Day 64...... Its The Final Countdown......

........do do do dooooo. Do do do do dooooo!!! (Random bit of 80s singing there for you all!!)

So yesterday marked the 'one week till camp is over' point! A week today we will all be (probably asleep) on a bus merrily making our way down to New York City. Where we will have a night of excessive drinking and merriment before everyone goes their separate ways for the rest of the summer. Or in my case stay another night and then move west to Chicago :D I somehow volunteered myself to book a hotel in NYC for people, a task which of course has become epically stressful, with people changing their minds that they want to, or dont want to, stay, a week before we go! So Im very close to just telling people to book their own hotels and Ill stay in this one on my own! My temper remains calm so far though haha.

I have physio later, hopefully he'll say I can come off my crutches as Im pretty much walking without them now, the brace is enough support. Stairs are still a bit of an issue, but I can work on them in a week!! So travelling looks safe for now, keep your fingers crossed for me though! I went to the doctors on Thurs, (yay fun last day off!!) and he was so lovely I suspect last time I saw his evil twin, and told me I was doing well, ran through the various surgery options he'd consider if I was staying with him (they all sound very fun, Im very excited!) and wished me good luck! I got a refill of my lovely painkillers, but the pain has become more bearable so Im taking them less, which is good because I dont enjoy the nausea they cause!!

For those of you who knew she was doing it, Lorna survived her jump out of a plane for charity and so will be joining me in one piece in LA 13 sleeps from now. Which is VERY exciting! Tech week starts tomorrow, so its a joyous week of shows and rehearsals, then parents weekend (yum lovely food!), camp clean up, staff party and done! Woop!

Am still planning on calling people, sorry if I havent got to you yet, Im working on it!!!! :)

Day 58....... Does anyone remember what sleep feels like?!

So the countdown to the end of camp has begun! We have 13 sleeps left here before we all pack up into a bus and travel back to New York City. Where I will be spending 2 nights before moving onto Chicago (this is all a hopefully scenario at the moment, my knee needs to keep improving the way it is for it to all go to plan :/ but more about that later......) A few things on my travelling plans have changed, so for those of you who are interested here is a link to my new and improved Google map, which, yes, I updated all by myself :D http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=109629027493582904002.000487588e1fda26f9ebd&ll=38.959409,-98.261719&spn=32.907523,78.662109&z=4

I quite like the new plan, it looks much better on the map, more of a circle than me crossing myself several times! I still get 3 stop offs in NYC but Im sure there's enough there to see on all my visits!!

As for my knee, well I went to physio yesterday and he was pleased with my progress. I remembered some of the things I was told from last time this happened and so had been doing some of them and it seemed to have done some good coz he said I had much better range of movement than he expected based on my notes. The pain is still ridiculous but its at a stage where regular painkillers will stop it and its become more of a background annoyance than the only thing I can think about!! I am currently sporting a fetching 'hinged brace' which 'provides both stability and movement' (ha Americans make me laugh) which seems to be doing the trick. Its a bit uncomfortable coz under my kneecap is still pretty swollen but the guy said that would get better as my knee does. So fingers crossed it keeps going the way it does and that my travelling will be ok, Im still refusing to admit defeat and look at what effect cancelling flights etc will have :/

Work-wise things are plodding along. Devastatingly I didnt get in the pit for Fame :( but Im doing 'Into The Woods' and 'Once Upon A Mattress', both of which are fairytale type shows. The music is really pretty, 'Mattress' is fairly straightforward, I switch between clarinet and flute only ever in between songs and not during so thats all ok, 'Into The Woods' is a bit more of a pain, Im reading of a piano/vocal score and picking the parts that are needed. Which would be awkward enough except Im doing most of it for clarinet, and from the bass clef, and sight transposing the bass clef is not an easy task! Those of you who understood that please feel sorry for me, and those of you who didnt can marvel at how impressive it sounds and what a genius I am :) (its really not that hard!!) I have more advanced students this session so Im putting together a flute ensemble, which is really good fun, the kids pick things up really quickly! Other than that there's nothing really new to tell, we're all just focussing on getting this session done with!!

Ill try to call everyone before I leave camp, I probably wont get much of a chance to when Im travelling. Ill have my cell phone so feel free to text or call, but I cant dial international numbers so I wont be able to call you :)

Day 53......We welcome 3rd session, and a knee brace!!

So its been an interesting few days!!! We had an amazing end to session 2, Parent's Weekend went really well, the weather stayed nice and the shows all went off really well (well except for a small incident where a child who forgot his lines said the f-word off stage before his mic had been turned off :/ but we glossed over that....!) It was really sad saying goodbye to these kids and unlike with first session the bunk didnt seem peaceful and quiet, it seemed a bit miserable and sad :( But whatever it was a quiet lie in was had by all, and we got up ready to face the session 3 kids!! Who are now all here and pretty much settled in, the shows are decided and I find out which pits Im in on Saturday from Annie, Once Upon A Mattress, Fame, Into The Woods and Urinetown. Fingers crossed for Fame, that would be amazing!!

In a side story, last Thursday whilst doing some ballet to try and get my skills I used to have back, my bad knee decided to give out in protest. It had fluid under it so was compressed and iced to try to get rid of it and was in an attractive bandage. Nothing major though and all was fine, until an ice cream fight at the ice cream social between some counsellors got MAJORLY out of hand and I twisted it. Lots of ice and painkillers and a short but fun trip to the ER later and Ive chipped a bone and done something to the ligaments down the side of my knee and possibly to the miniscus underneath my kneecap!! Fun times all round!! I was on a very fun drug called Vicodin for 2 days, which made me unconcious every time I took it, not good seeing as I cant teach the flute whilst asleep! Luckily I got a trip to the orthopedic guy who works on the US Olympic team today and he took it out of its brace and referred me to physio, so hopefully in a week or so I should be back to normal. Everybody cross your fingers, coz camp is no place for crutches, and all my travelling is booked :/ I informed Mum and Dad by phone of this mishap, and have heard all the sarcastic comments you can throw at me, and Im sorry if I havent rang you and told you and this is how you're finding out but I only have so much phone credit :/ At least you know now :)

I think this is all my news for now, today was my day off and it was spent going to the doctors (who knew such a place existed in the randoms of New York state?!) so I have no exciting news from that! Will post more news when I have it, hope everyones well, and Ill try to talk to you all before I leave camp. Which is 2 weeks Monday, damn how time flies!!!

Day 46.......Where did second session go?!?!

So its been an awesome few days! Had my day off yesterday which was lovely, we just went into Long Lake and chilled out on the beach after having a lie in, enjoyed ice cream and an off camp dinner and got back in time to see the dance show! Which was AMAZING, I thought last sessions kids were talented (well they were, these are just insanely talented!) I missed the Crucible which I was sad about, apparently it was really good, but Ive scheduled it into my parents weekend plans so I can see it then! Oklahoma went really really well on Tuesday night, the musical director Drew is awesome, and I think we played it the best we've ever done! One more show of it on Saturday and the songs can finally go out of my head!! West Side Story is tonight, genuienely the most stressful pit ever but nearly over!! The play looks amazing though the kids have done really well so Im excited to see how it all comes together tonight! We saw 13 on Tuesday as well, which is genuienely HILARIOUS!!! And not in an 'oh the kids made a joke, we should laugh way', its actually really amusing! If you get chance to see it, do!!

Think thats all my news for the moment, tech week is so exhausting, all free time is taken watching shows and bedtime is much later, so all the staff and kids are grouchy! But in 3 days the session is over and it all starts again, madness!! Ive booked nearly all of my travelling now, I just need to book accomodation in New York and Im done!! And obvs its expensive so Im trying to find somewhere relatively cheap!! If you know anywhere, let me know!! It was my little brothers birthday yesterday (happy birthday Sam!!) and it was so sad that I wasnt there, its the first time ever Ive missed a birthday!! And its madness that hes 6, it doesnt seem like 5 minutes ago he was a little red thing that fitted on my chest, and now hes writing me emails!! (Ive also learnt that my Dad checks this most days, so Hi Daddy!!!! Love you lots, miss you!!)

Probably wont get chance to update this till after Parents Weekend (and wont have anything new to say!) so wish me luck and Ill post again soon!! :)

Day 43.....Whoever invented camp sleep is a genius!!

For those of you not in the know, camp sleep is a marvellous invention that the camp has been allowed this session. Its logic is very simple, everyone has lunch then goes to their bunks, sits or lies on their beds in complete silence and cannot move until 2.45 (roughly 2 hours later) Needless to say counsellors LOVE camp sleep, most of the kids are ok with it and some fight against it! Mine weren't all that impressed and had to be threatened with death a couple of times to make them be quiet (Im kidding!) but I got pretty much the full 2 hours and it was AWESOME!!!! We're into tech week again now which means late nights as we watch all the shows the kids are putting on and changed schedules which mean everyone just kind of wanders through the week following the person in front of them! Then these kids leave and we get new ones, in some ways its gone really quickly, especially this session, and in others I can definitely feel every day of the 6 weeks we've been here!!

In other news, (and reading through my blog I realise I use this phrase a lot!!) I have added Lexington, Kentucky to my list of places Im going when I hit the road after camp. An odd choice I know, as is the rest of the mid-section of my trip, Americans keep looking at me blankly when I say Salt Lake City and Denver after LA, San Francisco and Vegas, but that is where my bunkmate Brittany lives. She's promised to show me some southern American stuff and who can turn that down?! Plus its another state to add to my list, which is vastly diminished after the train fiasco! This unfortunately means that my habit of saying "y'all" that I've picked up from her isnt going to go away anytime soon, but I promise Ill have gotten rid of it before I get back!!

Day off is Wednesday this week, due to rehearsals and performances so only 1 more day to go yay :) No real plans I dont think, just a chilled day, fingers crossed the weather stays nice for it!! Will post again soon, love to everyone back home xxxx