TuckaSNOW

As keeping with tradition, I went down to the Harrisburg area (the opposite corner of the state!) for their annual Halloween YSA conference, held at the Tuckahoe boy scout camp. This trip, I had my sis and two of my friends with me in our little Jeep. There really isn't anything going on around here for Halloween, and they do such a nice job with the conference, so the choice was easy.

What was not easy was trying to get ready for this conference the same week as starting at my second placement! I didn't get a whole lot of sleep. And I got to drive the 5 hours it takes to get there...so fun!

We finally made it there and met everyone else at the bonfire. Sadly we got there too late for the haunted house...and we heard it was the best one they'd done! Arrgh! The bonfire was fun but once again, I'm not going to take blinding pictures at one. Use your imagination of what a bunch of YSA around a bonfire looks like.

 Late at night + Liz being really tired + bonfire = funny things out of Liz's mouth!

The next morning it started snowing...and didn't stop. At all. We went from this:

to THIS in a very short amount of time!

I stayed in the fort cabin, not the castle, but it was pretty:

Things became very scary. The snow was heavy, and very wet and the leaves were still clinging to the trees. The snow stuck like glue all over everything- when I went out it was only a second until I was covered in snow. The trees couldn't take all the weight of the snow and large branches started snapping and falling. As the storm went on, whole trees fell. It was cold and windy too.

They had to cancel the outdoor activities and revamp the class schedule. I felt bad for those in charge! They were able to set up large games for people to play in the main cabin.

I went to my cabin to work on my costume and it was a dangerous walk with things falling all over. While at my cabin, the power went out. And stayed out. I wanted to get back to the main cabin but was not looking forward to going out in the storm. The Holy Ghost said to me "If you're going to go Liz, you must leave now."

In the hour since I went to the cabin, a tree fell across the trail. Branches were everywhere.

There were a couple of girls leaving the conference and carrying their stuff in the storm. I joined with them and  we made our way through the 6 inches of snow as fast as we could. When we heard trees snapping, we ran like crazy. It was so dangerous. I made sure I had everything with me so that I wouldn't have to go back in the storm.

On our excursion back, we encountered several girls who chose to be out in the cold and wind and danger! They were standing in the road, taking it all in. I couldn't believe it. We said "It's dangerous, you shouldn't be out here." And they said "Oh, we're fine." It became a parable in my mind- we can't let ourselves be in places of danger spiritually. We have to run, like Joseph of Egypt.

We were basically trapped there at camp- as soon as the fallen trees were cleared, more fell. I debated leaving, but I knew we'd be safer there. And we were.

We played games and had the dance equipment run by a generator. Putting on my getup in the dark was a bit tricky, but I was glad it turned out alright! The dance was really fun, my friend is a really good dj. And I got asked to dance by not one, not two, but six different guys! Cha ching! I got a lot of votes in the costume contest, but didn't win. Darn you Bellatrix!

Mario and Medusa:

Having a Greco-Roman moment at the dance:

Lots of great costumes!

Lots of Harry Potter costumes! 

Loved the TMNT costumes! The girls were a flock of birds:

The Medusa costume had been in the works for years. I started sewing a white dress and put it aside about 6 years ago. I've been collecting jewelry and snakes for the last few years. Even found gold snakeskin sandals on clearance a couple years ago. I had finished the white dress this summer, it became a fake wedding dress for a display at Girls Camp! I dyed it green, took in the waist, added trim and part of a snake necklace on the bodice. I found this scrap of green that became the front flap. I bought sheer black material and made a drape. Getting the snakes in my hair was the tricky part- I glued clips to them (Thank you E-6000 epoxy! You could bond an anvil to the side of a building!) and then layered them in my hair. I didn't have light to do eyelashes/contacts but still did green eyeshadow and just ran around with no glasses on (they were tucked in my bra, lol!). 

I got a lot of compliments on my costume, it felt good. I like Medusa because I can understand having crazy hair, ha ha. 

The power stayed out for the last 24 hours of the conference- and it was still out when it was all over on Sunday afternoon. We still had church though, which was good. I wish I could have showered, but we were all safe and warm. I felt that we were really protected this weekend.

On Sunday the sun was out, the snow had stopped and it was lovely.

Our snowy fort:

Upon leaving, it became very clear why the power had gone out- there were several trees that had fallen that were resting on the wires. I wanted to take a photo and document it, but we got out of there quick instead!
Once you got out of camp, you'd never know that such craziness had taken place.

The Holy Ghost had said to me "Liz, you're gonna want a flashlight for this conference. Trust me." And I hadn't really thought of it but decided to bring one- good thing! Parts of the cabins, like the bathrooms, were very dark and I wound up sharing my light. Hello parable of the 10 virgins!

We found Electric Avenue on the way home!

Totally gonna rock on down there...and then I'll take it higher. 

This conference makes #19 that I've attended in the last 4 years if I've tabulated correctly. They're fun and I love meeting new people and getting spiritual nourishment, but it's getting a little old. I'm not really supposed to be at these, ya know? I should be doing other things in life. 

If the Spirit tells you to go now or bring a flashlight, do it. 

Overall a crazy but good weekend! 

Kirtland Conference

I spent Memorial Day Weekend at the Kirtland conference in Ohio, also known as Zion’s Camp. I wound up with three other girls in my car there- Kaitlyn, Briana, and my sister Laura. It was a pretty full car with all our stuff! We stayed at a hotel this year- it was nice to know your roommates and amenities as opposed to staying at a stranger’s house- but it’s a pricey alternative.

Friday was spent at the church building- there was food and games going on. You could play raffle games and win tickets towards prizes- and these were good prizes like iPods and gift cards. Is this where my pricey ticket went? I helped my friend Anne (who is now married but a saint to help out. I don’t know if you could get me back at a conference if I got married!) run her game- getting three balloons to stay up in the air for 30 seconds won you a ticket. It was my only chance to see her over the weekend so we got caught up in between people playing.

We also had a speaker that night that was great. He spoke about the hardships in his life and how he was thankful for them because they lead him to the church. He was really inspirational and the spirit was strong there.

Saturday was spent getting breakfast and listening to Brad Wilcox, who is a great speaker. I’d never heard of him before but now I’m a fan. He’s funny and spiritual. He spent time talking about our birthright and he explained the whole process using volunteers from the audience to stand in as Israel and all his family. We had classes, I enjoyed mine. I went to one on careers and I feel pretty good about myself and my skills. I also went to one on dating, it was funny and had the usual info.

We also did service, this year I did something different and wound up sorting clothes for a charity. For the most part it was fine, but some bags were a bit scary (and really, who donates lingerie?) or moldy. And sometimes it was really hard to tell if something was a small woman’s or a bigger girl’s size. We got a lot done in a relatively short amount of time and the guy in charge was really thankful. He said he likes working with us Mormons because we get to work and don’t argue with each other like other churches! It was a very nice compliment from him- he said he’d work with us anytime.

Bell bottoms!

Bags of sorted clothes:

We tried to find the old school ice cream parlor but I couldn’t this time. I couldn’t remember where it was.

Dinner was good and afterwards was the dance. It was pretty fun and pretty funny because a cute 18 year old guy asked me to dance! I’m such a cougar! Even funnier he was saying he had graduated the day before and on Sunday he made a point of telling us that his tie was the one he wore to prom. Too funny!

Sunday was Sacrament meeting in the Kirtland temple, which is always nice. Brad Wilcox spoke again, mostly about Joseph Smith and it was great. It was also nice to hear the testimonies from other YSA. It amazes me how many young people are joining the church, it’s great.

It was a beautiful sunny day. We made it back to the college and got a really great catered meal. That's half the reason I go! We were then turned loose to see the sites in Kirtland. We spent some time at the quarry, I haven’t been there for awhile. We also saw a neat photographic exhibit in the visitor’s center of photographs taken of church sites in the early 1900’s. I enjoyed the photographs, they were great. We also walked around the sites there. In the evening Brad Wilcox spoke again and it was great. There was also a speaker who for whatever reason, mentioned our fhe leader by name even though it was his wife that knew him forever ago, not him! Totally random.

We made it back home that night after I dropped people off at the Erie building. Overall it was a nice weekend and I was glad I could go. It was my last YSA conference (hosted by another stake, that is) before I turned into a pumpkin, aka turned 31.

WV Conf: Take Me Home, Country Roads

I spent last weekend down in West Virginia for yet another YSA conference. It is starting to get hard to keep them all straight! This year WV opted to hold their conference at Jackson's Mill, a camp with some history. It's part of the WVU campus.

Truth in Advertising!

After months and months of sounding like a broken record  promoting this conference to the other YSAs in our group, it was finally time to go. I had a full car going down- my friend Kaitlyn sat up front with me and we had two guys from our fhe group in the backseat. If I wasn't driving, none of them would have had a way to WV! The trip down took about 5 hours, it took longer because of the rain and traffic and pitstops needed.

But we got there just in time for....stupid Get to Know You Games! Why, they're my favorite! {Sarcasm Sign}

I was forced to play, they had several teams rotate through activities. I am proud to admit that I did well during Musical Chairs- I lost out when four tried to become three. Out of a group of 14! We all have hidden talents. Oh, and I faked needing to do something with my phone so I could escape church-themed charades. How would you portray "Fishers of Men"? I don't know either and didn't want to try.

Once again, Get to Know You Games don't really let you get to know people. Although they let you see who's cool under pressure.

 Some poor girl dumped a ton of water on herself and all over the stage and floor during apple bobbing:

Running around with a kite attached to your hat- how sexy!

Is it now clear why I hate GTKYG? At least they weren't SFGTKYG.

No, I didn't participate in either activity. Though gosh, they looked fun. {Sarcasm Sign}

The real fun that night was the bon fire. Our speaker told the story of his first date with his wife- a bad date story that puts most bad date stories to rest! What an amazing woman to see past all that. It was fun to hang out with my friends and joke around. No photos of the bonfire- kindof hard to take pics in the dark.

Saturday was an early breakfast (7:30 am!) and then classes. First was a class where you covered a small military size Book of Mormon with fabric and doodads using irons and Wonder Under. It even has a magnetic closure. Pretty sweet.

Yup, mine's the aqua one!

Then it was finger-poking fun at woodcarving!
Here's what ours was supposed to look like:

Mine is *not* that far along. At all.

After lunch was Geocaching. I'd never done it before so it was fun to learn how to input coordinates and find stuff. My guy partner (not pictured) was less than desirable but I survived.

Then we got to watch an educational lecture from a raptor bird sanctuary/rescue place. They rehabilitate hurt birds of prey and use the ones that can't go back into the wild in their demos. It was an interesting show, it was neat to see the birds.

We saw a screech owl, "Owlice"

 A broadwing hawk named "Neo"

 ...and a tame red tail hawk named Annie that was probably stolen from the wild and tamed (illegal!).

This bird can really poop. Let me tell ya.

Later came free time and we walked down to the General Store. Saw a Civil War camp reenactment and people in period dress.

Reenactment with guns:

Fed the big koi fish in the pond:

After dinner, there was a speaker, the Mission President of the WV mission. He spoke about the theme and how there is really only one road to God and it's up to us if we're near or far. (Are you thinking about Grover at this point? I was!) It was a good talk and uplifting.

And since we were in WV, you gotta square dance. It's the law. I got roped into square dancing which was fine but I was so mad that I got tricked into having to be partners with a girl. And we were the only same sex couple in the entire room of 6 groups. They needed one more couple to complete a group and had run out of willing boys. At any rate, it was mortifying. And fed several complexes of mine. Probably other people didn't care that it was us girls, but I was mad that I was tricked/forced into it, mad that no guy wanted to be my partner in the first place and just mad. I have not been that mad in some time. Definitely the low point of the conference. Our group kept messing up too on account of our partnership- the guys kept trying to dance with me and would forget that I was "the boy". Or I'd forget that I was not supposed to do the girl part. I was so glad to be done with that! Other people looked like they were having fun, it was fun to watch my friends dance. Some groups did very well.

Then came the real dance, I was glad to groove my anger away. It actually was a pretty good dance and I did get asked to dance once. I did run away from some undesirable men, though. It was too dark to take a pic during the dance but I wanted to show off my new shirt so here you go:

We slept very well that night.

Breakfast again at 7:30 am and then Sacrament meeting. There were some really wonderful testimonies borne.

Sunday best:

Kaitlyn, Mitch and myself

The campgrounds were lovely. Spring has come to WV and it was great to have warm temps (could have done without the humidity), green grass and blooms in the trees. The cabins were really sweet looking and nice inside. Because it is Jackson's Mill, there are millstones everywhere.

Even in stone foundations:

The mess hall was a really cute building:

Our cabin, Marion:

Entryway of our cabin, note the two millstones above the fireplace:

 West Virginia rocks!

Some lows during the conference, but overall a fun weekend!

It was nice to get away and take a break.

Even though this conference served as a big reminder that I am not "young" anymore!

Sigh...

DC Conference

I spent the second weekend of July in DC at my first Midsingles conference. For those not in the know, midsingles are those ranging in age from their later twenties to somewhere in their forties. The Midsingles movement is kind of a protest or uprising from singles that are aging out of the YSA program- we’re basically saying “We don’t want to be lumped in with 60 year olds!”

There appeared to be a few women pushing the latter age boundary at this conference, but they blended in much better than the older men that attended- it was a bit skeevy to be at a conference with men in their 50’s- the same age as my dad!

It turned out to be a fun weekend- I drove 3 hours down to Washington, PA (ironic, no?) where I ditched my car at a church building and rode the remaining 4 hours with a couple of galpals, Tracy and Jamie. Tracy travels all over the US to go to these conferences, but I certainly can’t afford that so I made an effort to go to this one- it’s the closest. We made good time and arrived in Alexandria, Virginia in the early evening and got checked in to our hotel and at the conference. The conference had arranged for us to eat at a Thai restaurant down by the water- I liked the atmosphere and some of the food was good but it didn’t mix well in my stomach. I did like this statue of Buddha (I studied Hindu art in an art history class a few semesters ago).

After dinner, we waited on the dock and then boarded The Cherry Blossom, our riverboat for the evening. Being on the boat was a lot of fun- we sailed on the Potomac and saw the Capitol building and the Washington Monument. The top two decks were for observation, the third deck had tables and snacks, and the bottom deck held the dance. It was a fun dance except that some of the music was too old fogey- redone oldies? I’m not that old!

The humidity was something else that evening- it was worse than anything I’ve ever experienced in PA or CT, and that’s saying a lot! The air was basically a solid, and it doesn’t cool down at night, either. Blech! My hair became a solid, too!

Saturday we were split into groups for The Amazing Race, then we headed on the metro to the National Mall where we ran around to answer questions in our packets. I realize that the point of this was to get us meeting other people and to have fun, but I didn’t like the competitive aspect of it- my group was more focused on winning then on actually seeing anything. Most of them had already done DC or lived there, whereas I’d never been to DC before. Still, I did get to see a blur of DC- we ran through the Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and then the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It was neat to see capsules from space exploration, and I could have spent all day in the National Gallery of Art- it was so neat to see such old works like what I study at school. They even have some works by DaVinci. I do have to question storing such priceless treasures in DC- the humidity is not good for keeping things archival and it was a bit dank inside. I wonder how long things will last!

I didn’t get to see much at the Smithsonian, I would have loved to have seen more. You could spend a lot of time in there. I got to see C3P0!  I also got to see the Star Spangled Banner (the huge flag that inspired Francis Scott Key during the war of 1812), that was pretty neat. There isn’t much left of it anymore- it’s disintegrating. It’s also a lot smaller now because pieces of it were taken for souvenirs back in the day (including one of the stars!).

We made it back to the church and had BBQ, then headed back down to the water- it was Old Alexandria’s birthday and the town celebrated with an orchestra and fireworks. It was a great show, complete with cannons firing during The 1812 Overture.

We had sacrament meeting in a school auditorium on Sunday- there were several hundred people at the conference and we wouldn’t have fit with a ward. Apparently Mama Cass and Jim Morrison attended that school back in the day. Sacrament meeting was nice, we had some good speakers. Afterwards we had lunch in the cafeteria below. And then we headed out after saying goodbyes.

It was funny being among the youngest at a conference- normally it’s the other way around. There’s a different vibe too. At YSA conferences, the vibe is “We’re young, we’re gonna have fun and see what happens.” At this conference, it was almost like people were radiating “Singledom sucks and I want a spouse”.

So, you’re probably wondering if I met my match, and the answer is no. Like most conferences, I expanded my circle of galpals. I met some great girls from Florida- one I bonded with very well because we’re quite alike, and the other works for LDS Family Services. I had a long conversation with her about adoption, which is a topic I find very interesting- I’d like to adopt babies someday.

This conference lead me to ponder and think about topics that I hadn’t really thought about before. During the conference, I heard some truly horrible life stories from both men and women. I’m now in an age bracket where a lot of people have baggage, or in some cases, a very heavy load of personal baggage. When seeking a spouse, how much baggage is too much baggage? I have my own issues, but they pale in comparison to things that other people deal with. I’m also now in an age bracket where it’s highly likely that I could wind up with someone who has children already. Could I blend in with someone else’s family? Is is fair to me if someone else has been there, done that? And how old is too old? I’m usually dealing with guys that are too young. I’d like someone approximately my age, but what is “approximate”? Ultimately, the right person is the right person and I think I have a decent amount of patience to handle where life takes me, but there’s a lot of new things to think about. I’m just so thankful to have the Holy Ghost help me to know who I should associate with.

In all, I had a pretty fun weekend and found it worthwhile to go. I enjoy meeting people and there are often things said by the speakers that I find that I needed to hear. It’s good to get out of my shell. And my branch president didn’t bug me about this conference when I got back!

PS- I wound up rooming with a gal who's a sister to a gal I knew on my mission! We knew all the same people, it was crazy. Small world, no?