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Sunday, April 08, 2001 ahh what a long weekend!! lets go back to friday since i think thats where i left off last: friday: since i didn't get to bed till around 7am, i woke up around 9am to make some calls for errands i had to run. i was so zonked that i passed back out till around noon, after that i stephy and I went to run some errands. it was an absolutely gorgeous day out and I didn't wanna spend the morning inside so i suggested we head over to the duckpond and feed the duckies!! it was a lot of fun, deanna, stephy, amy and I all went...haha we didnt have enough bread to go around so stephy and deanna were throwing (stephy was actually chucking) cereal at them. they seemed to like some of it! while we were chillin there we heard some music and turned around and guess what we saw!!!! tibetan monks!!!! they had been here all week working on a sand sculpture, that i unfortunately missed, but they were at the duckpond doing some kind of ceremony. they ended up going to the lil gazebo and praying (chanting) for a bit then they took this canister with the sand in it and dropped the sand into the pond. it was really pretty, the music and the chanting.....not often you get to see things like that. after that we tried to go see the sculpture but it was already down...so we sat in the food court sippin on some coke cause it was pretty hot out. after that we had to get home cause i had the retreat to go on!! we get home and i jump in the shower really quick, stephy made me pasta with sauce on it for lunch cause i was running so late (i wuv ya wiggles) then i packed!! at 5pm stephy drove me to kroger to meet up with my group, i was really nervous. now starts my great retreat: we all chilled in the parking lot waiting for people to come till around 5:30..we kinda just sat there and talked, trying to break the ice..seemed lots of people looked tense. after that we all got in a car and drove over to the camp which happens to be only 10 mins down the road from here. we got to camp and went on our ways of unpacking and getting settled in, after that we all just roamed around looking at stuff. i went to go check out the fire pit for the campfire since that was one of my duties, it was really cool, my buddies and i got all the wood ready and set it all out! after that we all kinda started playing around, goofin with the water fountain (that shot out a stream of water 15feet high and about 30 feet outwards) , drawing on the sidewalk with chalk (we had a 8person game of dots going) and tossing the football around! it was a lot of fun, i started relaxing a bit then, it was really nice. after that it was dinner time!! HOORAY!! i was sooo hungry! they had made lasagna (one meat and one vegie), salad (along with various grass, flowers and plants that mike picked outside), garlic bread and cookies. we all sat around this huge table that was covered in paper and we just chilled and talked. we were all writing riddles and jokes ontop of the table, heh it was pretty cool. after dinner and cleanup we had a briefing on what was going on for the rest of the night and the next day..then we had our next project to make: life maps!!! what we had to do was get a big piece of poster paper and we drew from the day we were born till now (or future) obstacles we had to overcome or memorable things that have happened to us. we all took about an hour to make them then we each presented them! it was an amazing thing to see people you dont know at all have so many things in common with each other, it was one of the coolest things id seen and we all instantly bonded. the sharing off all our life maps took about 2 hours or so.....it put us at about 11:30 to go to the campfire, so they asked us what we wanted to do and we all voted campfire!! so we all headed down there and made smores for awhile, they were really yummy and the fire was so nice and warm it felt great. while we sat around we did this really fun activity. we all had to bring some personal object with us and put it in the box, at the fire we all drew something out of the box that wasn't our own and had to make up a story on how we got our object! it was really funny to see how creative people got, and they did get creative! after that some people took off for bed cause they were tired and the rest of us sat around and listened as mike read a story from winnie the pooh! it was so nice to just sit there and relax, it had been awhile since i felt that relaxed and chilled. after the story everyone but scott, jeremy, gen and I went to bed, we kinda just layed back and made sure the fire was out for the night. then it was off to bed, which was hard cause we were sleeping in these bunk beds made for leprachans or something and sleeping bags. oh well i was tired enough from lack of sleep the day before to just pass out, i mean we did have a wake up call at 8 the next morning. *groans* saturday: ok it had to be the weirdest way to wake up ever, but i woke up to a duck quacking!! i was so confused, all i heard was this duck and then some of the girls saying "hi mike".......i didn't know what was going on......then i opened my eyes and saw mike standing there holding this duck and yelling "morning girls, its 8:15! breakfast!!" talk about someone being a morning person, he was jumping all over the place, but the thought of food made me jump right out of bed, get dressed and head down there. we had this great spread out: bagels with cream cheese, toast, glazed donuts, cake donuts, oranges, bananas, grapes, cereal, oj, apple juice and milk! it was great, started off the day real nice!! after we all streamed in and ate, we cleaned everything up and headed outside to start our day. we were all pumped up it was time for us to do the rope course!! man what a lot of fun!!! we did a bunch of small activities that really helped us out later in the woods where we did harder ones. after the exercises still at camp we all felt really comfortable with each other and felt pumped for what was to come! our first woods activity was this tight rope walking thing, it was pretty cool.....my partner was shannon and we both had a lot of fun. we did really well and almost hit the end but us both being short worked against each other hehe...oh well! after we all tried that our next activity was the wall! we had to get everyone up over the wall but only two could be at the top at once....we figured it out pretty quck and flew through it, i banged my elbow up a bit but i was ok. the hardest part on that test was getting the last person up, they had misjudged how high the wall was and we had to think of another way to get mike up. what was great was when he was feeling all down and saying it was his fault that he couldn't get up there, the rest of the group all pulled together and cheered him on and let him know it wasn't his fault and he was doing great. after a few more tries and a suggestion we got mike up there!!! yayayay! we were all excited and cheering him on! our next thing we did was the trust fall! omg how scary was that! you had to stand on this platform about 4 feet up with your back facing way and just fall backwards into their arms. ahhh so so so scary, i ened up going last cause i couldn't work the nerve up. when i got up there i was still really shaky but they all told me i could do it and that they wouldn't let me fall......so i did it.....and they caught me!! if it wasn't for life maps, or the other things we had done that day on the rope course, i would have never done that!! i mean trusting people is so hard sometimes and we all took leaps at it! we all felt really close by the time we were done with the course. after that we went in to have lunch! yummy yummy!! we had another huge spread out: plain chips, bbq chips, pretzels, carrots and dip, roast beef, turkey, ham, swiss chesse, white americain cheese, oranges, grapes and cookies. i had a nice yummy sammitch, it was great!! we all sat down at the table again to eat and while we did that we talked about what we acutally did bring as our personal items and told them how we got it! we all knew the day was closing soon..we all were pretty quiet. after cleanup of lunch we went outside to find out the plan for the rest of the time. we took some group pics (will post one) and then went to clean up our stuff and main room to leave. after we got everything packed we headed outside for a final meeting. we sat around in a group and sang a bit (hehe cheesy but fun) and then started a new ymca tradition. shannon had gotten a big bucket of ash from our fire and we all got to take some home with us, while we got some we had to tell everyone what were taking with us from our weekend. it was really great to hear everyone, we all had gotten so close! then next fall retreat we bring back our ash and put it in our new fire!! isnt' that cool?? after that we all took off for home. I cant tell you how glad i am that i went out there and didn't chicken out. i knew no one but i still had this amazing time and i walked away with 16 new friends that matter a lot. we all had such common goals, interests and pasts....i feel like i have truly found something i belong to and cant wait for next year to start. after i came home i just relaxed a lil, i was so tired from being out all day and friday. i had also gotten quite red from being in the sun so much and was just exhausted. justin ended up coming over for some ice cream and he chilled here till around 8 when i had to go take a shower. i was suppose to pick deanna up at 9, but i got in the shower late so stephy picked her up for me. after that we went to rons then downtown since it was his bday. was a cool night playes ome pool hung out with friends. I didn't get in till 3:30am so i was sooo zonked. i just crawled into bed and zonked out!! today: its going to be another long day.....have to go to a meeting for childrens council then go to work so I dont know when i'll be back. i have tons on my mind with personal issues with friends and im just exhausted. sometimes i just feel so overwhelmed with things.....hopefully i'll forget about all thats goin on today. its another gorgeous day out and im going to try to make that reflect in my mood!! i have lots more to say but i gotta jump in the shower.....i feel really bad that i didn't go to church today being Palm Sunday but......i'll try to stop by and get a palm before work. im sorry for the mini novel........heh......and im holding back too....isn't that scary??? lilwolf 1:16 PM 
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