I'm back!

I am one tired Scott, yes siree. That one 5 hour shift spawned another 5 hour shift on Tuesday evening that went until 11:30. I just barely missed being on time the next morning. "Turn-around" shifts are a pain, but this variety is better than when I would work until 11:30 and then come back the next day at 5:30. Those were much less than fun. You had to be 100% at 5:30, too, there was no wiggle room some days, as people had pre-ordered breakfast and would be calling down for things. I am not a morning person so IMHO I think it was a truly amazing thing that I was able to work those shifts for so long. Anyway, I had a good week. Workwise I got 40.25 hours (15 minutes overtime, w00t!) and so that was pretty good.

We left for family camp with our church Friday afternoon. I went up much earlier than most with my wife's parents. Having them around provides an interesting dynamic to my life. I am a very family-oriented person, and have been taught all my life that "family is family." For example, I have five siblings, but three are technically half-siblings and two are adopted. I am the only natural child of my parents. Not once have I ever been called a "half-brother" by my older brothers and sister, and although we occasionally mention the adoption of my younger siblings it's usually only in context because my brother looks so dissimilar to the rest of us.

So having two new parents is really great, but I'm still not at a stage where I can call them "Mom" and "Dad" yet. They're wonderful people, but it's still weird right now. I don't know if I'm alone in that; my sister's husband was doing it pretty much immediately. I don't know about my brothers as I rarely see them interact with their in-laws.

Anyway, camp was all right. I love camping. I really enjoy being in nature, especially in the fall, and it was gorgeous. It rained before we got there but not while we were there to my disappointment. I would imagine that most everyone had been praying for it not to rain, however, so I suspect my wishes were overruled. We had a good time overall. I was only moderately comfortable there as although I have gone there for a few years there are still a lot of people I don't know. I spent the time between my arrival and the rest of the clan (after unloading the van) on the porch of the cabin with my feet propped up on a stump, alternatively reading a book (Summerland, by Michael Chabon) or watching a video ("Mr. Monk buys a house") on my iPod. The mom in law had to take a picture; apparently it was rather impressive. I got a couple of remarks from passersby to the effect of, "There's a guy who knows how to relax."

We participated in some activities (i.e. the scavenger hunts and the field games) but not others (the family movie nights), choosing instead to spend time together in the cabin. We played Phase 10 for a few hours (I lost, but not too badly), and then Apples to Apples later than night (twice, won the second game). Then this morning we all got up in time for breakfast, followed by the morning church service, after which I suffered through the first of many group pictures.

While my parents helped with the campwide cleanup, I was tasked with loading the truck so we could get on the road not too long after. Luckily I have inherited my dad's strange gift of being able to pack things (cars, moving vans, boxes) with extraordinary skill so by the time he arrived we were nearly ready. Thankfully we managed to get out with precision, and I only had to say good bye to a few people right at the end when I was walking across the courtyard and mom in law yelled out our names. Grrrrr........

So now I'm back, sitting in my armchair. Life's pretty good. Tomorrow I will be heading down to GameStop circa 10 PM to attend the pre-release party for "The Force Unleashed." I realize I will be far out of my normal circle of nerd-dom, but I happen to have a SW T-Shirt from the pre-release of another game (never bought it but I worked in a video store at the time and the shirt was free). So I hope to fit in, although there will be a trivia game throughout (the actual release isn't until midnight) and a costume judging at 11... (shudder). Judging by the post-Halo 3 release night memories, I should be pretty tired on Tuesday morning... maybe I should take THAT day off instead and go in on Monday. :-)

Hope you are well. I know I have a couple of readers now so join Blogger at least so you can leave me comments, okay? Later!

~Scott