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Farewell - 2006-03-15 |
2004-02-03 - 12:03 a.m. Okay... I promised to continue the story and I'm ready to start the TN bit. But rather than have me narrarate it, I'm going to post this bit written by Sarah Deane, a very nice girl who I roomed with there. She's wonderfully perky (not in a bad way) and is always helpful and smiling. She was a lot of fun to be around. So here's what she had to say about the trip... So yeah... I�traveled to Tennessee with 11 other people from Ithaca in a beauty of a 15-passenger van. The trip was sponsored by the Protestant Community at IC. From what I had heard before I went on the trip, I was under the impression that we were going to a teen pregnancy center, and that we would spend the entire week working as their slaves,�painting the facility, and probably sleeping in... I dunno...�a closet or something. As it turned out, the facility was actually set up for teenaged girls who could not stay with their family (most had been abused or neglected), would not stay with a foster family (were either chronic run-aways, or just needed more support than a foster family could give), and so they wound up at this "last resort"�called the Florence Crittendon Agency (FCA). FCA is a beautiful facility where about 40 girls live, eat, go to school, etc. From what I saw, the faculty working there (counselors, teachers, ground keepers,�etc.)�was unbelieveably patient and friendly, but there was a bit of a prison feel to the entire�campus. It took some time to get used to the fact that every door on the campus locks behind you, and alarms sound if you open the "wrong" ones. I was definitely locked outside for about an hour my first day, and it was a little lonely, but I made the most of it and explored the trails in the woods, so that I could show the rest of my group around later. Sorry... that was a side story. Anyway, we were not exclusively�painting, which was a relief because I don't like/suck at painting. FCA has only four ground keepers (one of which has only one arm... it's pretty inspiring to see him work so hard despite his disability) to do all of the cleaning and yard work for the entire facility (like six buildings, and 26 acres), so our job was basically to do the work that they�don't�typically have time to do. We did a ton of raking, and�cleaning, and some painting, and�even some office work (another girl and I spent most of a day shreading papers one morning... rrrrrmp rrrrrrrmp rrrrrrrrmp)... all sorts of little odd�jobs.�Honestly, we didn't even do that much work... we were expected to start working at like 9:15 or so, we got an hour off for lunch, and then we worked until around 3, AND they gave us�Wednesday off so that we could spend a day in the Smoky Mountains! :-D�In general,�the employees were really laid back, and treated us like kings and queens. They would start reminding us that it was almost lunch time and we should rap up at like 11:15... we were like umm... it doesn't tak 45 minutes to walk to the dining hall...AND oh my goodness...�you had to�ask the dining hall lady to stop scooping food like before she�even started scooping - once�she wound up for a scoop she was almost impossible to stop! "Just a little, please" translated to "I can't find my plate because it's buried under four inches of food."�I ate sooooo much, but the�food was mostly pretty decent. And about sleeping in a closet... not so much. We had most of the bottom floor of a building. We slept two or three people to a room (their were five rooms) in beds�and each room had a bathroom. In addition we had a lounge, kitchenette, laundry facilities, and access to most anything on the campus. It was incredible!� Speaking of incredible ... the people in the group from Ithaca that I traveled with... wow...�incredible!�I have�never been a part of a more cohesive group! We were all so different, but we got along sooo well! It was such a blessing! You might hate me, but I'm gonna give a brief overview of each person,�James Burleigh style... it'll help you follow along later. The�only person I knew really really well before going on the trip was Steve... some of you have met him. He's one of my best buddies.�He's adventurous, and we have really�candid God/life talks a lot.�Not so long ago I was scared to death of him,�but then Becca made me ride to church with him alone once, and then she stuck me on a ski lift alone with him, and now we get along. Sorry... that�didn't make any sense to anyone but Becca. Nothing sketchy I promise. Moving on,�Schwang was the fearless driver last year on the WV trip, and he came through again this year. He's a great boy, but from a distance you might not know what to�make of him -�he's�the only green-haired mandolyn player I've ever met. Gibson is his girlfriend, but she looks�more like his fraternal twin. Seriously, the resembalence is quite amazing/humorous. She's mostly quiet with a sort of vengeful (is that a word) sense of humor - she doesn't�put up with any�phony balony. She gave me a run for my money, but not in an offensive way.�Matt is also quiet. When he�does talk, you realize that he was definitely not thinking what you might have thought he was thinking, and usually you laugh so hard you snort. He's very perceptive. KristIn is�HIS girlfriend. She's full of energy, and frequently talks in funny voices,�sometimes to inanimate objects. I dunno. She did a fantastic job organizing the entire trip. KristEn was our other driver. She also has a lot of energy, but she burns hers by jumping up and down and giggling.�She's very open to sharing what's on her mind - particularly about God stuff which is so cool.�KristinA is the whitest white girl ever but she swears she is a black albino.�She's too funny. She's famous for pretending to be a tough, street-wise rapper in large groups,�but then she�pulls people aside one-on-one to show her true colors... she's a sweet girl with�amazing insight and faith in God,�and enough spontaneity to... umm.. lost that analogy.�Brooke�is a proud Texan, and she doesn't take any crap from anybody.�Sardonic is the first word that comes to mind.�She's�a bit of a talker. You've just gotta laugh at her.�I discovered throughout the week that she gives great hugs. Again, nothing sketchy I promise (that one was for Scott).�Amberly is a self professed diva. She likes to shop and sing opera, but she is�open to try�just about anything.�Rachel� was probably the prom queen, class president, and valdictorian of her class, although she swears she wasn't. She's one of those�gorgeous, witty, intelligent girls,�except that she's�fun to hang out with, too. I didn't know anything about her before going on the trip except that she was the roommate of one of the XC girls.�Turns out she's�the world's greatest paper shreader killer. ;-b�Ashley was probably the most quiet of all. She does everything without complaining or expressing much emotion. I didn't know her at all before going on the trip, but she is a real nice girl. Sarah writes really long e-mails, and you're a saint if you're still reading this one. Phew. I think I count 12. Anyway, the point is, we're quite a motley crew, and I sort of anticipated that I would spend like 90% of my time with Steve-o, and then spread the remaining 10% of my attention�in a pathetic effort to get to know the other people, but that isn't how it went at all, and I'm glad. Once in a�while the couples would leave the group for a little alone time (leaving behind what we called GAS - "girls and Steve," and, believe it or not, I did NOT come up with that one), but mostly we were all together�all the time without any cliques or any tension. It was awesome - a definite answer to prayer! Before we even left, we (except for KristIn and Brooke, who live down south, and met us in Tennessee) we all met at my apartment in Ithaca, where we spent the night.� A group of nine people, also from the Protestant Community, was also in Ithaca that day - they went on a similar work trip to Pennsylvania. Our two groups got together for a big pasta dinner and a lot of silliness. We played "Celebrity" which is the best game ever, that doesn't have a thing to do with celebrities, so I don't know why it's called that, and we also played Uno, and Poker, and talked and laughed forever about our vacations and so forth. It was particularly good to see my friends Jon and Michelle.�The Tennesseers crashed on my floor for the night, and apparently they were all freezing, and didn't bother to tell me until the morning. I forgot that not everyone's family is as thrifty with the heat as mine is. We left at 6 o'clock Sunday morning, and were able to see the sun rise and set from the van. We stopped for lunch in Roanoke, where Gibson went to school last year, and ate with her closest friend there at O'Charley's, which I don't think I particularly recommend... I think I'm down an artery now. We took as many after dinner mints as we could pilfer, because they ripped us off, and Gibson told us to. Whoops. We played a TON of Catch Phrase on the way down, and laughed a lot. The thing that stands out most in my mind is when KristEn was discribing "seat belt" and she said "we're not wearing them right now," and Amberly responded "UNDERWEAR!" Whoa now. When we got to Knoxville I just so happened to be riding shotgun while KristEn drove, and everyone else slept. Lo and behold we wound up lost in the city of Knoxville for like two HOURS. :-( Everyone awoke and got a little riled when they heard me say "Oh wait... does the milage thing go with the road before or after the turn?�Oh man!�I've been reading this wrong all along!" Eventually we stopped for directions at a gas station. It just so happened that FCA is located on "Dick Lonas Road" (not to be confused with "Lonas Street" which we drove on for quite sometime, the punchline then being "We're looking for dick. We�can't find dick," and then we had to pretend that we didn't think that was funny because it was a church trip, and that made it even funnier.). The gas station men didn't believe me when I asked for directions to the Pregnancy Center on Dick Lonas Road, but when they realized that I was serious, they whipped out a map, pointed out that we were on completely the wrong side of the city, and gave us some directions that were absolutely rotten. Every time we backed up the van it beeped, and the motto for the week became "Back that van up! Whooop whooop!" It became the chorus of a rap that we may or may not have written. Umm so we finally wound up finding FCA by accident. Brooke and KristIn were waiting for us, and we had to confess to Brooke that we had purposely neglected her directions because the Map Quest directions at least APPEARED to be simpler. HA! At that point it was 10:30, we settled in (I roomed with Gibson and Amberly, who were delightful roommates), talked for a bit, and went to bed. There was this fun heating unit that went off every four minutes and sounded like a jack hammer next to my room, but they fixed that the following day at Brooke's request. Throughout the week, my schedule was to get up early to run and see the sun rise (ok... that happened twice... but I intended for it to happen every day... does that count?), meet with the group in the lounge to sing praise songs (which was especially hott, because we had five music majors in the group), go to breakfast, meet with Cynthia (our coordinator at FCA) to receive our assignments for the day, work for a few�hours, eat lunch, work a few more hours, spend the late afternoon chilling�at the facility, eat dinner,�meet in the lounge for a devotion�(we took turns leading, and most�of them sparked some really long conversations that really made us all think,�helped us to get to know each other a lot�better, and centered our focus on God, for whom we were there in the first place), then we went out and had some fun.�Our first night, we spent something like four hours at the gym together. We played�6-on-6 basketball, 6-on-6 volleyball, a little badminton, jump rope, gymnastics... we tried it all, and had so much fun�as a group.�We even... ok this is a little weird, but you know that human knot forced bonding activity�that people made you play a lot when you were in middle school? Yeah, we did that voluntarily. It took us like�twelve years to untangle because we're�retarded or something. We had to cheat a little to get�Matt through some of the holes, because he's six foot four, and not particularly flexible, but we got it eventually.� Tuesday we checked out the facility's rope course. I learned how�to tight rope walk (sort of)�:-) Yay for non-emergency balance, huh Karen? I led the devo after supper. It had a rocky start, but once we got rolling, we had a really exciting time of discussing and brainstorming how we could be more consistent in our walk with God. Yay God! P.S. by rocky start, I mean the first thing I did after opening in prayer was ask Gibson to read a passage for me. Little did I know she doesn't like to read out loud, and she gave me the most terrifying "I want to kill you" look I've ever seen. She said she was sorry, and offered to read later, though. Remember this little story, as it will come into play later. I'm sure you're on the edge of your seat. That night ten of us were playing�Mafia while Steve and KristEn waited outside for KristEn's friend Tyler (who goes to school in Knoxville) to come visit. Rachel was narrating, and she likes to kill people off starting with the phrase "sooo there was this BOULDER..." The first time she used that one, she became all animated, and she flung her arm to point at the window, we all turned, and there were two faces pressed up against the glass... even I let out a little scream... I'll admit it. Anyway it was only Steve and KristEn... they were locked out, so they climbed up the side of the building, got on the porch and tried to get our attention. We thought they were just being stupid, so we pulled the blinds and left them�out there. Whoops. At 12:30 that night Kristina asked me to teach her how to run down hills, so we went out and ran down the steep grassy knoll that leads to the parking lot of FCA in the dark in our pajamas. She reminds me of someone who persuaded me to do ridiculous things at ridiculous hours last year in WV. I won't mention any names, but it rhymes with Schmecca Schmaglian. More P.S.: I didn't mention to Kristina that Jessie used to use me as the model of "how not to run down hills" in high school XC. This will also be an important detail later on. Wednesday was our day off (Cynthia downright insisted!), so we spent the whole day in the Smoky's. Wow, if they're not proof that there is a Creator God, I don't know what is! I got some good pictures. We first went to this place called Cade's Cove. It's an Appalachain village that has remained "untouched" since it was founded in the mid-1800's. It's an 11- mile loop (yeah... a bit more extensive than the Farmer's Museum), and there are numerous places where you can stop your car (or 15-passenger van as the case may be) and hike and explore the houses, churches, graveyards, barns, mills... There are deer and cows and bear etc. roaming about, and we saw some moron trying to sneak up on the wildlife to take close-up pictures. Kristina tried the "pretend to be a deer" approach to close-up photography, and was actually quite successful, although I think the pictures of her crawling on the ground with grass in her mouth are better than the deer close-ups. Steve, Kristina, and I climbed a lot of trees. We couldn't help it, they were so perfect! Anyway it was pretty neat, the views were... looking for an adjective stronger than fabulous... and we had a ton of fun. Oh, and entering the park I saw a sign that pictured a person flying over the handle bars of a bike with his feet straight up in the air that said "Helmets recommended." It made me laugh. From there, we drove for a long time on the windy scenic mountain roads that I learned to love so much in West Virginia last year, and went to a place called Loral Falls. I probably didn't spell that right. Anyway, we hiked a little ways up a mountain, and ended at a place with this gorgeous waterfall. Steve and I did a lot of climbing and exploring on the way up... so fun! I wonder if that was the day I got poison sumac all over my arm.. wouldn't surprise me. oops. At the waterfall, Kristina asked me if I would wade into the water with her, which I was of course up to, and everyone said we were nuts... until we pressured them all to join us. It was funny to see Amberly and Brooke wade in especially - I never would have expected that. Honestly it was probably only like 50 degree water... like 17 degrees warmer than some that I've been in, but because the air was so warm, it felt�a little�horrible. From there we went to Steve-o's grandparents' house in Gattlinburg ... spelled that wrong, too, I'm sure. They were so cute. Grandma made us soup and pie, and Grandpa came in after a long day of mountain climbing. Oh man, there is no doubt in my mind that Grandpa looked JUST like Steve does now like 55 years ago. They even have the same voice. umm... guess that's not really interesting to people who don't know Steve... sorry. We were supposed to meet up with KristEn's friend that night to help him with this street ministry that he does... feeding homeless people or something, so we just drove through Gattlinburg and Pigeon Ford without stopping, but they looked like fun touristy places to stop if we had had time. We especially liked all the sketchy little wedding chapels on the side of the road - never really associated Appalachain Tennessee with such "culture" haha. As it turned out, we did NOT meet up with Tyler that evening, because his car had been towed that day (or stolen as we thought at that point), but later we went to a place called Barley's Pizzaria and Taproom in the city (Knoxville). We were excited to try southern pizza, and then we opened the menu to find a whole page of "New York Style Pizza." We wound up ordering "The All American Pizza" because it sounded more inclusive. It was about the best pizza I've ever had, and the garlic knots were better. The best part of the Barley's experience... don't laugh now... was the live bluegrass band. I'll admit that I was reluctant to allow myself to appreciate the bluegrass, but they were honestly quite good... it was nice to chill and listen and sip coffee while we waited for our order. I guess I always though bluegrass was analogous to redneck, but this particular band proved me wrong. Oh.. I also forgot how old I was that day. Twice actually. Earlier in the day we had been going through "the book of questions," asking each other to answer all of these silly questions that someone with too much time on her hands has written. One of mine had been something to the effect of "would you give up sex for one year for (something wonderful that I forget)" and I answered "well I waited 18 years, I guess I can wait another one" (long awkward silence) then Rachel says, "are you only 18?" "Umm wow... I'm 20, and I've waited 20 years, I swear." Then at Barley's they asked for my ID at the door, and I thought I'd save them the trouble of looking and just let them X my hand "I'm 18. Well no. I'm 20. I can't drink. I don't drink. I have no idea. Just X me." So sad. Thursday night we went to KristEn's aunt and uncle's house, which was in the area. They served us cake and ice cream with pretzels in it.. sort of like make-shift "Chubby Hubby." They were really nice people, and they brought out embarassing pictures of KristEn�as a little girl haha. That was also the night that Gibson led devos. She asked me in advance to�do the reading for her, because she is uncomfortable reading out loud (remember from the part you probably read several days ago over breakfast or something?). I got halfway through the passage, which was basically a list of names�that had way too many sylables to be practical, before�I caught on. Good one, Gibson. :-b On Friday we had�a "let's play games we haven't played since kindergarten-a-thon." I have to brag that I broke the chain in Red Rover every time, and was never broken, but I also should maybe mention that I quit early to sweep the tennis courts. I should also mention that I was definitely the loser in Mother May I. I need to work on my manners I guess. Friday night we hosted ice cream sundae parties for the girls who live at FCA. We played Pictionary, Catch Phrase, and Celebrity. The girls that we met were really nice, but most were a little shy. I wish we had had more opportunity to interact with them throughout the week, but our schedules did not coincide at all. They were in school or programs during our meal breaks. :-( In any case, it was a pretty fun night. My team should have won Celebrity, but we suffered some set-backs, namely, KristinA couldn't recall the word that she herself wrote, Brooke describes "field hockey" as "skirt," and the other team cheats (come on! a "sprinkler" and "sprinkles" are NOT the same thing!�Try putting a hose on your ice cream!) ;-) That night I decided that I'm too cheap to spend two dollars washing my clothes at school, so I put them in the washer there. Unfortunately the dryer is rather ineffective. At like 2:30, my laundry had been in the dryer for about eight years, and was still wet. We were�packing up the van�to go home at 6:30�in the morning, and I obviously still�needed to get my clothes dry and packed before then, and I wanted to help clean up our building too, so I set my watch alarm for 5:15. Now I knew I would most certainly sleep through my watch alarm if I slept in my cozy bed�that�night, so I thought it would be a good idea to sleep on the equally comfy couch instead... where I would have no roommates to throw things at me when my alarm woke them up at such an ungodly hour.�BRILLIANT! (that, by the way, was another key phrase we�used that week... Schwang and Matt in particular) I sure�panicked when I woke up at 6:19 the next morning. I�ran down the hall towards my room as everyone else was coming out of there's with their bags�all packed and in hand. Oh... and my clothes were still�wet.�Cool. I managed to get myself dressed and packed in a timely�fashion believe it or not, and even got my clothes to finally dry. Steve and I had a special bonding experience folding underwear together, but frankly, I didn't care much at that point. The�van was all packed at 7, just as we had planned, and before I climbed into the van, I asked KristinA if she wanted to run down�our hill one more time. She said she�would go after me, and me clambored up the bank while everyone else watched.�Oh man, Jessie would be proud! My form was PERFECT! I leaned in�to the angle of the hill, my arms were low, my strides were long and effortless, and... I was laying flat on my face in the parking lot on top of a speed bump. I have NO idea what happened. KristinA opted out of�running down the hill. While my little�accident was histerical for the first three seconds, when I stood up I almost�cried. I have never felt so much pain, save for the time I broke�my leg waiting in line for the porta potty. I was missing a good deal of skin, my hands burned,�and I thought I had broken a hip or busted a kidney or something. I�also recall thinking "wow, if�mammals, by definition, give milk to their young, I think I'm officially a bird or something now..."�I am SO glad, though, that I was wearing a sweatshirt. I almost didn't put it on, because it was warm in Tennessee, but I knew�it would be cold in New York/if I�put it on I wouldn't have to fold it and pack it.�I can't even�IMAGINE what my elbow and hip would look like WITHOUT the sweatshirt!�By the way, I didn't break or bust anything, it stopped hurting�after a few hours, and the scabs are a terrific conversation starter. We managed to travel home in four hours fewer than it took us to get down, which was�cool. It may or may not have had anything to do with�me staying�the heck away from the�front passenger seat. We ate dinner at Matt's house in Owego, and played more Catch Phrase and Mafia... not like we had played those games every�day of the week or anything.
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