This past weekend, as I said previously, I went on a Confirmation retreat as a student leader. We started having fun times nearly as soon as we left. Our bus driver was speeding along (in the ballpark of 70mph on a two lane highway in the dark) and we passed right by the turn. So, he's not allowed to back up on highways, basically meaning the bus can only go forwards and therefore we spent a loooong time wandering around county roads before we got turned around. The driver was all defensive and exclaimed "Did you just not realize I didn't know where I was going???"

It was certainly a fun, if exhausting weekend. Leaders are kept busy. I missed out on my small group's hike to the cross as us thirteen high schoolers were locked in Miller Hall banging our heads against the wall. We were left without adult supervision with the simple mission of putting together a skit for evening worship. You just try containing 13 ADHD and argumentative teenagers...

I actually think we should have made a documentary of it. At one point we had some guy banging on the drums, another trying to smash everything in sight with a soccer ball, and the other eleven all rushing around yelling at no one in particular.

The first thing we did was decide on the guy that would play Jesus and I'm pretty sure that was the only thing we ever agreed on. In the end, we just ended up doing the Lifehouse skit...here is the original skit, courtesy of YouTube, currently boasting nearly 9 million hits.



Ours was significantly less polished and we needed serious coordination with the different sins and temptations, but it ended up really working, and I think everyone really got it. Towards the end, when you see everyone fighting Jesus, we went a little nuts. It was mayhem, and I got a few good whacks in the process. No fear, I'm sure I punched at least my fair share of people as well. We are hoping a tape of our skit will soon be available on YouTube. :-D

Late late that night we had one last element for the kids in the woods. We took them around in the dark, reading scripture, smashing clay pots with crowbars, and lighting things on fire. It was cool. You don't probably get a good idea of what was going on from that description, but that was sort of the point. Haha.

Sunday I got back just in time for my Quartz audition. So. Blasted. Nervous. The tonal memory excercises seemed much easier than last year, but then again time tends to warp my memory of such things. I screwed up a few things but mostly did quite well. The sight reading was the best part of the whole audition. I got 90 whole seconds to make whatever noise I wanted, unlike last year's unfortunate goof. I could've lept for joy when I saw the music - 4/4 time, F major, nearly all steps and two sol-do jumps. Hallelujah indeed! Nailed it. BAM. I wasn't thrilled with the audition as a whole, but I did okay.

We don't submit resumes or supplementary paragraphs this year, which makes me nervous because those are two things I think strongly helped my acceptance last year...eek. I still haven't been able to calm down about it, even though its over and nothing I can do now will affect it. Now I just have to wait till April. Drat it all.

Back to chemistry and other normal occurances. Back from camp, I get significantly more sleep and cleaner, hotter showers....