Cancer

Today at 11:50 I looked at my phone and noticed that I had a missed call. Under normal circumstances, I would probably have answered it or noticed earlier, but I had driver's ed and my phone was on silent. I go to my voice mail and get the normal pre-programmed message. Then I hear, "Hey Sarah, it's Quintin. I just thought you should know that I have cancer. I'm not sure what kind  yet, but I'll find out sometime next week. I'll keep you informed as new information comes. Please call me before noon if possible. If not, call me on Sunday."

Now, some of you may be thinking that it's just a prank, but you don't know him. He's one of the most serious people I know and wouldn't joke about something like this. He also told me once that his family has a history of cancer, so he's at a high risk for cancer. Does anyone know what I can do to help him besides cry?

James Patterson

I recently started reading a book series called Maximum Ride. It's a story about a girl whose grown up with an odd life. Sure, she has five people she has to take care of and is learning the life lessons that we all have to learn, but there's one catch. All six of them have wings. When they were born, scientists took them and grafted avian DNA into their stem cells. The story starts in the mountains of Colorado, where 14-year olds Max, Fang, Iggy, 10-year old Nudge, 8-year old Gasman (or Gazzy), and 6-year old Angel live. They were rescued from "The School", the place where they lived up until 4 years ago, by Jeb Batchelder. However, he went missing 2 years ago and hasn't been seen since. They all think he's dead, but they never speak of it. Max, as the oldest, is taking care of everyone. This is as much as I'm going to tell you about the books. The first book is titled Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. I'm currently on the 3rd book, and I love the series so far. I actually kind of like James Patterson as a writer, but I've only read 3 of his books, so I'm not sure I like him that much. Anyway, I recommend the series to anyone and everyone, unless they're 9 and under, then I don't believe they should read it.

Schoenstatt Camp

At a Schoenstatt camp that I was working in the kitchen for, many surprises happened.  Some were good, some were bad. These are my two favorites:

Catherine, Katie, and I were working on cookies and the dessert for the next meal. Catherine was the specific one working on the cookies, which were peanut butter blossoms. As Katie and I were dishing out cake, we hear from Catherine, "Sister Rita, is this too much for a half cup?"
"No, that's just about right. Wait, are you sure that's flour?" Sister Rita's concern was heard loud and clear.
"Yeah, it's the flour. See, this is the package I got it from."
"Catherine, could you read me the label for this bag?"
"Powered Sugar.......Shoot!!!" As it turns out, Catherine put in three cups of powered sugar instead of flour. As she examined the two bags, which were right next to each other, she loudly proclaimed "The fluffy one is NOT the flour!!!!"
Katie and I burst out laughing.

On the Tuesday that I was there, I was making frosting for the batch of cookies that we made earlier that morning. I heard the kitchen door open and immediately thought it was Catherine, who ran to our room to grab something she needed. To my surprise, I hear a male voice. It said, "Hello?" I turn around and couldn't believe my eyes. Will Sonnek was standing there, looking just a little confused. "Hey!" I nearly yelled (maybe I did, I was really excited to see him).
"Oh hey!"
"Sci-five!!"
"How are you?"
"Busy. You?"
"Busy. Hey, have you seen the sisters?"
"Scissors?" (Have I mentioned I have bad hearing?)
"No, sisters!"
"Oh, Sister Rita went into the village and Sisters Diane and Catherine are with the girls. Why?"
"I'm here delivering chicken and the service door is locked." This statement made me laugh, for reasons only people who read Will's blog would understand.
"Well, I don't know how to unlock the door."
*Katie walked in at this point.*
"I know how, meet me back there." Katie left with Will following, and I continued to work on the frosting. A few minutes later, Will comes back with the chicken.
"Do you know if any of your siblings are coming to Steubenville North?" I already knew he wasn't going, but I was wondering about his brother and sister.
"No idea, ask Katie." His reaction to my question was kind of funny. And Katie his sister, not Katie the helper at the camp. That was the extent of our conversation, as he had to go. But I never asked him one  important question: Was the freezer cold?