Fall Retreat Funness

This post is way too long.

   This weekend was unbelievably fun. We had our Emmaus fall retreat, and I think that I, even though the oldest after my boss, acted like the biggest kid there. I played so hard and had so much fun.
First of all, I had the opportunity to introduce students to the wonderfulness that comes in a deck of cards called Dutch Blitz. This game will never not be fun. However, I was slightly disappointed with my performance, because some of the people I taught started to beat me by the end of the retreat…I’ll have to work on this.
   So Saturday happened, and the child in me exploded through the walls of normalcy that try to contain me. It reminded me of The Nutty Professor where Buddy (the skinny version of Professor Klumps) is battling Prof. Klumps for control of his body. Weird analogy, but that’s what it was like! I tried to keep composure and maturity at first, but then I just let it go, and boy did I have fun!
   I played frisbee first. This was interesting. First off, after playing league and having organization on the field, watching 20 people run around in circles, all competing for the disk, feels incredibly chaotic. It reminded me of church Frisbee—fun, but completely insane, and normally only the boys get the disk more than twice. *funny/humbling moment while playing=immediately after I told my team that we needed to slow down and try to make smarter throws (because we kept losing the disk), I got the disk and tried to throw it to someone, but instead threw a line drive to the ground…oops.
   Right after Frisbee, the group kind of spread out, but I stayed and played football with the guys (of course, and I have battle wounds to prove my intensity). So fun; however, I was reminded that I am not good at all. My bbffl (boy bffl), Danny Chu, was qb for my team, and he was determined to get me the ball. Meaning, after 900 great throws but really bad catching attempts, he didn’t give up on me—true friend. I finally did get a couple catches in, but I estimate the catch drop ratio to be about 3:20. Yeah, not good.
   Ok this next part had to be one of my highlights. So we were at a camp for this retreat, and were sharing the space with a church that was having a family retreat. Right after our football game, the families came up to the field for a wiffle ball game. This was quite possibly the cutest/funniest thing I have watched in a long time—I mean, I really can’t wait until I get to go to my kids’ t-ball games. Most of the kids were from 2-6 years old, and as you can imagine, they still haven’t quite figured out how their body’s move…oh my. One of my favorites was when this 2 year old little boy (Conner) came up to home plate to bat. So prec! He walked up, stood on the base, kicked some dirt, I think he spat too, then bent his knees, held the bat behind his head and looked at the pitcher, because clearly he was ready to hit! Well after he tried, and didn’t quite get it, he still decided he needed to run around the bases anyway—an obvious conclusion.  Well somewhere between third and home, Conner, while running at full two year old speed, and another little kiddo being distracted by something in the distance collided! They were both ok, but Conner, still determined to make it to home plate, while being slightly disoriented from the collision, pushed the interfering ADD kid out of the way and staggered to home. Remember, he was two. Talk about determination. Too cute.  My second most favorite moment from this game was Danny. Absolutely ridiculous—nothing out of the ordinary for him. He was the loudest fan out there. Any kid who ran by, he obnoxiously cheered for—even to the point of cheering this poor little boy to home plate when clearly, the little guy was not going to make it without getting out. And he did get out, then he cried…good job, Chu.
   So after all this greatness, I thought the day was surely winding down…well, no. After getting semi cleaned up, no shower of course, I headed down from the cabins with a few others. Then I remembered some people were playing sand volleyball! Some of you know how not gifted at volleyball I am. Well, I wasn’t as bad as usual, but I definitely demonstrated my struggle with this sport—still super fun though.
   The sugar on top of this fun, fun, wonderful day was this game called murder ball. Sounds dangerous, because it was! This game is like a deadly version of dodge ball. When I walked into the gym where everyone was playing, there was a curtain that divided the room, so I couldn’t see what was going on on the other side. All I could hear was what sounded like missiles launching across the room and violently exploding on the opposite wall. My life flashed before my ears. Terrified at what I might find, I peered through the crack of the curtain and was amazed. There were missiles being launched across the room—red, plastic coated, foam missiles, launched from deceptively small men, flying at the speed of light and punching their way into the lined wall, creating a sound that made you tremble at the idea of interfering with its course.

So I did what anyone would do, I joined the game. Best decision ever. So fun.

So now I can’t move due to the soreness, but it was all so worth it.

New Kinds of Friends

I feel like the Lord has blessed me so much—beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Throughout my life, God has pushed so many unbelievable people into my bubble; it’s been stretched, shared, emptied, and even popped a couples times. I have traveled to random place, met random people that I could never forget, been in different schools, churches, activities, etc. I’ve had memories that I thought unsurpassable. Times when I laughed so hard I cried and maybe even peed my pants a little. However, one thing has always been consistent in all of my relationships. No matter how great they are, no matter how much fun we have together, how great or deep our conversations have been, they have always ended. And I don’t mean that I’ve had a bazillion “falling outs,” I just mean that they took their natural course of fun, and then for whatever reason, ended. People moved away, interests changed, boyfriends happened, life took a different direction. Whatever it was, all of my past friendships have in some way come to a close.There are always those exceptions though—the people that I don’t keep up with, but whenever we’re in the same city, we make it a point to visit. We're still friends, but after those visits we just go back to our own lives and the occasional facebook stalking of each other, but not much more.

I’ve always been a floater. Each year of my life, I feel like, has been so diverse because I have always had a new group of friends—each group being characteristic of my life stage or interests of the time. The tomboy stage possessed most years of grade school, of course, with the exception of my premature identity crisis when I decided that I was going to be a ballerina…no one ever wants to see that version of The Nutcracker. Middle school was, well just like any one expects middle school to be—horrible, awkward and confusing. I hung out with the insecure girls who didn’t fit in with the popular crowd (but wanted to), weren’t on a sports team, and had braces with left over pieces of lunch and lime green rubber bands stuck throughout them. I hung out with the band kids in high school. We were exclusive too. Band kids only hung out with other band kids. Basically we were like a marching musical cult. College was interesting. Each year brought about new people as well. There were House people, frisbee people, church people, class people, camp people, boys, and then the randoms, of course. These were all great, but they all took the normal course that a friendship would, and then just kind of went in different directions. Sometimes I would really try to not let that happen. I would try really hard for a while, anyways, but they would always just kind of end.

This weekend, though, I had a revelation. God is incredible. Not that I didn’t already know that, but He really showed me another aspect of His incredibleness. He really cares about the little things in our lives. He wants what’s best for us—to see us in fellowship with each other and motivating each other to grow in him. I have definitely seen my share of incredible people, and so many of them have deeply impacted who I am now, but they’ve been influences that have done their job and then moved on. The cool part, the thing that I have been getting at this whole post, is that I think God has given me friends that I think I’ll have for the rest of my life. Now I know we (girls) talked like this when we were in high school—talked about how were going to live on the same street when we grew up, raise our kids together and be friends until we died. At least I did, anyways. But this time, it’s for real.

My friends now are irreplaceable. We are so different, so quirky. We get on each other’s nerves, argue, and talk about everything in the world. We encourage each other, laugh together and cry sometimes too. It’s incredible.

I remember praying all throughout my first senior year that the Lord would give me one really great Christian girl friend. Well, how cool is he? He not only gave me one, He gave me four.

Once again, He amazes me.

Deep Fried Oreos and a Bald Spot.

I went to the Dixie Classic Fair last Wednesday night, and it was like nothing I have ever seen before. I felt like I was walking through the set of a classic horror movie. Everywhere you turn there was a human anomaly, those weird bent mirrors that make you look like you're 500lbs., and all the fried things you could imagine. And of course, my curiosity got the best of me, because I tried the deep fried oreos--might as well have chugged a bottle of oil. I don't really recommend them :)
ALSO, on a more random note, I realized this past weekend that I am developing a bald spot! I think it's been there for a while too...and no one has told me! I have always parted my hair to my left. Well apparently, from frequent partage, I suppose, that part of my head has decided to stop producing genuine locks, and gone on strike. There are only some baby fuzzies that are brave enough to grace the day. Well, after this realization, and embarrassment from walking around displaying my naked scalp, I decided to take action. I parted my hair the other way. This did not work. Unbridled pony to the fullest, there was a complete objection from all participants. Awkward strands kept popping out and random pieces made a home right in front of my eyes--my whole face was thrown off balance. Not pretty. I fought against the prevailing naked-side part for two days. They were a long, hard, and demoralizing two days. I surrendered. Fortunately though, we did reach a compromise. Clearly, opposite parting was not going to work, but I was most definitely not going to continue sporting the naked head look. A mild mom-looking side part was developed. The same side was kept, but only enough to avoid the "butt crack" center part, while still covering the exposed area. I think this will be workable...at least until the frequent partage here takes it's toll, but that will be a conflict for another day.

Great Funness!

So how about this beautiful weather??? I am loving it. I feel like I'm a girl again. Something about the cold weather knocks the tomboy out of me and makes me want to put on blush and a cute scarf. I even wore heels yesterday--I probably wasn't all that graceful, but I loved it:)

So here is my list of great fun things:

1. As stated before, the slowly declining temperature and cute, weather appropriate, girly clothing.

2.  Wonderful deals! I found a thrift store here that has a whole entire corner of their store dedicated to gently used, name brand clothing....oh my goodness gracious....I spent way too much time and a little too much money there. Most of the people here, when I mentioned it to them, didn't even know what store I was talking about. What a hidden treasure:)

3. Not this weekend, but the next, Elisa, Meg, Jodie, and Nat (hopefully, I haven't heard the final word on her) are coming to visit, and I am so completely excited!

4. I got to sing this past week with two guys here @Wake Forest. It was so fun! I have really missed getting to be involved with music here, so that was great to have an opportunity. It was weird though, because I have never sang in a non worship setting (minus that one time at the Hub benefiting the DR trip). I didn't really know how to hold myself....how dumb does that sound??? It's true though, I had never thought about that, but it's completely different. All of a sudden you aren't singing to Jesus, you're singing words about being in love and stuff...I wasn't sure what to do with my hands and who to look at....haha

5. As a result of #4, I have music on the brain again. I want to do more with it. I think I might try to pick up the guitar again and give the whole sing-and-play-at-the-same-time thing another try. I want to start writing again too. I miss it. Once again, this seems to be consistently be a seasonal thing! As soon as the weather starts to cool down, I always seem to do more with my music--it's like it becomes a new hobby every year. What does this say about me??? I feel like I am a hobby schizophrenic. What I am interested in always seems to be governed by the season...is that weird?

6. I am coming to Chatt the 1st weekend in November with some girls from Emmaus. Anyone who is nearby should come play:)

The first!!!! How momentous:)

What? I am blogging, and I'm not doing it for work and getting paid? Never thought I would see the day when I did this on my own accord:) However, I am, and it's all because I read Meg's. I enjoyed reading hers, so figured this could be a good way to keep people who are interested posted on what is happenin' here in the big W-S. So, I'm giving it a try.
I already feel weird!
I don't know how often I will write, or if there will even be another after this...haha. If there is, however, I'm thinking the most action will happen on the week days when I am sitting here at the computer, really really trying to actually be productive, but it just ain't happening. And no worries, because this seems to be happening a lot lately! So here's to lots and lots of distraction and procrastination!
Again soon!