It's My Birthday And You Have To Do What I Say

I find myself with the incessant need to describe my surroundings when I start a blog entry. Like right now I'm at work, my ipod is playing in the background, the fluorescent lights are giving me a headache and I can smell what I'm afraid is fish cooking in the cafeteria. SEE I don't know why i feel the need to say all this, but I have a sneaky feeling that its because i want all those who read my blog to get a genuine feeling of where I am. Or something profound like that :)


Anyways, Jan. 14-17 was another CVIF retreat. And it also happened to be my birthday weekend (yes I said weekend). So Wednesday night Jamathan (this is the nickname given to Jonathan and James) came up from Tampa and we hung out watched a movie or was it 24. I can’t remember I just know they were there. So we got up Thursday and finished getting ready. Jamathan left and we were right behind them when Lauren realized she didn’t have her wallet and couldn’t find it. So Rebecca, Lauren and I spent about and hour searching the house and Catholic Charities looking for it. Unfortunately we didn’t find it and Laurens thinks it may have been stolen. So the three of us took off and headed towards Green Cove Springs. It was a great car ride. We talked/counseled each other, danced like idiots, and listened to the musical stylings of NSYNC, Spice Girls, Britney Spears, and Hanson. Good times :)


So we arrived and everyone was just hanging out and getting dinner ready. We had a brief intro and then ate dinner. After dinner we had a husband and wife team who spoke about their prison ministry with inmates in solitary confinement and on death row. It was really interesting and definitely gave me things to think about when it comes to the death penalty. Friday we listened and discussed discernment for our lives. We then went and helped sort clothes and such at a thrift store that helps to fund a battered women's shelter. That night we had some alumni CVs come and teach about effective communication. We learned about "I, me" statements and how to discuss our feelings. It was totally a flashback to my psych classes but fun none the less. Saturday we got up and traveled to St. Augustine to spend time with the retired nuns that live there and tour the mother house (which by the way er kept calling the mother ship all day :) ) The nuns were so sweet. They were all in their 70s and 80s even a couple in their 90s and all but one were from Ireland. It was amazing to listen to them talk about their years of service and all that they had done. When were done with dinner we were released to go and do whatever we wanted around St. Augustine. Almost all the group decided to head to a bar to celebrate my birthday. We ended up at this place called Scarlett O'Hara's. It was really cool, there were all these paintings of the characters all over the place and fun drink names. We were there for a few hours and people started to trickle out. Around 11:30pm those of us who were left decided to go get something to eat. James had been talking about going to the Huddle House all weekend so we decided to try and find it.
Now lets pause for a second while I describe this place its essentially a Waffle House with a different name. Like the inside even looks like a Waffle House. But according to James the Huddle House is better. Plus apparently they are really friendly on facebook and twitter so they must be better. hehe The thing about this place is that no one knew for sure where it was. We had seen one on our way to St. Augustine but we couldn't remember where. So its 11pm in a town we don;t know driving around looking for a restaurant we think we saw. So lets continue shall we, so I get in a car with James an Kyle and Tina, Amanda, Zach, and Neal get in another car and we head out. After driving around for 30mins the other car gives up and just goes back to the retreat center. But James REALLY wanted to go so we continues looking. So after an hour in the car, going to the wrong Huddle House and random made up stories from Kyle to keep me awake we arrive at the Huddle House. So we arrive at about 12:30am eat and then head back to the retreat center. It was about 2am when we got back and we all collapsed into bed.
The next morning we got up did closing business and got in our cars to head home. On the way home Rebecca and Lauren picked up birthday cake mix. When we got home I checked the mail and I had 3 packages waiting for me. I was so excited to open them. I got some really great things from my grandpa and his wife, and my parents. So after opening presents and playing with my new toys, I went to a bible study at St. Margaret Mary with Lauren, Rebecca, and Michael. When we got back we had cake and Tina, Amanda, Chaleece, and Neal came over and had some too.

So the whole weekend was really fun. it was nice to get away from Orlando and work and just hang out with my friends. The next retreat is in April and it is a week long.

Love and miss you all
<3