Elementary School Con

This weekend was our first Elementary School Con of the year- theme "CONmunicating through Action". So basically the Mountain has been covered in precious excited children for the last couple of days, and we are now all totally knackered. Yesterday was the awesomest.

Highlights:

- The YARs had to go talk to the Mountain's Board about who we are and what we're getting out of the program. I made a point of stressing the fact that this residency is important because of how rare service opportunities for young adults are in Unitarian Universalism. At least two board members stopped me later to tell me they thought I was going to be a great minister. woo-hoo!

- Morning Circle, where we gather in the treehouse and sing. It's always a highlight. I still have "Rocky Raccoon" stuck in my head. I lost my voice. Again.

- My morning workshop was flippin' awesome. Shelly and I presented the CONvicts (yes, that's really what we call them, it's tradition!), with various team-building challenges for which they were rewarded with puzzle pieces... in the end assembling those into a puzzle. I'm always a bit nervous about processing team-building activities, since I don't have as much training in that as I'd like, but it went wonderfully well and they got out of it exactly what we hoped they would! YAYYYYYY!

- A little girl stopped me outside the Rec Hall to tell me she liked my hat and thought I was pretty. The "awww" factor of this was pretty intense.

- I was late to field time (because there was a pressure front going through and my knees were all stiff) but had a few really lovely conversations on the way down and capture the flag in the snow is bloody awesome. I walked one of the kids from my workshop back up (he lost a sock in the snow and we stayed behind to find it) and had a philosophical discussion of the nature of change.

- Free time we meant to go into town but Ned's car was blocked. So instead we drove down the Mountain and back up in the back of Nic's huge pickup truck, while blasting black eyed peas... then sat in the dining hall and pretended we were in town (I contributed some of my candy stash to this worthy cause).

- Introduced two Focus Groups to the game Frog Detective. There's something incredibly cheering about sitting in a circle with 7-12 year olds yelling "Frog Detective, Frog Detective, We Need You!"

- Ended up not performing in the Coffeehouse but had a wonderful time all the same- we had some amazingly talented CONvicts and every performance was so... sincere, and pure, and good hearted. And everyone cheered so loudly for each act. I get warm fuzzies just thinking about it.

- The Dance was amazing. I rocked out with the socially awkward kids in the back to Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" and a couple other songs. So. Much. Fun.

- I was in charge of vespers and it went incredibly well, though the story I read was a bit long. Got lots of compliments today but the really big one was the fact that it moved one of my peers to tears.

- "Family Council" with all of the PALs and PAL Mentors was incredibly intense and moving. Also learned that one of my fellow Mentors is the son of Meg Barnhouse- one of the most amazing UU ministers in the history of our faith tradition. I'm still geeking out about it. He is also pretty darn awesome and I'm looking forward to working with him on the next Con as well.

- The weather was perfect, though we still couldn't get most of the Advisor's cars up the Mountain. Today the weather was so lovely I ended up taking a nap outside after everyone left... which was GLORIOUS.

- I have eaten at least two dozen cookies in the last 24 hours. YES.

- Have seen a whole new side of Brian (our camp director and the driving force behind our new organic farm). Also have been inducted into the world of Sandwich Punching. There was a very amusing incident involving someone's sandwich being punted out the back door of the dining hall. Don't worry, she was finished with it.

- My skills at dealing with large groups continue to improve. There's something about the rush of bringing 90 people to attentive silence that's difficult to describe.


Oh! And we have a new resident volunteer- he's here for a couple of weeks and Nelson is enjoying having someone who isn't female to hang out with.

Tonight the Star Wars viewing parties continued. Epic awesomeness. Though I'm still angry at George Lucas for stealing all the artwork from Dinotopia and for adding stupid SGI stuff to the classic trilogy. Grrrrrrr.

Tomorrow shall be spent in Housekeeping... which is a lot more fun then you'd think.