Of Men and Mud

Wow . . . well, ya know, perhaps I should just hold a weekly Best Commenter contest . . . ‘cause that seemed to get me a heck of a lot of comments . . . So comment the most on this post, and maybe (just maybe), I’ll put some sort of award on here like Rae did! So hurry up and get those comments in, before it’s too late!!

Anyway, I apologize for the relative lateness of this post . . . the weekend was an extremely busy and extremely tiring one, so I didn’t get around to updating. But here I am now, so . . . yay.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days, if memory serves . . . nothing out of the ordinary, just lots of Hobbes (who, by the way, is not nearly as interesting as Locke).

Tuesday NIGHT was a bit special, though. You see, my step-cousin just got engaged, and she was having her engagement party on Friday night. Naturally, my uncle and aunt were invited to the party, so they flew in from Indiana to attend. They were staying at our home, so we waited until they arrived (11:00 or so, not terribly late), then talked briefly with them, until Uncle Ted said, “Well, you guys need to sleep, so we’ll let you go to bed.” So we took advantage of his kindness and retired.

Wednesday was a different matter altogether. David called me at some point during the afternoon and proposed that we hang out, to which I agreed. He stopped by around 4:30 or so (possibly a little later), and off we went.

We (read “he, with my agreement”) decided that the thing to do would be to display our complete lack of lives and go harass people at Broadway Expressions. They were holding auditions (for their “Team Broadway” class, I think) at the time, but we quietly snuck in and stood there for a moment, watching someone sing “Tomorrow” from Annie.

As we stood there thus transfixed, a vaguely purple blur shot across the room directly towards us. It turned out, in the end, to be Megan, who was apparently not doing anything at the time. We therefore retreated into one of the various side-rooms (I have no idea how many there are, but they seem to pop up all the time when I’m there) and hung out therein for quite a while, occasionally being accosted by two little ones who seemed to crave our attention (and, in the case of the boy, aggression).

After a while of just sitting (and standing) there talking, David looked at his watch and had a horrible realization: “Crap,” he said. “I have a meeting for the mudbowl at Chipotlé in about five minutes.” This naturally meant that I would be tagging along, since he didn’t have time to take me home. Megan also wanted to come, having nothing to do, and so about three (or maybe it was more like 5 or 6) minutes later, we three departed Broadway Expressions and booked it to Chipotlé.

Upon arrival, there was a surprising lack of Trinity people, who should’ve been there a good 10-15 minutes already at that point. Confused by this, David whipped out his cell phone and called someone (Monet, I believe). He discovered, to his horror, that the meeting had been relocated to the University of Redlands Chapel without his knowledge.

He shepherded Megan and me back into his car and drove over to this location, getting out of the car and running full speed into the chapel. Megan and I took our time, since we didn’t have to go to the meeting, and ended up in the actual sanctuary part of the chapel.

On the way over (first to Chipotlé, and also to the chapel), Megan and David had been insisting that I attend the mudbowl myself. I protested that I was unable, because Seth was coming over on Saturday (because it was either my house or a country western concert). They kept insisting, saying that I could just drag him along with me.

Anyway, Megan and I entered the sanctuary-place, and a fairly large black man who strangely resembled the Monet that David had called earlier approached us. He recognized Megan, and asked her (somewhat more tactfully) what the heck she was doing there, since it was the college group that night, and not the high school one. She explained the situation, and although he still seemed to retain his confusion, he was very kind and told us we were welcome to wait in the sanctuary-place if we so desired.

His gaze then moved up a bit and back a bit, coming to rest upon me. “Have we met?” he said. “No,” I replied. He extended his hand and introduced himself, and I did the same. I think I said something about having been to Trinity several times, at which point he (like a born salesmen) ripped something brown off of his arm and handed it to me.

“Really?” he said. “Well, just so you know, this Saturday, September 16th, from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM, we’re having our annual mudbowl. We’d love to see you there, and you’re more than welcome to come. It’s absolutely free, and you can sign up at the website on the inside of this bracelet. You can keep it, it’s yours. I hope to see you there!”

I did my best to keep from laughing (which I think was pretty good), thanked him, and took the bracelet. Megan saw Nathaneal a ways away, and went to greet him. I sat down in the chair and whipped out my iPod, figuring that I had nothing better to do.

I spent the next two or three minutes untangling the cord for my headphones, and when I finally emerged from this trial triumphantly, Megan returned and said, “I’m gonna go practice vocals in one of the practice rooms. Wanna come?” I agreed, and somewhat sadly rolled the headphones up again and put them back in my pocket.

We wandered around for maybe ten minutes or so, looking for an empty room for her to practice in. Eventually we found one, but it was a very small room, ¾ of which was occupied by a piano. We entered it, and she sat down at the piano. She played a few random things, and tried (futilely) to get me to do the same.

We sat there and hung out for a while, until David called to find out where we were. He seemed (from what I could hear . . . he called Megan, not me) unduly upset that we weren’t in the sanctuary-place, and a little bit freaked out. Which was somewhat ironic, because as we were leaving the sanctuary-place to find a practice room, Megan had said to me, “Will David freak out if we’re not there when he comes out?” My response had been, “Probably.” Yay for being right.

Anyway, Praxis (Trinity’s college group) was starting at about that time, so David went in to join them, and Megan and I hurried up to the balcony place to spy on them. I’m not exactly sure why, but we did, and we stayed there for a while until Megan’s mother came and took her away.

I returned all by my lonesome little self, and remained there for a few minutes until David came out and asked me if I needed a ride home, which I did. So he took me home, and that was that.

Later that night, I got on AIM (because, as you all know, I have nothing else to do), and Megan and Seth were both on. Megan, it turned out, was in the process of convincing Seth that he desperately wanted to go to the mudbowl on Saturday, and that it would be idiocy to suggest that I not go.

I laughed, and signed up online (with Seth) to go.

The next day was also ordinary, for the most part. Then evening came. What was happening on Thursday evening, you ask? Auditions for Scrooge, says I. There was a remarkably small group of people auditioning, but I knew quite a few of them (Rachel was among them *rejoice rejoice*).

The audition itself was easily the worst audition I’ve ever had . . . even worse than Oliver. I’d never heard the accompaniment of my song, so I missed the starting note and just couldn’t find the melody. Mercifully, all of the people on the panel are people who’ve worked with me before and know that I can usually carry a tune.

After auditions, Mom, Dad, Uncle Ted, and I met Bev and Erin at Pat & Oscar’s for dinner, which is always nice. We spent a few hours there, talking and laughing and eating. On the way home, I called David to ask if he could give me a ride to dance the next day, and he spoke to me, Bev, and Uncle Ted, which made for a very interesting conversation.

Friday, as I recall, was fairly uneventful, save for a call from Jeff asking me to attend a dance audition on Saturday morning at 10 for Scrooge. I said that was fine, and did so.

It went much better than the singing audition, actually . . . and there were only four guys there (counting me), so I’m fairly sure I got in . . . which is cool.

Rachel was sad at the audition, because she had nothing to do all day except homework, so I invited her to come with Seth and I to the mudbowl. She agreed, said it sounded like fun, and told me to call her before we picked her up.

Seth was fairly late getting to my house, so we got a late start, but we DID make to Trinity eventually. We got there right when they were finishing up the organized games. The three of us stood about awkwardly for a minute or two, then saw David and started calling to him. Everyone was inexplicably deaf there, but we did get his attention eventually. He waved to us and went back to what he was doing.

A minute or two later, however, it became apparent that the game wasn’t going to start for another minute or two, so he turned slowly towards us, flung his arms wide, and came barreling towards us with a shout of, “HI, GUYS!!!”

Rachel and Seth, being the chickens they are, of course stepped promptly behind me, leaving me to be attacked by David’s muddiness. I took it like a man, standing there with my legs wide (so as not to be knocked over), and embraced him as he embraced me. In the end, I really didn’t even get all that muddy, just wet.

But then he had to get back to the game, so after hugging me as messily as he could, he ran back over to the actual mud bowl.

After the game was over, Rachel’s friend Adam came over to us, and the two of them went and jumped into the mud (Seth and I were going to wait until after we ate, since we’d just have to shower off and then most likely get dirty again). Rachel got miserably covered in mud.

Moments later, a greenish blur went flying into Rachel, who grabbed it tightly and sort of spun around with it. As I’ve discovered blurs do fairly often, it resolved into Megan. Rachel and Megan exchanged a few words, and then looked in our direction.

“Crap,” I said. Turning to Seth, I added, “You might want to run.” He did. I turned back to find that my suspicions had been confirmed. Megan was a greenish blur again, hurtling full-speed towards me, shouting, “HI, MARK!!!”

She attacked me in much the same way David did, although she managed to get me a bit muddier than he had. Seconds after this initial onslaught, I was hit from behind by Rachel. If this seems hard for you to picture, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Even the great Rae said later that she was having trouble picturing “a muddy Mark sandwich.”

So anyway, by this time I was already soaked in mud, and Rachel and Megan were pulling me towards the bowl. Since I was already muddy, I figured what the heck and went in and sat down. David chased after Seth, but gave up after a while and I had to go get him. The six of us (me, Seth, Rachel, Megan, David, and Adam) hung out in the mud for a while, and then were called to assemble with the rest of the group over by the food (which was a truck of In’N’Out).

After washing off a bit, and talking to Kyle a bit, and getting our food a bit, and walking over to where everyone I knew was a bit, I sat down to eat, while Monet (who had happily noted my presence earlier) gave away free shirts and stuff to people whose names were pulled out of a box. After this, Dr. Langer gave a short little sermon thingy, which was really cool (I’ve always wanted to hear him speak).

Once that was done, we just kind of hung out with people for a while, and then went home.

After showering and such, things were arranged so that AJ, Rae, and Eleanor would pop up down in Redlands, pick Seth and I up, and go see Arsenic and Old Lace in Rialto, since they were giving free tickets to friends of cast members.

And so they did. We ate pizza, and then headed off to Rialto. On the way up, we had a long conversation about the State of Nature (as presented by Locke) and other such political things. We were also accosted by a homeless lady, who had been off drugs for seventeen years. Or, wait, no, seventeen months, she meant. (Or, wait, seventeen days . . . seventeen hours . . . seventeen seconds . . .)

There were quite a few people that I knew there . . . Katrina and Brandon were there, Megan and Andrea were there, the Lopezes were there, Dr. and Mrs. Wines (the older), and Lucas and Mark (not me).

The show was really good again . . . although David hit himself in the face with a suitcase, causing him to black out for a few seconds and resulting in bleeding . . . which is always fun . . .

But yeah, the show had evolved a fair amount and was much funnier than it was the first time (despite how good it was the first time).

After the show, we went outside and greeted David, and hung around talking to him for a while . . . he offered us the wonderful advice that “if life gives you lemonade, make lemons.”

We then went home, and hung out with AJ, Rae, and Eleanor for a while. After a number of angry (AJ was angry, at least) phone calls regarding a certain towed car, they departed back to Fullerton, and Seth and I started getting ready for bed.

The next morning was church as usual, except that David and Megan came (and left), which was cool.

After church, Sarah and I went over to Seth’s house and hung out with him (and Indy after a while).

And that was basically Sunday. Nice ’n’ simple to chronicle.

The remainder of the time since then has also been fairly uneventful, although fencing has been moved to Tuesdays and Wednesdays now instead of Tuesdays and Fridays (and may very well become Mondays and Tuesdays soon, apparently).

And so I shall shuttle off of this cyberspace coil once again, in the hopes that you have enjoyed this and look forward to many more to come. And don’t forget . . . the best commenter might get a reward of some kind in the next post!!

Comments:

AJ 1-2: Well, see, I couldn’t remember whether “baptize” was spelled “baptize” or “baptise.” So I figured I’d go with one of each and be safe. And my apologies about quandaries . . . I’ve never seen it used before, only heard it from Wayne (and Sarah imitating Wayne).

David 1-5: Um . . . yes. To everything you said.

Rae 1-7: Okay, well, obviously, you and I both went to Arsenic with AJ and Eleanor, so . . . yay! And yes, all of the headings last time were actual quotes from those situations (the first by Sarah, the second by me, the third by David, and the final by the two pastors).

David 6: I would argue that the reason you have a larger vocabulary than mine is due to 1) your greater education, and 2) simply the fact that you’re smarter than me. Because, you see, if I actually looked up the word, I would get the same result (knowledge of the definition) than if you just answered me when I asked you. So you could actually save me a lot of trouble by bestowing your wisdom upon me, the lesser mortal, while still allowing me to expand my vocabulary.