Welcome to The Jungle.

Well, I'm here and it's here and everything that I've been anticipating since January is happening to me and around me. Am I babbling?

I haven't slept since Saturday night. I eat one meal a day because I don't have time nor enough of a break. I walked 13,000 some steps today (which is roughly 6 miles) and the park hasn't officially opened. On an average day, I'll walk somewhere between 20-25 miles. I work six days a week, 8-12 hours a day. I work in the rain, and rain it does, all the time. Thank you Lake Freakin' Erie.

I've only been at Cedar Point for 4 days, but I am struggling. Don't feel bad if you don't have a job - no one wants mine. Apparently my job is punishment for other employees who don't follow the rules. Thanks, C.P. I'm glad my job sucks enough that the only way I can move in rankings is up.

Over the past four days, I've waited in various lines for approximately sixteen hours. I've made friends with a Jamaican boy who can't pronounce my name and another one from Ghana who likes to flirt. I've made friends with a guy who is so knowledgeable with technology that it never fails to impress me. I've made friends with a guy who sings better than I do. In four meager days, I've been hit on, glared at, laughed at, and smiled to. I've locked myself out of my room. I've taken a blood pathogens course and have been trained specifically on how to clean up bodily fluids such as but not limited to blood, feces, urine, vomit, and other disgusting discharge that makes me want to run away and never come back.

I would run away now if my legs weren't shaking uncontrollably, if I weren't so physically and mentally exhausted that the most anyone can really expect of me is that I show up with a dopey, sleep-deprived smile on my face and a broom in my hand.

Saturday is C.P's opening day. I come two hours before we open and stay an hour after we close - that's a cumulative of almost 13 hours. I am going to go crazy. I am already crazy. My knees shake when I walk, my hands shake when I hold a cup, and I forget what it feels like to not be busy. I forget what it feels like to be home and to relax. I'm sitting in McDonalds now mooching off of their WiFi because Borders has long since closed and I get no Internet in the jail that is my dorm (no joke, there is barbed wire fencing around the area).

If it seems like I'm complaining, I'm not. I'm venting because if I don't let all of this out somewhere, I'm going to explode, implode, exude nothing but flailing emotions that I can't bring to the surface. I'm thankful, thankful for this job...I'm just not used to it yet. I need time. My feet and knees need to stop cramping and blistering. My face needs to stop being sunburned (in the cloudy weather). My eyes need more rest than 3 hours a night.

I miss familiarity. I miss my family. As much as I hate to say this, I actually miss Behrend.

Just give me about 2 weeks to become familiar with all of my duties and struggles and I will be better equipped to handle whatever it is I'm feeling right now. Just let me sleep. And eat. Just let me slow down for a second.