the essence

I stink.

Don't be gross, of course I showered this morning. But while at my desk this morning a huge file fell over & knocked over my nearly full travelers mug of coffee & it spilled all over my pants (at least they're black), my desk, my chair, the wall & ALL OVER the carpet. Considering the prime walking area in our office is by my desk of course everyone noticed. I still haven't been able to clean it all up & I smell like stale coffee. :p I worked through lunch so I could leave work early & have time to go home & change before class tonight.

The reason I brought a huge thing of coffee with me this morning was to help me wake up. We didn't get in until around 1:30 this morning. And I couldn't sleep in because I had to study before leaving for work. I have an exam tomorrow that I've hardly studied for.

I didn't get home so late because this past weekend was the youth rally in Hollywood, Florida. Should I start from the beginning?

Day 1-Friday

The plan was to meet a couple of the kids at the chapel at 6 p.m. & then pick the others up at their homes. Ray & I were taking our own cars (but Ray talked the chapel into paying for gas AND meals!!!) so Ray took the Passat in to have the oil changed & to have the CV joints fixed (apparently its making the car shake).

Ray was cutting it really close because of having work done on the car but he called me & was probably going to be a little early to chapel (I was a few minutes late). So, I'm driving along to church when my phone rings at 5:45. Ray had to turn around & go back to the car place because apparently even after paying them $700 they still hadn't fixed the problem with our car. And the AVS light came on too.

So I make it to the chapel to meet up with the kids & I have the awful job of informing the parents about how late we're running. I hate having to tell parents that sort of thing, I always feel like they'll be upset. (I'd also driven about three hours by then what with errands and work and all)

Anyway, around 7:10 we finally drove to pick up some more kids at their house & Ray met us there. We decided not to take the Passat but his mom said we could take her SUV. Yea! It was pain because we had to drive out of our way to get it but overall it was nicer because it gave us a ton more room for our luggage & we didn't have to get our car messy. :)

Our last stop: The F's house in St. Pete, thankfully that IS on the way to Miami. So, by 9:00, just 3 hours late mind you, we're finally on our way. I have 4 girls in my car & Ray had 3 boys in his. The drive started off really loud with blaring music & then talking/yelling over the music & singing at the top of our lungs (I seriously thought I might lose my voice by the next day).

We arrived at Hollywood Bible Chapel around 1:30 in the morning. And thats when the kids decided they weren't tired. I shouldn't ahve let them fall asleep in the car....

First of all HBC has a little two bedroom one bath house behind the church that they let the nine of us stay in. Ray & I had a bed room with a quenn ed in it, the girls had a bedroom that they sahre two twin beds in & the three guys had the family room where they slept on the sofas & floor.

So Ray & I are in our room when we here all these cupboard doors banging shut in the kitchen & stomping & talking, etc. etc. We just gave each other a look & got out there to find that the kids had found hot chocolate in one of the cabinets & had the urge to make some for all of us. Really very thoughtful but I was more in the mood for sleep than chocolate (yeah, that's a first).

Anyway, I need my sleep so I went to bed around 2:30. As far as I've heard Ray came to bed at 3 and the girls were talking in their room until 4 (I remember those days....).

Day 2-Saturday

I was up before the others because I had to study. Of course that didn't happen-where does the time go? And its kind of a pain waking up 7 teenagers on a Saturday morning, although I have to admit they weren't really that bad about it. The problem though-only 2 of them took showers...and one kid, none of us saw him even go into the bathroom at all that morning...he's reather large too & let me tlel you, by the end of the day...eeww.

And after a "If-I-think-about-whats-in- this-so-called-'sausage'-I'm-going-to-throw-up" breakfast at Burger King we went back to the chapel for the start of the youth rally. It was so small. I think its because of the location, people like having them better at camp.

But, the only people there were the Hollywood yg, some people from Boulevard & Bible Truth. Oh, and us. Yep, that's all. But I think the kids still had fun. They did cancel the Bible quiz because we were the only team there though. :(

I got to see some of my friends there, including one of my favorites, Craig F. He's so funny and such a sweet boy (okay, "young man").

The rally wasn't really all that impressive, although lunch was excellent (Publix subs) & the speaking was good. And Dave B. does the best ice breaker games ever, I had a lot of fun with those too.

Everything ended at 4:00 & Ray took the kids to the beach. I was so exhausted & I thought a quick nap would help me so I could then study. Unfortunately, the beach ended up being super lame, they were only gone about an hour, & I slept the whole time. (I have to admit, I was a bit cranky too, that will be explained later)

Nick G. lives close to where we were & he used to go to our chapel up in Tampa so we all went over to his condo & out to Taco Bell for dinner.

I've got to tell you about his condo. It is SO nice. Not so much the place but the way he's decorated. I have to admit, he has great taste-good wall color, shelves, strategically placed magazines & a new wall coat hanger that he placed a coat on to make it look "authentic". Some of us girls were dying, because usually only fruity guys are like that, but it really was nice.

(This is the longest post ever-probably boring too!)

Two or three of Nick's other friends came over & one of them proceeded to shamelessly flirt with one of the girls we brought with us. The boys watched LTR 2 in the family room & the girls invaded Nick's new roomates room & watched "Titanic". I went to Nick's room to try to study, but it was rather distracting with people hanging out in there too.

The best news of the night: Heather called saying she got off of work early & was coming over! I hadn't seen her since June & she wasn't supposed to come over until the next morning so we could go to breakfast.

She ended up staying at the house with us & we kicked Ray out into the living room to sleep on the floor so she could share a room with me (isn't Ray sweet?).

Now, about Heather, anyone who knows her know she can be really loud, very sweet, & lots of fun. I & my old yg are used to how loud she can be & I forgot that these kids weren't. So when Heather suddenly screamed (seriously, SCREAMED) from excitement it was really funny to see all of these kids come running into the kitchen to see what had happened. They looked so shocked. Man, I miss her.

Day 3-Sunday

Heather & I woke up early Sunday morning & took off for breakfast at Starbucks. We decided breakfast wasn't as important as coffee & she bought me a frappuccino. We had some good talking too. ;)

We thought we made it back in time for church, only instead of starting at 9:30 like every other assembly they started at 9:15 so our whole group (& nick joined us) were late. We also didn't stay for second meeting. Instead we packed up to head down to the keys.

More later....