Animal Scrabble

When I was watching Jack the other day, he said he wanted to play a game. I asked him what game, and he said, "Scrabble."
First I was really confused. "Scrabble?"
"Yeah, animal Scrabble."
I was wondering why he wanted to play Scrabble (and I knew he wouldn't be like, really playing it, but still), and wondering what "animal" Scrabble was. I asked him where it was, he directed me to the closet and pointed to the box.
Animal Scramble. That made much more sense.

I think my favorite part of yesterday was when he asked for a drink after snack. He said he wanted milk or orange juice, which I was pretty sure would be okay, but wasn't positive. I said, "How about water?" And he gave me a funny look and said, "How about not water?"
I love that kid. :)


I'm currently working on my hair school application. I'm supposed to write a letter of intent. I'm not entirely sure what that's supposed to be about. "I intend to go to your school." Then what? I don't know if this is supposed to be like, what I plan to do after, or if I'm supposed to talk myself up in it, or if I'm supposed to suck up in it.
I think it's going to end up being kind of a personal mission statement thing, what I plan to do after. We'll see.


Oh yeah, the Higher One guy hasn't called. He said he would on Monday or Tuesday. :/
I've started knitting this (the one in the bottom right corner, because that's what the pattern is for, although I really like the green one above it). I'm excited to see how it turns out. I guess I'm pretending that when I get to hair school I'll be all stylish. With my hat. It's a dream, don't judge.


I'm also looking at my options for jobs. It would be great to do reception in a salon before I get to hair school, and it might be a job I could keep once I start. But I'm also thinking that once I start, I'm going to be wanting all the breaks I can get. Classes are from 9:00 am - 4:30 pm Tuesday thru Saturday. That's right, Saturday. Sunday and Monday will be my weekend. I'd rather not work on Sundays, which leaves only Monday to work. I don't know if I'll be able to hold a job for one day a week. Unless I work after classes. Which at this point, sounds not fun at all. We'll see how things go, I guess.

Define: Unbelievable

Remember that $117 purchase at a Korean website on my debit card?

My dispute was denied.


I couldn't believe it.

"Thank you for contacting Customer Service. We have been working to win your dispute case and have received documentation (known as re-presentment documents) from the merchant involved in the transaction. Unfortunately the information that they supplied substantiates their assertion that the charge was valid...
...Based on the information supplied by the merchant as well as the other available facts, we must deny your dispute. We had initially supplied a provisional credit for the transaction pending the full investigation. At this time, we have debited your OneAccount for the amount that was originally credited and consider the claim a closed item."

I want to know what the other "available facts" were. Because the fact is, I didn't do it. I was at camp (family camp, actually) and I don't speak Korean.

Oh, it also said, "We regret that this was the outcome of you case." At least make sure that the crushing e-mail is typo free, geez.


My first reaction was to cry (as it usually is). I couldn't believe it had been denied. All that the documents have on them is my card number and my name. It's not my e-mail, it's not my phone number, and it's a company that try as I might, I have not been able to find to be in existence. What about that substantiates the assertion that the charge was valid? It was obviously going to have my name and card number on it, duh. But that's all there is. There is absolutely NOTHING there "proving" that it was me. And it wasn't me.

My aunt walked by while I was still crying looking through the information, and dialed the number for customer service and handed me the phone. She told me that they probably bank (pardon the pun) on college kids getting their claims denied, crying and giving up. Which, honestly, I probably would have done if she hadn't been here. She works at the Washtenaw County Police Department, and said we could file a police report for stolen identity or something and send it in.

The customer service lady I talked to was really nice (not super helpful, but nice). There wasn't much I could do right then, since the report hadn't actually been filed, and she said I needed to fax it in. I ended up tweeting about it, and thank goodness for Melanie and Kevin. My debit card was issued through Spring Arbor, and Kevin's dad does work with that. I called him, and he was able to connect me with someone a little higher up, who said he would look into it. He couldn't understand why the claim had been denied either. He's supposed to be giving me a call Monday or Tuesday. He did say that he wasn't promising to get the money back - it could be that once a dispute is denied, it's denied and there's nothing you can do, which is really really discouraging. If I can't get the money back, I at least want to know why it was denied. There's no evidence. And also, I didn't do it.

Jamin's mom also offered to help - she works at an attorney's office, and she said that if she wrote up a letter, her boss would probably be able to sign it for her. Maybe if they see that there's a possibility of legal action, they'll change their minds.


It's just been a really frustrating process. And it's sort of upsetting to lose that much money.
We'll see where it goes. :/

Family Camp Music Guy

I know what I forgot from this summer: the music guy from family camp.

I ended up playing with him a few times, since Wellspring wasn't at camp yet. He didn't have a band put together like, four days before family camp started, so two counselors and myself were going to help him out.
Now, I know that I always think people don't like me. But I didn't go into this thinking that he didn't like me right off the bat. But after a "Koz, if we play Kelly Clarkson I'm totally playing the drums" joke, things were weird. No, actually, they were weird when he realized that I was the one playing guitar instead of Jamin. Which probably would have worked out better all around.
I felt like he kind of ignored me during practice, but again, I'm a little paranoid about things like that. I knew that he wasn't impressed with my skills (or lack of, I guess), but I didn't tell him I was awesome, and I'm pretty sure Kyle didn't either.
The best part came during the Sunday morning service when he said something about being able to hear the praise in the music. "You can hear the praise in the bass, and the drums, and I hope that you can hear it in the keys (which is what he was playing)! And...and I hope you can hear it in all the other instruments too."
Let's review the band:
Nate - bass
Koz - drums
Guy - keys and vocals
Me - guitar

Praise in bass: check.
Praise in drums: check.
Praise in keys: check.
Praise in "all the other instruments": afterthought.


It wasn't horrible. It was just...frustrating, I guess.

But it's kind of funny to think about now. Which is a lot better than still being embarrassing.

Catching Up

I've already forgotten a lot of the things I wanted to write about from last week, I'm sure. But I'll share the things I do remember.

I had a great week with a fantastic group of girls. I was a little nervous going in, knowing I had 10 girls (I hate having a cot in the room, and it was so nice to not have a top bunk over my bed!). Thinking about shower schedules in big rooms make me nervous. I'm always afraid that everyone will want to take a shower in the morning and I'll have to start waking them up at 5:00 to get them all finished up. But despite all that, I had a really really great week. My girls were so, so awesome. I got to practice french braiding, and we played a new version of Mafia. Becca's room had played a lot the week before, and she was a little sick of the death theme, so we changed things up a little. We eventually came up with...well, I forgot what we decided to name it, actually. So I told my girls it was called Danger Island. I asked Becca later and I think she said Danger in the Tropics. But I can't remember for sure. Anyway, it's pretty much the same as Mafia, except it's set on an undiscovered primitive island. The Mafia becomes the Spy who is kidnapping the tribes-people and selling them to the circus. The Nurse is the Tribe Leader, who chooses someone to protect. The Sheriff is an agent from the CIA, and is trying to discover who is the Spy. It was pretty intense, and so much fun.

There was a girl in my beach bums class who was the most hypochondriac person I've ever met a little nervous about health issues. She asked me if people had to take a test to see if they had any diseases before they could swim in the lake. A few days later she had put on too much sunscreen and couldn't get it all rubbed in. After a few minutes it had been absorbed (as sunscreen does), and she kept asking me if it was supposed to do that, if it was bad for her, if something bad would happen. During a game she came up to me waggling her finger in my face, telling me she thought it was broken. She wasn't a bad kid at all, just a little overly concerned. About everything. Her counselor said that she thought she was going deaf because someone yelled in her ear and wouldn't stop crying about it for like two hours.

Another girl at camp was...well, she was difficult. At one point during a game, she ran up to a counselor near me, crying, telling him that a boy had just kicked her. The boy said she'd kicked him first. I didn't see her kick him, but I knew the boy, and I knew the girl, and I'm sure she did kick him. The other counselor told the boy not to kick people, and as soon as his back was turned, the girl stopped crying, looked over her shoulder and "Ha!"-ed at the boy. I didn't even know what to say.

Oh yes, I almost forgot about the cougher. I had a girl in my room who on the first night, coughed for probably an hour and a half. Which kept me awake. It was pretty frustrating. The next night, she coughed for another hour. I thought I was going to lose it. She is such a sweet, sweet girl, but I could not handle the coughing and throat clearing while I was trying to sleep. I'm a person who likes it quiet. And it was keeping other girls awake as well. Tuesday night the fabulous nurses had her do a treatment from her nebulizer (I think?), and that solved the problem. It was glorious.

I'm sad that camp is over. It's nice to get a little more sleep, but I already miss the people.


Friday afternoon, Becca, Nate and I made some candles for Jon and Lauren's wedding. We used shells from the beach in them, since Jon worked at camp. They weren't awesome, but we tried. That's what counts, right? I mean, they could have been worse. I should have taken pictures. Oh well. We know for next time that you need to save a little wax, cause when they cool off they get little "wells" in the middle. Whoops.

Saturday was the wedding, and it was great. Not so great was the blister that my new shoes gave me. Somehow, it happened before we even got to the wedding. Like, during the car ride to the wedding. Which is bizarre, but true. I so so so hope that they just need to be broken in.


Yesterday I went through all my clothes and got rid of some more stuff. It felt awesome. Then I went through other stuff and got rid of some of that too. It was a productive day.
Oh! Then Daniel made tomato soup. I helped. It was delicious. Even though it was super hot outside.

Now I've gotta find something to do for the rest of the day. I had a dream last night that I mowed the lawn. Maybe I'll go do that. But probably not.

Insert title here.

I have got some blogging to catch up on.


But not now. I am very busy with crafting and The Settlers of Catan. And it is glorious.

Define: Triumphant Return

It's been a while. Okay, it's been over a month. Whoops.

Camp has been amazing this year. There have been days when it's been really tough, but the overall experience has been fantastic.
This last week started out in a rough sort of way, but by the end I was sad that they were leaving (even the kids in my beach bums class).
I had two girls in my cabin and in my class, and for the first few days, I just didn't know how to handle them. They were picking on each other, saying bad words, and picking on other campers. They even got me. Two examples:
I took a shower and blow dried my hair in the bathroom. Now, my hair is...well, it wasn't exactly...perfect, at the time. But it wasn't that bad. Anyway, I walked out of the bathroom and one of the girls said, "Wow, your hair looks really bad." Great, thanks.
Most of my girls this week were totally boy crazy, and I was trying to dissuade them from giggling and flirting and talking about boys all week. At one point I said, "I didn't have a boyfriend until I was 20." To which my camper replied, "Wow, that's really embarassing." ...thanks, again.
So I had these two girls every day, all day. On Wednesday night, something happened, and one of them suddenly loved me. She held my hand all the way to the petting farm and all the way back, wanted me to french braid her hair, wanted to sit by me, the whole deal. It made things so much better. Not to say the problems went away, but they were soo much better. On the way over to the petting farm, one of the other campers wanted to braid my hair, so I took my hairtie out. It had gotten wet, so it was out of control a little messed up. The girl who told me my hair looked bad before said, "Um, your hair is really weird." And the girl who now loved me said, "No it's not, it's not that bad."
My heart pretty much exploded. :)

There was another camper in beach bums (not in my cabin) who was a little tough to handle sometimes (David). He wasn't blatantly being disrespectful, but we were constantly reminding him of boundaries (and as soon as we said something he usually complied). On the last day, we took the pontoon out into the middle of the lake to jump off. One of the other campers had a few special needs, and was pretty hesitant about getting in the water. I kept explaining that the life jacket would make him float, and we watched other campers jump in and pop right back up. He was still a little scared, but David started encouraging him to get in. When he finally did, David was there to keep encouraging him and hold his hand when he was afraid to let go of the boat. It was so amazing to watch, and David was a total sweetheart that day.

I also learned how to french braid this week, and I felt super awesome. I meant to take a picture of the hair of one of my campers. I started to give her french braided pigtails, but when I got to the back of her head, instead of keeping them separate, I combined the braids into one big one. I may have been a little partial, but I think it looked pretty sweet. Especially for only having two days of french braiding experience.

A couple weeks ago I discovered that a $177 purchase had been charged to my Spring Arbor Higher One account. I was pretty sure that I'd remember making a purchase that large, and was really concerned as to how that had happened. When the details of the transaction posted, I discovered that the transaction took place via a Korean website. Not me, and definitely not okay. I called Higher One and explained, and the woman told me I had to wait until the transaction cleared (apparently it was still pending). The next day, I got online to see if it had cleared, and another unauthorized transaction had taken place. I called and cancelled my card, and started the dispute process (making sure to explain that it could not possibly have been me because I don't know a word of Korean). The second charge has disappeared, and I just got an e-mail from Higher One that (I think) says that I'll probably be getting my money back. Which is a relief. $177 is a lot of money for me at this point. Well, probably at any point in my life, really. I'm just glad it's getting resolved.

I'm sure there have been a ton of other things that happened during the last month that I was going to write about, but at the moment, none come to mind, and I need to put my laundry in the dryer.

Oh another thing:
My campers keep using my towel. I think I already brought this up. But it happened again.
This week I did not leave my towel in the bathroom when I wasn't using it. Problem solved. :)

The first camp of the summer...

I got puked on this week at camp.

When I called Jamin Thursday night I told him, and he said, "Again?" For a second I was confused, then I said, "No, not pooped, puked. Throw up." Poop was last summer.
After the incident, I was in a surprisingly good mood. I'm not sure why, but I'm glad, because I imagine that if I hadn't felt that way I would not have been fun to be around.

I had a really great group this week. There was one "squirrelly" camper (I feel like that's becoming the word of the summer), but even with some of the frustrating moments with her, I had a really good week. I was really anxious going into it, but it turned out totally fine. By the end, I couldn't believe it was already Thursday.

One of the campers I had was completely spacey. The definition of, even.
I had put my towel in the bathroom on Sunday before the campers arrived, and Sunday night, after this particular camper took a shower, she came out of the bathroom to get her clothes. Wrapped in what appeared to be my towel. I wasn't sure what to do right away, I was a little shocked, and I wasn't 100% positive that it was mine. But sure enough, when I went in to take my shower later, my towel was gone. Luckily I'd brought extras, so I just used one of those.
In the morning, I asked her about it.
"Was there a blue towel in the bathroom when you took a shower last night?"
"Yes."
"...where is it now?"
"I put it in my trash bag."
"Well, that towel was mine, so could I have that back?"
"Sure." She started to climb down from her bed. "Where is it?"
"...um, wherever you put it."
And that was the first day. More than once she wandered off (we lost her for a while because she forgot to come to dinner), even when I was right there. We were both on the playground, and I watched her start walking towards the lodges and get halfway up the hill (although heading a little bit more towards the West campground than the lodges) before I ran to catch up with her. I asked where she was going, and she told me the lodge. I asked her to ask me next time. She'd been sort of walking with an adult, and after the camper walked away, the adult turned to me and said, "I think she's just a lonely little girl." Like I had been neglecting her. I told the woman that I had actually been within 30 feet of the camper when she'd started walking away, she's just...spacey.

I'd written down that my goal for her was to pay more attention, but at the end of the week...I think that maybe that was a pretty lofty goal.


But really, I did have a great week. :)