I think this is the first Spring break in my 6 year college experience that I actually did something fun...
Spring Break started a little early for me (last Thursday to be exact) when I took the day off school to go buy myself a new Iphone 4. It's something I've been holding off on for awhile, but I am so happy with it. I've had it for a little more then a week and I am already convinced that it has changed my life!
Friday was a late night with the
Emy Reynolds Band at
Billy O's in Ventura. I was helping out with sound and merch for their 10 pm show that started around 12am... Despite it being a late night (got home maybe around 2:30am), the show was great and the audience was awesome! I can't wait for the girls to play another show at Billy O's!
Saturday was a long but fun day. 9 am Holly and I headed down to Santa Clarita for one of our favorite youth pastors going away party. It was a day full of lots of people coming and going but also a day of reconnecting with some old friends and looking towards the future. We ended up leaving SC around 9pm and getting back to Ojai around 10ish.
Sunday was a much needed day of rest beginning with church and a little afternoon nap. Holly and I had planned to go up to Templeton to visit another youth group from summer, but due to the overabundance of dumping rain, we decided against the 3+ hour drive (6+ hours driving round trip) to and from Templeton on a Sunday afternoon... Instead we joined our church family for a little bit of community time at the Wreck Room in Ojai.
Monday was the start of a very fun, two day trip to San Diego. I hadn't been to San Diego in several years and was excited to visit my friend Lo and see another one of our churches from summer. Holly and I had planned to leave at 9 am, but we pushed it back to 10 am so we could both take a much needed cat nap. The drive was smooth and easy. We made one stop in San Clemente to visit the
Rainbow Outlet and grab some lunch which quickly turned into a 1 and a half hour stop (I blame the Rainbow store... we could have stayed there for hours!). By the time we made it to SD, it was just about time to pick Lo up from school. We made a quick stop while we waited to get some coffee and walk around Ross. After picking up Lo, we drove her home and sat and visited with Jenny (Lo's mom and an incredible woman of God!) for a bit before heading over to one of
RBCPC's youth leader's house for dinner. We ended up staying and watching Dancing with the Stars before heading back to Lo's house for the night. We stayed up late chatting with Jenny but finally decided to head to bed a little after midnight.
Tuesday morning was a little bit of a sleep in day (for me, sleeping in means lying in bed, completely awake, but not getting up out of complete laziness). Lo headed off to school while Holly and I stayed and had breakfast with Jenny. Jenny poured into us that morning for a couple of hours about life, love, work, marriage, and family before heading off to work at the
Zoo selling hot dogs and beer. What an inspirational woman! I could honestly sit and listen to her for hours (which we kinda did...). After that Holly and I made a quick run to Target before picking Lo up from school and heading over to hang out with some RBCPC peeps. The staff were having a lunch meeting when we showed up so we sat and chatted for a bit before grabbing some lunch ourselves. After lunch we went on an adventure to find some thrift stores. We were in charge of the game for youth group and decided to play 'Baby on a Rope' (picture 'Skip It' but with lots of people in a circle jumping over a Baby Doll tied to the end of a long rope that's being swung around and around...) so we had to find a baby doll and some rope. All I can say is thank God for the Iphone. It made finding the Thrift store so easy and completely headache free! It turns out that a couple miles up the street from the church were a whole cluster of Thrift stores (including one owned and operated by RBCPC, which I thought was pretty cool for a church to operate something like that...). We eventually found a Baby and some rope and headed back to the church. We hung out for a few hours with the staff (practicing Baby on a Rope, sliding down their newly built, indoor half-pipe, and a little bit of grocery shopping for one of the other games) before the kids arrived. Quickly the room filled up with Jr. High students and even broke the room capacity (capacity was 97 and there were 98 people including adults and students... I was put on counting the people in the room...). Youth Group went really well and really made me miss helping out at our own youth group and hanging out with Jr High and High School students. After youth group ended we took Lo home and hoped in the camp van to head back to Ojai at 10:40 pm. Despite a quick stop at In N Out on the way home, we managed to make it back to Ojai by 1:40 am (that's right... 3 hour from SD to Ojai and I wasn't even driving that fast... Gotta love that late night driving!) thus ending my fun Spring Break adventures.
The next couple of days were filled with classroom observations, naps, and gym visits. This week was just the break I needed to fill me up and re-energize me for the weeks/months to come. It's crazy how God can take a busy week of late nights, driving, and running around to rejuvenate you and excite you about the future. After this, things are going to start to get pretty busy, but I am very excited to see what God has in store for me.
