The Feast 3: Bring Out the Lightsabers!

So Wednesday started as most days at the Feast did: with me feeling groggy. Which was totally unfair. I mean, the night before, I was always fine when I went to bed. I knew I needed sleep, which was the reason to try and get some, but I never felt liked I needed it. Then the next morning I would feel like I hadn't slept in days. Grr.

Okay, enough about sleep.

That morning Paul didn't feel like eating anything for breakfast save fruit; I didn't feel like eating anything, but I did anyway, 'cuz I knew I'd get hungry later. The pastor and youth leader from the Altamont group stopped by, for some reason expecting us to be with Susan or at least know where she was. ;-) As they walked away, Paul looked groggily after them and said, "Was she wearing a shirt I've seen before?"

Andrew: Um, that... Orange one?

Paul: No, it had some design that was familiar.

Andrew: (Gesturing to my shirt) You mean that?

Paul: (Grins) Yeah! That's the one!

(It seems my Monty Python "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" shirt is a duplicate of one owned by, erm, one of Paul's sisters.)

After breakfast we hung about breifly with some MHers, until many of them had to go off to choir (they kept doing that <_<).

We went to chapel. Then we sat close to the front again for Bender, and Paul and Nat and I stayed in the gym after that to hear Klemet Preus give an in-depth sectional on vocation. It was great, not surprising considering the speaker. At one point he asked for examples of vocation, and Paul mentioned "Pickle shelving!", to the amusement of most present (including Pastor Preus). After that, Paul brought said vocation into the proceedings at every oppurtunity. Afterwards we talked to Pr. Prues breifly, and he said to Paul, "Thanks for keeping it interesting."

Then was lunch. I don't remember much about that particular lunch, but I will say that just eating lunch with MHers etc. was very nice. Makes lunch at home seem rather dull in comparison. ;-)

Then I went to a sectional on the church's response to homosexuality, which was very good, by a pastor that I am very baaaaad and can't remember his name.

Next was evening in-depth (at 1:15 PM, teehee). I would like to note here that some of the most quotable things at the Feast came out of this sectional, such as:

Pastor B: Us keeping the law is like me bird-hunting.

Pastor B: ...And we like to think of the New Testament God as a kind God, a loving God, with a sheperd on his shoulder.

Pastor B: Aaron, if I gave you control of the Higher Things webpage for one day, what would you do?
Aaron: Copy it onto my hard drive.

Pastor B: You are worth TONS of dead birds.

And of course:

Pastor B (Illustrating, I think, our reaction to the Gospel, someone correct me on this): lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala!!!!!!! (With hands over ears, Pastor B runs around the room, still saying thus, runs out the door, closes the door.) lalalalalala! (Pastor B comes back in, goes back to the center of the room, and looks slightly embarassed.) I wonder if Fehrman heard that. 'The purpose of Lutheran missions is...' lalalalalalalala!"

Ahem.

After that was Moseman's sectional, then Vespers. I beleive this was the one where Andrew and I (maybe Paul, but I think he was somewhere else) arrived later than usual, and MOST of the seats were filled, so we sat in one of the forgotten corners and had no hymn book for half the service. Of course this was the place where the kids who don't really care, and are just there beacause their youth group is, hang out. (There are not many of these kids at HT conferences, I've noticed, but a few do slip through the cracks.)

So after that we met up with Heidi and Tarja and Aaron and Nathan, and all hung out for a little while. People were loading on both charter buses and their groups' own transportation to go to Garden of the Gods. Heidi and Tarja soon had to go off with their group to go to the Garden, and Paul and Andrew and Susan went with a Wisconsin group, but Aaron and Nathan and I kind of opted not to go anywhere.

So the three of us wandered around the CC campus for a time. We didn't really have anybody to go anywhere with, unless we went on a charter bus, but we might have had to sign up so we didn't feel like wrangling with that; and the WI bus only had two seats left, and there were three of us. So we were still wandering, kind of wondering what we'd do to fill up two hours, when we came across the Canadian group. One of us (probably Aaron, but I can't remember) asked something like, "Have you got room for a couple more?" And the drivers in Heidi's group were kind and generous and took us in. (And I must give special thanks to Pr. James (?) for driving both that day and the next. It takes a special kind of person to drive with Aaron in the vehicle and not spontaneously go off the road.)

So we went to Garden of the Gods and messed around in the gift shop for a while. It was threatening to thunder and lightning, but we went out to the hiking trail area anyway and messed around there for a while. Aaron and I had our lightsabers of course, which made us, heh, popular. (Actually, he and I and Heidi had them all day, and there were intermitent duels at certain oppurtunities, such as between classes, at lunch, in the car, etc.)

The Garden itself is a beautiful place, all that red rock sprawled around you; it's kind of indescribable.

After the Garden we went to the Flying W Ranch, for an old-fashioned cowboy meal and a Western show. We arrived and filed into their mess hall, making for the corner tables near the window along the back wall. (Ventilation-- it was hot.) The meal was the best I'd had all week; the show, well, parts of it were alright. Parts of it *coughthegospelsongscough* not so much. During the show Agent Delta came over and passed the message, "Lightsaber fight outside of Worner after we get back tonight."

So after we had finished eating, a bunch of people were out back there, hanging out on a strip of pavement, leaning against the western-style fence, watching the show through the window and talking. And playing with lightsabers. hehe. At one point, Aaron and I and some girls (sorry I don't know who all, exactly) were all leaning against the fence. Aaron was leaning on a support sticking out of the ground, and I was to his left. Suddenly he started away from the fence, and the group of girls to his right went over backward with a screaaam!, and brought that section of fence (a felled tree, I think) down with them. Acoording to one report, "Half the place heard them." I investigated this later and find this claim suspicious at best.

It was shortly after this that a cowboy-dressed guy came back and talked to those of us back there, asking that we keep it down, and saying that people were complaining. teehee. (I think the fence was alright, and no real damage was done, except maybe to some egos. :-D)

The Canadian/North Dakotan group we were with left a little early, to beat the rush back to CC. A group eventually congregated outside of Worner; Aaron had his lightsaber, I had mine, Heidi had hers, and Rachel D brought four or five.

There was a huge lightsaber duel.

Copious amounts of damage was done to the campus grounds. Limbs were chopped off, to lie untouched in the moonlight. Alliances were made and broken. The screams and cries were heard throughout the campus (by morning we were famous). I fought mostly on the side of whoever was outnumbered, since I had one of the two longer sabers. I fought many individual duels as well, and participated in many, er, backstabbings.

It was great fun.

After lightsaber fighting, we went to a birthday party for the Rachels and a friend of theirs named Ellen. We ate globs of frosting, and performed strange experiments with Sweet-N-Low, and played games, etc. We sang happy birthday and included Aaron as well, since his birthday was also a week or so away (happy birthday EllenAaronRachelRachel, happy birthday to you. :-D)

Next we made Aaron go to the wrong Compline again, and I bumbled my way back to our dorm, turned on the old radio shows again, and was soon out like a light. Thus ended Wednesday.

PS.: Thanks to Rachel D for supplying Ellen's name. Ethan's mind not so good. ;-)