A Very Good Weekend

I like weekends. Fun stuff can happen on weekends. Like some weekends, this one was packed, tiring, and great!

Friday, shockingly, did not include the MBA in anyway, except that I did have a subsitute. Instead, I went to Planet Wisdom youth conference.

View Larger Map
As you can see, the trip from San Jose, where I met the group, to Brentwood, was quite a trip. Notice the disclaimer that the trip can take up to 1 hour 30 mins in traffic. Longer really, if you stop for in-n-out. My plan, when I posted from my phone, was to have a nice little semi-live stream. Then the conference just piled on top of me, and I didn't have that kind of time. Now I do.

Within 30 minutes of leaving, the trip had taken on a unique River Youth flavor. My youth pastor, Kyle, has a deathly allergy to any kind of nuts. The edible kind, not the mental kind. Can someone be allergic to themself? Anyway, one of the other adults who was driving, Audury, gave the guys, who were all in one car, some snacks. Pretzels and bananas. Not bad right? As we hit some traffic, Kyle decides it is time for a snack. He grabs a pretzel, and with it almost into his mouth, asks "Is there peanut butter in this?". I knew the weekend was gonna be great.

When we stopped in Livermore for dinner (Double-double, with sauteed onions, fries, and coke.), I decided that I needed a break from the boy's car, so I was going to ride with some of the ladies. Lis, the other woman leader who came, Becky, Betit, and Lauren. The conversation was much more civil, but the driving wasn't too good. Kyle drove skilfully, if crazily. Lis, on the other hand, was following a GPS, and this particular GPS gave some interesting directions. Suddenly we left the highway, and were on some backroad, passing pastures, vineyards, corrals, houses with trailer hitches, wheels, and duct tape, and tons of windmills. I liked the windmills. We eventually got back on to the highway, only to take an exit, drive paraell to the highway for 5 minutes, then getting back on to the highway. THE SAME EXACT HIGHWAY!!! When we finally arrived, we were late, so sat in the very back row, but not in the balconey, because it was closed. Except not.

The speaker was Mark Matlock, and he spoke on "The Hero's Jourony". I really appriciated when he finished inviting people to begin the journy, and spoke on how to continue the journey. That is much more relevant to where I am in my life, and more practical than what happens at most camps and conferences, where the speaker is mostly abstracts and calls to Christ. The band was a not mainstream Texas band called Dutton, which means nothing. I know they are not mainstream, because they don't have a wiki page. There were also 2 guys, "The Skit Guys". Pretty funny, but I really loved when they began ad-libbing. Much more organic.

On lunch break, we decided to play Ultimate Frisbee. If you don't know how to play, too bad! I'm not going to explain it. Trying to choose teams was going to be hard, because there were 7 girls, 5 boys, but all the boys were athletic, and all the girls were short. I made a heroic choice, and decided that we would do boys vs. girls, but I would be on the girls team. BWHAHA! We demolished those guys!!

The sleeping arrangements were......crazy. Not the arrangements so much, but the effects of those arrangements. Aside from the typical bored male talk, there was a critque of my hairyness, and how that earned me my own queen bed, and Kyle jumping from a half-wall, wearing his sleeping bag, and bouncing off the bed. Hilarious at 1:30!

On the ride home, I rode with Audrey, who was following Lis, who was following Kyle. Right out of the parking lot Kyle went a different way, so then we were just following Lis. Lis was following her GPS, which once again led us down the road less traveled by. Our dinner was great. We stopped in Livermore again, but this time got authentic mexican place. 4 tacos, for $1.50 each. So good! I knew the place was legit, because the cable hookup was dangling from the wall, and all the commericals were in Spainish. The ride the rest of the way home was good, the group of people in the car lent themself to good conversation. Lis took us through downtown Livermore, but that was on purpose. As we were leaving Livermore, we were following Kyle. He was over in the left turn lane, then zoomed across 3 lanes to the right turn lane. Lis followed him, slightly frantic, then Lis went absolutely manic when Kyle camly moved into the straight lane, and gave us a little wave as we turned. Crazy.

This Sunday was a bit different compared to most Sundays. My church occasionally has an event called "Kindness San Jose", or "Loving San Jose", which is the whole church going out and trying to bless, and help, and love as many people as possible. I was part of the car wash team, which was pretty cool. It was funny how many people with dirty cars would just pass by, and that the first few people were suspiscious of our sign proclaiming "Free Car Wash!". I think it should have read "Free Car Wash! Really!". I also got to go up on stage and share about the carwash to the congregation, and was only 1 of 3 who got to do so. I was dubbed "cute" and a "born speaker", depending on who was asked.

That is it for this weekend.
Have a great one!