We spent the night in Gering, Nebraska last night so we could be close to our school, which ended up being only 2 miles away. So I guess the first good news of the day were that we could sleep in since we had an afternoon show. The bad news is I still ended up waking up early due to a back ache.
We were in a pretty shady motel, and my back's gone through a lot of different beds but this one just didn't do it. I slept horribly. So I woke up early, and decided to walk around town looking for a place to buy coffee. After 40 min of walking (in a very small town), I found a Mcdonalds and got a $1 cup of coffee and by the time I got back to my motel, it was time to get ready for our show.
Bad news...our gps refused to work. Good news, the town was so small that we found the school on our own. We get to the school and meet lovely Julie, our contact person, who announces that we will only be having one presentation instead of two that day. That was great news for two reasons. Tiffany and I had just been talking about how hungry we were and wondering how we were going to make it 5 hours without eating much. The second reason we were ecstatic to hear this (though we kept the joy on the inside) was because Tiffany had a lot of driving to do right after the show in order for us to make it back to Colorado.
Ok. the bad news with this was the setup we were going to have. I'll be posting pictures soon, because I won't be able to really describe it. But it was by far the hardest set up we've had so far. Julie opens the door to where we will be setting up, and as she turns the lights on, we are faced with a mini ampitheatre type of room with a tiny stage, and tons and tons of steps. In fact, the seats were the steps and we pretty much knew we'd have to carry all of our equipent down these seats/stairs.
So as soon as we are alone I say "well good news bad news! Time to get our muscles out!!" and Tiffany responds "I'm glad we are laughing about this."
Thankfully, as soon as we brought all of our equipment in, we had great middle schoolers help us. We had Rachel, the tiny little blonde who had alll the will in the world to help but sometimes couldn't due to her petiteness. She was very creative though! We had Dakota, the bigger stronger girl who had a very dry sense of humor but was always willing to helps as well. They were a good team. We had James and Alex. Two typical middle school boys will do enough explaining. haha.
So with their help and a LOT of creativity and stuggling, we were able to manage. Oh and I forgot to mention that the stage orignially had a piano, a chair, a stool, flags, sound boxes and speakers on them. So we had to move all of that out of the way in order to even begin. The place (between that stuff, and all of our equipment scattered due to lack of space) was quite a mess. I wasn't able to take pictures of the mess, but I did take pictures of our creativitiy. Also, instead of giving us a 6ft ladder, which is usually easier to carry around, they gave us a ladder the size of our screens. It was huuuuge. haha. Moving it around was SUCH a challenge!
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| Kids getting settled |
At two different points, while we were waiting for students to come in, two cops came in asking if we had seen a certain boy with scissors and there were kids running around the hallways. It was definitely interesting!
So, the show went well. The kids that helped us set up also helped us tear down and they seemed to really love us and enjoyed working with us.
The two girls kept being amazed at the fact that we did this job, between us not having a home base, and us having to live/work with one same person. Dakota kept telling me "You girls must be the bestest of friends for being able to do this all the time." and Rachel would say "I can't imagine doing your job with someone you absolutely can't stand." And I responded "well it gets challenging at times, but it's a really good learning experince. You learn how communicate better with others, and it also teaches you how to compromise a lot, but thankfull both Tiffany and I are pretty laid back people so we've gotten along just fine so far!"
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| Proud of Tiff and myself for making it! |
So that was our morning. I guess I don't have much to say about the rest of the day since it was pretty much spent in the car. I forced myself not to fall asleep in the car knowing that it would result in a late night, which would be bad news for me tomorrow morning since we have to wake up around 5:30! I succeeded but boy oh boy was it a challenge!! I spent pretty much the whole time reading my journal from sophomore year in college. I found myself laughing, and tearing up at different times. I would laugh at the stupid things my friends and I would do. I teared reading about some of the heartaches I went throguh (people just being flat out rude).I thought hard about what a challenging year it was. I'm amazed at how I was able to find time to journal since it was my busiest year of college. Multiple jobs, jam packed class schedule, and soccer practice everyday. But I really grew spiritually. I wish I could share with you some of the amazing things God had revealed to me that year!
So after going through quite some emotions while traveling in the past, we arrived in Castle Rock, which is 15 minutes away from our show tomorrow. Arriving here was bittersweet. It was sweet becaue we were welcomed by glorious scenery while the sun was bidding farewell to the world behind the mountains. But it was bitter because we drove through towns and streets, and places that I knew from living there just 2 months ago. It's also hard to know that I am only 15 minutes away from my best friend and a ton of other friends.
It's all good though because I will be seeing them again this weekend :D
That's another thing. I am super excited to be with my friends again, but for some of you who know me well, this doesn't come as a surpise when I say that I hate decision making!!! I get overwlemened when I have to many options, then I freak out and then I just give up. haha In fact, when I was still living in Senegal and my family and I would go out to diner, I always had my dad order my meal. I trusted him with that and it avoided me to go through all the decision making process. :)
SO all of this to say that I have no idea where to stay or who to be with or who to see when this weekend. Both Lauren and Lysiane have a pretty similar schedule and they each live an hour away from each other.I can't decide where to go first and where to end. haha. So if you read this tonight, please pray for my decision making. Not that it's a big deal since I'll have fun either way, but I just stress myself out and want other people to make decisions for me. :/
Well, anyway, my plan of not sleeping in the car worked. I'm pooooped! Had the workout of my life today, and was in the car for longer than I needed. I just finished a bowl of cereal and am pleased to say that I will now pass out! (It's barely 9....so sad!) But I need some rest before the weekend owns me!
Love you dearly,
DJO
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