HOTT-lanta!
Jan. 1st, 2005 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bellapalmeraI am back from ACC... well not totally back because I am still in Tampa (don't worry, the Schneiders said I could use their computer, I asked first :-P) but whatever. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it. Just to be up front, I didn't go to the wedding. I wanted to but God had other plans for me. So, here is the day by day recap of my trip thus far...
12/27 (Monday) - I worked for 4 hours, and then we went to the airport where my plane was delayed an hour and a halfish. So I played Space War on my phone and I got like 112000 points but it only gave me credit for 43000... what the heck. So then I flew into Tampa and I get to UT and the parking garage is locked! UT students, remember this for future reference just in case you want to get your car the week after Christmas, UT IS CLOSED. So security fortunately let me get my car out of there. I came over to the Schneider's (they left me a key) and did some organizing and then slept.
12/28 (Tuesday) - Got up at the butt crack of dawn and headed over to UT to meet everyone. I went in Leah's car w/Omote, Ross, and Brian. It was a tight squeeze but nobody minded too much. We made really good time, even though we stopped 4 times it still only took 7½ hours. While we were on the way there, I realized I had totally left my keys on the bench where we met up that morning! I was freaking out, I even made Leah stop so I could check her car, but then I called UT security and reported my keys missing. I called them back a few hours later and THEY FOUND THEM! Oh thank God!!! Anyway then we got to Atlanta, registered, I took me a showah, looked for people from FLSP, etc. I ended up rooming with Leah, Stephanie, Diana, and Lauren (again with the shoving 5 people into a space only meant for 4). Then we had our meeting and stuff. I didn't like the first speaker, to be honest with you. He didn't hold my attention and he was just really basic. Some people need that but apparently I am not currently one of those people. LoL. Oh and the MC guy did his own version of "The Apprentice" to see who would be the MC for the new year. It was THE DUMBEST THING. Anyway yeah and we had "Campus Time" too, I think that was before the meeting actually. Also we went to dinner. Yeah I suck at remembering what order I did things in. Whatever. I stayed up for a little while but really not that many people were up and around. Maybe it was because there were only 550 people instead of the usual 1200, but it was lame. I do not go to bed before 2am at Christmas conference, EVER. But anyway I talked to a lot of people such as Candace, Dylan, Bubba (he wasn't gonna go so I'm glad he did!), and Morgan. And I hung out with Brian while he was playing Settlers of Catan (he won).
12/29 (Wednesday) - OK now I have the apprentice theme song in my head. Anyway, meeting... didn't remember anything the guy said because I was barely awake... then we had some seminars but I slept through the first one cuz I was tired. I did go to this other one about "He's Just Not That Into You"... it was pretty cool. Us girls really do manipulate and make excuses when it comes to guys. But we mean well! Haha. Ya know, there's always one day on Christmas conference that I don't remember very well... this is the day this year. I do remember that at night I sat with some people and we shared "worst date" stories, and since I have never been on a real date I just used senior prom as mine. (Eric hung out with stupid Frances Folin the whole time.) Yeah, that was fun. Then after that I sat in the hallway talking to Morgan for a while. It was funny because we didn't talk as much on summer project but we do now. Same with a lot of people that I definitely talk to more often now than I did that summer. And of course there are people I talked to all the time then that I barely talk to now. We were actually talking about that haha. I went to bed around 2:30.
12/30 (Thursday) - Normally this day would have been the outreach day but they didn't do it this year. This was a big part of my decision to stay in Atlanta and not go to the wedding. All the big stuff happened on Friday. But anyway, the speakers were better on Thursday and I didn't go to any of the seminars because I wanted to go to sleep. LoL. Plus none of them really grabbed me like I should go to them. Oh, this was the day we went to Centennial Park. It was SO much fun. We had dinner at the CNN building and took our picture by the Christmas tree and played in the Olympic rings that have water coming out of them. Good times. OH, and Mike and Kelly Maney came by! They are people who used to be on staff with us but then they went on staff in Siberia, but Kelly had a baby (Elizabeth Claire, aka Libby for short) so they were back for a few weeks. It was really good to see them, unfortunately I didn't take a picture of them but whatever. Someone else probably did. That night after all the meetings and stuff, I played Mafia with some people. Oh and we did this thing that Leaha (Asif's wife) wrote up about why we are not stressed due to what is said in the Bible. It was about Ephesians 3:20, Philippians 4:6-7, and Romans 8:28. I think it was the only time other than sleeping when all 5 of us were in the room together. LoL. Oh, one cool thing from that night was when I was in the room with Leah and Steph, and they were talking about the whole tsunami thing and Steph was relating it to the end times (which I know like NOTHING about) and how God is going to come back when the world is at its worst, and she was saying how if we have hurricanes and tsunamis and 9/11s and The Holocaust and all the freakin CRAP that is going on the world, we can't even imagine the state of disrepair the world is going to be in when God actually does come back. That's something to think about, I mean if you take that into consideration we have it good in retrospect to how the world's going to be however many years from now. Obviously I'm not gonna go to Thailand and try to tell someone that who just lost their whole house and half their family, I can hardly believe it myself and I'm just the innocent bystander who watches CNN. Anyway, this is long enough. Next day...
12/31 (Friday) - We had a meeting (don't expect me to remember any of the morning meetings, I was not awake lol) and then we got in our cars and went to Ashley's mom's house. She lives in Hiram which is not that far from Atlanta, like 45 minutes or so. It was SO much fun. We jumped on the trampoline and ate some WONDERFUL food (oh man, the strawberry shortcake was just... there are not words for how good it was!) and did some praying and that was when I cried. I am pretty sure I always end up crying on the last day of these conferences, but it was just really emotional for me. Part of it was because we were praying while I was supposed to be at the wedding, and part of it was because of when we each prayed for the person next to us or whatever and for someone I hardly talked to this semester, James did a really good job of knowing what to pray for with me, and also part of it was just me realizing how I make mistakes and learn from them and then I go and make them all over again anyway. Whoops. So anyway that was cool. Also Kelsey called me while we were there and her sister had a baby, hurray! Anyway we drove back and then Brian and I walked to Publix to buy cherry coke (don't ask). Then we had a meeting and campus time and then it was time for the New Years party.
1/1 (Saturday) - Honestly, the new years party wasn't that great. I don't dance and I don't like rap music. But it is always good to ring in the new year with friends and with prayer too. Brian and me went somewhere to drink our Cherry coke and eat our "goidfish" haha. We tried to go in the lobby but there were too many people and then someone threw a glass in front of us so we hightailed it back up the stairs. It was scary. I kept throwing the goldfish and trying to catch them in my mouth. I failed a lot. It was fun times. So anyway I went to bed around... 3? 2:30? whatever. And then this morning we left at 9:30 and stopped twice and still it only took 7½ hours to get back. I tried to sleep but when does that ever happen when I'm in a car? NEVER. Got back to UT, said bye to people, went and got my keys from security, and went back to the Schneider's and took a nap. Yay. Oh and talked to Kim on the phone, LoL. Good times.
Other random things: I got to hang out with Lauren a lot just from rooming with her and all... she kinda followed me around but it was ok. She wasn't annoying like Brandon was last year LoL. And I really did hang out with Brian a lot, which I intended not to do but like that was really going to work. Haha. And my random quotes, I only remember 2 right now: "My name is Traci and I'm a sockosexual", and "I'm really not that hungry but I just want pizza." Haha. I ended a lot of words with izzle too. Yup. OH and the reason for my LJ cut title is because Asif and Leaha's baby, Makenna (um CUTEST BABY EVAR!!11!1!), is like obsessed with that song. I am seriously going to have nightmares about it. (Along with Lauren's cell phone ringtone because it rang 7 times in about 15 minutes while me and Leah were trying to sleep!!) Anyway, she is SO cute. She can say "watch" and she just learned how to say "bracelet" (she is 18 months old). AWWW :) So if I get arrested for kidnapping, you know why... jk.
The End. If you're still reading this, go take a potty break or something before returning to the rest of your friends page... geeeeeze ;) I will post a few pictures too (I took like 50 pictures!) so yeah. Time to go back to bed! :)
EDIT: I can't believe I forgot to write this... so on one of the nights, I think Thursday, we watched NAPOLEON DYNAMITE!!! I FINALLY SAW IT!!! It was pretty cool. Stupid, but in a good way. I'll definitely have to see that again. :)
12/27 (Monday) - I worked for 4 hours, and then we went to the airport where my plane was delayed an hour and a halfish. So I played Space War on my phone and I got like 112000 points but it only gave me credit for 43000... what the heck. So then I flew into Tampa and I get to UT and the parking garage is locked! UT students, remember this for future reference just in case you want to get your car the week after Christmas, UT IS CLOSED. So security fortunately let me get my car out of there. I came over to the Schneider's (they left me a key) and did some organizing and then slept.
12/28 (Tuesday) - Got up at the butt crack of dawn and headed over to UT to meet everyone. I went in Leah's car w/Omote, Ross, and Brian. It was a tight squeeze but nobody minded too much. We made really good time, even though we stopped 4 times it still only took 7½ hours. While we were on the way there, I realized I had totally left my keys on the bench where we met up that morning! I was freaking out, I even made Leah stop so I could check her car, but then I called UT security and reported my keys missing. I called them back a few hours later and THEY FOUND THEM! Oh thank God!!! Anyway then we got to Atlanta, registered, I took me a showah, looked for people from FLSP, etc. I ended up rooming with Leah, Stephanie, Diana, and Lauren (again with the shoving 5 people into a space only meant for 4). Then we had our meeting and stuff. I didn't like the first speaker, to be honest with you. He didn't hold my attention and he was just really basic. Some people need that but apparently I am not currently one of those people. LoL. Oh and the MC guy did his own version of "The Apprentice" to see who would be the MC for the new year. It was THE DUMBEST THING. Anyway yeah and we had "Campus Time" too, I think that was before the meeting actually. Also we went to dinner. Yeah I suck at remembering what order I did things in. Whatever. I stayed up for a little while but really not that many people were up and around. Maybe it was because there were only 550 people instead of the usual 1200, but it was lame. I do not go to bed before 2am at Christmas conference, EVER. But anyway I talked to a lot of people such as Candace, Dylan, Bubba (he wasn't gonna go so I'm glad he did!), and Morgan. And I hung out with Brian while he was playing Settlers of Catan (he won).
12/29 (Wednesday) - OK now I have the apprentice theme song in my head. Anyway, meeting... didn't remember anything the guy said because I was barely awake... then we had some seminars but I slept through the first one cuz I was tired. I did go to this other one about "He's Just Not That Into You"... it was pretty cool. Us girls really do manipulate and make excuses when it comes to guys. But we mean well! Haha. Ya know, there's always one day on Christmas conference that I don't remember very well... this is the day this year. I do remember that at night I sat with some people and we shared "worst date" stories, and since I have never been on a real date I just used senior prom as mine. (Eric hung out with stupid Frances Folin the whole time.) Yeah, that was fun. Then after that I sat in the hallway talking to Morgan for a while. It was funny because we didn't talk as much on summer project but we do now. Same with a lot of people that I definitely talk to more often now than I did that summer. And of course there are people I talked to all the time then that I barely talk to now. We were actually talking about that haha. I went to bed around 2:30.
12/30 (Thursday) - Normally this day would have been the outreach day but they didn't do it this year. This was a big part of my decision to stay in Atlanta and not go to the wedding. All the big stuff happened on Friday. But anyway, the speakers were better on Thursday and I didn't go to any of the seminars because I wanted to go to sleep. LoL. Plus none of them really grabbed me like I should go to them. Oh, this was the day we went to Centennial Park. It was SO much fun. We had dinner at the CNN building and took our picture by the Christmas tree and played in the Olympic rings that have water coming out of them. Good times. OH, and Mike and Kelly Maney came by! They are people who used to be on staff with us but then they went on staff in Siberia, but Kelly had a baby (Elizabeth Claire, aka Libby for short) so they were back for a few weeks. It was really good to see them, unfortunately I didn't take a picture of them but whatever. Someone else probably did. That night after all the meetings and stuff, I played Mafia with some people. Oh and we did this thing that Leaha (Asif's wife) wrote up about why we are not stressed due to what is said in the Bible. It was about Ephesians 3:20, Philippians 4:6-7, and Romans 8:28. I think it was the only time other than sleeping when all 5 of us were in the room together. LoL. Oh, one cool thing from that night was when I was in the room with Leah and Steph, and they were talking about the whole tsunami thing and Steph was relating it to the end times (which I know like NOTHING about) and how God is going to come back when the world is at its worst, and she was saying how if we have hurricanes and tsunamis and 9/11s and The Holocaust and all the freakin CRAP that is going on the world, we can't even imagine the state of disrepair the world is going to be in when God actually does come back. That's something to think about, I mean if you take that into consideration we have it good in retrospect to how the world's going to be however many years from now. Obviously I'm not gonna go to Thailand and try to tell someone that who just lost their whole house and half their family, I can hardly believe it myself and I'm just the innocent bystander who watches CNN. Anyway, this is long enough. Next day...
12/31 (Friday) - We had a meeting (don't expect me to remember any of the morning meetings, I was not awake lol) and then we got in our cars and went to Ashley's mom's house. She lives in Hiram which is not that far from Atlanta, like 45 minutes or so. It was SO much fun. We jumped on the trampoline and ate some WONDERFUL food (oh man, the strawberry shortcake was just... there are not words for how good it was!) and did some praying and that was when I cried. I am pretty sure I always end up crying on the last day of these conferences, but it was just really emotional for me. Part of it was because we were praying while I was supposed to be at the wedding, and part of it was because of when we each prayed for the person next to us or whatever and for someone I hardly talked to this semester, James did a really good job of knowing what to pray for with me, and also part of it was just me realizing how I make mistakes and learn from them and then I go and make them all over again anyway. Whoops. So anyway that was cool. Also Kelsey called me while we were there and her sister had a baby, hurray! Anyway we drove back and then Brian and I walked to Publix to buy cherry coke (don't ask). Then we had a meeting and campus time and then it was time for the New Years party.
1/1 (Saturday) - Honestly, the new years party wasn't that great. I don't dance and I don't like rap music. But it is always good to ring in the new year with friends and with prayer too. Brian and me went somewhere to drink our Cherry coke and eat our "goidfish" haha. We tried to go in the lobby but there were too many people and then someone threw a glass in front of us so we hightailed it back up the stairs. It was scary. I kept throwing the goldfish and trying to catch them in my mouth. I failed a lot. It was fun times. So anyway I went to bed around... 3? 2:30? whatever. And then this morning we left at 9:30 and stopped twice and still it only took 7½ hours to get back. I tried to sleep but when does that ever happen when I'm in a car? NEVER. Got back to UT, said bye to people, went and got my keys from security, and went back to the Schneider's and took a nap. Yay. Oh and talked to Kim on the phone, LoL. Good times.
Other random things: I got to hang out with Lauren a lot just from rooming with her and all... she kinda followed me around but it was ok. She wasn't annoying like Brandon was last year LoL. And I really did hang out with Brian a lot, which I intended not to do but like that was really going to work. Haha. And my random quotes, I only remember 2 right now: "My name is Traci and I'm a sockosexual", and "I'm really not that hungry but I just want pizza." Haha. I ended a lot of words with izzle too. Yup. OH and the reason for my LJ cut title is because Asif and Leaha's baby, Makenna (um CUTEST BABY EVAR!!11!1!), is like obsessed with that song. I am seriously going to have nightmares about it. (Along with Lauren's cell phone ringtone because it rang 7 times in about 15 minutes while me and Leah were trying to sleep!!) Anyway, she is SO cute. She can say "watch" and she just learned how to say "bracelet" (she is 18 months old). AWWW :) So if I get arrested for kidnapping, you know why... jk.
The End. If you're still reading this, go take a potty break or something before returning to the rest of your friends page... geeeeeze ;) I will post a few pictures too (I took like 50 pictures!) so yeah. Time to go back to bed! :)
EDIT: I can't believe I forgot to write this... so on one of the nights, I think Thursday, we watched NAPOLEON DYNAMITE!!! I FINALLY SAW IT!!! It was pretty cool. Stupid, but in a good way. I'll definitely have to see that again. :)
