. That wasn’t surprising. Haha. But it’s cool. I missed them and my siblings so much yesterday. Jenny also wrote me an email. Thanks Jenny!

I’ll be posting pictures of yesterday once I get some time.

UPDATE:
Here’s some birthday pics!

Everyone at the club helping me celebrate. LOOK IT’S HUGH WITH THE FRO!

The stars of She Loves Me: Aaron, Myself, Ricky, and Dex. Note that Ricky has been on several broadway shows and is the voice of Captain Baseball Bat Boy on the video game Max Payne. Sweet!

Unfortunately, that’s all I could muster.

Haha…so this is funny. I was sitting on my bed and it’s about 9-ish, it’s dark outside. All of sudden the power goes out. Max is in the shower and Ben is on the crapper. It’s PITCH BLACK and outside I hear this massive scream echoing all around campus. For a second I thought the hell split wide open and the Apocalypse had begun. Nope. Just another day at French Woods.

I finally got my new Palm Pilot today. So that made me so happy. It’s a Palm Tungsten T3 (also known as the Nerdinator). I haven’t had the chance to use it much though. I’ve been so busy with classes and I also had a dress rehearsal tonight for She Loves Me. I wasn’t there for all of it, but during the end of the show, one of the actors finally flipped out on the director. I really can’t blame him because the director stopped the show every freaking 5 minutes to yell and correct something. It was really starting to get annoying and frustrating. I don’t understand why someone couldn’t write notes and just present it at the end of rehearsal like it’s supposed to be done! But anyway, the director’s mood came way down after that bit. I’m just crossing my fingers for the actual show tomorrow. God help us all!

On the brighter side of things, we had a staff meeting tonight and I got staff of the week among like 350+ staff members! It was totally unexpected, what with my near-incompetent energy these past few days. It’s hard working in so many different departments all at once. But at least someone’s noticing! Ron, the owner of FWF, even mentioned at the meeting about how I practically run the computer department. So that was encouraging. I think Dr. Lamberski told me that the “eagle” type of employee does remarkable work, but only if they are commended for their efforts. Otherwise they go back to being a “hen” and just doing satisfactory work. I was definitely about to become a hen until tonight.

Gotta get some sleep tonight though. I’ve got a show to choreograph…

Like that title? The director of the musical I’m in said that the other night during dress rehearsal. It’s so true to how I feel right now. I have a show to choreograph and I don’t feel creative at all because I think too much about what I’m doing instead of just doing it. I hate how that gets in the way of my creativity. This is why I’m a better performer…I can just pick up and go and do whatever it is the director wants me to do. The only time I can pump out something creative is when I’m writing.

I bought another palm pilot yesterday. It should be coming in sometime tomorrow. My little birthday present to myself. That makes me happy! I think I started using them when I was in high school I used a really cheapo one that kept track of my homework and schedule and rehearsals and stuff. Then I absolutely couldn’t live without on in college. I think this is like my 4th palm pilot now. Can someone say NERD? Or am I just that depended on technology?

I have so many pictures to post too. Argh! So much to do…so little time. I’ll post them some other time. Ohhh! My birthday is in 3 days. Look out!

Update:
Here are those pictures I was going to post!

I made a new asian friend named Jesse! Isn’t she a cutie? I bet my sisters are going to grow up to be just like her.

This is Maddie, my breakdance class assistant. She helped me teach all the breakdancing moves in class. She’s got quite a few sweet moves of her own.

This is a backstage shot of my dance class during performance.

So today was change over day, also marking the beginning of session 3 at FWF. That means we only have 3 weeks left! Amazing how time flies. The kids I have this session seem like they’ll actually be quite decent. Thank heavens!

Something a little peculiar happened today though. Famous actor Steve Buscemi came to drop off his kid, Lucian. I spent a little time talking to him. Very nice fellow. As a joke, I asked if he could take a picture of me and my co-staff members. He got a little confused. (If you don’t get it, forget it!) When he comes back in 3 weeks to pick Lucian up I’ll ask him for a picture of himself so all you folks at home don’t think this is all a fabrication of some sort.

Dance auditions are tomorrow, so God help me. Maybe I can get Lucian to do some breakdancing. Har har har…

It’s been over two weeks since the last time I got a chance to go out and have fun. I stayed up until 1AM last Sunday to finish my internship project and overnighted it the following morning. It SHOULD have arrived at my professor’s office this morning assuming everything has gone according to plan. Things never seem to go right for me though, so I don’t see why it should. *Rolls eyes* I gave the courier $22 to mail the damn thing too. I don’t think I’ll ever get my change back.

So yesterday was probably my best chance of having some time to myself. But nope. The video lab’s G5 went down so I stayed until almost midnight fixing the thing so the video guys could edit again. And tonight I thought for sure I was going to be able to go out but then I found out I had to sit on duty. Argh! Tomorrow’s a no go either because we have a staff meeting.

But you know…it doesn’t really bug me as much as I make it seem. I’ve always had the saying in my head that reputation comes before recreation; so I may as well finish the work that I promised to get done and gain the respect of my peers than to lose my reputation by going out and partying. We have one week left before start of 3rd session. That means only 3 more weeks left of work and then back to school. I’ve mixed emotions about it though.

Jenny left for home in Idaho on Friday. It’s Tuesday and I haven’t seen her on or received an email from her since. I hope she’s ok. It doesn’t help that Scott shut down the wireless connectivity around campus either. That means I won’t be able to publish this journal for a while. The entire campus’ Internet connection has been really laggy and we’re trying to figure out the cause of it all. Scott says it’s a PC somewhere. But I sort of disagree with that theory. If anything I think it’s a poor infrastructure–something wrong with the host machine managing the connection to the Internet.

Anyway enough about me talking about work. 10 more days before my birthday! I’m planning to go to either NYC or DC with G-Unit. Oddly enough, I’d feel more comfortable going to NYC than DC, but we’ll see how that all works out.