YC PART 1

FRIDAY

ok. so we were supposed to be at the church at 8:30am, so that we could leave at 9am. of course, it being ebenezer and all, we didn't end up leaving until about 9:30am. no biggie, we had allotted for extra time. so we all (ebenezer and diefenbaker drive, about 28 of us in total) piled into three 15-seater vans (and lyn's car). i was in the van dubbed "white christmas" and was on the front bench between coltan and kevin.

what can i say, i was the last one in the van.

anyways, the trip was going pretty sweet. we stopped at this one place (i don't remember where it was)for gas or oil or something and we weren't allowed out of the van. kent and leon, who were travelling in lynette's car, were allowed out.

lucky ducks.

so when they came by to make fun of us because we weren't allowed out, i begged skittles off kent. then we decided that we wanted to all switch seats, so we opened the doors and switched seats. so now i was in the very back bench with kevin and keith. yeah it was fun. i did keith's hair in mini french braids. they were pretty hott if i do say so myself! (ha, there keith, do you feel special now that you are mentioned?? lol)

eventually we made it to lloydminster, the so-called half-way point. we stopped for lunch, where i had subway along with a bunch of other people. i also had my first taste ever of booster juice--which i mooched off kent and leon. grace had bought 80 mini pixie sticks and we (grace, steph and i) were standing around talking with kent and leon and eating pixie sticks. then the sponsors came up to us. "guys, we have some bad news", they said. mike's van had broken down, and we couldn't continue to drive it to edmonton. so we had two options. look around for another vehicle to rent, or see if emmanual had room on their bus for 8 passengers. luckily, emmanual had room and was more than willing to take some of our stranded passengers. so some girls from diefenbaker went on the bus. i was now in a differnt van, sitting with steph and grace in the very back. my cousin and her friends were also in the van.

it was an interesting second half of the trip.

BLENDER!

anyways, not much to talk about the trip. next interesting thing that happened was getting to edmonton. we drove around and got into rexall place. everytime we stopped, for a light or stop sign or something, both vans would start rocking.

rocking vans is fun!

so when we got to rexall place, we had to wait for the car, and we were just kinda hanging out while some of the sponsors went to go register us and get us our actual tickets and wristbands. and we decided, "hey, wouldn't it be fun to go on the top of the 15-passenger van?" so we tried. but anthony wouldn't let us. joel wanted to let us, but he was under strict orders from anthony not to let us up the ladder.

"but if you guys go up the front, where im not looking, then i wouldn't be able to stop you, would i?"--joel

so we climbed up the hood of the van. and sat in the roofrack thing on the top. it was kinda creepy being so high up. and it was really scary getting down! i had difficulties with that. i can get up things fine, but i have so much trouble getting down.

so once we had our tickets and wristbands and everything, we all wandered around just looking at like buildings and stuff and trying to associate stuff with stuff so that we hopefully would not get lost.

ha. janelle told me that if i was afraid to get lost, to hold kevin or kent's hand. ha.

so then we went out to supper, to this little resturaunt across the street from rexall place. we ordered in tables, and my table had pizza and ceasar salad and garlic toast.

mmm...that was good food.

while we were waiting for our food, our table (lynette, steph, grace, and i) were just talking about wierd things that we can do. and lyn showed us that she can do this really wierd thing called lazy eye. and she said it was really easy, so she taught the three of us how to do it. it's pretty sweet, and apparently i'm good and it's really creepy when i do it. my friend took a movie of me doing it, so i guess i'll be able to see what i look like. anyways after we ate and paid, we went outside. while some people were still inside paying, i was outside with a bunch of people. kent was balancing on these little wooden pole things, and i was like "wow kent that's pretty amazing, you can balance on that". but i said it sarcastically, cuz it looked really easy to balance. so he's like "oh well if it's so easy then why don't you try, i bet you can't". so i went over there and stood on this wooden thing with one foot and balanced...and fell off.

don't worry i didn't land on my face. just me feet.

so then he was like laughing at me because i couldn't balance. so i tried again. and this time i got it. but he didn't see it. so i had to do it again. this time he saw it, and was like "ok you can do it good job".

but then he goes over to these red poles. and these are actually like metal poles, and they came up to about chest height on me. so he pulls himself up onto the first one, balances with one foot on the top, then hops to the next one, the next one, he next one, and hops off. "ha, bet you can't do that", he says to me. so, of course, i have to try. i walk over there. but i have no idea how to get up, because i didn't see him get up. so i'm like "how in the world do you get up here, do you just jump?" and i was thinking that i might have to get someone to lift me up, but that would be hard because these poles are tall and skinny, and i'm tall too, so it would be really hard to lift me onto one of these poles. so kent shows me how he got up--he put one foot on the top of the pole, and his hands around the pole, just below is foot, and hoisted himself off the ground, and used the strength of one leg to pull himself up to standing height.

ok, looks easy enough.

but it's not! once i got my foot on the top of the pole, and my hands around, i could pull myself off the ground. but now i was stuck in a crouching position on top of this pole, but i couldn't stand up! so basically i was stuck. grace came around in front of me and grabbed me hand, to give me some leverage to help me up. and that was the right idea. but i was kinda scared about going so high, and i didn't have the right balance yet, so i almost fell over. thankfully a bunch of people were watching me and made sure i didn't fall off. so i was back down on the ground. and kent says i have to try again. i need to get this. and i wanted to do this. i had to prove that i could do it. it was a challenge, a competition, and i couldn't just back out. so i put my foot back up, and once again, was stuck on the top of the pole. but this time people were encouraging me, telling me what to do. "now just pull yourself up, use your leg muscles", but im saying that i have none! and i really don't. i wasn't strong enough to pull myself to a standing position. so finally kent comes around in front of me and pulls me up. now he could do this for me because he's pretty strong, and he's also really tall so that helped. so now i was standing on top of the pole, still holding on to kent's hand for dear life. because let me tell you, i was pretty high up. that pole must have been about five feet, and then add my height to that...wow my head was about 10 feet off the ground! and im looking down at all these people and im like "it's so high!" that's why i was still grabbing people's hands. so then i was holding two peoples hands (i don't even remember whose hands they were) and i actually jumped from pole to pole!! it was pretty amazing...everyone was pretty impressed with me.

haha yeah right. i wish.

but at least i proved to kent that i could do it! that's the important part.

so yeah anyways after this whole deal we walked back to rexall place to wait for them to open the doors so that YC could be begin and whatnot. and while we were waiting, lynette taught us another cool thing. i like to call it the stalker walk, but anyways, it's this really wierd thing where you walk right behind a person. and when i say right behind, i mean like you step exactly with them and you are about a cm apart. it's cool. i did all weekend because lyn said i should practice, and people started getting really annoyed with me. (just another thing i do to annoy ya, steph!) i also got some of the pixie candy from grace's pixie sticks in my pocket. how? leon stuck a half eaten pixie stick in my pocket upside down...only i didn't know that it was still half full! so finally the doors to rexall place opened. we went in, walked around and saw all the booth thingers, and found our seats. i also got a piggyback ride from leon.

yeah. a piggyback ride on leon through oober crowded halls at rexall place. not exactly the smartest thing to do, but it kinda cleared the hallways for the rest of our group! ha it was fun to see the looks on people's faces.

anyways then YC started. they welcomed us, then Tree 63 came and played some worhsip music for us and we all sang along and whatnot. and then the speaker, miles mcpherson came up. and let me just say, wow, is he ever amazing! i loved him! he was an amazing speaker. really interesting to listen to. at the end of his little session thing, he did kind of like a huge altar call, and just prayed the new believer prayer and invited people to invite Jesus into their hearts. and wow i was so happy when keith stood up! i wasn't really sure if he had become a christian or anything (he hadn't, i found out later), but i knew that for him to stand up that meant that he was seriously thinking about it and that he was a step closer. it almost made me cry, because so many people that i knew and that i had been praying for stood up. it was really moving. then audio adrenaline came out and played for like an hour and that was a really good concert. those guys are lots of fun to listen to. it was a good ending to friday of YC.

but wait! the night wasn't over...not yet. not nearly.

we were staying at this chinese church. it was pretty sweet. the girls were in two rooms upstairs, and the guys were in a room off the sanctuary and down a hall and yeah that's a pretty good description. basically, guys and girls were on opposite ends of the church. so basically, once we got there (we had to leave the guys at rexall place and send a van back for them), we had to un-load the van! and you all know how i hate un-loading. but i helped, and it actually went really fast because everyone had packed so lightly. no heavy music boxes to carry!! so yeah once we had everything un-loaded, i went upstairs and changed into pj's, a tank top, and leanne's big huge sweater (we had to wear at least a t-shirt or sweater with the guys around, no tank tops plain allowed!) and i really had to pee, so i ran down the stairs and almost hit some guys (sorry!) and pretty much fell down the stairs into the bathroom.

that was funny.

so after i finally got to the bathroom i went to the gas station across the street and bought chocolate milk and this ooze tube thing. they were so good!! wow. yeah so when we were going to the gas station i kept saying garbage...and like i didn't even mean to!! i was like "oh yeah leanne's not coming with us to the garbage can" and then everyone laughed at me. and then someone was like "why isn't leanne coming?" and i said "she's got her own garbage bags" and yeah everyone laughed again. i don't even know why i kept saying that, i just did by accident. it was really wierd.

i went to bed at about 1:30am. and i was supposed to get up at 7am.