_Kikipeg's Adventures in Ocean City, Maryland_

For those of you who don't know, this week I went on a retreat with my youth group to Ocean City, Maryland. It was an absolutely rocking time, although exhausting physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.... and basically I'm just gonna give you guys the schedule. I think that's the easiest way to do it.

_Friday_

3:00 - arrive at church, excited crazy out of my mind. There are four teams for color wars - Blizzard, Twister, Hurricane, and Drizzle. I'm on Drizzle, how awesome is that? Basically everyone's at the church by 3:20. The guy who was supposed to speak this weekend got snowed in, so our youth pastor's gonna speak, which is rather
disappointing. There's a hilarious video explaining the rules, basically a random
exercise video that had been redubbed. finally we're ready to hop on the busses for what is a long and mostly boring ride.

7:00 - we're finally at the Princess Royale Hotel, on the beach in Ocean City. Excitement is everywhere. I've been waiting for this retreat for what seems like forever. I'm in room 553 with my friend Shola, who I brought, and 3 other girls who I don't know all that well... I'm really excited about sharing a room with one of them,
since she's awesome and I'd always wanted the chance to get to know her better. I don't know our counselor well either, but it should be fun. We change into our team shirts (grey long-sleeve T-shirts for us) and head down to the meeting room, where we have some crazy fun games, all of which our team won - making up a cheer (you wanna
bet, gonna have regret, gonna make you sweat, gonna get you wet. Drizzle in the house, oh yeah....), pull apart (in which the guys of one team hang onto each other as tight as possible while the girls of another try to pull them apart... we won 11-4-3-2), and the stomp-on-the-balloons-tied-to-people's-ankles game. We definitely have the most team spirit... even a silent cheer (wiggle your fingers in the air). They give us some free time between games and our meeting, which we basically spend running around the hotel getting a feel for where things are. We get lost a lot, end up on the guys floor getting
in trouble, and discover that this year the roof is locked, which is sad.
Meeting is fun - I'm not particularly expecting to learn a whole lot this weekend though. It's more of a review of what I already know, but a good way to get back to the basics of my faith. The singing, skits, and videos set a high precedent for the rest of the weekend, though. After the meeting we have a while more to run around the hotel. we walk on the beach, which is cold, and attack random people. We have cabin time (time with your room to talk about what you'd learned that day, any questions you have, etc.) and get to bed around 12:30.

_Saturday_

7:30 - the phone rings with a wake up call. We had our alarms set for 8. We are pretty annoyed.

8:30 - some of us pad downstairs, still pajama-clad, for an optional bible Study. the one we decided to try this morning is alright, but not great. By the time we get to breakfast at 9, most people are gone, since breakfast starts at 8:30. At 9:30 we head upstairs for quiet times.

10:00 - After quiet times and discussion, we have a meeting. more videos, more fun skits, another talk. The talks are getting a bit deeper, but still nothing very challenging to me.

11:00 - Games on the beach for Drizzle and Hurricane. Drizzle is kicking some more serious butt, the jr/sr girls get the only point in push ball (involves a huge ball that you push). Our team wins 3 of the 5 games of tug-of-war. After games, we head back upstairs to a pizza lunch. mmm pizza.

1:00 - free time from now until 6:00, dinner time. Sharon and I go swimming and hang out, but not many people are in the pool. while we're getting out, a lot of people are getting in. I arrange to hang out with Brittany, one of the girls in my Bible Study at home, at 3. Helen, another one of my platoon girls, joins us. We have fun making wishes in the fountain, arguing over whether or not they owe me for the candy I claim is my treat, and just talking.

4:00 - we go to an optional seminar on God and Dating led by 3 couples - 2 engaged and one married. It's an amazing time, basically question and answer - but a lot of my views are challenged and changed. Although it's supposed to be over at 5, we go until 5:45.

6:00 - dinner. no big deal - the fun part here being that "The Backstreet Boys" (read: 5 crazy counselors dressed up the same and inging "I Want It That Way") come in. They carry on a tradition - "These are the Kids We Know". They do it with 5
senior guys this year. Chorus: These are the seniors we know we know we know these are the seniors we know HEY! (repeat). The verses are hilarious, each making fun of one of the guys. We get a lot of mock screaming and fainting in.

7:30 - evening meeting. Some crazy screaming. Some crazy skits (part 3 of Supertink and Kung-Fu Karl (wooooah..... everybody wants kung-fu fighting)). Tonight, Jim, our speaker, encourages us to get up and share our dreams. I've never really thought about what my dream is, but I do now, and I share it. I want to act with one of the 3 leading Shakespeare Companies one day. Sharing that is a lot more emotional than I
expected, but I'm alright. The Chair diagram comes up again - there are 3 chairs you
can sit in in life. The first means that you've never accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior. In the second, you have accepted Christ and you're trying to follow Him. In the third, you at one point accepted Christ, but you've moved away from it and you aren't trying to follow Him anymore. We go out on the beach for 15 minutes of silence
in which to pray and think. I know I'm on the second chair, but I come a lot closer to the third at times than I would personally like. After that, there's a bonfire which is just awesome. Some people go in right away, but those of us who stay sing for about 15 minutes.

10:45 - Concert!! the band that's here this weekend does a concert, which rocks. Just a long time of dancing, singing, hanging out, being silly. I realize that I haven't gotten a chance to hang out with Tyler (OneStaple for everyone here) much this weekend, which I really want to do cause we don't hang out much in person, just on-line. He kinda separates himself from the whole dance thing though and talks to one of the
staff guys for a long time. Go figure.

11:45 - the dance/concert is over. I'm tired, and somehow I end up feeling neglected and unloved, so I go up to the room for a while. I get bored though, so I wander back downstairs, where I find my counselor and a bunch of my friends on The Couches. I have a pulled shoulder now for some reason, and my counselor's a physical therapist, so I get a nice back rub. During this, Tyler comes downstairs and I make him come over and sit with us. I get some nice flirting time in (oops, here we go, another message for you to delete if he starts reading, Sam). He threatens to kill my stuffed frog from my brother's future college. My legs don't reach the coffee table, so I trick him into putting his legs on the coffee table so I can rest mine on his. It's easy to do when you
know the person can never resist making fun of the fact that they can do something you can't. We eventually have to go upstairs though, and after cabin time, it's lights out at 12:45.

_Sunday_

8:00 - we don't get a wake-up call today, thank goodness. I'm starting to get tired.

8:30 - we pad downstairs, again in our PJs. This time we try the other bible study, which is a lot better, because it's geared towards those who want to deepen their relationship with Christ rather than learn the basics of it. My day of being convicted has begun.... one of the questions we talk about is how to live a Christian
life when we're around our non-Christian friends.... I don't do the best job of it sometimes. breakfast at 9 again, quiet time at 9:30, meeting at 10.

10:00 - like I said, meeting. insert skits and singing here. The most interesting thing about this meeting is when Jim (the speaker) asks us to think of who our true friends are in the room. He invites those that are brave enough to do it to stand up and tell those people straight out in front of the whole group. I come up with a majorly
long list right away, but I hafta cut it down if I want to share. I figure all the female friends on the list KNOW how much I care about them.... so (a few people AFTER one of my good friends mentions me, making me all feel warm and squishy and loved and slightly weepy) I stand up and say (exact quote, to the best of my recollection(note: Brent is my brother)) "I guess I'd have to say the junior guys, and especially Tyler, because he's always been there for me [this is met by a big smile from Tyler. Cole, another junior guy, looks over at Tyler and puts his fist in the air]. and Brent, you're like my best friend, and I don't know what I'm going to do next year" I promptly burst into tears. After the meeting, a LOT of people tell me that they cried
or nearly cried when I talked. People mention me saying my brother for the rest of the weekend (by the way, how DO you respond when someone thanks you for sharing something very important to you? I've never been able to figure that out. Thank you? You're welcome?) I get a big hug from Brent. So far, Tyler hasn't mentioned the incident.

11:00 - games inside for Drizzle and Hurricane. Explaining this would be way too hard, so let's just say that it involves lots of tug-of war, finger rockets, hula hoops, stuffed animals, brooms, and screaming, all at once. We lose today, but by a very narrow margin. lunch after games again

1:00 - more free time! around 2 my counselor and I go down to the pool. The jr guys are all down there... I get in the hot tub and am accosted with shouts of "There's a 15-year-old in the hot tub!" We hang out for a while, play Marco Polo, chicken fight. (I'm on my brother's shoulders. Tyler, on someone else's shoulders, comes up and pushes me. I fall over immediately. stupid strong people). suddenly, Smalls, one of the junior guys, declares "I'm going in the ocean!". Greg, Cole, and Charlie join him immediately. Tyler laughs and refuses. Half to show the ones going in that I can do it, half to one-up Tyler, and half because I said I was going to, I agree to go with them. We go running down the beach, in up to our knees, fall over, and run back out. I am met by another junior guy who had gone in earlier yelling "Yeah Yorgey!" and handing me a towel. Therefore he rocks. We all go jump in the hot tub and laugh at Tyler, who in turn laughs at us. I'm going to a seminar at 3, so I leave and wander off upstairs to take a shower and get dressed.

3:00 - seminar on Seeing Yourself as God Sees You, just for girls. It's awesome, and by 4, when the next seminar is coming into the room (Mako room... referred to as the "Makeout Room" for most of the weekend), we're nowhere near done. So we move down to the Couches and continue with our Q&A session.... one of the questions asks how to
be confident when you feel inadequate. Memories of my relationship with my brother prior to this summer flood back to me, and I end up helping answer the question. A lot of things get worked out in me AS I'm answering. I don't have to be my brother. I don't need to be my brother. God created Brent special, and he created me just as
special as he did Brent, and wanting to be like Brent is like telling God that His plans aren't good enough for me. (Wow, I even worked some of that out as I was typing that.) I cried some more. One of the last questions, about having a female mentor, forces me to seriously consider my relationship with my mom. We finish around 5:00. I spend the last hour of free time hanging out with Helen, one of my Bible Study girls. She's
awesome, I love her to death.

6:00 - dinner and another BSB appearance... this time they do freshman guys. We laugh a lot more.

7:30 - Skit Night! Skits are hilarious, plus I'm sitting next to Tyler, so the evening is shaping up nicely.... the last skit is "Who wants to be a dollaraire", and Brent is the contestant, which means I get to be in the "family seat". I get flashlights shined on me a lot in lieu of spotlights. when Brent wins (and the way it was set up, he would have won had he answered every question wrong) I run onto the stage screaming and
jump on him. He wins 10 dollars in pennies.

8:30 - evening meeting. repeat meeting from last two nights. At the end of the meeting, we're told to go back to our cabins and talk about what's keeping us from knowing God better. This is a painful thing for me to think about, but I finally get it down to fear. I'm afraid of what I'll have to give up, I'm afraid of what I'll have
to take on. I'm afraid that people will reject me if I start to "change". I'm especially afraid of the fact that lately I've found myself questioning my faith a lot, wondering if it really is true or if it's just a lot of bs that's keeping me from whatever the REAL truth is. I continuously come to the conclusion that it's true, and it's probably HEALTHY that I'm questioning my faith.... it makes sure that I know what I believe and why. but it still scares me. We end up spending the majority of our time laying the Gospel out straight-up for the friend I brought, whose view on Christianity I never really knew before this. I discover that she definitely believes in god, but isn't quite sure which religion worships the REAL God, or if they're all the same god, or what. So we all explain to her exactly why we think Christianity is true, and she really does understand a lot of it, which is cool.

10:15 - major funness. after being kept out of the meeting room for the past half hour, 45 minutes, we are let back in to a bunch of bouncy-game things... a spider wall, boxing, sumo wrestling, a running-thing, and jousting. for those of you who've never seen these, take a moonbounce and put games on them. you basically get the idea. Now surround the games with 260 teenagers. heh. anyway, after standing in line for a while, a couple of us realize that we'd have more fun running around talking to people then waiting for games, so we run around talking to people. Tyler and I have a tickle fight, but eventually declare a truce, and considering you HAVE to hug on a truce, I get my first ever Tyler-hug. Now THAT is nice. After a while the room starts to empty out and the line shortens. Tyler challenges me to a jousting match, which he
beats me soundly in. I think I got my pulled neck uscle from that. ow. Katie, one of my friends, and I end up spending the last 10, 15 minutes before we hafta be in our rooms beating up on Tyler and Colin, his brother. It's a lot of fun... I go to bed basically high off of tonight.

_Monday_

8:00 - we wake up to the realization that today is the last day. boohoo.

8:30 - Bible Study again. I am convicted for the last time this weekend. One question which we actually don't get to discuss but is there asks what we have tried to do without God in our lives and how successful those things were. I immediately think of Drama. Drama is My Thing, and I don't want to give it to ANYone, not even God. In the past 2 years, in my bout as assistant director in 9th grade and a Person Of Much Influence in 10th, things have happened which, had I given my abilities over to God, wouldn't have. The incidents still get rubbed in my face... not maliciously, but they're there, and they're images I don't want people to have of me. As both Kate and co-Director of Taming of the Shrew this year, if I try to do it on my own I'll totally fail. I am guilty as charged yet again.

9:00 - breakfast, and we only have 15 minutes this morning instead of our customary half hour, which kinda sucks and makes us run out of time quickly.

9:15 - quiet times, nothing special

9:45 - our last meeting of the retreat. Corey, the senior high director, speaks this morning instead of Jim. our last funny skits, our last singing. It's kinda sad. We're invited to stand up and talk for the last time, this time about what the retreat has meant for us. I figure out that while God spent this summer teaching me GOOD stuff about myself and building me up, this weekend has served to tear down some of the
not-so-good things in me. Even though no one likes to be told what's wrong with them,
I feel amazingly loved that God would bother to do that for me.

11:15 - after crazy amounts of packing and cleaning, in which I leave a lot of stuff at
the hotel room (sniff sniff), we're finally on the busses. We manage to get on the same bus as the Junior guys this time, which should rock.

11:30 - around now we finally leave. We're sad to be gone... for the juniors, it's our last retreat in ocean city. for the seniors, it's their last retreat, period. We drive for a while. It's kinda crazy in here, everyone's hyper and crazy and stuff. Tyler and Lizi and I have a major book exchange. I end up with one of Tyler's favorite books which, after reading it in the next couple days, I really like even though I despise the
writing style. Several games of chess are played. I don't play, cause I don't really know how. We stop for lunch after about an hour. I realize that Tyler's staying back so he can check his blood sugar and give himself his insulin, so I stay to watch and to give him some company. It's actually kinda fun in an odd sort of oh-my-gosh-I'm-watching-someone-stick-a-needle-into-himself sort of way. Lunch takes forever, because when you stick 130 or so teenagers (they split us between 2) in a fast food restaurant, it just plain takes a while. We're finally back on the busses though... and the weekend goes down from here. Or the rest of the weekend, anyway. See, I
happen to be young for the junior class (I turn 16 in May) because I skipped 6th grade. I catch a lot of flak for being young, but generally it doesn't bother me. On the busride home, though, Smalls and Greg, 2 of the jr guys, get off on this idea that since Lynette's young (too young for us being implied, especially since they mention several times that I'm too young for the sophomores) I should be dating freshmen. Tyler's off in the back of the bus at this point, so he doesn't join in, nor does he have a chance to
prevent the whole thing by realizing when I'm getting angry and stopping them. It's funny for a couple minutes, but when they don't quit it starts to bug me. They aren't even mentioning the freshman guys I'm FRIENDS with.... they're talking about the ones who either bug me or who I don't know and don't see much of an opportunity to GET to know. I get really pissed off, tell both of them off (but in the calm Lynette's-really-mad tone of voice) and start crying. Smalls realizes I'm upset and apologizes, but Greg doesn't (note: Smalls was kidding about the whole thing, but as I find out later, Greg wasn't. And he won't understand why it upsets me, either) I figure out in the time I spend pouting that it's really hard to explain WHY I'm upset.... can any of you try? Go ahead if you want to. anyway, my annoyance at those 2 people eventually spreads to everyone on the bus. Lizi is ignoring me, along with half the other people. Tyler never realizes that I'm upset, or if he does, doesn't say anything (turns out he really didn't realize, even though I was sitting there crying. He was too tired to notice ANYthing).

4:45 - after the bus ride from heck but the rulingest weekend ever, we're home. and that, I suppose, is that.

uni"wow that's long"peg