Open Your Eyes

This weekend Benjamin is going on his first youth retreat! It’s been a long week, with a lot of good, and a little frustrating, stuff going on, and this weekend could go either way.
It’s becoming more and more clear that Benjamin is his mother’s son: he’s pretty obviously an extrovert. He loves going to youth on Wednesdays. Even though, by the time its over, I feel like finding a quiet corner and rocking back and forth in the fetal position until I pass out, Benjamin is wired. He loves being around all the people, he loves the noise, and he loves to stay awake for a long time after its over.
We have our own room this weekend, so hopefully he’ll be able to stick to a (slightly modified) routine. We also picked up a pair of noise canceling head phones to go over his ears so his hearing doesn’t get damaged by the loud music and cheering. He looks hilarious in them, and he laughs every time we put them on him — we’ll post pictures when we get back.
This weekend also presents some technical challenges. I’m running lights, video and sound by myself — hopefully I can get some students to pitch in. Fortunately my highly versatile MacBook Pro will be able to handle all the video tasks, so I just have to learn how to set-up lights, and how to cover multiple boards at the same time! A huge shout-out to Paul and Caroline for covering some bases back at home to make this weekend possible for me!
Some other cool stuff that’s going on:
– I have my own desk space at church now. It’s another cubicle, but this one’s right next to the music director, so instead of the usual office chatter, I hear him strumming away on his guitar. Save for the occasional waft of Chinese food smell from next door, it’s a much nicer environment.
– If you go to Northway, you don’t want to miss the announcement this weekend! We went High Definition last weekend, running church simultaneously in two locations, and it was awesome. Wait’ll you see what we’ve got planned for Easter!
– My parents are heading to Malaysia next month. Their original plan was to leave in July, but they decided they might as well head out as soon as they could. Dad retired and took a teaching job in Kuala Lumpur. They’ll be there in 1-year terms, and are talking about a 6-7 stay, but I don’t really expect them to move back any time soon. We’ll definitely be going over there to visit! You can follow their adventures at their new website.
We’re out until Sunday, rocking the Camp of the Woods (assuming I can make all the equipment work), so have a great weekend everyone!

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