"You win the Athenian award for today." Ichi.

So I just got back from Shack on the Rocks, which was of course super-awesome. I'm home now, and I did what I always do when I get back home- fire up my beloved stereo and sing at the top of my lungs while jumping up and down and flinging my hair in every direction...

My mommy is a long-suffering mommy. That's all I can say.

This year's trip was really...eventful. Not like two years ago wasn't eventful, but whoa, there were some crazy good times this year.

...And just crazy times.

There was this whole conspiracy before we even got to Looking Glass Rock involving the interstate and wrecks... I'm not sure how it got started, but three cars (including mine) ended up in on it and had Kyle convinced that Joel had gotten in an accident that had backed up traffic on the interstate for miles (mostly cause Joel himself called him at one point). So Kyle tells Lou when she arrives, so they're kinda freaked, and Lou says before we eat lunch, "Let's pray for Joel first." It was at that point that I couldn't take it anymore and said with probably more bluntness than was necessary, "No. Let's not pray for Joel."

And of course, I didn't hear the end of that for a couple of hours. Ironically, it turned out Joel and Matt Carrowan got lost and probably needed prayer after all, which made me feel bad about the whole thing.

I got up the trail all the way this year, although I gave up at first 15 minutes in. I was sure my legs weren't going to cooperate, since I had been walking all over Columbia the day before. But 5 minutes later, I was like, "No way. Not this year. I am so taking this hill." So I walked back up, and I was late, but I made it. It was cool because I got to talk to people on the way, which I probably wouldn't have done if I had been with everyone, and I was able to stop and enjoy the view a couple of times. Plus, this really cute dog came out of nowhere and walked with me part of the way towards the end. My heart was warmed, and I said a whole lot of "Thank you, God"s. The view was awesome and so worth it. Although I was certain Steven Key was about to die. I'm latched on to this downward-sloping ledge for dear life, and he's so far down I can only see his head...I was like, "Lord, we commit Steven to you..."

Garrett read the Sermon on the Mount while we were up there. I just really like that passage, and hearing it read while gazing out at the sunbeams streaming in front of all those slopes in front of us...it was beautiful.

Getting down was fun. I was really tired at the end, but everyone was in high spirits, more or less. Some people took shortcuts...some got down before everyone else. Others got lost and thought they saw bears. That's all I'm going to say on the matter. Poor Jessica got like rocks embedded in her heel, and her socks were soaked with blood...she's a Spartan woman. Yes, we were commenting on people's "Spartometers" the entire trip, since several people went to see 300 over the weekend.

As for me, I am a proud Athenian princess. No denying that fact.

When we got to Bonclarken, Garrett led worship. I've only seen him do it a few times, but I always enjoy it when he does. He did a lot of oldies that brought back good memories, and having some vets there with us kinda helped with that atmosphere. Matt Carrowan taught, and I really liked what he said about striving for perfection, even though we know it's out of our reach, because that's what we're commanded to do and in order to not slip into complacency. Isn't that true? You know, when you start out as a Christian, you set smaller goals for yourself, but when you hit those, there's that urge to just stop there because you're relatively good. You're not doing really terrible things, and people are probably praising you or even looking up to you. But there's always something else you can be working on, and instead of being discouraged by that fact, we should embrace it and strive as hard as we can towards those things.

Oh, yes. At the end of the night, Lou and Rebecca played the guitar and Carmen sang along with me and some others in an impromptu worship session. It was so awesome- just uninhibited, heartfelt worship. I love sitting on the floor and just doing stuff like that...not really caring about how you sound, but singing because you just really want to. I went to bed early, so I just missed Lou being surprised for her birthday...even though I heard it all the way in the next apartment in bed. I laughed- then shut up real quick, sure I had woken Carolyn up.

So I'll continue this tomorrow... with the countriest restaurant I have ever been to in my life.