Night Shift Supervisor

As summer gets closer, and school gets out around the country, more and more people are coming to Gettysburg, and to the campground. I am beginning to feel more like a resident of Gettysburg than a visitor. I can tell our guests where to find a good restaurant and give them directions how to get there. I can tell them how to get to the campground from the major highways, and I can tell them where they can go to see a movie. Jim thinks this is funny, because he thinks I am bad at giving directions, even though we have only gotten lost once in 15 years with me reading the maps.

If anyone out there wonders what it is really like to be a Night Shift Supervisor at a campground, here are a few things that went on at my job over the last week:

A little girl was bitten by a dog. She was with her parents at the shuffleboard court when the owner of the dog came up. All the adults chatted for a minute about the dog, which was a very nice dog. While the adults were chatting, the child was petting the dog. All of a sudden, the dog snapped at her, resulting in a gash on her face that required 12 stitches. Now the different part is that the father was calm, cool, collected. He did not yell and scream at the owner of the dog. He told me later that things happen, he just wished that it had not happened to his little girl. I thought that was amazing, how calm he could be about the whole thing. Most people would be talking about lawyers and suing and such. He just said, “I was standing right there and could not have prevented it myself.”

The second thing that happened was that an older man came in, registered, and drove his motorhome to the site. He came back all huffy and mad as a hornet because our rock on the site had damaged his motorhome. He was demanding to speak to the manger, and guess who was the senior management person on duty? Me, the Night Shift Supervisor. So, while I was thinking to myself that HE was the one driving the thing, I asked him what I could do for him. He said he wanted to be compensated for his loss. I told him that I could not do anything like that and that he would need to speak to the owner, who was not on the property at the moment. Finally got him calmed down and out of the office. Whew! It is at times like that that I do not like being a supervisor.

Next in was a lady (and I use that term loosely) who was shopping in the store with her four year old child. I watched and listened (I was FORCED to listen as she was screaming at the child the whole time) as they walked through the store. The kid was holding two candy bars and a sucker in one hand, and a Kool-Aid drink in a plastic bottle in the other hand. He had the unopened drink in his mouth, chewing on the top of it. The mother was saying, “You need to decide it you want the candy or the drink, hurry up, make a decision, we have to go, decide!” I was thinking to myself, a four year old doesn’t even know what “decide” means! So, I said to her, “You will have to buy the drink because he has had it in his mouth already.” She looked at ME like I was crazy, and said “I KNOW THAT!” and I am thinking, then why are you making this kid think he has a choice about it? She wound buying all that sweet sugary stuff for him. Well, she is the one who has to live with the kid.

A while later, four teenage boys came in to register. They had made a reservation for two campsites next to each other, for a total of 8 people. When I told them the total due they wanted to argue about the amount, because our published rates are $175 for a week. I explained that it is $175 plus 10% tax for two people, and $8 plus 10% tax for each additional person per site. So, for a week on each site, with 4 people per site, that came to $315.70 per site for the week. The boy who had made the reservation claimed he was not told about the extra charges for the additional people, and therefore he should not have to pay it. I asked him how he found out about the campground. He said he saw the webpage on the internet. I told him our rates are published on the internet, and they state the charges for extra people and tax. They were not very happy, and even came back later and wanted a refund of a couple hundred dollars, because they did not think “it was fair for them to be charged when they did not know about it”. What? NO, I did not refund any money to them.

The next day, the four girls arrived. While one of my co-workers was checking them in, I overheard a converstion the girls were having amongst themselves:

1^st girl “Why didn’t we just come up with the guys yesterday?”
2^nd girl “Because Joe did’nt want me to ride up here with him.”

Excuse me, he wants you to sleep with his little teenage self in a tent for six nights, but he does not want you to ride to the campground with him in the same car? And you went for it? Where is your pride, girl? Oh, yeah, that stuff is none of my business.

So, on Monday night, all the work campers met at Linda’s site and shared some gluten-free pasta salad, some cheese, and some wine. Lots of wine.

Making Meals Ahead, This Week's Menu

Last weeks experiment with cooking several meals at a time was a huge success. So much so that I did it again this morning.

Today’s menu was ham, baked sweet potatoes, boiled eggs, gluten free spaghetti, rice, and green beans. I cut the ham in half, and cooked half of it. I sliced half of that, and put it in a zip lock bag for sandwiches. I used the rest of the cooked ham for a homemade ham salad. The uncooked half of the ham will be used for cooking some beans tomorrow, for a macaroni and cheese with ham dish that I make (gluten free elbows of course) and for sandwiches and omelettes later in the week. I will probably use the sweet potatoes to make a casserole tomorrow. Here is my recipe for Ham Salad:

3 cups ground cooked ham
2 boiled eggs
1/3 cup sweet pickel relish
2 tablespoons mustard
1 onion, chopped
½ cup mayonaise

Mix all ingredients well. Serve wth crackers, chips, or celery sticks, or as sandwiches.

It takes a lot of work for a couple of hours one morning a week, but it sure does make my life easier during the week. Althought it takes us all week to eat a ham, and it means that we eat it every day that week, we do love ham. It is also very versatile, and easy to cook, and easy to make a gluten free diet work with it. But, next week we’ll have chicken.

Hadassah House Ministries

My niece Stacie is a truly wonderful young woman. She, along with her husband John, have a created a ministry to girls and women called Hadassah House. The vision of Hadassah House was given to Stacie in order to reach out to females of all ages, to let them know that through faith girls can recognize they are chosen by God, called for a specific purpose, and equipped to complete that purpose.

Perhaps Stacie’s screen name on MySpace says it best, “Complete, Lacking Nothing”. When I saw that, I was really surprised. I have known people who feel that way about themselves, but I have never seen anyone choose a screen name to let the world know it. I was even more surprised when I read her blurb about herself. She told a story of struggling with fear, insecurity, low self-esteem, and rejection as she was growing up.

She said she was an extremely shy and timid child, and had very few friends. I knew she was shy around me, but since she lived hundreds of miles away and we saw each other only two or three times a year, I just attributed that to her being a child amongst adults she barely knew. But, I could just not believe it when I read that she had always considered herself to be ugly and friendless. I always thought she was a very beautiful girl and well liked by everyone, not just us, her family. I am happy for her now that she can call herself “Complete, Lacking Nothing”. I feel that way about myself, too.

On the Hadassah House Ministry website, Stacie writes in her testimony “I no longer deal with the rejection, insecurity, and intimidation that haunted me for the first 29 years of my life. God has completely delivered me from low self-esteem, and I am confident of who I am in Christ. I know that He loves me, and He has called me for a specific purpose, and He will "Complete" that purpose in me!

Part of that purpose is to help girls, teens, and women realize that they, too, are special to God. He has a special name for them -- just like He does for me, and He wants them to see themselves the way He sees them. It is my desire to see girls learn who they are in Christ at an early age so they will not walk in the intimidation and insecurity that I walked in for so long. I want to see teen girls build strong relationships with Jesus so they will not be moved by what the world around them has to say about them, but they will serve Him with all their hearts, that He may complete His purpose in them, and raise them up to be leaders in their generation. Finally, I long to see women become everything God has called them to be. No longer will they be pushed around by the lies the enemy tells them, but they can stand firm knowing God created them with special gifts and talents for the body of Christ, and He has equipped them with everything they need to fulfill their purpose.”

I am excited about Hadassah House Minsitries and what they have to offer to girls and women. But, like any other new venture, they are still struggling to fund their mission. They have several specific needs, from prayer to a building or office, to sponsorship of girls who are not able to pay for materials for the program. If you would like to find out more about Hadassah House and what they believe, and what needs they have, click here.