So, I took my trip out to Milligan with Alli-oop on Friday, and that was a good trip. We made it in time to grab something to eat quick and then go to the last Celebration service for Christ In Youth (CIY). It was very enjoyable; it's been awhile since I have been able to participate in a teen service (especially now that I am in college!). Jon and Kayla joined Alli and I on the balcony in Seeger. It was good to see them again. But the balconied position was a unique place to be, for you could hear all of the voices of the audience raising to the roof, celebrating their harmony, power, and love they have through Christ Jesus. It was interesting, because in the background on the stage, there was a setup that spelled out a word in 11 x 5 blocks, but it was difficult to make out the first two letters of the five character word because of the angle I was positioned at, and the video screen blocked the topmost portions of the letters. So, I kept going through the alphabet, determining what letters they could be. Eventually, I got it. It spelled out "unity." Yes, this is unity.

After the praise and worship, Robin came on stage to give his message. This was the message of "Prayer is the second offensive weapon in the Armor of God" post on Jon's Xanga. He did a good job, though his focus wasn't totally on prayer as a weapon, he mentioned it, but he focused more on how we as Christians should be weeping and praying for our friends, our community, our town to bring them to God. Jon said afterwards that it was quite different from last week.

I have to say, CIY makes some awesome videos. I wish I could learn more about and be involved in the production of such convicting, stirring, and encouraging forms of media.

After the message, another round of worship ensued, with more shouts of exclamation and dancing. Of course, we had to sing the CIY favorite, "Dance in the River." I made Alli dance with me during the song even though she thinks it's the stupidest song ever ("We're gonna dance in the River, Yeah" ad nausem), though I think she enjoyed it as much as I did. The music died down, and prayers were said through the laying on of hands of those who had made decisions throughout the past week.

After the service, we went down and talked to some of the CIY staff about internship opportunities, and that's were we met up with Joe. From there, Jon, Joe, Alli and I went to Applebees. Alli had the audacity to bring in a brown paper bag from Burger King to throw away our earlier dinner trash. She just left it in the seat when we left! While we were there, we saw Annie Simpson, and she asked Alli if she had a ring (thinking engagement…that's for another time). Of course, that embarrassed her a bit, and Annie had to give me a bit of a hard time.

Anyways, we went back and crashed, and the next day went to work on the yearbook stuff. Around 12:45pm, a married Milligan alumni couple came in to the Communications building to show some friends around. Yeah, and his name is Brian as well, Brian White if I recall correctly. They seem like cool people.

Dahlman came and picked us up to take us to lunch as a way to say thanks for all the work. We went to Poor Richard's, a pub-type restaurant near ETSU, and I got a sub that was pretty darn good. As we were finishing eating, Brian White and his wife Beth came over (fancy meeting you here again!) and talked to Dahlman for a little while. That was pretty cool.

So, we went back and finished working on yearbook corrections, and had dinner made by Jon at Joe's apartment. It was pretty good Italian chicken. The girls left to go to Kohls, and Joe left soon afterwards as well, leaving Jon and I to our political conversations and cleaning the dishes. Fun fun.

I went back to work on finishing up the corrections, and getting everything ready to be sent out. Then I tried to do what I could with a portrait section that we are having extreme issues with. During this time, a girl that I made fun of on Joe's Xanga IMed me, asking why she was weird and all. A very strange conversation ensued, with both me and Alli typing to her. Alli claimed that I was pretending to be a stalker. Somehow, the idea of stalkers came up in the IM conversation, and the girl was like, I hardly know anything about you, and you hardly know anything about me. Contrary to her statement and assumptions, I did know enough about her that I could stalk her if I wanted to. She gave me her name, age, location, church, and school, along with all of the pictures she posted of her and her friends. I revealed to her exactly how I could be a stalker if I wanted to, and that she needed to be more careful about what she told to strangers. Yeah, so I don't think she took it as well as others might have, but I do suspect that it made her think.

By the time we were ready to leave, it was 11pm, and so Alli and I drove back home. It was long and I was tired. Alli kept changing up the air flow and vents to help keep me awake, but eventually I had to stop and take a twenty minute power nap. We eventually got home just before 3am.

Church was great, though we were both tired. We had a good Sunday school class, and one of the teachers gave me a copy of a certain CD that will not be released for a few months yet (sorry I can't reveal on the internet which one it is, so if you really want to know, ask me in person). That was cool.

Back home, Alli and I worked on scrapbooking and all. Later that night we double-dated with my parents and went to go see Cars, which was extremely funny. Ya'll should see it.

Then I wet back to the apartment where the Crappy Clearwire (Wireless Internet) and the Riotous Router have joined forces to ensure no digital connection to the outside world for an undetermined amount of time. Basically, my roommate Phil and I are exiled from the internet.

Alright, that was my weekend. It was long, yet tiring. I don't think I had enough sleep.

Charis,