Bathroom stories of Bryant Middle School

Writing the post about unwritten bathroom rules made me think about some experiences in my life, particularly in my years at Bryant middle school.

At Bryant there were 5 urinals in the largest bathroom in the school. It was said that if you peed in the one that was in the order of the day of the week, (ex the one on the left would be Monday, the 2nd from the left would be Tuesday) then you'd have good luck for the day. If you were really a daredevil with a full bladder, then you'd attempt to pee in every urinal in one stream. This would be the equivalent to a whole week of good luck. It was not an uncommon sight to see a boy shuffling across the urinals.

When I was in middle school and people started implementing these motion censored toilets, I didn't know what they were. I thought they were little cameras trying to watch me do my business. I foiled the perverts plot though by covering my hand over the "camera" while I was going to the bathroom.

Another thing those middle schoolers did was go to the bathroom everywhere EXCEPT the toilet or urinal. Waste baskets often had more people pooping in them than the toilets!

One last story was probably the most deranged out of all of them. Some guys decided they wanted to see if they could all poop in one toilet and not flush to see how high it got. These guys managed to get it over the toilet seat!

I really feel sorry for the janitors at that school.

The Unwritten Rules: of the Men's Bathroom

I've been thinking about what to post here lately with me being on winter break and nothing exciting happening lately and unfortunately for you this is what first popped into my head. I decided to write down the rules that every man knows when entering the wasteland known as the men's bathroom. Violation of these rules results in losing one's "man card"

1. All conversation ends upon entering the domain to focus on his "duty". It's surprisingly a very strange sound when you hear guys violating this rule.

2. If possible avoid taking a urinal next to someone. It's just wrong.

3. Beware urinals that either don't have shields or are faulty and reflex your pee back at you. You want shields because you don't trust anyone in the men's bathroom and I don't think I have to explain the last one.

4. What sounds happen in the bathroom....stay in the bathroom. If you have to laugh then walk out and enjoy a hardy laugh. This rule is necessary when one has the runs.

5. Pick the farthest stall from the door. It has a 26% chance of not being full of other guys poop and pee contrary to the .03% of the first stall.

College Chronicles: No Shave November

As a male college student, you face a choice when the month of November comes around. To shave or not to shave. Not shaving means that you get to bond with your fellow men as you all develop your own patchy fur on your face. On the other hand, if you do shave, unless your face is just that ugly, the girls are going to be more attracted to you. At the beginning of November, I was interested in swooning a girl and I felt the best way to do that was by shaving. My lab group, Alex L, Alex N, and Alessandro all did no shave November. It was really interesting because both Alex N and Alessandro grow really fast beards, while Alex L....lets say had the face of a 5th grader.

Since both Alexs would get frustrated when they thought they were called but it was the other Alex, we decided to call Alex L "patches" over no shave November. Alex L could barely grow sideburns and had probably a combined 8 moustache hairs and 3 chin hairs. I once didn't shave for 3 days during no shave November, and I had more facial hair than Alex after 21 days. Sure Alex didn't like it... but since we were all bigger than him, he had to put up with it anyways.

Looking back, I wish I did no shave November, but heck I still have next year! Hopefully by then blond beards will be in style! Oh and for the record, I can grow a nice beard. I'm not "Patches 2.0"!

College Chronicles: The Story of a Nun

This past week my calc 2 professor decided to give us a quiz everyday for a couple of weeks, and we have classes every weekday except for thursday. On Friday I was excited to finally have a break from the stress and go home and take a nap as soon as classes were done. Right before I went home though I wanted to workout. As I was working out I got a text from my friend Nia, saying that she'll be at school for a speech, and she asked me if I wanted to come along. Since Nia is becoming one of my best friends I decided to meet up with her at the speech.

I met up with Nia, we found a place to sit and then I found out who was going to be speaking...a nun. Now for some reason even the word nun makes me laugh uncontrolably, and unfortnately that word was used often throughout the speech. I'm not going to go into detail about what the speech was about, but it was about how she talked to people before they had the death penalty. Anyways throughout the speech I had a hard time to prevent from bursting out laughing whenever she said the word nun.

Afterwards I hungout with Nia for a little bit and it was a great way to start off my weekend!

College Chronicles: Halloween Party

Last week Intervarsity (Christian club) had a Halloween party. Unfortunately I happened to have 2 exams the very next day, but I was still able to dance for an hour. At the beginning there were only 10 girls dancing and no brave boys dancing. I decided to be a man and live up to my gangsta dancer name flailing spider monkey! The girls had created a circle as I was arriving which was perfect, because as soon as I arrived I jumped in the center and started break dancing, soon everyone was saying the classic "Ohhhhh!" which confirmed their astonishment at these amazing dance moves that I preformed. Soon other people started break dancing, and my friend Sam claims that I was out danced by several people, but she's just a hater.

My friend and fellow freshmen, Josiah, and I, were really lighting up the dance floor. Me with my flailing arms and a variety of fist pump styles, and Josiah being 6-4 used his lanky legs to do the two step. Sam still thinks my dance moves are the definition of white boy dancing. God gave me the ability to wow people with dance, so I shall flaunt my God given gift!

The College Chronicles

Hey guys, don't worry, my crazy life didn't get the best of me in the end. Still very much alive. I've been adjusting to college life at the University of Michigan....of Dearborn. I'm majoring in Industrial engineering and have been focusing on my classes for the past few months. Let me tell you about some of my college adventures.

The day before classes I went to this voluntary event called convocation, it's basically a lame ceremony where the speak at you for a few hours, but you still can meet new classmates. It started at 9 in the morning so most people were still sleepy, but thankfully I'm skilled in the art of giving the illusion that I'm a morning person. We were split into groups for icebreakers, and your group name was among "the things you need to survive college" I was group cellphone.

So when I see my group. I rally the troops with a moving speech that can be summarized as "Okay guys, I have no idea what games we're going to be doing....but whatever it is we're gonna win!" Unfortunately we played little games among our group so we weren't able to beat other groups, but one game we played did stick out to me.

We were in a circle with one person in the center and that person had to point to someone and say one out of about 5 set things (dog, elephant, bunny, jello, and cow) when they said their object then the person who was pointed at had to act with the 2 people beside them that animal or object. They had to do it before the person in the center counted to 10. The worst one was cow where the person in the center stuck out their hands with their thumbs down and the people next to them had to milk their thumbs! It was kind of an unwritten rule that they wouldn't use the dreaded cow on anyone, but soon I was in the center.

I only used the cow, and I would count really slowly so I was able to stay in the center and make everyone do the cow. It was so funny watching people's facial expression as they had to milk a strangers thumbs. Despite torturing group cellphone with my cow obsession, 3 members of it are now really good friends of mine and I see everyday at school.

I met a bunch of people through group cellphone and was quickly making a name of myself. Right after lunch I met a girl named Nia who is a transfer student from school craft. We hit it off pretty well and I'm so glad because we ended up sitting next to each other during the ceremony which consisted of an hour and a half of professor blahblity blah blah. We entertained each other by making faces at each other and simulate various actions like slitting our wrists, shooting out head, and other various ways of suicide to end our suffering.

I honestly thought this was going to be the biggest waste of time going to the convocation, but it helped me meet several of my friends including Marisa, Sara, Alfred, and Nia. In my next post I'll tell you about my engineering friends and some other adventures we have.

Summer highlights

- Kentucky Hiking Trip: Unfortunately most of this trip wasn't funny story filled, it was more group bonding with people. There was a battle between me and the plant life. The trail had a bunch of overgrown branches doming over it, so I decided to break them out of the way...until I came to the part of the trail where the branches were enter twined with thorns! I quickly became a pacifist and loved nature...until the thorns passed, and I was shredding branches once again.

Then plant warfare came up with a new weapon whose sinister name was "stinging nettles"! These plants had thousands of little razors causing a very painful walk through part of the trails. Now you may think the plants had beaten me... oh are you wrong! Next time I had to pee, I paid a little visit to those stinging nettles. Victory is mine!

- Family Camp 2011: I was the 8th grade and younger, heart throb. I executed several assaults via super soaker. I have another post with much more details on this trip on the way.

- Anna, Emily H, and Emily M took me with them to the mall where they spent an hour at forever 21. I thought I was a goner. Now in my defense, I was hanging out with Anna before going to the mall and I went for their company not for forever 21! When we got back to the church (where we met up) a bunch of guys from youth group were playing basketball in the parking lot. They were pretty shocked that I went to forever 21.

- Last week it was crazy hot so I got a few of the guys together and we drove to girls from youth group houses and attacked them via super soakers and waterballoons. It was a complete success. We got Joy, Michaela, Emily h, Sarah, and Anna

Senior Boat Trip!

A couple of my friends from youth group and I, won an afternoon on the Michalak’s (Church friends) Boat during the auction dinner in April. The day finally arrived, and it was fantastic weather, super hot and humid. There was a maximum of 8 people who could come on the boat trip it was me, Donnie, Travis, Chad, Jared, Anna, Emily H, and Emily M. We chose 8 of the core members of our youth group all of them graduating seniors.

Since the heat was intense, the first thing we did was jump into the water. They had this floaty which was just big enough for all 8 of us to squeeze onto. Half of it had this mesh, which was awesome because we could get wet while still being lazy teenagers! After our crazy splashing ended and we started to relax…they brought out squirt guns.

The chaos recommenced. Soon Emily M jumped on this floaty chair and decided to soak us. After several minutes of water warfare, I was planning on swimming to Emily’s chair and capsizing it. Right before I was about to initiate the attack Emily said “Hey! I’m not tied up to the boat anymore!” her floaty was untied and she was drifting farther away. And just like that, I went from attacker to liberator.

I brought Emily back to the boat, but that whole situation gave Travis an idea. He untied the big floaty with Donnie and Emily H still in it. As they tried to return back to the boat, we assaulted them via squirt guns. It probably took them a half hour to get back to the boat.

This is the way the after noon seemed to go. We would be together as a group for a while, and then the girls would be tired of the crazy rough guys and go somewhere else on the boat or in the water. We guys would then do something completely stupid and nearly break our necks like play “King of the floaty”. But after awhile of being idiots, we would miss the girls, so we’d go wherever they were and we were together…until the girls got sick of us.

One of these moments while we were together, Jared and Donnie were wrestling each other on the big floaty when the mesh broke! We were then trying to stay out of too much trouble, when the cops came! At first we thought it was because of us because the girls were laying out on the bow of the boat, and Wayne (the owner of the boat) said that it might be illegal but that we could do it anyways. The cop came because of registration stuff so it wasn’t us.

Considering the fact that we had many opportunities, we didn’t really flip the girls into the water often. But near the end of our trip, we did have fun doing that. We had just been soaking each other with squirt guns and were resting on the floaty when I realized that I had Emily M to my left, Anna to my right, and Emily H partly on me due to the lack of space. It didn’t take much encouragement to throw Emily H in the hole where the mesh was supposed to be.

Poor Emily M, she totally saw that I was going on a flipping rampage and that she was my next victim. There wasn’t anything she could do and with a flip of her feet she was in. Turning to my 3rd and final prey, I was about to get Anna when she said “No Connor! I’ll just go in by mysel…. *SPLOOSH!*” I didn’t let her finish that sentence. Oops.

I had a BLAST during that trip. I’m glad we had that day since we’re all going to college in the fall and everyone is going away except for Anna and I. I’m really going to miss these guys.

(I hope to put up some actual pictures of us, I just have to wait for Emily M to put them up on FB)
EDIT: got them up!

Grad parties

With my senior year ending soon graduation parties are just around the corner. Infact I have one for 3 days in a row starting today. I haven't gone to too many grad parties in my lifetime, probably about 5 or 6 but that should change this year since my youthgroup alone has 13 or 14 graduates this year. Today I have Michael Kulaga's grad party, he's an old buddy of mine from the golden days of DFMC. He, Michael Bratt, and I made the "Michael club". Ironically I was the leader of the Michael club, but that was changed fast by accepting the club name of "Michael C".

We also invited Ryan Dennison to join so together we had Michael B,C,D and K. We caused havok among the elementary aged girls in the church who were Joy, Hannah, and Brooke. We would harrass them with whatever idea our 5th grade selves could think of! At somerset beach camp we would have massive sexist battles where we "Michaels" always triomphed!

Michael Kulaga moved away the summer inbetween 5th and 6th grade, and Ryan's family decided to change churches, but Michael Bratt and I never stopped attacking the girls! Anyway with the grad parties starting soon it means that summer and pool parties are right around the corner!

Ninja strike!

Yesterday I had freshman orientation at UofM Dearborn. For the most part it was very boring and I just wanted to get home. I did get to meet a whole lot of new people though like 3 Michaels, 2 Alexes, Sierrah, Shannon, Aaron, Pat, Joe, Brian, Rachel, Allie, and Anitra. Meeting fellow classmates was actually pretty fun. Playing ninja with them was better!

I hadn't even thought of playing ninja until some of our leaders decided to play ninja as an icebreaker. I had a blast slaying enemy ninjas left and right! Unfortunately we weren't able to play it too long because we had to continue on our tour of campus.

Right after lunch I started up another game of ninja and was able to recruit about 7 other people to play. I used my sickly (I was really sick) squid style of attack and just slaughtered the other players! I was getting double kills in most of the games and only lost once in 10 games.

Wake up call!

Mother nature once again threw a powerful blow to my dwindling pride. Yesterday I had just waken up when I looked outside. I saw a parking cop about to give us a ticket for parking in the street on trash day. Without thinking I bolted outside to the cop to try to keep from getting a ticket! It must've been a funny sight for the cop to see a sleepy teenager with bed head and just wearing basketball shorts, running in the freezing pouring rain, to keep from getting a ticket!

Yeah it was raining buckets outside and about 50 degrees! I didn't get the ticket, but I really was sick of all this rain we'd been getting. I have noticed though that all of these events have happened when I was shirtless...

Mother Nature Kicking My Butt!

Yesterday I was mowing one of my client's lawns, and since he doesn't have much money I give him a great deal. I add more pressure to myself by letting his lawn grow for 2 weeks so he only has to pay half as often as everyone else. His grass is extremely long, especially this certain patch which tempts me to use a machete instead of a lawn mower.

Right before I went to work my mom told me that we were going to get a storm in about 45 minutes so I have to hurry up. Normally mowing a lawn in 45 minutes is a piece of cake, but not this one since it was so long. I had just finished the jungle patch in his backyard when it started to sprinkle. I thought, "Ok you have 5 more minutes just try to get as much done as possible." Then suddenly this fierce wind starts up and it was so strong that it even scared me a little bit. I remained calm and thought "It's ok, it's not raining hard, you have another minute or two"

Then as if God wanted to show me that I was a stupid teenager, he then smited me with a great heavenly thunderbolt!... Ok I wasn't struck by lightning, but right what happened was that I was instantly consumed by this massive storm! I grabbed my mower and started booking it for home.

Fortunately my house was just on the other side of the block. If you were driving by me at that moment you would see a shirtless dude tearing across the sidewalk, yelling at the top of his lungs, pushing a lawn mower, and keeping up his shorts with his other hand!

By the time I got home I was completely drenched. My family and neighbors had a good laugh though.

Lobster boy!

On Saturday I was working for 4 hours in the blazing sun, and my back got burned REALLY bad. I was supposed to move these big bushes from the front yard to the back. I also had to get rid of these smaller bushes with prickles all over them. I knew I was going to get burned, and with this lack of sun lately, I figured to make the most of the sun. I put on SPF 4 sunscreen... yeah when my mom suggested it, she didn't know I was going to be working for 4 straight hours in the sun. I personally think 1 SPF per hour is plenty!

At least I'll be a nice bronze...eventually!

Summer Plans: Lifeguard Hiking trip

I've had a quiet week so I decided to share with you some of the plans that I have for this summer. The first major event that is going to take place this summer is the summer trip for Lifeguards (my youth group).

We're going hiking in Kentucky with this organization called leader-treks. We're going be split into 2 groups of about 15 and go on 2 separate paths. We'll be only with our group of 15 people for most of the trip. There are pros and cons with only being with half of the group for most of the week.

Pros: You're almost forced to bond with the members of your group with that small of a number for a long like that. You will have such great memories and inside jokes with that group.

Cons: You don't have much of a chance to bond with anyone in the other group. The youth group as a whole has 2 different sets of inside jokes.

I'm totally syked for this trip. I love nothing more than having to test my physical abilities in a group effort. I plan on being a work horse for my group and helping out the people who are struggling under the workload. We'll be carrying 30 pound backpacks and hiking 4-6 miles a day. I want to be conditioned enough to be able to carry someone else's backpack for them, at least for a portion of the trip.

We'll be going hardcore hiking, no rest rooms, bathe in the river/lake, and eat crappy dehydrated food! The poop situation is "bury it or carry it" I wonder how many guys are going to end up carrying it...

Everyone in the group is going to have a chance to be the leader of everyone and will plot out the path for everyone else. The leader won't get any help from the guides, and have complete control of our path. Leader treks is about producing leaders and improving you spiritually as well.

I'm sure some of the freshmen are going to have a harder time being the "leader" over all of the Seniors and upperclassmen, so I'll try to show them that I back up their decision 100%.

Super Smash Bros

My siblings, Hunter (age 13), Sienna (age 15), and I have become Super smash bros addicts. We just really enjoy the idea of beating the snot out of each other and nothing beats the feeling of sending your sibling's character flying across the screen. When we were little, we would physically punch/slap/maim each other during arguments. Now that I have a vast size advantage 215 lbs to about 140 lbs, we decide to take it out in mindless virtual violence. At least that's how it first started.

When we first were playing it was just Hunter and I. After a while Sienna decided she wanted to join in the fun and despite not liking video games, we all had a blast. Sienna's strategy is simple, just stand off to the side and watch Hunter and I beat the crap out of each other, then when we have less lives she comes in and tries to make an alliance with one of us.

Now sometimes these alliances work out successfully, other times there's back stabbing, and Sienna doesn't like treachery. If you betray the alliance before Sienna does, you usually get either a punch (in my case, to the face) or a nipple cripple. So half the time while we're playing we have mini fights between us.

Funny how we resolve to physical fights if Donkey Kong (me) decides to betray Zelda (Sienna) by beating her with a banana. You gotta love my family.

Needed: Sleep

Ever since I went to Nebraska and only got 7 hours of sleep that weekend, I've been really behind on sleep. Normally I get about 9 hours of sleep per day, so you'd think that I'd catch up really fast, right? I haven't sleep too great lately and for some reason I can never sleep in too much on Saturday! I was just about caught up on sleep when I had to wake up at 5 am on Thursday for a minority summer internship interview.

I wish I was better at taking naps. I could really use one right now. Summer needs to come pronto!

The crazy games we do!

On Saturday, we had the progressive dinner for lifeguards. It was really fun but the highlight of the night wasn't the food, it was the crazy things we did afterwards. First we just watch Nathan do flips and acrobatic feats. Then we came up with "jousting" which is when we have two pairs, have them get on piggy back, and run at each other until you knock the other team's "rider" off of his "steed".

Being one of biggest guys in the youth group I was always the horse, and let me tell you it gets violent down there, you're getting punched, kicked, and headbutted. People were always surprised if I lost, but my weight is more on my upper body, causing me to be top heavy! I still did good but I definitely got several bruises.

One match in particular, was when we played this round "Sibling grudge match" where we had the siblings team up. I grabbed Sienna and she got on my back, but at first she had a death grip on my shoulders, which gave me some pretty intense pain because I got sun burned there that day. There were at least 5 different teams and I realized with that many teams I could just plow through people to knock them over since they didn't have their full attention on me. So between Sienna pulling people down and me ramming into people we soon made short work of them. Except for the fact that they kept getting back up and trying again! We had to have beaten Michaela and Tommy 3 times but they wouldn't stop. We still ended up winning, but I was utterly exhausted by the end of it. And apparently instead of grabbing my shoulders Sienna had been grabbing my moobs (man boobs), thankfully I didn't really notice.

After the jousting, we decided to see how big of a human pyramid we could make. I was always the center base of the pyramid, which was understandable since I was the strongest, but after attempting to build this about 5 times my back started to get tender from having so much weight put on it. Most people were switching in and out being the base but I wasn't, and the person on me usually had knobby knees and liked to shift them around, which grinded my spine to dust!

Among these attempts there would be other distractions like once while someone was climbing to the top their foot went down my pants, or someone would set on my calf. I don't think we ever completed the pyramid, but despite the pain and suffering I endured, it was fun.

This whole time, our youth pastor, Brad is sitting in a chair laughing at us kill ourselves and is encouraging us to do it again. But while we were trying to figure out how to do a human janga game, he said "Dog pile!!" and he just jumped on all of us. After realizing that he was fair game we quickly turned the time on him and within 15 seconds, he was dog piled. We soon found out that Brad is claustrophobic because he started freaking out at the bottom of that pile!

I'm officially a man!

As I mentioned in my last post, this past weekend, I turned 18. I would love to tell you that it was the best birthday ever...but that wasn't the case. I had a bunch of ups and downs that day. I didn't sleep well and had to take a placement test for college at 8am. I finished the placement exam pretty swiftly and my dad got me some new shoes. I had planned to take a nap from noon to 3pm because I had to help with the dinner fundraiser for my youth group. But before I could take a nap, Kate called me and was kinda spazing out how I needed to get there early.

Kate sounded pretty desperate, so I headed out there as quickly as possible. I soon realized that was a mistake, because there really wasn't anything to do. I figured that she probably needed some heavy things lifted or moved but I just stayed there and talked to Joy, Tommy, and company!

The dinner is a formal auction dinner, so we all have to wear dress shirts, ties, and black pants. I probably was the last one to get dressed because I frankly hate dressing up! I probably spent about a half hour to get all ready, because I totally was avoiding to put on the tie.

I eventually did get dressed and found myself serving my parents GREATEST. BIRTHDAY. GIFT. EVER! In reality it wasn't too bad because I got sent in the "Dungeon" to watch the muchkins of the parents because apparently there had been some fighting going on.

During the live auction portion of the evening I decided to start changing into my normal clothes. I was just finished putting on my shirt and was just about to put on my belt when all of a sudden, Michaela (pronounced "Makayla") opened the door, grabbed my hand and said "Come on Connor! They're waiting for you!" I don't think I was supposed to be in my casual clothes yet so I was thinking "Oh crap!"

Holding up my pants with one hand, I go throught the doors and everyone starts singing happy birthday to me! I was shocked. Then they made me walk to the front where I saw my dad holding a pie. I instantly knew what happened! At the end of the auction they give a "Pie to the face to a lifeguard of your choice!" to the highest bidder! Knowing my fate was sealed I sat down in the chair of eternal pie punishment and waited for the action to be preformed.

I closed my eyes and waited...10 seconds... then peeked to see what was going on. My dad told me to stand up, still confused, I stood up expecting a pie to the face then. But he handed me the pie and sat down in the chair! Then I realized that he was giving me a birthday gift! To pie him in the face.

That had to be the best gift I ever got! Because I totally was expecting a pie in the face but instead I had it flipped. I accidently hit him with the pie a little hard, but it was awesome.

The Doctor!

Yesterday I had to get a physical. Thankfully I hadn't had one in 2 years but unfortunately my mom made me get one. I had just turned 18 on April 30th but I went to the pediatrician for the last time. My appointment was at 2:15pm so my fellow patients consist of a toddler wearing a super man cap, and a 2 year old picking his nose. I got checked in and instantly realized how I long it had been since I had gone to the doctors and how I'm a little bigger than most of the kids that go through there.

I went in a room where you get your blood pressure, ears, and eyes, checked. It took the nurse probably 5 minutes to adjust the machine to test my eyes because I was so much larger than most of the kids.

After I found the room, I sat on the bed right next to the trash can that had a picture of pooh bear and said "Please don't throw dirty diapers in here" Yes, I felt right at home there.

My doctor, Dr Doss, is Egyptian and has a really strong accent and my mom has to translate for me. Dr Doss is really cool and likes to joke about how many girlfriends I have and what not. I'm going to skip the whole physical portion of the appointment but basically I ended up getting a shot.

As I was walking down the hall I also found a box of suckers, JACKPOT! I took one and walked happily away. As I opened the door to the waiting room, I saw about 6 little kids with the oldest being around 5 years old. I said "Hello fellow pediatric patients! Remember to always get the sucker!" I would like to say that my inspirational speech changed every one of the little kid's lives, even the nose picker, but I doubt it. Kids these days.

Sorry!

Sorry for not posting frequently for the past few weeks. I've had a bunch of stuff going on from finals, and helping out the dinner, to a just being busy with stupid stuff. I'll try to keep the posts going.

Softball

My church has a softball team and after a little bit of recruiting on their part, I said that I'd join. A few weeks ago we had our first practice, and I was a little nervous because I hadn't played softball since 8th grade so I was wondering if I still had it. It was 35 degrees, raining and really windy. I went up to bat and soon enough I'm hitting half of them to the fence! I wasn't sure how I'd do but I did better than I could've imagined!

I had a blast at softball practice, and we have our first 2 games today! Looking forward to the game.

30 Hour Famine Day 1

This past weekend Lifeguards did their 30 hour famine. It was a whole lot of fun. The first thing we did was play this game called "bigger or better" where we were divided into teams, given a quarter, and went around the neighborhood asking people if they could give us something bigger or better than what we had.

My team cheated and we took our youth pastor's kid, Issac. We lost because we didn't exchange enough things. But the other teams got some really nice stuff! They got a DVD player, a red wings blanket, this big stuffed dog and then this one team totally screwed up and got an Ohio state buckeyes football jersey! I'd rather have a quarter than that stinkin jersey! One of the freshman, Sylus, put on the Ohio state jersey....I'm pleased to say that I had him pinned on the ground and was beating him silly with a pillow within the first 5 seconds.


After playing "bigger or better" we went to the wally ball court to play some wally ball. Wally ball is just like volleyball except there are walls on the sides and on the back so you can bounce the ball off of the walls. Our youth pastor Brad was picking the teams, he asked for who was good at volleyball and I raised my hand and next thing I know, I'm a captain. Unfortunately we still weren't able to pick our teams but it was nice knowing that I'd be in charge of my team.

So I'm standing off to the side waiting for Brad to give me the rest of my team. Brad grabs Kelsey, this girl who is one of the only people from lifeguards who drives me crazy. Immediately I start praying silently in my head that she isn't on my team. Then Brad sent Kelsey to a different team. I started thanking God for not giving me her, Brad puts Liz and Kate on my team. Both of whom have no idea what they're doing.

So I'm slightly bummed since most teams have 4 players and I was the only one who knew how to play on my team. As I looked at the other teams I could see that all of them [except one] had at least 2 good players on their team, so I soon relax knowing that Brad won't give me the short stick here. He has the last 2 guys left, one guy is my buddy Tommy who's a senior and we're pretty close. The other was Ian, a freshman who I really didn't know if he could play. Brad ended up giving me Ian. The first thing I asked Ian was if he was good at volleyball, his response? "Ehhh not really." Crap!

As I looked at the teams I could see that we were probably about the 2nd worst team out of about 7. The only team that had the least amount of talent was one with basically 3 useless players and Emily M. Emily didn't really want to be a ball hog, but I could tell she wished she had a better team. They couldn't even return the ball frequently. We beat them easily.

After the first game I was thinking "Hey that wasn't so bad. Maybe I underestimated our team. I haven't even broke a sweat!" That's when we went against the 2nd best team, with Brad (that booger stacked the teams!) Tommy, Nathan, and my sister Sienna. Their worst player was Sienna, and she would have been our second best player if she was on our team! We were slaughtered 9-15. That was the game when I discovered that Liz didn't want to hit the ball at all, Kate was scared of the ball, and Ian is an average player who was my only hope if I couldn't get to the ball in time.

I was soaked with sweat after that game and I knew that I was going to have to cover 3/4 of our side of the net in order to win. Now I hate ball hogging, because I don't like having people felt left out. But soon the girls made it clear that they were expecting me to get the ball if it came to their side. and the opposing teams soon found out our team's strategy was basically let Connor get the ball and if he can't get to it attempt to hit the ball straight into the air.

We then won our next 3 games to go 4-1 and we really started clicking as a team. By "as a team" I mean that Ian and I were starting to mesh into a pretty powerful tandem! He knew when I couldn't return the ball and would set it up nicely to me. It happened just in time too, because we were against the top team at 5-0 with 3 great players in Dan (a youth leader), Chad a 6-3 senior, and Sylus an athletic freshman.

They had a phenomenal strategy that worked really well against our game plan of me as the primary striker and Ian as my backup. They would hit the ball off the wall at a weird angle near the net so it was extremely hard to hit it over in just one hit. It paid in dividends for them as they got a 7-0 lead, very early. But after a while Ian and I got in stride with one another and he was able to give the ball to me in good position so I could strike the ball down with a large amount of velocity that made it had to return. Next thing I know, we're up 12-8!

That's when the hunger pains hit me like a brick wall! After not eating for 15 hours and running around for an hour straight, my body wasn't too happy with me. The pain affected my game and we were down 14-12. I decided to go all out for the rest of the game and was diving all over the place and just went completely crazy on them scoring 3 points to a 15-14 victory!... or so I thought. They played where you have to win by 2 points and we couldn't return their serves to lose 17-15.

Despite my disappointment to not knock off the top team, we still finished 3rd out of 7 and came closest to beating the top team than anyone with basically 2 useless players! Another thing is that we didn't have enough talent to really have a real strategy besides for let Connor carry this team on his back, and I fully believe if we had another player like Sienna, we would've came in first.

Get in line!

I'm not sure if I posted about this yet, but Jana believes she can take me in a fight (more like wrestling). She isn't kidding either, she really thinks she can take me! Now let me first say that Jana isn't a girl that'll snap like a twig, because she's got muscle from softball. But I'm by no means a small guy either and I'm pretty sure I can take her. I was really shocked though, when I found out that she was serious because that's never happened in my life!

Then yesterday at youthgroup, one of the girls, Angel, said that she could beat me up and that if it was warmer out she'd wrestle me right at that moment! What is it with girls wanting to fight me all of a sudden and thinking that they're gonna win?? It doesn't really make sense to me since this didn't happen to me 9th-11th grade and that was when I weighed 160-200 lbs and they had at least a chance. So they just choose to fight the 220 lb guy? I don't think I'll ever fully understand girls.

The Countdown!

(I apologize for the gay spacing, blogger has a glitch)

Late January, I posted about how I was going to Nebraska for Jana's prom, well that was 63 days ago, and now it's only 8 days away!! I'm so excited! I have my suit and I got a new dress shirt because my neck was too big for my old one. It kinda seems like this is just something we've been talking about but will never happen, but no it's really going to happen! I'm going to try to get some sleep on the flight from Detroit to Minnesota, because I know there's no chance of me sleeping on the flight to Nebraska. Hopefully I get some good sleep because we're going to pull an over nighter there. This is kind of an outline of what's the plan: (from what I know)

Friday

Jana will pick me up from the airport at 6:37 pm.

When we get to Humboldt (where she lives) we're going to hangout with a bunch of her friends.

Sometime late, we're going to attempt to get some sleep, (I don't think I'm going to sleep a wink)

Saturday

around 11:00 Jana's going to get her hair done. I really don't know what I'm going to be doing during this time. Maybe sleep?

Sometime in the afternoon we're going to get pictures taken for prom.

Attend prom from 7pm-12pm (Show off my rad dance skills, then blacking out and waking up in a hospital)

Sunday (Technically)

Get in the bus for the post prom party at this family fun center in Omaha. It apparently has laser tag and a bunch of fun stuff.

This is where it's a little sketchy. I don't really know the details but I know we're planning on hanging out at Jana's friends house after the family fun center. I hope I don't just crash in all of this because the time change, and jet lag has me a little worried. I guess I gotta start sleeping in a bit and going to bed earlier to make up for this drainage of sleep that's going to take place. Hopefully I don't look like a zombie when all of this is through.

How was I able to do that?

This past weekend I found out that I could do, not one, but two things that I never thought I could do! The first was when I was babysitting my little cousin Christian on Friday. Christian wanted to show me how he could do a handstand for a few seconds. He then wanted to see me do a handstand. To my shock, I could do it for about 5 seconds! I never have been able to even do it for a millisecond in my life. But now it looks like my shoulders are strong enough to support my weight for a while until I lose my balance.

While I was at youth group yesterday, I found out there was another thing that I could do. We were singing and praising God - I like to go crazy with dance moves, but they're usually just funny and take absolutely no skill to pull off. So after a while the song said "Dance with Joy for God" after it said that once or twice I decided I'd go all out and make a fool of myself next time it came to that part. So when it came again, I ran to the middle of the circle and started break dancing!

I knew I was going to look like a baboon there break dancing, but I was just having fun. Well after a few seconds, I realized that I was pulling it off! Of course this was probably the easiest move that you could call break dancing, but I didn't expect to do it. After a while it dawned on me, that I didn't know what to do next because I expected to crash and burn, and so I didn't even think about what other move I'd do!

I can't wait to try some other break dancing moves and get myself killed!

Stay tuned for the post: "I didn't know my knee could bend that way!"

I know how to fix boo boos!

On Friday night, I was babysitting my little cousin Christian, who's 4 years old. While we were running around the house, he hit his elbow on a corner and started to bawl. I ran up to him and asked him if he wanted me to kiss his boo boo. He shook his head in disgust from his elbow being subjected to such a horrible prospect.

I was trying to think of something else that could cheer him up...when I checked my phone and realized my background was a picture of my girlfriend Jana. I then asked Christian if he wanted his boo boo kissed by "Jana" instead. Being a smart kid, Christian said yeah! So I then had my phone (with the picture of Jana on it) devour my cousin's elbow with kisses.

He was soon laughing his head off, but then that little booger kept asking for more! I soon had to "constrain" Jana in my pocket so she could stop kissing his elbow. It was really funny, and now I know what I'm gonna do when I'm a dad. I'm going to keep a picture of mommy on my phone in case our kid has a boo boo that needs kissed!

Ninja Fail

A few days ago, my mom dropped off me and hunter to the house while she and Sienna could get Sienna's drivers permit. We almost always lock the door when we leave the house, and neither hunter or I had a house key. Fortunately one of the windows were open so Hunter went through but when he opened the door he said "It was unlocked!" oops I guess we kinda forgot to check the door.

Lifting update

I haven't had anything completely embarrassing or humiliating happen to me lately, but I realized it's been about a year since I posted how much I was lifting. So here it is.

Biceps: the trophy for all weightlifters, I always focused on these even as a little kid. A year ago I was curling 40 pound dumbells on the preacher curl about 4 times. Now I'm curling 60 lbs and if I use a barbell I can curl 170 lbs. I have definitely improved with biceps.

Pectorals: I was benching 85 lbs dumbells 5 times with a spotter. Now I can bench 100 lbs dumbells 5 times without a spotter. I haven't been able to improve as much in this area as I wanted to because my workout buddy stopped coming and with benching you really need a spotter. I also use to lift 237 lbs 2 times on the butterfly machine, while now I can like 287 lbs 8 times.

Shoulders: My biggest improvement by far. I never even really worked out my shoulders last year, maybe once or twice per month. Now I'm shoulder shrugging 100 lb dumbells 10 times! I could probably go higher but unfortunately the gym doesn't have any dumbells heavier than 100 lbs! My shoulders are broader and my trap muscles are huge. I take some pride in my shoulder strength.

Back: In pull downs, I use to max out at 225 lbs and only be able to do one rep. Now I can lift the maximum weight (315 lbs) 8 times! Of course that's when I'm fresh but it's still a vast improvement from a year ago.

Overall weight: Last spring I weighed about 200 lbs and I'll admit that a pretty good portion of it was chub. Now I weight about 220 lbs and I have much better muscle to mass ratio.

McDonald's Love Strikes Again

Yesterday My sisters, mom and I went to McDonald's for a little treat. It was all great fun and we were walking back to the car to go home when we noticed something. In the car next to us there were 2 people in their 30's just making out! The girl was practically on top of the guy, so much so they had the door open a little bit because they couldn't close it!

My sisters were joking around about how romantic it a McDonald's parking lot was. Then of course they tell me "Don't do that with Jana!" and I respond with "Oh trust me I can do way better than that! Like a taco bell parking lot, with the door closed! I have higher standards than McDonald's."

Except one thing that Taco bell doesn't have that McDonald's does have is a theme song that's "bababumpaba I'm loving it!"

Henna Tattoo

As you probably know by now, I've had my fun with temporary tattoos and going to the gym to sport them off. I migrated from hot rod tattoos, to pirates of the Caribbean, and now to henna. Henna is a permanent dye that they use in the middle east, but it only affects the top layer of skin, so it can last up to a month or 2. Its a dark brown instead of black color. I decided to with a design that was a simpler version of Jake Long's tattoo (The guy in the picture) and I really like it! My older sister Katrina drew it on for me, and missed one of her favorite shows doing it so she must love me.

Technology Rules!

My girlfriend Jana and I have been calling each other as often as possible, and it's really great, but there are a few catches. We have to wait till 11 to talk (she's in another timezone) for free without having to worry about minutes, but by then we're pretty tired and she usually cant talk much on school nights. And lately Jana has been extremely busy with school, speech, and homework so we haven't been able to talk much.

But on Sunday Jana got a laptop...with a web cam! So we were definitely going to web chat through skype lickety split! Unfortunately she wasn't able to get wifi till Tuesday, and she was at a speech meet all day. So yesterday we were finally able to talk on skype! Except, I was at a calculus session on related rates for a while. So around 5:00 pm I booked it for home.

So I get on the computer and make the "video call" to Jana. [ringgg.....ringg...ringggg...connecting...connecting....connecting (at this point I'm thinking "CONNECT ALREADY!!!") Connected!] So then I finally see Jana....except I can sense there's something wrong. She's looking very pretty and excited, but I can't hear her! Soon I gather that she can't hear me either. I ended up calling her for a few minutes until she figures out how to get it to work. I was afraid that it'd be one of those situations where I could either see her or talk to her, not both. But thankfully that wasn't the case.

I had a blast, and I can't wait to go skyping later today.

oh this could be interesting...

Yesterday at Oasis (one of my two youth groups) my buddy Andy brought his girlfriend for the first time. He could have choose a better day to bring his girlfriend because we were talking about waiting till marriage to have sex! So on top of that awkward topic, we were hassling him like no other! Andy's face was probably blushing more than not during youth group. I'm kinda glad that I got to see that though, because now I know what to expect when I bring Jana to Oasis. Only I'm sure I'm going to get a whole lot more crap than Andy did. All I can say is "Bring it!" and I welcome the challenge.

You knew it was enevitable!

I've been working out in the gym almost everyday, and I'm stronger than I've ever been in my life. I think it's time to do the ceremonial picture with my shirt off so I can show you all my muscles and make you all so jealous! Notice my massive cheeks of steel, and I'm talking about the cheeks on my face! And look at my rippling biceps of pure POWA! and my penetrating eyes of intimidation. No one's gonna want to mess with the hunk of man!!

Tattoos part dos!

About 2 and a half weeks ago I posted about how I put on a bunch of temporary hot rod tattoos on my arm. Well they were finally starting to disappear, but then my mom got me Pirates of the Caribbean tattoos! and I decided to put them all over my arm, so now all is right with the world! I have to admit that I was missing my hot rod tattoos but now I'm as happy as can be! I have an addiction...of temporary tattoos!

I hate MONDAYS!!

This morning I was walking to my calculus class, but I was just finishing up my goodmorning text to Jana, Which caused me to loose track of where I was going. there is this median in the parking lot that, when there's snow, is best to avoid. I sunk right into 3 feet of snow, but at first I didn't realize it because I was still finishing up the text. It wasn't until I stepped into a whole bunch of slush that got my feet soaked through, that I realized I wasnt in a good fix! I had to walk through a bunch of snow to get to the other side but man were my feet FREEZING!! Typical monday..

Marshmallow fight!

On Wednesday, I had youth group. It was all a normal day at lifeguards, when someone found a bag of old marshmallows and started pelting people with them! I was texting Jana right outside the door, when the battle turned into a full fledged war. I went back in and realized there were two sides and before I could pick a side our youth pastor, Brad, said "Connor! You're on our team. We need more fire power!" The great marshmallow war probably lasted a half hour, while I really helped out team, there were moments where I was texting Jana back, while being whacked in the face with the occasional flying marshmallow! I actually was smacked pretty hard in the eye with one while I was texting her. I had a fantastic time in the war! Reminds me of the candy war we have on Halloween Wednesday, only less painful!

Temporary Tattoos Rule!

Back in November while I was making my Christmas list, as a joke I put a tattoo as the #1 thing I wanted. As a joke my aunt Becky gave me a bunch of temporary tattoos of hot rods. Well a few days ago I realized that I had only used 1 of them and that I still had 13 left. So I used all of them on my arm! I then went to gym wearing a muscle shirt to show off my cool tattoos. The people's reactions were priceless! I did get laughed at a little bit, but I saw them walk away in shame when I a guy with fake tattoos, lifted more than they did and they have legit tattoos! I had a lot of fun sporting off these hot rods.

It's official, I'm a man!

I go to the gym at least every other day, now that it's winter it's normal to have the temperature in the teens outside. But that doesn't stop me from walking in a muscle shirt and shorts (it's actually a pretty fair distance) from my car to the gym. Part of the reason is that I'm just too lazy to wear a jacket and put it in a locker, but I just say it's a man test! And another thing I might add, I don't run from the car to the gym, I walk since it's a test! Yesterday was particularly cold, with the temperature being sub zero. I passed this old couple walking while I'm freezing by buns off, the old lady points at me and says to her husband "See gilbert, that's a man there!" I knew eventually my stupidity would pay off in the end!

Super bowl Sunday

This super bowl Sunday has been more fun that the last few years. Right after church the heisey's were running to their car, Joy and Catie were fighting over shotgun. I took the liberty of hitting them with snowballs to break them up. Joy ran away while Catie went in the car, Joy was soaked. Mission accomplished! Later that evening we had the youth group super bowl party, Which started with another snowball fight!

We were having a great time, then at halftime, we started having "skirmishes" during the commercials, where we would get 15 guys circled up, then throw a football in the middle and the person who had the ball when the game started again, won! I decided to sit out of the first few rounds since I have a hug size advantage at 220 lbs while everyone else weighs around 150-175. After a while though the guys wanted to go against me so that the winner could be the champion of lifeguards! I decided to wait for them to all pile up on the ball, but as soon as I saw it, I attacked. I dove after it and started tearing it away from everybody. It popped up into the air and landed in Chad's hands, when he saw me clawing after him he screamed and threw it as far as he could! I got it.

After I won another time pretty easily, we had another round. This time I was planning on diving on it then just holding on the whole time....it didn't quite work that way. Vargas got on top of the ball before I could, and I was dog piled. I had an arm on Vargas, but my other arm was caught underneath me. With great difficulty I managed to pull Vargas to my other side so my arm was free, and then I was up! I ripped the ball away from Vargas and held on it for the win.

I decided to stop playing after that because I was 3 for 3 and I didn't want to have all of the fun. It was a crazy evening, I loved it!

Bring on the Weekend!

While this week has gone by fast, and overall has been really good, I'm glad it's over. I had a quiz and 2 exams this week for the same class. We only had 4 days of class today too, so we had 1 day where we weren't taking some sort of test. The stress was kinda getting to me near the end of the week. Thankfully the weekend is almost here so I can relax for a bit. And I'll probably be able to talk to Jana on Saturday and Sunday night! :)

Tomorrow is the Anniversary!

Two years ago, my first shave, I had a lot of pressure on me, like a camera a foot away from my face!

Two years tomorrow, marks a great anniversary of man hood....the first time I shaved! Back then I only had to shave once every two weeks. Now I have to shave every 2 or 3 days, because my facial hair is blond, I can get away with it for a bit longer. It meant a lot for me to shave for the first time, since my sisters and dad were constantly calling me hairless little freak, or baby butt face! I soon realized how much I liked baby butt face when Katrina started to call me hairy butt face. As excited as I was to start shaving, there are times when I wish I didn't have to. One example is when my face was MAIMED! I cut myself 4 times, and nearly cut off half of the chin. I actually still have a small mark from where I cut my chin.

Blizzard? ehh not so much, but it was a good day!

For the past week we were hearing that we were supposed to get a monster snow storm, with as much as a foot and a half of snow! Yesterday, we got 9 inches, not quite what we were expecting but I'm not going to complain. We had a snow day, and I got a lot of business. I made enough money where I have already paid off half of the plane ticket to Nebraska! The guys in the youth group met up at subway, and talked about manly stuff, like failed attempts of catching a raccoon. I then had an intense workout and studied for a calc exam (which I did great in this morning!). I had an hilarious conversation with Jana through text, that nearly had me in tears, and then I was able to talk to Jana on the phone for a while! Jana has been sick lately, so I wasn't really expecting to talk last night, but it was a nice surprise!

Drawn on eyebrows??

Over the weekend my family and the Burkes went out to eat at Mongolian BBQ. Our waitress had drawn on eyebrows! It was kinda freaky, so we were talking about her drawn on eyebrows while she was away. Mrs Burke didn't realize that our waitress was behind her when she said "Eyebrows!!" really loud. No one at our table could control ourselves and we burst out laughing! It made my day.

Prom 2011 (the preview)

About the same time last year, I wasn't sure if I was going to go to prom ever, but I ended up going as a Junior. Earlier this year I figured that I wouldn't go to prom because I been there done that, but God had an unexpected turn in store for me. Jana and I were kinda talking about going to prom together around early December. Then we became official, which kinda solidified that idea! The original plan was for her to come to my prom, but then she asked me if I thought I'd be able to go to her prom. The thought of her going to her prom with another guy, got me very motivated to get the money to fly over there. So now I'm looking at flights to get there! Jana's school starts earlier and has fewer days off in the middle of the school year, so her prom is on April 9th.


The only downside is that, I'll only be able to stay for the weekend because we both have school on Monday. But I'm definitely not going turn down the chance to spend the weekend with Jana and go to prom with her looking all pretty! :) So I'm going to prom in Nebraska! Funny how things workout like that.

Epic Spanish Project!

Yesterday I had to present my Spanish project which also is my final for the semester. We had to make a timeline with 3 things from our past, 3 things in the present, and 4 things in the our future. Now since the future isn't here yet I could just give the year things are gonna happen. But no, I figured that I mind as well pick the exact date I'm gonna get married, and a bunch of other important dates! I said that I was going to get married on April 1st (yes I realize that's April fools day) 2021. I actually am planning on getting married before then, but I forgot the numbers 15-20 so it's in 2021. I'm gonna have a kid on April 6th 2025 (again, I'm planning on this being earlier in my life but I don't know enough numbers in Spanish!) and the next day on April 7th 2025, I'm going to get a piranha named Dexter.

Now I got some criticism for getting a piranha the day after my kid is born, but I think of it this way, since some families get puppies when they have a baby so they grow up together, why can't my son grow up with a pet piranha?? I mean Dexter could teach my son to swim, how to love meat, and how to take on animals much larger than him in a fight! I think it's a good idea and I'm sure my wife will understand my genius plan. Look at the picture on this post, he's smiling! How can you not want a cute smiling piranha in your family??

Spring Hill 2010: Broom Ball

Broom ball, as I said in the post below, is very similar to hockey. The main differences are that you don't have skates and its a small ball instead of a puck. Now most people think broom ball is dumb and if you aren't playing then you're standing around in sub zero temperatures which isn't fun! This was my mindset. I could be tubing, swimming or just hanging with my friends, but no I had to play this dumb game and freeze my innards solid!

So anyways this year we were in the second round of the playoffs when that mindset changed! I had to wear this dumb helmet which covered my eyes so I couldn't see where the heck the ball was. They scored a goal on us then I found out that you really didn't have to wear the helmets! I was pretty peeved about them scoring because in a ways it was my fault because I couldn't see anything! That was when something inside me snapped! So I threw off the helmet and went ape on them! I nearly even scored and I was playing defense. Despite going off like a possessed freak, like only an albino Mexican can, we still lost. I was pretty upset...until I found out there was Mexican food for dinner!

Spring Hill 2011

(I had a picture with me smiling, but you couldn't really see the beard too well)

This weekend I went to spring hill with my youth group. I had a blast tubing down their massive hill and just hanging out with my friends in general. In case you were wondering, I did wear a fake beard this weekend. I went with Brad's (our youth pastor) beard this time.

Right after I had put on the beard for the broom ball game (similar to hockey) some of the freshmen were having a snowball fight. Brad told them that if they over threw and hit a girl with a snowball then he was gonna "let Connor go loose on you!" You knew it was going to happen eventually and Sylus hit one of the girls with a snowball. Then Brad said to me "Get him little Brad (Because I had his beard)!" At first I was just going to hit him with a snowball but he didn't run or anything, so I decided to tackle him in the snow!

A bunch of the upper classmen went tubing together so we could climb on top of each other's tubes while flying down the hill! My last time ever going down that hill was definitely one to remember. There was a huge group of people on just a few tubes right in front of me, and right as I take off I see that one of them fell off and without even thinking, I stuck out my hand and next thing I know I'm dragging him down the hill with me! When we finally stopped this kid looked like a snowman. It was fun though because he didn't know what was happening, he fell off then all of a sudden this strange guy with a fake beard is holding on to him!

Now since I had a fake beard I got some pretty odd looks from people passing by. I was getting breakfast when one of the kitchen ladies came up to me to tell me to be careful at the broom ball game, and then she turned to me and kinda froze. Then she looked at me sideways, obviously perplexed by the amazing artistry of such a beard. Eventually she realized it was fake and had a great laugh at me. Then at lunch I was getting some milk when I noticed that people at this table were staring at me, trying to figure out whether it was fake or real. (Which is funny because when I first saw my girlfriend Jana I was also trying to figure out if her glasses were real) It must have taken them about 10 minutes to be satisfied with an answer. I sure hope they found out it was fake!

Every year we take a picture near this billboard and this year with 50 kids it was kinda hard to get everyone in the picture which means the picture isn't too close, so my beard looked very legit! As soon as that picture is posted on facebook I'll be sure to put it up here, but until now you're forced to see this picture I took with my phone.

Amongst all the things going on I was even able to call Jana for a bit at night! Which I really needed because I wasn't able to have my phone with me until that point. I called her in our cabin which was empty because it was free hour, as soon as I dialed Jana's number, one of our youth leader Kevin came in. Fortunately Kevin was cool and didn't make fun of me...much. He was a little confused about the fact that instead of swimming or tubing, I was talking to someone (by the end he knew it was my girlfriend).

Overall this weekend was amazing! Spring hill didn't disappoint me!

hit the panic button now!

Ever feel like you have a whole bunch of things to do in a very short amount of time? That's kinda how I feel like right now. I'm leaving for Spring hill at 5 and am going to be gone all weekend. Unfortunately I have a bunch of homework to do! Along with that I have to go to the bank, and get packed for the winter retreat. I needed something to calm me down a bit, and I decided I'd write on my blog! I hope you enjoy the picture of the kid, that probably looks just like I do at this moment! except of course, you can see his eyes.

Jana's mind games

I wanted to shed some light on Jana's manipulation skills. Before we were officially dating, around mid October, we were talking about what we were going to do together when I visit her over the summer. Now after we made a plan to do something like have a movie night she'd confirm it by saying "it's a date!" when she said that, I figured "Hey she used the word 'date' so she must like me!" but she squandered that thought when she referred to just hanging out with her friends as a date. She did this on purpose! After she first told me "it's a date!" she decided that she liked that phrase.

This is one of the many mind games she played on me. It's because of manuvers like this that caused me to have a hard time sleeping and figuring out what our relationship was! I know she'll never bore me! :)

Ice: 1, Connor: Zippo!

This morning we got some icy rain, and as I was about to leave the house to get to my car so I could get to class, my mom warned me about the ice. But it sort of went in one ear and out the other, well I made it half way to the car then I slipped a bit, but I didn't fall. Thankful that I didn't fall, I took another step. It happened so fast! I was on my back and wondering what had happened. Now that I think back on it, I had my mind on other things, and hadn't been ready to balance myself when I slipped again. I was alright, just a little surprised.

Interrogation and harassment, gotta love it!

( My Dad's harassment of choice? kissy faces!)

Since Jana and I have become officially dating, several of my friends have stopped me and said "So Connor, I hear you have a girlfriend! what's she like??" I've been asked about Jana at least once every other day. If they ask me for a picture of her the response is always the same "Oh she's really pretty! [looks at me, then back at the picture] You're dating her?" My friends really enjoy giving me crap like that.

They aren't the only ones either, my family has a good time poking at me too. Whether it's my dad making kissy faces and kissing sounds while I'm talking to her on the phone, my mom saying that Jana has odd taste [Then looking right at me] or my sisters consistent badgering. I'm completely fine with them doing that because I know that they're only doing that because they care about me...or at least that's what I tell myself at night. Maybe they just think I'm a dweeb...well I guess that's true.

The O'l Asian Evil Eye!

We live next to an elementary school, which at times can be frustrating when some dumb parent decides to park at the umbrella of your driveway preventing you from leaving your house. This morning I was getting ready to leave for to my calculus class, when I realized that some arrogant lady parked in our driveway! It's one thing to block off the driveway, it's another to deliberately park in someone else's driveway! I was kinda peeved to say the least, so as soon as I walk out side I look right at the lady and give her the Asian evil eye! While I may not be Asian, my eyes are small enough where it gives the same effect. That lady booked it out of there. While I might not have the puppy dog eyes anymore (or ever!), the Asian evil eye, if unleashed properly is effective as well.

Oh the Irony Hurts!

Jana has been getting a lot of homework this week, which has prevented us from texting much and kept us from talking long or in some cases, at all. On Wednesday, we weren't really able to text much or even talk. It made me really sad, so on Thursday things looked pretty promising, she didn't have as much (she still had a lot) homework as she had earlier in the week. I had just sent her a text about how even if we weren't able to talk that night, I'd still be happy with texting her most of the afternoon. I was waiting for a response....nothing. Thinking that she was doing homework I disregarded it and figured that she'd text me when she had time. I go on facebook and I get a message from her. Basically she left her phone in the car and her mom took the car to work and wasn't going to be back till 9! At that point it was about 5:00. Needless to say I was pretty upset, but we did get to talk last night! :)

I've been having an off week

Sorry that I haven't been posting that much this week, despite just getting off of Christmas break, surprisingly I haven't had any near death or morbidly humiliating things happen to me this week. I haven't shaved off my face, bought a pillow pet, or obtained super human powers in the past week. I'll make it up to you next week though. I'll be sure to double the acts of complete unadvised stupidity. And you shall laugh hardily at my expense!

New Years Party

Lifeguards had a new years party from noon to midnight. It was super fun! We played whiffle ball which is a combination of bumper cars and lacrosse. I was really bad at it, so after a while I just would ram people. After Whiffle ball we played lazer tag at zap zone. It was down right amazing, and unlike whiffle ball, I'm good at lazer tag! There were about 50 people there and I placed 6th in both matches. The only problem was that it was extremely hot it the lazer tag area.

After lazer tag we had tacos, which was good because we were all famished and were about to start eating each other. We had a little bit of free time after dinner so we played dodge ball for a bit before service. During the church service I nearly fell asleep while praying because I had been up till 3 the night before talking to Jana! Following the service, we started another onslaught of dodge ball! Now I was still pretty sleepy...until a dodge ball planted me in the face! When I woke up from my coma (sarcasm!) I was wide awake!

When the ball dropped, I vowed to completely change every part of my very being. Just kidding! I'm not changing, I'll still be the same guy who entertains you with his painful experiences!

The early (and the best) events of christmas break

Christmas break is over now, it was the best I've ever had! Unfortunately it never lasts long enough. Jana was able to open her gift on December 22nd, and she loved it. I got her 2 Michigan shirts, Michigan beanie, aviator sunglasses, and a duck pillowpet. Since Jana and I didn't have school for 2 weeks we were talking till 3 in the morning most nights, I believe we talked for at least 20 hours during break!

Well I'm sure you want to hear about the part that makes this the best Christmas break ever. So while we were talking one night, Jana was helping one of her friends to make cookies and other desserts. While we were talking I could hear her friend saying something to her, after a while I found out that he was saying "make it official" after a while Jana asked me the dreaded questions..."Can I ask you something?" through my childhood I've learned to fear this question. It's usually a big deal when you actually ask..if you can ask them something! So I'm instantly nervous, and I respond "sure, go ahead" I can tell by the sound of Jana's voice that she's nervous too, then she says "So are we like dating? Because my friends keep asking me if we are...and I just don't know."

In panicking insanity I blurted out "I don't know, you decide!" as soon as I said that I was thinking "Whats wrong with you?!? You know that you want to date her!!" So as fast as I can, I add, "But I would like to date you...." So that's when we decided to be official.

We were talking about some subtle hints that we left to try to find out whether the other liked us back. And you know what I found out? Jana was playing a lot of games with me! For example, when we planned to have a movie night at her house when I visit, her response was "It's a date!" So when she first said that I figured "sweet so she likes me back!" But then she follows up, by using the word "date" for just hanging out with her friends. She did that sort of thing during the 5 months we've known each other! This caused me confusion, so I was never positive whether she liked me. But she does keep my on my toes!