Day Twenty-Two: First Day of Teens

I started this morning with breakfast with Lego, Croc, and Croc’s family. It was nice to spend a little more time with someone’s family, even if it wasn’t mine. They said a tearful goodbye and we all went to get ready to go to New York City. There were a bunch of us (Me, Lego, Crocodile, Lollipop, Strawberry, Felix, and Alex) and we were initially met by Jerry just outside the pier! I think I have gotten to see him more this year than I have ever before. They may all be short visits, but at least they are visits! He took us all on a “tour” of Times Square. Felix, one of the hosts who is a wedding photographer back home, was our own personal photographer. In fact, someone asked if he had been hired to photograph us! We even ran into the Naked Cowboy and got our picture taken with him!!

Our main stop was Conway, and everyone fell as much in love with it as Lego and I did the first time. I ended up finding a pretty cool suitcase for only $16.99! And yes, I did have to buy a suitcase to hold all of my junk coming home. Leah met up with us there. She hadn’t been able to get to the package my parents sent, so it looks like I’ll be in glasses for another week. Did I mention that I ripped the only pair of contacts I have last Wednesday? I think the kicker of the whole thing is that she called the UPS store and told them she was on her way AND asked her roommate, who was right around the corner, to get them. Roomie’s response? “I don’t really want to get up or go anywhere.” Grr. I still appreciate her making the effort and trying for me.

Jerry left after we had been at Conway a bit and most of the group who came with us headed back to the ship. Lego stuck around so that she could go to lunch with us. We went by Ann Taylor to return a pair of pants that I had bought from there. After that, we headed to Chipotle to meet Gabe and his roommate/friend, Rainey. It was super fun. Lego commented on the fact that she enjoyed hanging out with my friends since hers are so far away.

We rushed back to the ship to make it in time and I showered before I had to go work registration. We had a ton of people registering and I didn’t even finish all of the bracelets before I had to go. It was my first night with the teens and I had to where my official Business Casual outfit. We did registration and a little scavenger hunt, but that was not very well received. After a few other games, we had our first dance/pizza party. They only danced a little bit, but they really seemed to enjoy it. They were all out of there by 12:15, so Popsicle and I got to leave at 12:30. Overall it was a good night. There are a couple of kids who can act like punks, but there are also a few who seem great. We’ll see!