Entries this day: San_Antonio_by_Annie_Bricker San_Antonio_by_Nancy_Deardorff san_antonio_rally

San Antonio by Annie Bricker

1998 San Antonio rally review by Annie Bricker

Damn, over a hundred people going to your average rally and not one of 
them has written a review since OKC 98.  That's terrible people!  
anyway, got back from the San An Rally yesterday so I am going to write 
about it before the memories begin to fade.  And yes, contrary to 
popular belief, i do more at rallies than just stay with Nick Carter.  
The trip to San An was alright, if not long.  We stopped at a McDonalds 
on the way where i saw Eryn Pope order the first vegetarian 
cheese-burger i have ever seen.  Amazingly enough the cashier didn't 
give any strange looks or anything.  We drove through San Marcos Texas 
for some reason along the way although i am almost positive that it is 
really really not on the way from OKC to San Antonio.  We were softly 
serenaded by the melodious rhythms of SCOTT....(hey you, fuck you).  And 
speaking of scotts, where was Scotty H. and for that matter Paul M.?  
Anyway, we got there and piled out of the van (of course i jumped out 
and on to those really fucking hard rocks in the parking lot of the San 
An church) and did our various registration things.  Which, by the way, 
included getting your name written on your arm in red marker, something 
which, i thought, was a really good idea, so if you have forgotten 
someone's name since the last time you saw them and you don't want to 
make a complete ass of yourself, you can just quickly glance down at 
their arm. So Jo-Jo registered us and someone i forgot whom (sorry to 
that person/people) took our individual pictures with this really cool 
looking digital camera and we got our t-shirts.  which were pretty cool 
with all the shrooms and the slug with the hook.  So, we had come a bit 
late, but just in time for opening circle.  And damn, i remember being 
there, but all i can remember is that they announced the touch groups 
and i forgot whose i was in and had to go searching around for the 
group.  I finally found them by the trees in the play ground.  We didn't 
do any of the touch group games, cause hell, lets be honest, there are 
better things to at a rally than play a game called "Knock Your Socks 
Off" with a group of mostly barefooted people.  Lauren told us that our 
jobs were lunch clean up and bathroom clean up (sounds great huh,) and 
then we slowly dissipated into the collective smoke break group forming 
by the basket ball courts.  Around 4 am i found my self laying in a pile 
of Christina, Dane, John and some other people.  All this was well and 
good, however, now that i have slept a bit, i don't really remember how 
I got there.  Anyway, at this point some people decided to take the big 
metal bar dome type thing whose name i don%27t know, and put it over 
Eric.  this happened (with a bit of stepping over sean) and about ten 
people climbed on top so when eric woke up he was surrounded by a dome 
of people.  Rob was ready with the camera when Eric woke up with a 
bewildered "What the fuck" kind of look on his face.  There was pancakes 
and sausage for breakfast that i skipped for some reason, though i 
don%27t recall why.  I laid in the grass and listened to Lauren M play 
the guitar, I listened to Evan, well, talk and watched a basketball 
game.  Smoke breaks came and went.  Nick and i found the rally book and 
he drew in it and then wrote the rules for the game that is more complex 
than Silent Football that he and i invented called "I Once Saw this 
Woman on Jerry Springer..."  for rules, check out the gray rally book.  
The mandatory smoke workshop came, even though the guy who was supposed 
to talk to us from the Cancer Society didn't.  I thought it worked out 
for the better though, cause wouldn't you rather talk to people you know 
about smoking than have some guy you have never met come tell you stuff 
that you have heard before and will hear again in any highschool health 
class you ever attend?  Anyway, that went okay and then a miracle 
occurred: I found an empty couch on which to sleep!  I was only meaning 
to sleep for a short period of time but when i woke up and asked someone 
what time it was I realized i had been asleep for 5 hours.  So, sorry, 
Bryan, i really did mean to go to your workshop.  So i woke up and went 
to the playground and listened to more guitar.  then lauren announced 
that her dream workshop was about to start and i went to that.  It was 
pretty cool, the books and stuff and Lauren did a great job.  At some 
point after that i went into the Fellowship room and read some of 
someone's poetry and realize "oh shit, they are playing Michael Jackson, 
someone change it quick".  then dinner....and DAMN! that vegetarian 
lasagne was good.  Had some really watered down lemonade, but that was 
alright.  then a touch group meeting was announced and we all met, then 
realised it was really a touch group leader meeting and not really a 
touch group meeting.  But that was alright.  i danced a bit with Bryn to 
some really odd sounding R&B music and then washed my hair in a sink 
(yay for short hair, you can wash it anywhere!)  Damn, I am babbling, i 
will get to the interesting parts.  worship.  it was pretty damn cool 
with everybody hugging everybody, and there are some good huggers out 
there, you know who you are, and lauren on the guitar.  Talent show, 
damn was that funny.  Even though Kris broke a guitar.  Andrew juggled, 
Rob was "made-up pretty", Rob and Nick ate boxes of Nerds, Bryan read 
poetry (M-U-R-D-E-R-amen to that) Robert played the piano, many people 
played the guitar, a story was told, and i think i fell asleep for 
parts, but a generally managed to stay kind of conscious.  We began to 
be swept away by hurricane-like weather so i ended up sleeping inside by 
the kitchen.   It was still raining in the morning so we didn't get to 
burn the shroom like we were going to but hell, it is all metaphorical 
anyway.  Breakfast was doughnuts, how familiar:)  i finally got to write 
in the rally book, and read Bryns thing about 'non-sleep' vs sleep.  
closing circle,  the beaver song, the walrus song (really, a beaver is 
not a sea faring animal like a walrus is, it was just a funny intro) the 
banana song, senior circle (bish kinda got messed up but it worked) and 
the yackty yaks and mug books were given out (btw, that camera has some 
fucking good quality) and then we all had to leave.  the ride home was 
alright, but crowded as shit.  And there you have it, a really long 
winded rally review.  and you can do one too.  really, it is easy.  i 
didn't even break a nail.

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San Antonio by Nancy Deardorff

1998 San Antonio rally review by Nancy Deardorff

so i got inspired

leaving school on friday was a pain in the ass, but katie and danny k and
i got through it. (don't get confused, danny k was just visiting, he
doesn't go to my school) there was some craziness getting everyone
together and into the van, but we(me, katie carson, danny k, ian coward,
and matt luria, and me momma) finally left tulsa at about 4:00 in the
nippy grayness of afternoon. we got a little lost, and someone who will
go unnamed kept making references to the idea that i was a really bad
navigator, which made me really mad mad mad, but then there was almost
constant silliness with me and katie and ian and danny k, so it all
evened out. so.......we got to the rally at about 3:30 and got ourselves
registered. i got hugs from all sorts of crazy loved peoples, poking a
more than a few in the eye with my wings in the process.heehe. my memory
is failing me............oh! this is making me mad!! oh- when i first got
there maia handed me this really neat book of stuff that she made. it was
really cool. and jeremy loomis-norris was there in his suave outfit bein'
all scary and suave.then later nathan ryan and katie carson and i were
gonna watch the sunrise but something happened and we didn't, i think we
went inside because katie was cold. and then it was saturday morning and
i was outside with the smokers and i was on my way to brush my teeth, but
ben atkinson got me all sidetracked with this really scary little cap gun
thing. i finally escaped :) and got my teeth brushed (which is so much
harder to do at a rally than it should be) and went to do the breakfast
thing. i had some good pancakes and some cooked pig. mmmm.......yum! and
some really wacky sunny d that was like mucus, so i didn't drink it.
hhhmmmmm........more...more...more.....look! mush for you! i remember
sitting somewhere kinda by myself and being really happy 'cause this was
my third san an and i have grown so much since then and rallies have made
all the diference in the world. yeah. oh- jeremy made me listen to this
band guster that i really liked and so i was doing some nancy dancing
with jeremy and that was good. and lunch happened somewhere in there and
it was the usual nasty sandwiches and chips that i really wish someone
would break the cycle of (hint hint). and i sat at a table and listened
to some people, i remember nathan ryan and elizabeth severance but
everyone else is kinda blurry, and people were being funny and i laughed.
there was more fun and love and silliness in this space here. and then
there was dinner and i joined a new "club".heehe. and somewhere before
that ben atkinson wrestled me to the ground and phuufed me for the first
time!! i was soo mad. i was planning on maintaining my non-phuufed status
for at least another year, at least. and at worship we did a hug circle,
and people were talking and laughing and i thought that was so much
better than those hug circles we do sometimes that you can't really talk
or giggle at because we're being "spiritual" (i think this
spiritual=quiet and contemplative is a crock of shit-excuse my
french-cause you can be very spiritual laughing until your tummy hurts)oh
well. hmmm....more........the talent show was kinda scary but
interesting.steve sang rocky raccoon, which i love cause it has my name
in it :). and there was this one part with rob and my mom and make-up,
and that was scary, because within the course of it my mother was rubbing
on rob's chest, and man, that's just plain bad weird. (sorry rob, it was
my mother. ahhh!!! )and then aaron and kris did their usual oh so cute
round of songs, this time complete with "dancing". i don't think you get
cuter than that. and lauren dodski and ellen smith sang american pie and
it made me all happy and sad and it was wonderful. and a while after that
i went to sleep. alone. in a cold room. woke up 40 min. later and found a
blanket and a pillow(someone was using my pillow and sleeping bag) and
fell asleep in the sanctuary. next thing i know shirah's waking me up and
there's clean up (how that sanctuary got clean was purely a miracle) and
donuts and closing circle and that happy sadness you get on the sunday
morn of a rally. and then there were many hugs and we got in the van and
went home. or at least back to tulsa. :)

love and cuteness and hugs for all of you
nancy deardorff

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san antonio rally

2 November 1998

Here is my version of this past weekend lock-in at San Antonio with 120+ youth and a ton of fun!

Here are pics from the rally.

How incredible to think that just counting from memory, we brought more than 25 youth from Houston! Yay! This whole Houston Network thing is working wonderfully!

Youth from Emerson church collected at Emerson and waited for youth from First Church to arrive. They had a 15 passenger van, and we had a 7 passenger.. 4 advisors and 17 youth and we were on our way!

We stopped more than I wanted, but got there plenty early considering how short the drive is.

Bing!! We were at the rally! and I stayed up the first night until 8am! I usually crash by like 5 or 6am for a couple of hours. During the night I remembered or re-learned names of many youth.. It took forever to remember Joanna's but I finally did and let her know I remember by signing it out to her during opening circle. (Thanks Kathryn for teaching me the alphabet!) I remembered Nuha Kadri's all the way back from I think Dallas Rally last year.. and I was sure to remember because she said there is no way I could do it. Ha!

Um, oh one weird thing was the movie Alice in Wonderland it was bizarre stop action animation type stuff that reminded me of a Frank Black movie I saw some time ago. I sat and watched the end of that until like 7 am or so when it was just thinking about getting light outside.

I slept from about 8:30am to 10 or so and wondered what was up when a herd of youth rumbled quietly out to the basketball court. I took pictures as they were climbing up on the dome jungle gym over Eric Morrow. Funny stuff! Here's a pic.

Here is Eric.

Soon thereafter, for some reason I cannot explain, Sean (who was sleeping peacefully in the first pic above) and Jason were wrestling in the grass.

Soon after that, Kris was up in the big tree after being chased by Sean.. I climbed up and got some pics. Here's one.

For the next 5 or 6 hours, I was in a YAC meeting. We got a lot done and settled; we're working on getting the YAC PAC complete and making a standard way for rallies to be YAC Approved. Good stuff.

After the YAC meetin' we had dinner of lasagna and I had a big enormous piece of cake. Big. Huge. Lots of icing. :-)

And then we had YAC elections, fully facilitated by the youth on YAC. Out of 6 youth who ran, Elizabeth Severance, Adam Lock, and Melissa Cain were elected.

That evening Jason Fricke and I did our gymnastical stunts and foolin' around and it developed into a game of keep-away with the big tape ball that resulted in wadding up the tape that had been used to make the life size chess board.. I was in the YAC meeting during all that. (Someone said it was more like a pillow fight pretending to be a chess game)

I took a nap before the talent show.

Kris Scott and Aaron Ivener performed some songs, and I totally love how they play together.. They have a connection that is wonderful as they work back and forth on stage. Nevermind.. I can't describe it.

Nick Carter and I each ate a box of Nerds. One of the boxes that has two flavors. I think it was Grape and Watermelon. That was quite an ordeal, but we did it! I stayed onstage the entire time until my entire box was nothing but fiber and I swallowed the whole thing (one little bit at a time)

I'm sure that was more than you wanted to hear..

Nick played a beautiful, dramatic, (improvised?) piece on the piano while he chewed his box of Nerds.

Also I got my face painted (mostly just a bunch of base, given the picture). That was pretty wacky.

Oh, and just before that, Kris and I did voices for Jen and Dane for the San Antonio Saki part IV School-A-Saki, which we first did last year. I thought we did quite well; our best one yet!

After the talent show we pulled together a game of Silent Football. Yay!!

I was nominated Dictator, and Jeremy, Austin, Katie, Adam, Bryn, Bryan, Chris.. man I can't remember all who played.
I was very quick to call "Holy Gihad!" whenever someone even thought about messing with the group. I called it a bit quickly on Ryan Ray, and I'm sorry about that.
I'm sure there is a happy medium somewhere.

So the game went on for a pretty long time and got wacked out for a while, but after Jeremy excused himself, we had a more serious (as if Silent Football can be serious) game.

What was funny was I started the game with a Surge, and had my pockets stuffed with 4 other Surges. So each time I'd finish one, I open up another. I had 6 empty in front of me by the end of the game and I HAD TO PEEEEEE!!

Ahem. So it was a pretty great game, and I pretty much went to bed right after. My diary says I lay down at 5:40am.

But I didn't sleep. Finally I found something that kept me awake! Six cans of Surge! (and that was after the huge piece of cake and groovy juice (which I didn't even mention)).

I lay in bed for 1 hour, including through most of cleanup, and soon ended up with Jason Fricke trying to get me up. "If I have to be up, you have to be up." Pfshh. yeah right.

But I got up and we made some copies of the Houston Rally registration and handed them out at closing circle.

This review is dragging. We hugged, loaded up in the chilly rain and went to Taco Cabana and went home.