Retreat Mish-Mash, Plans for New Mexico, & a Bowl of Bad Ice Cream
Monday, February 20, 2006
[8:17am] In the end, it was generally reported among the five senior highers (according to OLeif) that the weekend appeared to be building up to a climax which never came. Collette could easily see that herself. But after all, it was a weekend retreat and not a mission trip. And what with the surprise of leading the junior high girls in small group discussions, visiting Starbucks over hot chocolate and “triangle checkers,” talk of helping out a Bosnian youth group in the city, being part of a (semi-embarrassing) “affirmation” circle, staying up till near two both nights while supervising the junior high girls, taking goofy pictures in front of a rocket-shaped custard shack and a store labeled “PINK,” Rose purchasing a box of African Red Bush tea for Carrie, Collette driving there and back with Meg and Baby Saint in Jimmy’s mother’s car (and driving 80 mph, something of which she had never before done in her life, in order to catch up with the caravan), trying to knock packages of chewy Runts out of the vending machine for Rose (which were too stubborn to fall on command), and three and a quarter dozen other such things…. it made for an odd yet interesting weekend.
Meanwhile, Joe had apparently enjoyed his weekend working at the Hair Saloon, preparing his Eagle plans for Mr. Swiss, skipping madrigal practice as he was sick Thursday, Friday, and most of Saturday, attending the boys’ gig at The Grind, and a birthday party for one of the Applebutter sisters at Giggles’ house with Magnus, where he and the two guys discussed things of a more serious nature while some of the other guys wrestled downstairs to show off for the girls.
[6:19pm] At the house that afternoon, there was the usual banter passed back and forth between the girls.
“Rose has a brain of cotton balls,” Carrie tossed the insult over her shoulder as she passed through the living room.
“That’s not true, fluff-head,” Rose grumped back. “You’re the one with blonde hair.”
And as Carrie-Bri came back into the living room with her meteorology book, she sat on Joe’s face while he was attempting to read of population explosion for his and Rose’s Saturday exams.
“This is the heartbeat of the world,” Carrie said randomly, with concentrated eyebrows, scribbling vital signs on one of the meteorology pages. “Very irregular.”
Rose was also drawing her own creations.
“I’m giving you a new nickname,” she said to Collette as she began writing on her sociology notes. “The Grumpy Lobster.”
This, from the girl who had exclaimed, “Holy pickle juice!” when met with a blast of cold air the previous afternoon.
Joe once again had to look to Collette with his rather common “what-sort-of-sisters-have-I-been-given” expression.
Although he did enjoy ring-leading Frances into assisting him throwing handfuls of soapsuds on Collette while washing lunch dishes. It became an all-out war, except that Collette had no useful ammunition and finally ran into the living room to where Carrie was reading on the couch. After Carrie had promptly risen from the couch to take a swing at Joe, she settled back comfortably onto the couch cushions, and said satisfactorily:
“See? Even Collette comes to me for protection.”
Meanwhile, there was news that Grandma and Mom would indeed be heading to New Mexico, along with Frances and Linnea, for a full week, in March. They would trek through Colorado and drive through Santa Fe. Collette encouraged Carrie-Bri to hitch a ride with them.
In the great games, America had taken another silver and bronze that day, although nothing was won over the weekend, bringing the United States into an exact tie with Austria. And back at home, OLeif had a bowl of bad ice cream after dinner while Collette cut the sleeves off her old Israel t-shirt to make it cooler for the summer. She also found out to her natural alarm that in Missouri a girl needed only to be 14 in order to be married, and a guy to be 17, or vice versa. It nearly turned her stomach. And perhaps the biggest news of the day was that Frances had finally lost his front tooth. Mom was afraid that he had no other tooth to replace it. Collette suggested that he might need a porcelain replacement.
“You could be just like Mr. Hobcoggin,” Collette teased him, recalling that he had a false tooth (result of a sledding incident, she thought) which he could remove on a whim.
“Cool!” Frances apparently liked the idea.
“…do not let her capture you with her eyelashes.” – Proverbs 6:25b