Lock-in

Technically, can it be called a “lock-in” if the minister’s wife breaks out and heads for home at 3 a.m….or if we spend as much time out as we did in?

The so-called lock-in was an awful lot of fun! Our first order of business was to eat pizza (always a good way to start), and to make it even better, some wonderful person had actually stocked CAFFEINE-FREE Diet Sam’s cola. It might have even been my husband, but I was so pleasantly surprised, I forgot to ask. Before you get worried about the “diet” part, know that I am paranoid, so I don’t overdo artificial sweeteners.

So now, it’s 9:30 p.m., and I am still wide awake.

Next, a bunch of giggling 7th grade girls piled in my car to go glow bowling. Many things about 7th grade girls cause me to scratch my head in puzzlement, but I do love me some enthusiastic junior high kids. To illustrate these girls’ enthusiasm, one in the backseat kept saying, “This is an awesome car.” Ha. To anyone else, it’s just a dirty, gray, four-door Ford, but to a 7th grade girl, it’s “awesome.” We also maneuvered through the parking lot in a huddle.

These boys might look like they're not having much fun, but they really are.

The bowling alley was jumpin’, so we waited a while. You know, second-hand smoke is good for the sinuses. I wonder…at what point did bowling become partners with drinking beer and smoking cigarettes indoors? It’s like you’re making one of the dorkiest sports a “cool” date idea by pairing it with long-necked bottles, tight metallic T-shirts and lung cancer.

I do, however, understand the social aspects of bowling. That’s what I go for, not so much to actually roll the ball.

It’s now somewhere around 1 a.m….still going strong.

Back to the church for Rotel dip and cookies.

Gunter wanted me to run the sound during our worship time (which for me means pressing “play” and “stop” on the CD player while operating one slider for volume), so logically, he moved worship time up in the schedule so there’d be a better chance of me still being awake.

Sadly, worship did me in. I was nodding off in the Spirit.

At that point, my stamina was pretty much depleted. I decided it would be safer for me to go home and to bed than to drive a group of kids around town for a video scavenger hunt, which was next on the agenda.

I did get to see the videos of the scavenger hunt and the Murder in the Dark night vision the next day, so I didn’t completely miss out. Gunter got home about 7:30 or 8 Saturday morning, and we spent most of the day recovering from our night of fun.

Hope you youth enjoyed the lock-in! We’ll go ahead and plan the next one in about 5 years.