I woke up today sounding like Darth Vader. Rather, Darth Vader minus a few octaves.
It all started back in late November (you know, that week after Thanksgiving when you're finishing off the leftovers). It was then that my dear beloved youth pastor announced to I and my fellow adolescents that we would be taking a trip to northern Arizona on a winter retreat weekend.
*enter happy excited whoop*
Now, you must know something before I continue: The people included in this story (youth group homies) are some of the most beautiful and marvelous friends on the planet. If you ever happen to be fortunate enough to meet any of them then believe me, you are blessed (or if you happen to---curiously enough---be one of them you are a blessing). I mean, these guys are the peeps who you can feel comfortable doing stupid and hilarious things with during any given moment of life. That's what defines a best friend, no?
Well anyhow, excitement simmered to almost-bursting-point about this so-called retreat. December...January...January 2nd...January 9th...January 15th...January 20th...January 24! The day before leaving for a Friday/Saturday/Sunday of awesomeness! Believe me, my co-op friends had it figured the I was a Mexican jumping bean that Thursday. I was so ready to leave and get to the cold mountain of pine trees and muddy slush.
Friday was cool.
We left at 6:00-ish PM and got to our destination approximately 3 hours later. I could hear the shrieks even before I unloaded myself from the four-wheel drive truck that I had been trollied in:
"ACK! Mud!!"
"It's cold!"
"SNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWW! THERE'S ACTUALLY SNOW!!!! REAL SNOW!!! CAN YOU SEE THE SNOW?" etcetera etcetera.
Of course, to all of you snowbirds up there, this was hardly snow. It was more patchy muddy slush from a few days prior to our arrival. Still---it was white(ish), cold, and easily flung at people's faces (the latter of which it did often).
Instead of soft white flakes falling through the air and tickling our eyelashes however, there was rain. Rain. Lots of rain. Like buckets of rain. Drizzle. Plinky plonky little drops ascending from the gray heavens in order to make our lives muddy and mildewy.
In three words?
It. Was. Brilliant.
If you didn't realize, I like mud. I like rain. Rain makes mud. Mud and rain go together. Throw both of those things at a camp in the middle of a pine forest on a mountain top with three other God-loving-and-praising youth groups and you get a wonderful time.
Our theme was "Surrender", and we did a kind of devotional/bible study thingy that also included a handful of video clips and presentations featuring the ever so renown Francis Chan. Also, we had dear Tim (SHWWWIMMMMMMM!) as our speaker/pastor/what-have-you.
On the first night, immediately after getting out into the rain, mud, and slush, we headed into the dining hall to get our info on which cabin each of us were assigned to and what small group we'd been placed in. Much to my smug satisfaction, I got the awesomest place to stay ever.
IT EVEN HAD A BATHROOM OF ITS OWN...WHAT NOW!!
In addition to that happy detail, I was also sorted into the small group entitled the "Ramshorn Snails".
The rest of the night was spent in the green bean (worship center), unpacking, and dogging the ice clumps that were being hurled through the atmosphere (not all in that order). I had a very dramatic moment of pure perseverance as I trounced up the steep and slippery trail to my new home-away from home with arms full of duffle bags and sleeping bags. All of these things, of course, were done in the dark of night, and once done with the must-dos and need-to-be-dones everyone did their best to pipe down and get a little shut eye.
The tragic thing was this:
All weekend my stupid brain WOULD NOT SHUT ITSELF UP. This was very irritating. I'm telling you---I never have problems drifting off to sleepy-sleeperton land. Heck, you could probably just dump me on the side of a highway and I'd be able to sleep like a baby.
But nooOOOOOOOoooooo. I couldn't unwind. So I just sat there in the dark in a sort of half-dream half-alert state. Kind of like entering dream-state with your eyes open and your ears perked. You have no idea how many scenarios I shuffled through that night in the confines of my head. And the same happened the next night too---thus I was really quite exhausted and running on every hyper-active storage boost I could manage.
Actually kind of funny---Someone comment on just how awake and energized I seemed to be Sunday morning.
Errkg.
Moving on to Saturday:
Breakfast, small groups (which were absolutely amazing!! I miss my fellow Snails ;), nice walks in the rain ^_^, devotions, lunch, crazy fun indoor games consisting of trashsket ball and trust fall relays that us snails TOTALLY BOSSED AT (you bet we earned those gloating rights!), sitting 'round in the dining hall singing songs with a seriously cool friend (and probably freaking everybody else out with my [our] not-so-perfect singing voice[s]), learning the cup game thingy!! (video demo on that sometime, 'k?), dinner, worship, even more small groups (seriously, the people who were in my group were such blessings!), attempting to safely view a game of extreme spoons, and eventually retiring to bed (my sweet little bunk bed that I got all to my own little self).
That was Saturday, more or less.
Sunday was a day of cleaning up our messes and getting over the terribleness that it was all ending too soon. So many new faces that I'd shared great times with...it seemed like there at the retreat I was not only able to make new friends, but build stronger relationships with the ones that I'd already had.
It was so muddy, and rainy and full of muck that we had to pile all of our shoes into a big old plastic trash bag after getting into our assorted homeward bound vehicles (cars, trucks, vans...) to keep the dirty-car level at a minimum. Honestly, I'll tell you now that all of our clothes probably reeked of something similar wet dog. We weren't exactly the most pleasant-smelling bunch of kids on church campus after our return journey.
From there it was a ride home and a throw-everything-into-the-washer-spree.
I was back home.
With a lot to sort through. A lot to think about. All of this after spending two nights in a cold and rainy paradise of sorts with soppy clothes, soaked socks, and muddy everything else.
That, my friends is why I woke up sounding like Darth Vader this morning---goodness knows how much snot and slime I've had to hack or blow out of my system today. Whoopdeedoo for the aftermath of no sleep and cold weather.
But is was sooooo worth it. :)
