Entries this day: rally_dallas_1998

rally dallas 1998

6-8 February 1998

Dallas Rally was last weekend!

Once we got a bit more than halfway to Dallas, kT and I thoroughly confounded Laura and Adam with a nice long game of Ceiling Wall Floor.

I was pleased that I didn't have to consult the map to get to the church. I've been to Dallas Rally a few times!

We got there with bouncy happy anticipation, signed in, dumped our stuff, got mugbook pictures taken (I wore my rainbow striped stocking cap over my face for the picture), and I walked around saying HI to everyone.

I missed the first part of opening circle; I don't remember why.

After opening circle, the activity level was kinda chill. By 3am many people were all crashed out sleeping around the sanctuary. I wandered from group to group until like 4am and slept till 7.

The funniest thing about the Games Workshop Saturday AM was that Bryan Beck didn't know it was an actual workshop. He had joined us in order to not attend a workshop! Once he found out, he almost left, but we convinced him to stay. We played Ceiling Wall Floor, Telephone, and the 7 game.

Lunch was yummy sandwiches, and I got to be nearly first in line so people on SWUUSI staff could go to the SWUUSI staff meeting. I ended up not going to the meeting, but the sandwich was great!

I attended Will B's acting workshop in afternoon. He taught us part of how to really "get into character." We chose individual monologues and read them aloud. Then we decided what was the character's favorite color, day of the week, type of music, car, house, etcetera, and reread them. Amazing how much more real that made the reading!

Soon after that, several of us played Ultimate in the YMCA field. I had great fun, and I hope everyone else did too.

After almost half an hour of Ultimate, the YAC members had to leave to attend the YAC meeting, which was actually quite productive, despite Bryan B's crazy sleep-deprived antics and the general non-focused short attention spans we all seemed to have.

I bounced around the various groups in Channing Hall and the sanctuary, making sure all my youth were still happy and healthy. They were, and the energy level of the rally was kinda slowing down, so I took a nap for about an hour until time for worship.

I woke up and soon my brother arrived! I knew he was planning to come, but it was super cool to see him. We hadn't been to a rally together since Dallas Rally 1990.. I introduced Fred (my bro) around to lots of people, and surprise surprise, he worked on remembering everyone's names. After a while, I quit introducing him as my brother, because of what we planned for the talent show.

The funniest thing: Fred and I were looking for someone to beatbox as part of our talent show. Curtis M would drop some beats as an example to whoever we asked if they could beatbox. (I'm laffin' as I type this, but I can tell it's not as funny in text.)
We'd be all, "Hey, Ryan, can you beatbox?"
And Ryan (or whoever we asked) would be all, "like what?"
"Curtis, show 'em." And Curtis would bust out some trippin' beat for about 2 seconds and we'd go, "do that."
They'd be "what??? I can't do that!"
We couldn't do it either; don't worry.

Worship was another Nathan Ryan Original, and quite pleasing to my spirit. Ya had to be there!

After worship we meandered and then congregated in Channing Hall for the talent show.

After several great acts, Fred and I did ours: Things to Prove We are Brothers. Jeremy had a list of items that he could read and Fred and I would each have the same response. They were funny (or not) because the reactions were so out of context and some were just bizarre. The final one Jeremy read was "Alright" to which Fred and I rapped our beloved alphabet game twice, with Curtis et. al. doing beatbox as backup.

As we finished, Tiffany S and Suzanne K and Maybe Maia C were all, "wait! We want to see the feet!" They wanted Fred to take off his shoes to see if he had hobbit feet like me. After a bit of balking, Fred took off his shoes and bang sure enough he has hair on his feet too!

Adam L then was all, "wait! There's one more thing you need to compare!" So, after Kristian S and Aaron I's performance of Madonna's "Like A Prayer." Fred and I performed our belt skit. Again, you had to be there.

Talented folks included Kristian S and Aaron I playing guitars, Eric M playing guitar as Sean M belched the melody, Steve F playing "Rocky Raccoon," Nancy D reading some of her poetry, Nick G lip synching Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," Suzanne K and Tiffany S singing a couple songs, Lauren I reading a poem, Jeremy L-N singing "I will survive," Amy playing flute, Devon singing, and Robert playing piano.

At 3:AM the talent show kinda ended, and I must say that was the truly most talented talent show I've seen at a Rally for a long time. Thanks to all who were involved!

At about 3:30 we started a game of Silent Football. I was chosen as dictator, and dangit, I can't remember everyone who played. Fred, Grant, Adam, Bryan, Shawn, Jeremy, Maia, Robert, Nick, and 1 or 2 more. This game got an amazing amount of interference from entities outside our universe. Jeremy lost even though Maia said "his" not once, twice, or thrice, but 6 times! The game ended at about 5:55am. This ending time was fortunate because it allowed a phat 5 minutes of sleep before wake up at 6AM.

Actually, I slept for about 1.5 hours and just made it back in time for closing circle. How wonderful to not be in charge of the rally!

I got home and slept for 8 hours starting at 2:30pm.