Home again...sort of

The day we left Colorado, it started raining.
Like serious "the gods are angry" type rain.
Then we get home to Washington...and the weather's been insanely nice.
Not to mention HOT.
90 degrees?
How very Twilight Zone.
It's good to be home again.
I thought things would be different when I got home.
I'm not sure how I thought they would be different, but when I got back, everything was back to normal.
I sort of just..."fit" right back in.
I'd kind of wanted to be different somehow, like things just "weren't the same".
But then I'd be Christy Miller.
And I praise God every day that I'm not.
And that was a little...stupid, self-righteous, who knows...of me to think in the first place.
Oh well. Life goes on. And I have changed. At least a little bit.
It was a great trip.
We have a *cough* beautifully written team blog and a couple of videos.
My dad was worried watching the videos that I wasn't having a good time, because I look miserable in the videos.
But no. I was actually completely enjoying myself. I just take bad pictures.
The VBS part was great. The highest number of kids was 42 and on the last day we had 39, and at least 15 were saved!
2 out of 4 brothers in one family were saved, and 3 other kids (all in the same family) got saved and were so excited that they brought their jr. high brother.
He completely hated the VBS, but at least he got to hear the message.
And the jr. high group hadn't had kids for the first three days, so it was nice for them to finally have at least one.
The first graders were squirrelly, but so cute. One of the Australians was the youngest of 4 brothers and knew how to get his way oh so effectively. He had the most evil smile.
Another would tag-team with his younger brother and cause chaos.
But he got saved and ended up being a total sweetie. On the last day, during the carnival, it was the happiest anyone had ever seen him.
Probably because he won an ungodly amount of candy.
But still.
Ew, when Tootsie Pops lay in the sun for a long time, they cease to be delicious.
The team bonded, it was all good.
But really, I honestly feel closer to these people and I made a lot of new friends.
Woo, I sound like a kindergartener.
The encouragement board was my favorite part. I loved getting notes. One of the leaders wrote me the nicest note.
Ugh, there were a couple low points. One of the leaders was kind of a jerk.
Scratch "kind of". He was a jerk.
He was like an overgrown frat boy. He'd act like an immature loser half the time, and then suddenly expect you to give him respect. And he'd do stuff we weren't supposed to do, yet when we pulled crap like that, he'd INSULT us to no end.
Or maybe that was just me. Ugh. He was such a loser.
And then one of my teammates and I didn't get along. It was a matter of misunderstandings and differences in personality, but when I finally started trying to make amends, he LITERALLY turned his back on me. Funnily enough, we kept getting thrown together in EVERYTHING; family groups, VBS, etc. So I think we should work it out. But I don't know how he feels about it.
And, frankly, I no longer care.
Wooooooooooooooo, anyway.
There was delicious food every morning from the dream-crushing cooks, and hot showers in the CCU locker room.
CCU sounds like a cool school.
They gave us goodie bags full of college-y stuff.
I got a mug, a frisbee, a CD, and college information! Yes! For sure!
And the guy who gave us the spiel about the school was so darn convincing.
Hmm...Christian school...never really thought about that before.
Denver itself is great. Outdoor malls? What are those? Now I know! We found an epic indie bookstore, too. It was GREAT!
And there was a fantastically awkward bus ride.
Well, there were a couple of those. And not all of them were fun. :P
But the one I'm referring to was funny because it...wasn't...funny.
I ended up buying 7 ninjas and 3 books.
Don't ask.
And all for $25.75!!
Woohoo. And now I'm going to crash. To bed!

CLOSURE CLOSURE CLOSURE

One of the fantastic differences between Judgers and Perceivers: Judgers need closure and if they don't have it they will hyperventilate and die. Perceivers really DON'T CARE.
Which is what happened when my mom asked if I would like to get together with my friend this afternoon, and I mistakenly said yes.
BOOM! Now there are all sorts of decisions to be made! What time should this take place? What are you going to do? Would this require transportation? Do you need money? Do either of you like cheesecake? Would she like to stay for dinner? CALL HER.
I just got home. I'd rather be a good introverted perceiver and recharge from all my socializing while pretending decisions don't need to be made and deadlines don't exist.
Anyway. That was kind of the theme of "Spectacular!":
Selfish ISFP wannabe rockstar is kicked out of his own band, and strikes a deal with desperate ESTJ show choir leader: if he agrees to be their male soloist and helps them win at Nationals, she will give him half the prize money (which he will then use to pay for his own demo).
It was terribly acted and had a cheesy plot riddled with cliches.
And it was a musical.
In other words: fabulous.
Nickelodeon does better movies because, unlike Disney, they don't consider "butt" a cussword and have the female lead make witty comments about the villain's weight.
Tee hee.
The morals weren't all that positive, though. Screw authority! Do what you want to do! Blame corporate America! Judgers are tightwads who always need a schedule! Be a Perceiver and go with the flooooooow!
Fun times.
I finished "Every Young Woman's Battle".
Yay! A Christian book that doesn't shy away from sex or insist on telling stupid allegories about sexual purity!
They got fairly graphic, but only a little bit. And they made good points, but didn't condemn those who'd had sex before. They ALSO (thank God) didn't act all condescending and imply that the "sinners" were forgiven, but God would always remember the nasty, dirty, rotten little tarty things they'd done before.
*cough* Christy Miller *cough*
The author herself had had sort of a bad past, and she said, "I'm telling you this because I wish I'd known." But she's married with two kids and finally happy, and she's trying to show girls that they can be happy, too, rather than sneering self-righteously at them and telling that, even though he SHOULDN'T, God would "forgive" you.
*cough* Pastor Jim *cough*
The last few chapters were cool, too. It talked about marriage, Christian guys' perspective on girls, and true love, which, surprisingly, ISN'T A FEELING. That explains a lot. When I was reading it, I was looking at the things it said about "relationships" (still hate that word) and what you need to have to be ready for one, and I'm not even close, so I'm putting my purity ring to good use and am not going to date. I lost two really good guy friends by trying to rush into Coupledom, so I'm going to spare myself the drama and focus on my relationship with God instead.
Which sounds just as self-righteous and condescending as the people I described.
But I don't mind.
As long as I don't grow up to be Christy Miller.
"God is awesome. OMG TODD! God who?"