And finally, it was games. The whole reason for my coming to Summit... except for Megan and Alex... and whatever other girls I would meet this year. Blah, blah, blah happened and then games started.
First round, we were up against TNE (Team New England #2) and Grace Bible. We lost to team New England by one event. Had we not disqualified ourselves multiple times, we could have easily beat them since we finished before them pretty much every time.
More importantly, there was the blazingly fast girl who played for the other team on our line, Gold Country Baptist. She was also pretty so I asked the kids on her line who she was and they told me her name was Tana. So I cheered for her in every event she was in. She reset two records: sprint race and agility race, but her agility race time was bested in the next heat so she only kept it for a few moments. When my agility race came, I ran it so fast that people started asking me if I had just reset the record, I assured them that I had not since I missed it by .2 seconds, a lifetime in agility race. The best part is, I smoked the other two teams and immediately got up and went over to Tana and told her "That was for you". Now let's take a break and flash back to Summit 2006 in Chicago, Illinois.
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I was about to run the marathon race, which we found out I could set the record in, when Brian and I saw this really cute girl named Jodi sitting on the line with us. She was in a different heat, so I didn't have to play against her. When I got up to run marathon, I DQ'd on the first on the first pin so I didn't get to do it. I told her later on what I was planning on doing and she thought it was funny, but it would have been better if I had done it when I had run it.
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Back to 2008.
Second round, we went up against a couple of nobodies and man handled them, only losing 2 out of 9 heats.
Lunch came and we went out to eat sandwiches. Tana walked by and then, guess who I saw. Jodi. My words to Brian were "Oh my gosh! They're from the same church!" Brian goes over, then comes back and starts dragging me over. Then, announces to me in front of them "Their sisters you idiot." That's right, out of every girl at Summit for the last 3 years and I picked sisters. You know it would be my luck. However, that made an avenue and we all kept on talking. Until the next round.
Third round, we went up against BGBC (whatever that stands for) and another one of my favorite churches. Now a flash back to Summit 2007 in Denver, Colorado.
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I went to watch a fine arts competition and came out friends with an attractive girl named Megan and, consequently, her entire church. Their church was Olympic Bible Fellowship. Megan's best friend, Julia, was actually already friends with Jonathan, who is on my team, so that was another tie to their team. However, we had to face them in the third round of games and they knocked us out. Our team complained that their team had cheated, which I didn't argue against because neither team was in the definite right. Our team argued that the way OBF played tug "wasn't in the spirit of the game", which is grounds for disqualification. Had they not done that, we would have moved on. I argued that our captains made stupid choices, like putting in an injured person, which ended up costing us 9 points, which would have given us the victory. So I stayed friends with them because I didn't accuse them of cheating. Megan and I talked for the next 3 months until I lost internet access to my room and I couldn't stay up until 5 in the morning talking to her anymore.
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Back to Jacksonville.
Third round still. We went up against BGBC, a Hispanic church, and, who else but, Olympic Bible Fellowship. Brian freaked me out a little when he said BGBC was good. Then we promptly went out and stomped on their faces, absolutely obliterating them and knocking Olympic Bible into the third place bracket, where no one ever comes back from. They got knocked out in the next round and they wouldn't talk to me. I was pretty pissed at them because I didn't do that to them when they knocked us out. And we didn't even knock them out. We just knocked them into a lower bracket.
Fourth round we went up against God only knows what teams and we blew them away. It was like the rounds were getting easier and easier. Gold Country was on our circle again. After my basketball relay, I went up to Tana and said "That was for your sister." After her basketball relay, and came up to me and told me "That was for you." So then I ran my marathon medley. Dueing my second lap, I blew her a kiss after completely owning the other two teams runners.
Fifth round, we played versus a team from Cali that wore pink shirts and Arapaho Road, from Texas. Whoever won this round would go to gold and would get to play for the championship. Unfortunately, we messed up a few times and got some really bad calls from the officials. We lost to the pink team by only a few points, but laid the smack down on Arapaho Road which officially makes us the best AWANA games team in Texas! In addition, we fell a close second to the second best team in the nation, which puts us in the top 5 in the nation. This is the best that our church has ever done in the Summit era.*
We went outside and Gold Country was still around. They said they weren't going to watch the final round but they did anyway. They were taking pictures by the fountain so Brian and I went over to the fountain outside the gym and took our shirts off and ran around in it. After they got done with their pictures, Gold Country threw some of their team into the fountain, including Jodi, which Brian and I agree was the hottest thing we've ever seen.
We go back to the hotel, clean up, and go watch platinum round of quiz. Guess who was up there. Tana and two Gold Country teams. Guess who got 1st and 2nd. The two Gold Country teams. Tana's got second though, which was slightly sad, but she only got beat by her church's other team so it wasn't that big a deal to her. She didn't even care about quiz so she just blew it off.
There was a break between platinum round of quiz and closing ceremonies so Brian and I just stood around and talked to girls. Then we went back and sat with our team. Then closing ceremonies happened, and then there was a team meeting outside the door. I wanted to be back inside the door where Tana was, except for the fact that no one would let me. Alex showed up and I snuck back in to talk to Tana. Frank looked in and Everett came in so Brian and I dropped to the floor behind the chairs. Everett found me so I had to go back. Then Alex said she was leaving and got permission to go see her since I missed her the first time in an attempt to see Tana. I managed to get her as she was leaving (quite literally). Then I went back in and saw Tana as she was leaving, so I got a really bad picture of us together. Then she left. So I went up stairs and finished the meeting with my team. the meeting finished and everyone from our team, minus Brian and me, went out to eat somewhere. Brian and I went and hung out with people from Olympic Bible.
They were going up to the roof so Brian and I went to, then Brian stopped by some girls and started talking to them, then I went over and talked with them too. I was hungry so I asked if they wanted to come out to eat with us. Then Julia, from Olympic Bible, told me she was walking down to her room and asked if I would walk her down so I told her yes. So we went, and then came back to the roof. Julia went and hung out with her team and I went and hung out with the girls from the roof, who were Allison, Jill, Jill's twin (the name of whom I do not remember), and Brittany. We went to their room and ate food with them and their mothers/grandmothers, plus another girl named Kristen. We ended up playing "Settlers of Canaan" which is a take on the game "Settlers of Cataan", which is the best board game ever made. After the game, we listened to Brian Regan and listened until one of the mothers told Brian to turn it off because Brian Regan said "hell" too many times (5). So it was at this time that we took our leave and went back to our room.
This post should probably be called "Days 5 and 6" because we didn't leave their room until 2:30 am.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Summit Day 4
We woke up at around 8:30 so that we could watch out team do fine arts. I won’t list everybody because that will take too long, but the main point is that I watched a lot of fine arts. I watched a couple and then ran off to watch Alex and Katie sing. They were really good. Then I took off and tried to make it to Ben’s but just missed it so I had to stand outside the door and listen. He was phenomenal. Seriously, Ben was so good on his violin, my jaw was hanging on the floor.
So we finished watching fine arts and then we took off to the beach. I won’t go into that because it was normal beach stuff that happened so you can figure that one out on your own. Then off to Joe’s crab shack, then back to the hotel. Then it got interesting. We had another team meeting and talked about our highs and lows of Summit. There were way too many highs and not enough lows. I failed to tell any of the girls that I had been sneaking around all day to see Alex because I knew it would make them mad. Apparently, someone was pretty po’d at me and decided to run away for a little while. But before this, Brian, Jeff, Everett, and I had gotten locked out of our room, so we needed a knew key. My shoes were in the room so we went to get a new one and the security of the guard was making no sense as he told me to put shoes on even after I told him that they were locked in the room. So we got our key and we went back in the room.
Then we had sleep time.
Except two minutes later, Brian gets a call from Allee telling him to get up to the roof pool. Everett says “go with someone else” so he said “Marcelo, let’s go” and we were gone. We got to the roof and talked to Jocelyn, Allee, and Libby for a while. Then I realized Alex was sitting right behind me. Then a realllly attractive girl said “Bye Marcelo” and I didn’t know who she was and I was surprised she knew who I was. But I didn’t go after her because that would have been rude to Jocelyn, Allee, and Libby. Then, back to the hotel room and sleep.
And I dreamed about that really attractive girl at the pool.
So we finished watching fine arts and then we took off to the beach. I won’t go into that because it was normal beach stuff that happened so you can figure that one out on your own. Then off to Joe’s crab shack, then back to the hotel. Then it got interesting. We had another team meeting and talked about our highs and lows of Summit. There were way too many highs and not enough lows. I failed to tell any of the girls that I had been sneaking around all day to see Alex because I knew it would make them mad. Apparently, someone was pretty po’d at me and decided to run away for a little while. But before this, Brian, Jeff, Everett, and I had gotten locked out of our room, so we needed a knew key. My shoes were in the room so we went to get a new one and the security of the guard was making no sense as he told me to put shoes on even after I told him that they were locked in the room. So we got our key and we went back in the room.
Then we had sleep time.
Except two minutes later, Brian gets a call from Allee telling him to get up to the roof pool. Everett says “go with someone else” so he said “Marcelo, let’s go” and we were gone. We got to the roof and talked to Jocelyn, Allee, and Libby for a while. Then I realized Alex was sitting right behind me. Then a realllly attractive girl said “Bye Marcelo” and I didn’t know who she was and I was surprised she knew who I was. But I didn’t go after her because that would have been rude to Jocelyn, Allee, and Libby. Then, back to the hotel room and sleep.
And I dreamed about that really attractive girl at the pool.
Summit Day 3
Forced to wake up at the ungodly hour of 7:00am, I had to get up and ready for quiz (bleh). Grace Covenant had two teams and I was on neither of them, so, to be honest, I couldn’t have cared less. I showed up for Grace Covenant 1’s participation round. We did so bad that we were out after the first round… but wait! Apparently, we were in a tie for the last team that would get to move on to the next round. So three tie breakers later, we were in the bronze round. So was our other Grace team. Both teams moved on easily from there and then lost in Gold round by 5 and 10 points respectively.
I actually didn’t see all of our quizzing, I only saw three speed rounds and two paddle round out of four of each, so I actually made it to the majority of quiz, but some people, Who I honestly do not know the name(s) of, didn’t like the fact that I was rarely (in their opinion) there. Here is what I was doing. Watched participation round of quiz
So I show up and I’m sitting by two guys, which is the last thing I wanted. A really, really attractive girl was sitting behind me and two seats to the left but I couldn’t turn around and talk to her so that made me mad. What did I do? I WATCHED BOONDOCK SAINTS! It was quite awesome. So my parents couldn’t be there so my mom asked me to call her when I was going up so she could here. Well, there was a long line of AWANA missionaries waiting to shake my hand and tell me “Congratulations”, so I called her before I got to them. So she was sitting on the line for three minutes of nothing. When I was two people behind the guy who was currently getting his citation, I took the phone out of my pocket and said “alright mom, I’m up next so pay attention.” At this time, I was actually standing on the stage waiting for the person in front of me to get done taking pictures with Art Rorheim and whoever the other guy was. So then I stuck it upside down in my pocket and got my citation, then I shook MORE missionaries hands and I lost signal when I got back to my chair so I called my mom back and she told me that she heard me and she was proud of me. Then I had to go.
I spent the rest of the night wondering how I could talk to the girl in the red dress behind me. I couldn’t come up with anything (I’m surprise too) so I settled on “I like your dress”. That was the extent of it and I was a little upset.
We go out to eat and eat a $25 meal that I didn’t want. Then we get back and Frank calls a meeting. Apparently, people on the team have problems with other people and, instead of bringing it to the person who they had a problem with, they took it to other people, including Frank. So at the meeting, the people who were talking about “team unity” were the same ones who were having underlying problems with other people. It made me upset, but I got over it. The thing that really bugged me was that people had been complaining about how much time I was spending with Alex. It was more than a little annoying to me since I only see Alex for a week a year and I see them all the time. So that was another problem that I had to deal with. So I did.
I actually didn’t see all of our quizzing, I only saw three speed rounds and two paddle round out of four of each, so I actually made it to the majority of quiz, but some people, Who I honestly do not know the name(s) of, didn’t like the fact that I was rarely (in their opinion) there. Here is what I was doing. Watched participation round of quiz
- Watched paddle for bronze round of quiz
- Watched a girl playing piano while I waited for the below event
- Watched Olympic Bible Fellowship’s fine arts drama
- Watched speed for silver round of quiz
- Found out how all the writing fine arts works in case I do come back next year
- Watched the beginning of Heather’s speech, which I left in the middle of so I could do the below
- Waited for Josh Kirsch (who didn’t come this year) to do his fine arts
- Watched the speed round of gold round for quiz
- Went up and swam with Alex
So I show up and I’m sitting by two guys, which is the last thing I wanted. A really, really attractive girl was sitting behind me and two seats to the left but I couldn’t turn around and talk to her so that made me mad. What did I do? I WATCHED BOONDOCK SAINTS! It was quite awesome. So my parents couldn’t be there so my mom asked me to call her when I was going up so she could here. Well, there was a long line of AWANA missionaries waiting to shake my hand and tell me “Congratulations”, so I called her before I got to them. So she was sitting on the line for three minutes of nothing. When I was two people behind the guy who was currently getting his citation, I took the phone out of my pocket and said “alright mom, I’m up next so pay attention.” At this time, I was actually standing on the stage waiting for the person in front of me to get done taking pictures with Art Rorheim and whoever the other guy was. So then I stuck it upside down in my pocket and got my citation, then I shook MORE missionaries hands and I lost signal when I got back to my chair so I called my mom back and she told me that she heard me and she was proud of me. Then I had to go.
I spent the rest of the night wondering how I could talk to the girl in the red dress behind me. I couldn’t come up with anything (I’m surprise too) so I settled on “I like your dress”. That was the extent of it and I was a little upset.
We go out to eat and eat a $25 meal that I didn’t want. Then we get back and Frank calls a meeting. Apparently, people on the team have problems with other people and, instead of bringing it to the person who they had a problem with, they took it to other people, including Frank. So at the meeting, the people who were talking about “team unity” were the same ones who were having underlying problems with other people. It made me upset, but I got over it. The thing that really bugged me was that people had been complaining about how much time I was spending with Alex. It was more than a little annoying to me since I only see Alex for a week a year and I see them all the time. So that was another problem that I had to deal with. So I did.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Summit Day 1 and 2
I completed a week's worth of homework in one day so that I could go to Summit. And we left on a bus at 3:30 in the afternoon. I sat by Adriane and across the isle from Brian, so it was good times. Then the bus got really cold and Adriane pulled out a massive blanket that could have doubled as a teepee, so I was really warm. 22 hours later, we arrived at the Hyatt in Jacksonville, Florida. I'm really not all that hyped up to be here. I don't have the nerves I've had for the two years prior to this. I don't know why. I've already seen Alex three times and Megan twice. Megan actually found me, which was cool because after her failure to come see me when she came to Austin, I was thinking she wouldn't want to talk to me while I was here.
Grace Covenant is quizzing tomorrow, so is Alex's team. However, Olympic Bible isn't. They have fine arts, so I want to go see them instead of Grace's second round of quizzing. We'll see if I can convince my friends to let me do that. Other than that, we're slightly uneventful. I do have one story though.
The group is at "Vito's Italian Cafe", where everything is about $20, so Brian and I don't order anything. Then, Alex texts me and asks me to save her. Her mom was keeping her hostage in a room with a bunch of weirdo guys. So she sent me the room number and Brian and I went to rescue her. Her mom opens the door and I start talking. Her mom starts "sshhing" me and I stop and then she starts talking in something lower than a whisper. She's freaking out because she doesn't want the "head honcho" to get mad at her again for letting them be loud. So first, Alex came out and her mom pushed her back in, after which Alex shut the door and locked her out of the hotel room. Then I yelled "Alex is running away!" and Brian and I ran down the hall. So apparently, she chased after us but we were gone and her mom caught up to her, so she had to go back.
That's about it for now.
<3
Grace Covenant is quizzing tomorrow, so is Alex's team. However, Olympic Bible isn't. They have fine arts, so I want to go see them instead of Grace's second round of quizzing. We'll see if I can convince my friends to let me do that. Other than that, we're slightly uneventful. I do have one story though.
The group is at "Vito's Italian Cafe", where everything is about $20, so Brian and I don't order anything. Then, Alex texts me and asks me to save her. Her mom was keeping her hostage in a room with a bunch of weirdo guys. So she sent me the room number and Brian and I went to rescue her. Her mom opens the door and I start talking. Her mom starts "sshhing" me and I stop and then she starts talking in something lower than a whisper. She's freaking out because she doesn't want the "head honcho" to get mad at her again for letting them be loud. So first, Alex came out and her mom pushed her back in, after which Alex shut the door and locked her out of the hotel room. Then I yelled "Alex is running away!" and Brian and I ran down the hall. So apparently, she chased after us but we were gone and her mom caught up to her, so she had to go back.
That's about it for now.
<3
Friday, April 18, 2008
What the Hell Is Going On?
Apparently, we had games practice at 5 o'clock yesterday as opposed to our normal 5:30. I was under the impression that I was the games captain and that I would actually be in the know. Guess I was overshooting with that supposition. I officially have NO idea what is going on or why I am the last to know about anything, if I ever get to know at all.
Regardless, I practiced for 30 minutes straight without a single break. I threw well over 200, if not 300, passes in the space of 30 minutes. I was exhausted and kept going until I threw up. (or would have thrown up since, by the grace of God, I hadn't eaten anything all day and I had nothing to spew. Guys continue to break the record, though Ben needs to work on accuracy a bit, Brian needs to make sure his first pass is good and not off to the side, Andy needs to work on getting the ball higher and not at my feet when we're making the transition, and I need to concentrate on getting the ball closer to me when I pass to Jonathan. Other than that, we're golden.
The team is getting much better. Rose got kicked by a horse so she wasn't playing and Rebecca was so that slowed us down a little since Rebecca isn't as good at basketball as Rose (or as Rose can be when she's hot.) We broke the record once or twice on Thursday and that was it but I'm not worried about it.
I'm starting to feel like people are trying to create drama just for the sake of having drama. Apparently, they have gotten so used to the drama we always have that once it is gone, they feel the need to try to create some so that it feels like Summit. Out team is much more unified than it has been the last two years. To the best of my knowledge, which, as I already mentioned, is limited, no one has any problems with anyone else. A couple of people are having problems with things being a little weird around other people, but that's the extent of it. I'm not sure where people are seeing all this drama. The only thing I see is that I don't know anything about anything, so maybe that is why I don't see it.
Regardless, I practiced for 30 minutes straight without a single break. I threw well over 200, if not 300, passes in the space of 30 minutes. I was exhausted and kept going until I threw up. (or would have thrown up since, by the grace of God, I hadn't eaten anything all day and I had nothing to spew. Guys continue to break the record, though Ben needs to work on accuracy a bit, Brian needs to make sure his first pass is good and not off to the side, Andy needs to work on getting the ball higher and not at my feet when we're making the transition, and I need to concentrate on getting the ball closer to me when I pass to Jonathan. Other than that, we're golden.
The team is getting much better. Rose got kicked by a horse so she wasn't playing and Rebecca was so that slowed us down a little since Rebecca isn't as good at basketball as Rose (or as Rose can be when she's hot.) We broke the record once or twice on Thursday and that was it but I'm not worried about it.
I'm starting to feel like people are trying to create drama just for the sake of having drama. Apparently, they have gotten so used to the drama we always have that once it is gone, they feel the need to try to create some so that it feels like Summit. Out team is much more unified than it has been the last two years. To the best of my knowledge, which, as I already mentioned, is limited, no one has any problems with anyone else. A couple of people are having problems with things being a little weird around other people, but that's the extent of it. I'm not sure where people are seeing all this drama. The only thing I see is that I don't know anything about anything, so maybe that is why I don't see it.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Best Practice Ever
Today was "Senior Skip Day" at my school. The best part is that there are only two seniors: me and my friend Jordan. So we went to a coffee shop on the lake, then drove downtown, then to the mall, then to Panda Express to eat Chinese food for lunch, then back to school because we had to be in class for a participation grade (but we danced so it's all good), then to the Arboretum, then to my house to watch a movie (which we didn't do), then to La Morada to eat Mexican food, then to my house AGAIN to watch "Sleeping Beauty".
Then I got a call from Arielle asking where I was and I realized that I was having so much fun with Jojo that I completely forgot about games practice. So she left, and I went, though I wasn't happy because I would have rather been with Joj since I don't ever get to do things with her (not true, but...)
So I got there and we practiced team basketball relay, then balloon, then agility, then tug, then boys basketball relay.
Balloon isn't fabulous, but it's decent. We need to get it consistent. Tug it depends on the other team. Agility is good. Basketball kicks arse. Our best times for practice:
Boys basketball: 8.07 ( .5 seconds better than the national record)
Team basketball: 19.00 ( .18 seconds better than the national record)
Boys basketball was consistently better than the national record, so I'm happy we have the ability to beat the record.
It was a good practice.
Then I got a call from Arielle asking where I was and I realized that I was having so much fun with Jojo that I completely forgot about games practice. So she left, and I went, though I wasn't happy because I would have rather been with Joj since I don't ever get to do things with her (not true, but...)
So I got there and we practiced team basketball relay, then balloon, then agility, then tug, then boys basketball relay.
Balloon isn't fabulous, but it's decent. We need to get it consistent. Tug it depends on the other team. Agility is good. Basketball kicks arse. Our best times for practice:
Boys basketball: 8.07 ( .5 seconds better than the national record)
Team basketball: 19.00 ( .18 seconds better than the national record)
Boys basketball was consistently better than the national record, so I'm happy we have the ability to beat the record.
It was a good practice.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
30th Post is the Magic
I can't wait for Summit so this can be over.
I've been the best leader I know how to be. I've even written apology letters to several people. Some how, I am still never right. I'm at the point where I'm about to just say "I quit. Get a new captain" because this has gotten way out of hand. No one listens to a word I say. I've had to tell one person more than once to change and they wouldn't so I figured "Maybe if I try to humble myself they'll be more respectful." So I wrote an apology letter. The response I received back was not what I expected at all and things are probably worse now than they ever were before.
There are other people who apparently think that they are the captain and not me. Apparently, I can be criticized even when it's not my fault, but if I try to give it, I am wrong.
So that's about it. Something needs to change. I've done my part and nothing is changing. So I think you can see where my frustration is coming from.
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Now playing: August Burns Red - Speech Impediment
I've been the best leader I know how to be. I've even written apology letters to several people. Some how, I am still never right. I'm at the point where I'm about to just say "I quit. Get a new captain" because this has gotten way out of hand. No one listens to a word I say. I've had to tell one person more than once to change and they wouldn't so I figured "Maybe if I try to humble myself they'll be more respectful." So I wrote an apology letter. The response I received back was not what I expected at all and things are probably worse now than they ever were before.
There are other people who apparently think that they are the captain and not me. Apparently, I can be criticized even when it's not my fault, but if I try to give it, I am wrong.
So that's about it. Something needs to change. I've done my part and nothing is changing. So I think you can see where my frustration is coming from.
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Now playing: August Burns Red - Speech Impediment
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