Winning Makes Even the Snack Wraps Taste Better

I went on a retreat to Michigan with the junior high youth group this weekend. It was uneventful, fun, and relaxing for the most part. We played a mammoth match of volleyball on Saturday. I always feel this odd inner-battle of wanting to crush the kids (and boast of it) and wanting to just let them win and be encouraging. But of course, the "CRUSH!" side won and when I came up to serve down 14-9 in the deciding game, I wouldn't allow a loss. But you know, it's having fun that matters. And winning is fun.

I love Michigan, but I hate getting there. Why is the only route to Michigan from Illi-noize always under construction? At some point, the construction has to end. Right? Anyway, it took us about 2 hours to get from Hinsdale to the Indiana border. Ridiculous. But before departure, we went to McDonald's. And I had another ethical dilemma.

I ordered two snack wraps, fries and a soda. The man took my order and then a woman behind him instantly prepared the tray. I had my food in like less than a minute. I sat down and began eating. When I realized that the kids' didn't get napkins, I got up. As I walked by the counter, our youth leader handed me a tray--with two snack wraps, fries and a soda. The reciept said #176--my number. And there was no one else there.

I didn't want to steal someone's food. But it appeared that they made my tray twice...however, it wouldn't be right to just take it, would it? I went back to my seat without the doppleganger tray. About 5 minutes later, I could see the tray was still there. At this point, I decided that it was an honest mistake. And no one was going to eat it but me. They couldn't reuse that food...so I might as well enjoy the bounty.

It turns out that I don't even like snack wraps. But hey, free is still free.

The only other moment of note this weekend was a prank gone bad. The girls took the pillows of the boys and hid them...in the boys' restroom. The boys' restroom is directly downstairs from the girl's restroom at the retreat house. Well, the girls' toilet back up, flooded and the water leaked through the ceiling...into our bathroom and onto the guys' pillows.

Good times.

PTOIT SPECIAL FEATURE: DREAM LOG!
(A dream from last night)
My mom, one other person and I were riding horses down Limestone Road back home. We turned onto 17 to head home. On the corner, Mom's horse took a number two. Right then, a police squad car arrived. The officer said that we couldn't just leave the horse's waste on the street. We had to pick it up. We had no shovels or bags. But we did have my umbrella. [Remember: I had planned to use my umbrella two weeks ago to remove a dead bird. Apparently, my umbrella is my catch-all tool now.] I scooped the horse dung into my opened umbrella. Then, I moved to the ditch to dump it. But the cop stopped me. He said I couldn't leave it. I had to take it with. So then, I re-mounted my horse and rode down a busy highway holding an opened umbrella full of crud off to my side.