Conference nuttiness

So yesterday I didn’t do parking…hardly anyone was at the 2:00 and 3:30 breakout sessions. I got drafted to spot-clean bathrooms instead. I met this really cool girl who just did Intro to IHOP…I shoulda gotten her phone number; would’ve been cool to hang out more. Anyway, I really didn’t have much to do…we only had to check the bathrooms a few times throughout the sessions. Goldie was supposed to be working with me. Since we didn’t actually have any work to do, we sat in the student lounge and talked for an hour. She was having trouble writing her papers, so I asked her leading questions and listened. Goldie is so deep…I wish we’d talked more in the internship. She’s in my core group, but not really in my social circle.

This morning I got to do parking, finally. I worked with HoB and Mark Gardener, the parking head honcho. We had so much fun…hardly anyone came; we barely filled the FSM parking lot. We really didn’t have much to do at all (almost no one came to this conference, because there is not a lot of interest in the End Times in the church today). HoB and I were bummed that we were missing the morning session’s worship; Luke Wood is one of our favorites, and we never get to go to his devo sets. Mark went inside and used his walkie-talkie to broadcast worship to us two out in the parking lot. It was pretty sweet. Aside from worshiping Jesus out in the hot summer morning, we had a grand old time goofing off, using weird arm motions to direct cars around the parking lot. I really got into it — airline parking signals, jump spinning kicks into pointing at a spot, cheerleader “spirit fingers”….

Around 9:40, traffic was slowing to a trickle, and Mark decided to let us go after one more car. We decided that for the last car to enter the parking lot, I would do an Irish jig. I don’t know how to jig, but I can fake one fairly well. HoB prophesied that the last car would be a red one. As a red car entered the parking lot, I got ready…and it turned into a parking space at the far end. I didn’t get a chance to jig, so we decided to wait for one more car. HoB prophesied that the next car would be green. Indeed it was. I jigged merrily, pointed enthusiastically, and ended it with an air guitar strum and a final point. The lady was laughing her head off, as were my parking buddies. I’d have to say that was the most fun I’ve ever had doing parking. The last time I did it was in the winter. I nearly got frostbite.

Mmmm…what else did I do today? Oh, Dib and I hung out in the cafeteria and traded files. He wanted the recordings I’d made of our tracks and I wanted his pictures. We used Buffer’s iPod to transfer files. I want an iPod even more now. My tech upgrade list keeps growing, but first I need to get a job — and then bills come first. Dangit!

I can’t believe we have only eight days left. Tomorrow morning we have off. I want to hang with people, I think, but not everyone’s heere. Wes Martin and about 20 OTI interns and staff are in Illinois on a ministry trip. They wanted to take the entire internship, but IHOP leadership nixed the idea (which was a bummer — we so would’ve had an awesome time ministering to people). The other night I took Gem, Pixie, Sunny, Hotness, and my friend Wombat1 to the Plaza. We had fun walking around and hanging out. I need to start taking the initiative on these things instead of always waiting to be invited. I feel like if I’d done that more throughout the internship, I would’ve made more friends and more memories. On the other hand, as much as I long for being in the cool hang-out social circle, I am not built that way…I am more of a one-on-one person. And I definitely needed time for talking to Jesus. He comes before my social life. Not that He doesn’t want me to have one…it’s just not good to make friends and hanging out an idol.

I am rambling. As usual. I so pride myself on my organized thoughts and writing ability…but, folks, at the end of the day I’m as random as the next person. Random people unite! Heh.