Apparantly, I'm too nice..

Yesssss...
soo im off again!

These past days have been intense.. though they have been on and off..
Zack was back with me! He is a good guy to work with. He and i mesh well and can laugh easily.. though we are apparently too easy on the boys.

I actually got a talking to by the higher-ups suggesting i crack down some more.. dole out more consequences.. I cried.. it was hard to hear.. though i knew they were right..

So.. from Wednesday night until yesterday I had them write sentences, i treated the boys with good behavior and let the bad behaving ones realize that good behavior is rewarded, I had some sleep outside at night, i refused to let some back into the cabin until they took responsibility for their behavior....

One, in particular, took it hard... had a hard time understanding that there are 8 kids in the group and i need to help EVERYONE.. not just him. He is also the one that-when he's mad, he goes crazy and turns the cabin dynamics into a train wreck... he gets out of hand.. he also called me a bitch, a waste of time, etc. under his breath. He made it clear he wasn't going to talk to me for the next 2 months.. he smacked the back of my seat on the bus relentlessly while one of the other boys was in the backseat cracking up. he glared.. he wouldn't listen to me.. he made a point to SEEK OUT Zack to ask him a question when i was right next to him..
He is also one who-when he is good, he is AMAZING. He is the leader of the pack. He sticks up for the others who cant or wont stick up for themselves. Hes a natural joker. I can go on and on..
We had a talk before i left.. I had to follow him and not leave him alone until he broke down and finally talked.. it took forever to get through to him.. to make it clear that i MENT what i said.. He was frustrated that I was reprimanding me (.. I asked him if he thought his behavior deserved consequences and he brushed off the question).. he was frustrated that I didnt try to figure out his side of the story (*him and another boy were "playing". slapping each other with gloves or doing some other random thing like that.. it got out of hand.. one ended up crying.. i ended up going to the crying one-trying to calm him down before i delt with the other.. but before i could even do that. the tears turned to anger and i had to stand there in the doorway between the two of them while they argued it out-on the edge of a fight*).. he was upset and felt rejected that i stuck up for another boy when they were having an argument (E. was mad that everyone was taking advantage of two of the lower functioning students.. VERY moral and legitimate argument he was passionate about it to the point of tears,, once again it escalated into a near fight. where one had to be restrained.. one stood there spittin out his arguments,.. things heated up.. i took E back inside where it was clear he was shaking and later that night woke me up at 1 am saying he was going to die.. took his temperature and it was 103.8)

We cleaned up garbage along the street for our saturday activity.

We went to the used book store for our field trip. THAT was fun.. I LOVE books.. so i went around recommending different ones to specific kids.. i chatted up with random people in the store.. i read the kids their zodiac sign predictions and personalities..

AND
on the way home we stopped at a gas station.
The boys were ALREADY rowdy. and they saw their prey... 2 boys.. around 14 years old.. hanging around the outside of the gas station... apparently they looked over at our little yellow short bus and laughed.. sooooo my kids started sprouting their middle finger at the boys.. soon they settled down.. until the boys came closer.. with their mom and sat down at a picnic table next to the bus. I knew something was going to happen and so i quickly shut the door on the bus to create a barrier so my boys wouldn't shout out at them. The closed door did not stop them. One shouted at the top of his lungs "LOOK AT THOSE BITCHES!!" while the rest of them stuck out their finger. Once Zack got back on the bus, i quickly explained what had gone down, climbed off the bus and apologized to the lady.. she gave me a tight lipped smile and said "I appreciate the apology" and went back to her meal while her little ones were giggling into their burgers.
We also rolled down the hill in front of our cabins in garbage cans.. i have bruises and scrapes.. but we needed that kind of release after the day we had. i went down 6 times! They kept shouting "GO AGAIN PENNY!! ITS SOOO FUNNY WHEN YOU DO IT!!" i dont know WHY it is so particularly funny when I do it.. but i happily obliged.

We fill up the majority of our down time by listening to one of the kids satellite radios where he can get any music he wants.. we jam out to :"Ms. Officer": and Lil Wayne and Ludicrius and Cascada and other older ones that bring back memories. He explains each song.. "this was back in 1994!" and has new songs by old artists like Cindy Lauper and whatnot...

I really want to dye my hair.. .
RED.. candy apple red.. blood red.. vibrant.. orrrrr blue....
i just want something dramatic. something different..
AND with this job, i can get away with it... with BOTH jobs i can get away with it.. sooooo why not!?

the quietest kids are always the ones that cause the most trouble.. while the ones that cause the commotion at the beginning settle down and become no trouble..
SO true... soooooo true...

One of the kids is a budding comedian.. im actually listening to his stand up routine right now.. :) AND he practices his new comedy bits on us whenever he comes up with them.. he loves to but into others business a lot.. asking personal questions about our sex lives... persistent.. making sure we give out consequences.. but.. i am growing fond of him.. :)