Since wednesday I have been helping out at my piano teacher's musical day camp. There's approximately 35 parish kids split up into 3 groups, who round-robin around the church to 3 activity-filled stations.

Mar, my piano teacher, does activities with kids on the piano and secretly teaches them a bit of music theory. Her husband, Lorne, does arts and crafts. I help Bethany do the third station, which doesn't quite have a name yet.

Wednesday was Rock'n'Roll day. Lorne's brother came in with his electric guitar and gave us a little lesson in rock. Bethany taught a dance and I was in charge of DJing. I played everything from Brown Eyed Girl to Queen to Bachman Turner Overdrive to Elvis, and back. There was a little girl who was a real Queen fan, and she demanded I play all the really obscure songs off the compilation CD I had with me. It was hilarious.

B also made them root beer floats, minus the root beer. You thought we were gonna give kids soda? Hell nah. They got sparkling lemonade. I didn't get a taste but they were apparently either really delicious or "yucky", depending on which kids you talked to.

When I got home I was so exhausted from the day I collapsed onto my bed and woke up an hour or so later, completely disoriented.

Today, Thursday, was jazz. The leaders told the kids they had to be coooooool and smoooooooooth. Lorne had a trumpet and played them some jazzy/bluesy/swing tunes. They weren't very discriminating, so we mushed a bunch of musical styles together.

Bethany had decided to have a Mardi Gras theme, since that is loosely connected to jazz, and the kids rolled frozen cinnamon buns into King Cake and they ate it with plenty of yellow, green and purple sugar on top.

They also made masks with glitter and beads and paint and feathers and they were all very proud of their creations.

The hall was a MESS when all the kids left. There was glue and sparkles all over the table and on the floor, and this confetti stuff Bethany had brought was spread around up to 10 feet away from the actual table. How the heck did this happen?

So we cleaned up and Mar invited me to the local Tim Hortons for an Ice Cappucinno, since it was so friggin' humid that day. We packed into their car (literally) and sped off to Tim Hortons.

The drinks were refreshing, but for the record, the Tim Hortons on St-Charles is a DUMP since it's been taken over by new management.

Then they dropped me at the bus stop and I went home and crashed AGAIN. I don't know why I'm so tired. I guess I'm used to doing nothing all day.

I just had dinner (mmm... sausages) and now I have so go practice a piece I learned this year (and promptly forgot), because tomorrow is "Contemporary Classical" and I'm supposed to play it in front of the kids (and promptly screw up).

See you guys around.