Spruce Lake Retreat

This past weekend I went with my young adult Bible study group to the Spruce Lake Retreat Center in Canadensis, PA. It was a great weekend all around, with much fun had by all.
We arrived at Spruce Lake around 9:45pm on Friday and unloaded the vans in order to get situated in our cabin. Once we were all settled, we played a couple rounds of Loaded Questions in order to get acquainted with one another. During this time, we also ate some soft pretzels as a late night snack before dispersing for bed.
The next morning we had breakfast burritos made by Wes, Roshelle, and Karl, which were delicious. Breakfast was then followed by worship in music and then a teaching on 1 Corinthians 1:30 by Jim. The teaching focused on how we need to have our lives centered on Christ and that we are given new life through Him. Also, we can never gain righteousness on our own, only through Jesus. We then had about 15 minutes of prayer before Jim's second teaching, which focused upon sanctification. He taught that sanctification is two-fold: first we are sanctified (set apart) when we first believe, and then God continually sanctifies us throughout the course of our lives. This is because of the indwelling sin that we have in us. It's dead, but still present. We are no longer slaves to sin, but that desire in our nature still exists and is only dampened through God's sanctifying of our souls. We cannot and should not try to reform ourselves, for this is God's job. It involves the painful death of our sins in order to enjoy the joy of God. If we refuse to let go of our idols, our joy will be limited.

Following Jim's teaching, we enjoyed some relaxation outside on the swings that were built around the fire pit. Some people read, others chatted, and a couple played guitar. We then enjoyed chili for lunch before tackling the hike, aka Powerstroke 5000. The view was fantastic once we reached the top, and the weather was gorgeous. Soon we all headed back down to the cabin for some round-robin ping pong, followed by some head to head games to 7. Schulte crushed us all by winning almost 20 games in a row before dinner. Dinner consisted of angel hair pasta and a meat sauce that Heather made using the recipe of an Italian woman from Staten Island.

Following dinner, we watched a documentary entitled Catfish. This was about the influence of social media and how some can use it to deceive others. A man from NYC had developed a close bond with this family in Michigan, but he soon discovered that the majority of it was a scam set up by a woman who was just desperate for attention. Our discussion afterwards confronted whether or not this was real and also made us question how we interact with others using social media. It definitely makes you question how honest people are being, but even in person, people can lie to you. We all enjoyed some icecream during our discussion, followed by a jam session that included vocals, guitar, a drum, along with an assortment of household items such as a cheese grater, pots and pans, wooden spoons, a cooler, and a pink lemonade container. I then went outside to enjoy the campfire for a while before coming back inside to take notes on an audio book while others either read or played Scrabble. There was a bit of a dispute over whether "gorer" was a word before I decided to get some sleep.
This morning for breakfast we had bacon, egg, and cheese sandwiches on bagels. After breakfast, Mark taught on the importance of having our identity in Christ and how when that is our focus, our actions are more likely to mirror Jesus. We must always remember that we are already children of God and then we will slowly have His ways manifest in us and flow out on a daily basis.
I chose to relax outside and listen to more of my book and take notes. I was definitely noticing some contradictions between the author and Scripture and between the author's own comments, which makes me leery. Heather was engrossed by The Hunger Games, while others played Perudo. I got in on the action for one round before going to relax on a swing while watching our chicken lunch roast over the fire. Lunch of chicken burritos soon followed before it was time for us to start packing up all of our belongings. We took one last group photo before everybody departed in the vans and I drove myself back to Stroudsburg.

Acting Like Kids in a Candy Store

It seems like most people loathe the snow in the northeast, but I feel like it must be embraced. There are many ways to still have a good time on a snow-filled day. For example, Rhi and I decided to take a random road trip up to Wawayanda, NY, whilst doing errands. On our adventure, we were following a snowplow that seemed to take his job to the extreme. Not only was the plow clearing snow from the road, but it had an extended plow that got the side of the road and any small trees and bushes lining the road. We inevitably got super hungry, so we decided to swing by the Milford Diner. In true stylish fashion, we slid sideways into the parking lot (which was adjacent to a car insurance company...how ironic) because who doesn't like drifting on a snow day? We had a lovely meal of chicken parm subs and determined that the term "menopause" should have a much more basic definition like, "No more period; Just mood swings and osteoporosis."

We started back towards the Burg, but got sidetracked by Country Kettle. Rhi and I both had seen commercials on tv and wanted to know if they really had literal barrels full of candy. It was a last minute decision, which could be sensed by our drifting sideways into the parking lot before we made our way inside. To our delight, there are literally barrels of candy within Country Kettle, so we each decided to get a sack full since we were giddy like kids in a candy store. Our final stop for our adventure was ESU, which has some lovely parking lots for drifting/donuts. All in all, it has been a fantastic day in the snow! We plan on finishing out our day by going and watching Haywire at the Stroud Theater. Hopefully nobody will steal one of our tires like that one time I went with friends 4 years ago...

Daylight Savings and My Role as Raggedy Ann

Before reading this post, it is essential for all readers of this blog to become acquainted with the above song by Chris Brown. Now in no capacity am I really a fan of him, but this song, Yeah 3x, is essential for this particular misadventure. I believe it might actually be, in my book, the epitome of any misadventure I have yet to experience.
Let me set the scene for you. Just for fun and to do a little people watching, Rhi, Seamus, and I decided to leave for Mount Airy Casino at 12:30 in the morning. We figured this would be a good source of free entertainment, but little did I know that I would eventually become part of that entertainment. We chose to start out the evening (well morning) by sitting at the bar and watching people play the slot machines. This was slightly dull, so we figured the night club we be our best bet for some good laughs and we were right. There were quite a few entertainers in the crowd this morning, which were great fun to watch. The one that really caught our eye was this guy who was about 40. The best description for him would be "dancing fool." He was tearing up the dance floor with so much energy that people weren't quite sure what to do with him. Eventually he tired out and sat for a bit.
The three of us danced on and off until the dance floor started clearing out. That was when the dancing fool, who was clearly doing some surveillance, came over and asked me to dance with him. Now anybody who knows me knows that I'm a very awkward dancer. I don't mind dancing, but I'm pretty bad at it, mainly because I refuse to relax unless I'm exhausted. Apparently the dancing fool felt I would be a good sport, so we did a couple spins on the dance floor. But soon, Chris Brown's, Yeah 3x came on and things became very entertaining for Seamus and Rhi and the few stragglers left in the club. After some slightly successful attempts to get me to finally relax in my dancing shoes, the dancing fool decided to take some initiative. During the chorus of "Put your hands in the air yeah, yeah, yeah," the dancing fool decided to transform me into Raggedy Ann by swinging Kayla into the air. Once I was back on the ground, I couldn't keep from laughing, and neither could my two companions. I did learn that the fellow's name was Dominic and that he moved here from Poland two years ago. It was definitely a memorable way to fall back for daylight savings time. I think for the rest of my life, every time I hear the song, Yeah 3x, I'm going to remember my 10 second casting as Raggedy Ann.

Golden Monkey and Nintendo Wii

Last night, as a means of avoiding some loitering followers of the Insane Clown Posse and their all-too-real-looking rifle, I took a short fifteen minute drive over to Stroudsburg to enjoy my weekly visit with Grigs. We are both quite competitive when it comes to Nintendo Wii, which is a great outlet for her job stress and my over-thinking stress. To make things more interesting, we each slowly consume a bottle of beer during our 2 hours of jumping around the living room trying to recapture the power serve in tennis. Maybe it's because I'm a lightweight, or maybe it's because I haven't eaten for a few hours, but I've discovered that a bottle of Golden Monkey packs quite a punch. Those Belgians must have special hops for brewing, which is much more pleasant to consider than them using fermented monkey feces. Needless to say, I'm glad that we jump around for two hours so that my body can metabolize the alcohol before I drive home. Once we get tired of exerting ourselves in tennis, which I tend to dominate, we move on to bowling, which I struggle with at times, especially when I forget to release the ball properly and end up with a human strike, which involves tossing the ball into the crowd standing behind me. Grigs and I are both amused at our change in temperament between tennis and bowling. While we are still competitive at bowling, we tend to compliment each other when we get strikes or spares. Tennis, on the other hand, is much more cut-throat with threats and our bodies bouncing around the living room. It is definitely one of the highlights of my week, though, to just be able to let lose and pretend like a kid again. As Grigs likes to say, we are channeling our inner middle school child.