Was fantastic. Talle and I woke up, found something to eat, and wandered around downstairs for a while, and then left for the pool with Melanie. Normally I really don't like water very much, its just not normal for water to collect in huge holes. I can swim, its just that I don't like swimming. Showers no problem. Drinking water, no problem. But swimming? No thanks. Normally. But when you throw Talle at a situation, everything becomes really fun. Shrieking through 10 cm of water in the kiddie end, to diving off of the "high" dive (all of three meters), "spamming" the water slides (new hard core coaster boy lingo courtesy of Talle... basically means to ride them over and over and over, getting slightly more water logged, stripping a little more skin off your back, being refrigerated a little more on the way back up, and having a blast the whole time), and discovering the waterfall kiddie area. The waterfall actually falls from a good 5 meters up and the water is moving by the time it hits you. It sorta feels like a massage. By someone who is more used to marshal arts. Its actually pretty cool, especially since my back was in some weird state of limbo from dragging all that garbage around in Chicago the previous day. Very cool. If you stand in it, it becomes very easy to imagine that you are casting some very large and powerful water spell. (Product of a gaming nerd imagination gone to a pool).
When we had tired of all that, we simply hung out in the deeper end of the pool and tried to dunk each other surreptitiously. I got both Jeremy and Melanie, but Jeremy got me back. Melanie didn't try... In some ways I can't blame her either... even though she swallowed a lot of water. I was rather ruthless in retrospect. I don't think she was very happy with me after that. When everyone had finally had absorbed enough water, we all got out left for home.
Once there, Talle and I took off for Ignite Chicago. Rock concert. We got tickets and wandered into this huge baseball stadium. Alexian Field (I think). We wandered in, chucked a Frisbee around for a while, and then we noticed that musicians were getting onto stage, so we wandered that direction, not really thinking that we would actually be able to see anything. When the crowd had reached critical mass, we were right at the front. We could see everything. It was pretty cool. Pretty loud for that matter as well. The stage was boarded by these two gigantic piles of speakers. There were two stacks of speakers on each side. Each stack went all the way to the top of the light stand which was some ten meters up. Whenever a new song started, I could see the foam on the front of the speakers blast outward from the vibrations. It was a blast! (both literally and figuratively...) I saw three artists live who I liked and had appreciated music for the past several years: Rebbecca St. James, the David Crowder Band, and Casting Crowns. Some very cool music.
The songs were very well played, and a nice mix of songs that I had heard and others that I wasn't familiar with. The David Crowder Band was really funny. They had a monitor board go out, so they couldn't hear what they were playing (yeah right, they were right behind those huge MASSIVE SPEAKERS OF DOOM! yeah. Couldn't hear it. Meh.) At any rate, David Crowder got up on stage and started signing things. Water bottles, sandals, it was funny. Then someone decided to hand up a dollar bill and he pocketed it. Water bottle, sign. Balloon, sign. Dollar bill, pocket. This went on for a while and eventually people realized that the money wasn't coming back which was really funny. Then came the yellow hat.
The Yellow hat. David Crowder signed it, and was about to hand it to somebody in the crowd when this guy gets lifted up on people's shoulders and yells "Its my hat!!!" David Crowder looked up, and then back down at the hat, then back at this guy who was somewhere off to our left and behind us a little. "Your hat? Ok." Then he looked down at the people right in front of the stage. He didn't have a mic on, but you didn't need a mic to hear what he said. His face is really expressive. He has all this yellowy hair that stands out from head and chin like he has been partially electrocuted. It pretty awesome. Looks a lot like mine used to before Mom was brave enough to light into Elmo. (Long story there...) At any rate, you could just hear him say "can you carry me?" And then he starts walking across the crowd towards this guy while carrying this yellow hat. No kidding. It was sooo funny. He would take a step, fall forwards, stagger, wave his arm over his head, wave the arm with the hat for balance, and then try to take another step. He made it about 3 meters out from the stage before he fell over and the crowd surfed him over to the yellow hat guy. The manager had the crowd part for him, but only after he had them make a tunnel. I don't think the crowd liked that manager very much.
At any rate, David Crowder managed to make it back up to the stage without further mishap where he proceeded to throw water bottles to the crowd. Its really funny to see people struggling and screaming over a little bit of sentimentality. Like an empty cardboard box that a rock star threw in their general direction...
At any rate, it is now tomorrow... So I shall bid you all, with the greatest of regrets, adue (feeling Shakespearean anyone? Its what happens when I get sleep deprived.) Ha! G'night!
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Friday
I'm gonna break this into several posts, cause this last weekend was one of the funnest weekends I have had in my life, and it was full. Very full. A really short summary of what happened might help me get the order of things right latter on, and it might help you understand what all we did. So!
Friday: woke up really early to go to Lafayette to catch the bus up to Chicago and then a train to Talle's house.
Saturday: Went to the pool, rode water slides and bounced diving boards, went to Ignite Chicago rock concert where I saw Rebbecca Saint James, David Crowder Band, and Casting Crowns
Sunday: Went to Church, listened to a really good service, went to Six Flags Great America.
Monday: Took a train to Chicago, missed the bus, waited for seven hours, took the next one, had a wonderful person drive me to the fair where I met Andrew.
Tuesday: Played guitar all day with Andrew, got back to Martinsville, went to bed at 10 (so, like, not nearly as late as I had been up for the last few days...)
Wednesday: Woke up at 1:30 PM Payed for Purdue bills and things, and I am now blogging (as a side note, this post took a while 2 write, and I have now been golfing. No fun.).
But! Friday. I woke up early, about 6:30, and meandered my way through packing, including my new huge Behringer amp, guitar, computer, swim suit, and a lot of clothes. Stuffed it into the car, and wandered up to Lafayette where I caught my Greyhound bus up to Chicago. No problems there.
Once in Chicago however, things took an interesting turn. I got lost. While dragging a pile weighing some 30 kg. Most of it fragile or at least very valuable to me. So I got directions from this lady, and she pointed me off, and I started walking. About half a km down the road, I called the Weirich's and after finally figuring out what had happened, I had heard "What? You are where? Huh? how did you get there?" several times. I have no sense of direction, and by the time I had arrived, my right arm was dead. I had been hanging my guitar, my laptop, my amplifier and all my clothes off of it for about an hour, and had traversed the greater part of a long ways. I'd look it up on Google earth, but I don't want to be depressed by the reality of how far I actually did walk.
So I missed the train that day, and had to take the next one, which was something of aways a way, but once I made it on, and made it all the way to college avenue, I instantly started having the time of many lives. Talle can turn anything into a lot of fun. Anything. I have never met another person with his propensity for fun, and I doubt I ever will again, but in the mean time... a swing set was turned into an extreme sport center, (I had never seen a swing reverse dismount performed before, and I am now proud to say that I am now a master of the afore said stunt which involves a flip and some air time...) several new frolf courses were created, and let me tell you, whistling objects are a lot easier to dodge, but a lot freakier, because you can hear them coming, and with Talle, you have to assume that they are directly on target, and they usually are.
So. That evening. The Weirichs treated me to pizza at Ginos East. Very good pizza, and at least one gorgeous hostess. That aside, I have never felt so ignorant about my fellow SIS graju8s my entire life. Mrs. Weirich wanted to know everything. University, major, and middle name. I hadn't ever really interrogated any of them either. Mom thinks its just common information, but when you can be doing something productive and fun, why would you talk about the future? Some people find this ideology of mine irritating, but I have a lot of fun living by it. After all, I have just been through one of the most amazing cases of God's provision ever. I went from probably being in debt some 80,000 bucks by the end of university, and by his grace and generosity, that is now something very close to 0. I just paid my first Purdue bills for this first semester, and they came to something under 1400 for room and board. Tuition had already been covered by Purdue and several other grant programs. I still have to buy books, but I have stopped doubting that they will show up if I go looking for them.
So yeah. On that note, I will leave the rest of the adventure for a latter post. Hopefully sometime very soon.
Friday: woke up really early to go to Lafayette to catch the bus up to Chicago and then a train to Talle's house.
Saturday: Went to the pool, rode water slides and bounced diving boards, went to Ignite Chicago rock concert where I saw Rebbecca Saint James, David Crowder Band, and Casting Crowns
Sunday: Went to Church, listened to a really good service, went to Six Flags Great America.
Monday: Took a train to Chicago, missed the bus, waited for seven hours, took the next one, had a wonderful person drive me to the fair where I met Andrew.
Tuesday: Played guitar all day with Andrew, got back to Martinsville, went to bed at 10 (so, like, not nearly as late as I had been up for the last few days...)
Wednesday: Woke up at 1:30 PM Payed for Purdue bills and things, and I am now blogging (as a side note, this post took a while 2 write, and I have now been golfing. No fun.).
But! Friday. I woke up early, about 6:30, and meandered my way through packing, including my new huge Behringer amp, guitar, computer, swim suit, and a lot of clothes. Stuffed it into the car, and wandered up to Lafayette where I caught my Greyhound bus up to Chicago. No problems there.
Once in Chicago however, things took an interesting turn. I got lost. While dragging a pile weighing some 30 kg. Most of it fragile or at least very valuable to me. So I got directions from this lady, and she pointed me off, and I started walking. About half a km down the road, I called the Weirich's and after finally figuring out what had happened, I had heard "What? You are where? Huh? how did you get there?" several times. I have no sense of direction, and by the time I had arrived, my right arm was dead. I had been hanging my guitar, my laptop, my amplifier and all my clothes off of it for about an hour, and had traversed the greater part of a long ways. I'd look it up on Google earth, but I don't want to be depressed by the reality of how far I actually did walk.
So I missed the train that day, and had to take the next one, which was something of aways a way, but once I made it on, and made it all the way to college avenue, I instantly started having the time of many lives. Talle can turn anything into a lot of fun. Anything. I have never met another person with his propensity for fun, and I doubt I ever will again, but in the mean time... a swing set was turned into an extreme sport center, (I had never seen a swing reverse dismount performed before, and I am now proud to say that I am now a master of the afore said stunt which involves a flip and some air time...) several new frolf courses were created, and let me tell you, whistling objects are a lot easier to dodge, but a lot freakier, because you can hear them coming, and with Talle, you have to assume that they are directly on target, and they usually are.
So. That evening. The Weirichs treated me to pizza at Ginos East. Very good pizza, and at least one gorgeous hostess. That aside, I have never felt so ignorant about my fellow SIS graju8s my entire life. Mrs. Weirich wanted to know everything. University, major, and middle name. I hadn't ever really interrogated any of them either. Mom thinks its just common information, but when you can be doing something productive and fun, why would you talk about the future? Some people find this ideology of mine irritating, but I have a lot of fun living by it. After all, I have just been through one of the most amazing cases of God's provision ever. I went from probably being in debt some 80,000 bucks by the end of university, and by his grace and generosity, that is now something very close to 0. I just paid my first Purdue bills for this first semester, and they came to something under 1400 for room and board. Tuition had already been covered by Purdue and several other grant programs. I still have to buy books, but I have stopped doubting that they will show up if I go looking for them.
So yeah. On that note, I will leave the rest of the adventure for a latter post. Hopefully sometime very soon.
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