Day 6 Recap after Shannon left me

Yep, this is my(Laura's) first blog post... ever. So as Shannon is loving her life in California, she left me hanging in SLC. After Shannon left, I mainly stayed in Headquarters all day long which was great because I got sun here and there, but mostly I was in the shade. Let me tell you.... I'm going to have a rockin tan after this summer is over... well... just on my arms, face, and legs. Anyways, as Shan mentioned before in headquarters you just answer all the questions and deal with issues that come up. I had two separate incidences where a distraught parent came up to me, telling me that their child has been gone for over an hour. Over an hour?! That's two games worth of time. Keep track of your child for goodness sakes! Luckily we ended up finding both of them so that was good. I also was allowed to fill in the scoreboards and seed teams into tournament play. That was pretty cool... until there was a 3 way tie for first, and 4 way tie for those other spots. Then I handed it over to Jim so he could deal with all the crazy soccer parents who were breathing down our necks and 1 inch from standing on top of me. Psychos! Handing out medal went good... it didn't take too much effort to ask a coach what place they got and how many he had on his team. =] If you thought Shannon resented that blow up thing, then I absolutely despise it. For the last half hour of the tournament, it kept falling down.... on top of people and the scoreboards. Every 3 minutes it would fall down. Sooooo annoying. However, I did learn that when that happens and it doesn't seem as aired up as it should be, it means the generator is running out of gas. Thanks for telling me Jim... Not. I got to learn that one on my own when the tent thing was completely flat on the ground. Tear down was great. I just got to tell people what to take down and when to load it in the truck. I can honestly say I did not take down a single item. I just got to load the items in the truck which was pretty easy except for the stupid tables that go up in the top part of the truck. I'm 5'2 1/2 and I can fully stand under the bottom table. Then try loading 5 more on top of that by yourself. Not fun and my arms are going to be HUUUUUUGGGGEEEEE after the end of this summer. I can lift a lot in the weight room but it's toooootally different when you can't just lay on your back and grip a bar. After everything was loaded into the truck and inventory completed, Jim and I headed up to Park City to meet up with Jeff (the really cool guy who bought us lunch one day and took Shan to the airport). Park City is soooo sweet. I got to see where one of the downhill skiing things during the Olympics was held. Downtown Park City reminded me a lot like the Old Market. Today I FINALLY got to sleep in and I have body aches in places I didn't even know could ache. They weren't kidding when they said it can be a physically demanding job. Now I get the joy of driving back to Denver all by myself because Shannon left me. 9.5 hours in BIG truck going through some mountains by myself.... I just love my life.

- Laura

day 6/summer project day 1

so orientation was fun! we had pizza, played telephone pictionary, learned each other's names (for the most part), and went over some of the rules, schedules, etc. i am soooo excited! i already love the people on this trip! my small group leader, kelsey, is soooo cool! we longboarded to this frozen yogurt place after the orientation meeting (while everyone else drove there) and it was sweet (pun intended). it's like perfect night weather for longboarding. and the sidewalks were nice and flat too =] sooo much fun!

angela is another staff member and she's soooo funny! we hit it off pretty well i'd say. haha sarcasm flies between kelsey and angela and me, so yall can understand why i like those 2 so much. ;]

everyone else seems super cool too. i'm excited to get to know everyone better as the next 9 days go down.

tomorrow morning i'm running with grant at 630, so i gotta get to bed! night guys!

day 6/day 5 recap

herroooooooooo!!

this is shannon writing from SAN DIEGO! i'm here for summer project - flew out this morning from salt lake citayyyy. so far, i've met a few of the girls and a few staff members and they're all so friendly and awesome! me and nichole, one of my roommates, went and explored the beach a little bit and then amy (staff) took us grocery shopping. now i'm in our room blogging.

obviously.

as soon as i meet the rest of my roommates, i'll give more details. one of them is janelle, and she seems really fun and outgoing, but i haven't really REALLY been able to chat/hang out w her yet.

so anywhoo, more on that later.

yesterday was LONG. we got to the fields at early o'clock and started unloading the truck/setting up goals. that took forEVER. then we just started setting up tents and the huge blow-up scoreboard tent thingy and the sponsor tents/freebies and the referee tent....etc. we also checked in the last few teams and soon it was 6 pm and games were starting. during the games we basically ran the headquarters tent, answering coach and parent questions, selling tshirts, directing teams, etc. then i went around fixing goals and picking up trash, repainting goal boxes that needed it, blah blah blah.... when the games were over we packed up the things we couldn't leave out overnight, layed down the things that would blow away, and deflated that stupid scoreboard tent that i now resent [notice the rhymezzzz]

once we left the fields, we grabbed dinner at olive garden. event director jim told me and laura that when the company buys us food, they pay up to $27. so i tried to eat $27 dollars worth of food because jim bet me i couldn't do it. turns out, i couldn't. i made quite the effort though. like, i think food was pressing on my lungs i was so full! jim was just laughing up a storm though. hmph.

then we went back to the hotel and had to make some schedule changes, field changes, and post the scores from that day's games. finally, a bit past midnight, we got to go to our room and shower/sleep. a very long day.

then this morning, we set things back up, i went around repainting the goal boxes and half lines, and games started at 9. around 915, a super nice volunteer parent from the host club drove me to the airport! here's a shout out to jeff! thank you for the ride and for lunch the day before!! you rock, sir!!!!

then, i went through security (successfully this time) and met up with my friend grant at the airport until our flights. he's going to summer project w me too!! but his flight from slc was indirect, so we weren't on the same one. shucks.

after i landed, amy picked me, nichole, sarah, and lindsey up from the airport. and that brings me to where i started this blog.

tonight we've got an orientation of sorts with all of the project members. i'm excited to meet everyone!!!! more later!!

remember the alamo,

shannnnnnooooonnnnnnn

day 5

long day.

like.......really long.

woke up at 7....now getting ready for bed..

.....have to get up at 6 in the morning. :(

i will tell all about it tomorrow. i leave for summer project in the morning. i raised all my support (yay!!!!) and i'm extra double excited to see what God has planned for me :]

night yall...

day 4

ah i can't believe i didn't put this in yesterday's post! ok. so we got to our hotel yesterday and wow. it's....not very nice. when we got in, i went to the bathroom then tried to wash my hands. but when i turned the knob for the sink, all i heard was a "woosh"-ey noise. so i tried the bathtub. same dilemma. hahaha seriously best western? no water? laura and i just died laughing. then, when the water came back on like 10 min later (following a noise that sounded something like a dinosaur in labor) we both ran to the sink and were like "quick! wash your hands before it's gone again!!" it was like in land before time when their river ran dry! scary!

anywhoo..........today we actually did something productive!

we got to the fields early and started painting all of the lines. it took the better part of the day away. 1. when we got there, the sprinklers were on, and 2. the grass was wayyyy to long to play on so we had to call some guy to mow it. neither was a huge setback though cause they turned off the sprinklers for us and also cause the lawn mower guy showed up faster than a jimmy john's delivery guy to mow the fields for us. AND he showed up with the biggest lawn mower i have ever seen. that thing could mow my backyard in one sweep.

after we painted lines (and got sticky paint all over our hands and legs) we had to go to kinko's to print off the schedules and field maps. um....nothing cool happened there. however, it was very frigid inside. to pass the time at kinko's, we looked up all of the synonyms for "frigid"

boy, we know how to have a good time!

then we went to sports authority for team check-in. that was lame as well. we had to wear khakis, which was awful to begin with. there were parents there who volunteered to help us and....that was great..until like 13 of them showed up to help. i didn't even see a few of them because they didn't do anything but chat with each other. it was like the real housewives of salt lake city. oy.

we also had some parents come in who were unhappy with their team's schedule and they expected us to magically create a new one. that doesn't just happen. yet, we've been working really hard to make it happen. so.....i'll let everyone know how that goes. [no i won't. i wasn't born yesterday - i know that that's not very interesting to read about.]

then dinner before another walmart/target run.

our event director, jim, is pretty cool. he secretly loves having a female road crew to work with. we're so....competent. =]

laura and i did a 1030 pm workout too. we did sprints. my legs don't generally do that. ow.

also, i got to talk to my momma on the phone tonight for the first time since i left. hi mom =]

last but not least: here's a shout-out to carol's work friends. i hear yall have been reading me and laura's blog. i'll have to tell miguel what you guys are REALLY doing at work.

just kidding. ;] maybe.

day 3

hokay so..

today we drove from denver to salt lake city! it went aight....i slept, then drove, then slept. laura drove, slept, then drove. it was nothing extraordinary. BUT we varied between speeds of 35 mph up the mountains, and 80 mph downhill.

so that was great.

tonight we went to dinner w our event director, jim. then we went to a super sketch walmart to buy this camera we had to get and.....an hour and a half later, we went to another walmart and got it. sooo annoying. now we're back at our hotel and ready to go to bed. tomorrow the real work begins!!!!!!!!

sorry for the boring-ness of this post. nothing really happened today! haha

day 2

so......our truck only gets up to 43 mph. we miiiiight need to find a solution for this problem.

otherwise, pretty boring day. we filled out some paperwork, our "boss" told us a bunch of stuff, and we loaded a TON of peanut butter into the trucks (jif is a sponsor). but mostly, we just stood around in a circle and juggled with the rest of the road crew. ooh! but we got to test drive our truck and it's......weird. first of all, the seat is bouncy - like, it doesn't stay in one spot while you drive. second, it has a 12 ft clearance, which is a HUGE change from driving a normal car. the seats are like 3 feet from the dashboard, so when you drive your arms are fully extended and, to make matters worse, the steering wheel is MASSIVE. oh! and it's sooooo loud!! when the truck is idling, you can barely hear the person next to you. ah.

but for some reason, both laura and i kinda like driving the truck!! haha it's scary at times, but it's really fun!!!!! especially because ya know how we thought it only went 43 mph? yeah, um...laura had it in 3rd gear so....the truck is fine. it was just operator error. now all the boys make sexist jokes about female drivers. oy.

tonight we went to rich's house for a little road crew/event director cookout. it was sooooo fun! we played horse and i, shannon marie smith, WON!!!! [not surprising.] all of the people laura and i work with are young and super fun to be around. it wasn't awkward or anything to hang out with them - it actually feels like we've known each other for years! most of the event directors used to be road crew members so they give us sweet tips for when we're on the road.

after a while, rich's kids aired up their amazing inflatable obstacle course. soooo cool! but i got stuck in it for a while because there was like an 8 ft wall to climb over and i was struggling against gravity and extreme un-coordination. finally one of the guys (tricky ricky) helped me over. but it was insane!!!!! laura made it through like a champ though. she had no problem. i think the army might be in her future. those people seem to like obstacle courses.

anywayyyyyyyy.....me and laura need to get up early so we can work out before we hit the road in the morning. tomorrow we're off to salt lake city baby!!!!! woop woop!!