"How much does a polar bear weigh? Enough to break the ice!"

The first thing I did today when I got home from Fall Weekend was go on Pinterest. Surprising? Probably not. So I also shouldn't have been surprised when this was one of the first pins on my feed:

Sista, preach. I am not kidding when I say that Fall Weekend is the silliest and most ridiculous weekend of the year. It must be the combination of living with 50 other girls in cabins down the hall, the incredible amount of sugar and junk food we all bring with us, and being able to "unplug" from our phones and actually live in the moment instead of getting caught up in liking photos on Instagram sending selfies on Snapchat.

Young Life North Shore drove up to Lake Geneva, WI for Fall Weekend this year. It is our second year going for Fall Weekend and my fourth trip there--I went both sophomore and junior years for Work Weekend as well. Lake Geneva isn't the same as Timber Wolf but I love it just as much. We left on Friday night and you could practically feel how excited everyone was.

Lauren-Kate, Annie, Alaynah, Kendall, Caroline

Meet my cabin! There were 4 senior girls and our leader, Alaynah. It is YL North Shore tradition to wear onesies to our first breakfast of Fall Weekend. I seriously love traditions like these. It's hilarious to see the reactions of the kids from other areas when 20 or 30 girls all show up to breakfast looking like adult-size babies. But what I also love is that everyone thinks it's funny and everyone is all in. There is no "I'm too cool for this" or "I don't want to" at Fall Weekend. I love laughing at myself and I'm glad my friends are people who do too.

Another YL tradition: ketchup writing. It seriously sucks for the people washing dishes, but this is just too hilarious to pass up. During breakfast a leader came up to our table and delivered a plate with three ketchup hearts on it. Hilarious. We had to find out who had sent it and we had to write back, pronto. Oh and of course I had to capture it. Below are the messages we received from our not-so-secret admirer table:

A collective invitation to Homecoming. Why not?

Oh thanks. We were glad that some teenage boys actually appreciated the modesty and cold-weather protection of the onesie. We promptly sent back some winky faces and more hearts.

More onesie photoshoots. If you were ever wondering, it is hilariously awkward to wear a onesie and it is even more hilariously awkward to have to pose for a picture in a onesie alone. Tyler and Gabbie took different approaches in order to handle the awkward.

First club of Saturday! Whatever Young Life camp I go to, I am always so happy when I step into the club room. There is so much anticipation for club and being able to break through those doors and sprint to the front of the room, so close to the stage, is seriously one of the best feelings ever. I love the excitement when the next song we can belt at the top of our lungs comes on and how everyone knows program by the end of the weekend and recites the lines along with the program characters. I love that this weekend we brought people who had never been to club - how awesome that your first YL Club is with a couple hundred other people?

It was Hannah's birthday and obviously we have to have a better celebration than singing Happy Birthday. You bet we do - spooning her plate! No not the cuddling version. The Young Life version. Obviously we got a little off track with the other silverware and sandwiches and such, but you get it. Happy birthday Hannah! And Tatum and Cailin too!

The North Shore girls decided to get crazy for mealtime once again and give ourselves eye black, football player style... except with glitter. It was hilarious to see people shedding glitter and establishing the Glitter Patrol with Alaynah and the girls in my cabin - basically meaning we went up to the North Shore boys and forced them to wear the glitter too.

 Parker loves the Glitter Patrol. Glitter in the beard. Sounds like a Ke$ha song. 

Are they trying to be pretty? Are they trying to be ugly? You'll never know.

Team 2 loves field games! There was a little bit of struggling during Baby, Backpack, Bronco...

 ...but obviously we still had a wonderful time!

(p.s. this is only Part 1 of Fall Weekend, so whoopsie daisy if you read till the end and are angry that I am not yet done talking about our 48 hours of fun!)

"Of course I know who Honey Boo Boo is, I spent an hour writing her fan mail!"

Just a little life round up. You'd think a full week of school coming off a 4-day weekend would be easy. Absolutely not. This week has been non-stop crazy, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

s u n d a y

My first Starbucks red cup of the season and my first peppermint mocha ever. Of course this moment had to be documented. Unfortunately I picked a silly time to have coffee (5pm) so I had a date with some sleeping pills later that night.

I'm seriously obsessed with twinkly lights and I love when it gets close enough to Christmas that people start putting them up. I love living so close to Chicago because the lights in the city around Christmastime are just wonderful. Who doesn't love Christmas lights?

 m o n d a y

Young Life club this week was one of the most wonderful I have ever experienced. Everything just seemed right. Especially the sock-sliding and model-strutting competition that happened right after club. Unfortunately we were having too much fun to take quality pictures. But sometimes you just gotta say what the hey and live it up.

t h u r s d a y

Love these girls. It's incredible to me how much time we actually spend with each other - almost four hours every single day. I think that's why we are so hilariously comfortable with each other. Comfortable enough to snuggle up on the studio floor and make ugly faces to each other on Snapchat. Comfortable enough to sit in a circle talking about life and sharing laughs when we really should be warming up and comfortable enough to burst into tears at rehearsal if our days haven't gone quite right.

Sarah's club talk at WyldLife club tonight was about being thankful, and I loved that we got to make a list of all the things we are thankful for with our girls. I loved that they got real and were thankful for everything from Jesus to Walt Disney. 

 Maybe not one of the most controlled WyldLife clubs we have ever had - tonight was chaotic to say the least. But I realized when girls were screaming at people to close their eyes for a game of Mafia or talking every .2 seconds that I am so so thankful for them. They have an energy that most people lose by high school, and I'm so glad I get to experience it again.

P.S. Let's play a game. Can you guess which WL girl spends her free time writing Honey Boo Boo fan mail?

"Nope, just got a case of the McDonald's."

You know those nightmares where you end up onstage in a musical and you have absolutely no idea how you got there and what you're supposed to be doing? 

Oh, you've never had those? Well shoot. I have and that happened in real life tonight. It also involved chugging a fake beer stein and dressing up like a 1800s townsperson. Good thing the real life musical turned out much better than in my nightmares. It involved a lot more singing and laughing and swing dancing than expected.

Kara, Julia, Mal, Kendall, Christi

This afternoon Mal picked me up so we could get dinner and go to Young Life leadership. We obviously had to go to Noodles because it is tradition, and get Wisconsin mac & cheese and giggle about how funny it would be if you tried to tell the Noodles cashier that it was actually Nevada mac & cheese and could you please learn the names of the food you are selling already.

Also in the plan for the night: starting our off-off-Broadway careers at the play Kara is directing this weekend, Beauty and the Beast. They needed more townspeople for the bar scene and obviously 4 extra girls under 21 are perfect for the job!

 

You could say we got pretty into character. 

Arriving 10 minutes before the show starts without any of your lines memorized is musical theatre protocol, right? What about writing the lyrics of the song on your hands? Okay good because that's what we did.

We got the best seats in the house and seriously loved the show. Especially the interruption of scheduled programming for the tiny tot performance of Zip Ah Dee Doo Dah. The performers: cardinals, bluebirds, and a skunk. We were wondering why we weren't cast in this scene instead of the bar scene.

 Intermission was photoshoot time. The girls of Magnolia got a little bit crazy.

The best photo ops happen in big group hugs. We are hyped up on nachos, popcorn, fruit punch and being really proud of  Ms. Director Extraordinaire, Kara Fleharty.

Then it was time to drop Julia off and drive through the mean streets of Chicago until we found more food we wanted to eat. If you ever want to participate in a seriously hilarious car ride (hint: you do), please hop in the car with Mal and Christi at 11pm on a Friday night. Of course we ended up at McDonald's and of course they messed up the order. And of course I decided to take a picture of it. Also: don't get a McWrap. Ever. They come in cardboard straitjackets. You have been warned.

In other news, today I got to Skype with Carolyn and besides us both looking smokin' hot in this picture, she is as wonderful as ever and newly rockin' some bangs. I love them and her and cannot believe that our next pie date is only a couple of weeks away!

"Photocopying is not one of my spiritual gifts."

Last time I talked about Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist. Turns out she has too many gems for that just to be a one-time deal.

"Everybody has a home team: it's the people you call when you get a flat tire or when something terrible happens. It's the people who, near or far, know everything that's wrong with you and love you anyway. The home team people are the ones you can text with five minutes' notice, saying, I'm on my way, and I'm bringing tacos."

-Shauna Niequist

(Tacos and beautiful words? This girl gets me.)

Tonight was WyldLife leadership, aka an afternoon with my favorite people. Young Life is my home team.

I am really glad I got to pick up Katharine from school like I was her mom, and that no matter if it's been two weeks or two minutes since I've last seen her, everything is just good: we talk in the infamous Ambiguous Foreign Accent, take too many selfies, and sing along to the radio at the top of our lungs. I'm glad we got to talk about why our friendship works and I'm glad she is my bestest best friend.

 Me driving in Evanston is a challenge. But I was pumped for Chipotle with Meghan, Gabbie and Katharine, some of my favorite ladies. I love that we are all such Young Life kids, and how that makes doing highs and lows of the week or talking about student staff or Fall Weekend or WyldLife the norm. I love that we can be real with each other and be tired or stressed without feeling bad.

 Next was Meghan's dorm; we all obviously fit in with the cool college kids, being seniors in high school and all. I felt even more like a mom when I dropped Meghan off, my car was starting to feel like a chauffeur service! :) I really really wanted to give whoever made her door sign a cupcake or puppy or taco or something. Too hilarious. Meghan Morris aka Sasha Fierce.

Our final stop in the afternoon of fun was the Young Life office for a WyldLife meeting and the usual shenanigans. As you can tell, we are very active, exciting, rambunctious people. No seriously, I promise.

I just now noticed the tribute to our old area director, Brian Trost. And I love it. When I was a camper at Castaway in 2011, Brian was on program as the nerdy bad guy, pocket protector and all. Brian is continuing to be seriously awesome (read: on Young Life staff) in Michigan now, and we miss him tons.

 

Microwave s'mores are practically tradition at the office by now. If there's one thing you should know about Young Life, it's that YL + food = happiness. YL - food = so sad. I love math.

Artsy photos gone wrong. This is why Christi is good at art in real life and I'm not. And yes, we did have to clean up all those bouncy balls after.

Have you heard about Fall Weekend? Of course you have. Have you heard that Taylor Swift is gonna be at our Fall Weekend? Probably not. You heard it here first, y'all.

(Disclaimer: Taylor Swift will unfortunately not be at Fall Weekend but I intend on playing her new album in my cabin nonstop, so that counts right?)

P.S. Heather Gibbs is not spiritually gifted in photocopying. I like to think I am spiritually gifted in wearing leggings as pants and quoting Friends. How about you?

A weekend equal parts ratchet and wonderful.

That was a joke. This weekend was the furthest thing from ratchet, and 100% wonderful. If you don't know what ratchet means, you should probably open a new tab to Urban Dictionary it right about now.

I love Shauna Niequist, the author of Cold Tangerines and Bittersweet, and a quote from her is perfect for this weekend.

“Share your life with the people you love, even if it means saving up for a ticket and going without a few things for a while to make it work. There are enough long lonely days of the same old thing, and if you let enough years pass, and if you let the routine steamroll your life, you’ll wake up one day, isolated and weary, and wonder what happened to all those old friends.”

-Shauna Niequist

I don't know a lot of people who get to visit their friends in other states on a pretty regular basis. I'm glad I have wonderful friends in other places, and I'm glad I get to see them. This weekend was full of love and I am so glad we made it happen.

On Thursday afternoon, Mama and Papa J-L and I packed up the car and headed out to Ohio, so I could spend the weekend with work crew friends and my parents could do parent-y things like tour whistle factories in Columbus (yes, they're weird but I love them). We finally rolled through the mean streets of Powell, Ohio pretty late Thursday night, so after Maddie and I took some selfies and she pretended to study, we were off to bed.

I call this the "Maddie Eppley". Classic beauty, right? Our whole Work Crew got to see these beautiful faces on our Facebook group. 

Friday I got to go to school with Maddie! When she visited New Trier in September, she and all my other friends didn't even believe it was a high school. I'm sorry that we don't have a marching band and just got cheerleaders last year and look like rich hobos and don't wear colors at New Trier. I really am. :)

 

I had a great time pretending to be Maddie. Just kidding. I did get some stares and people asking if I was the new girl. My favorite part of the day was when a kid in Maddie's AP Chem class raised his hand in the middle of class, pointed at me, and said "Who is SHE?!" I said I was from Chicago in my Chicago accent ("Chi-kaaaah-go") and all was well.

Friday night after school Maddie, Soph, Halley and I went out to dinner. The four of us had a sleepover one Friday night before school started when I visited the first time, and I was so happy it ended up being all four of us together again. 

 

I love that it almost seems like Halley went on Work Crew with the three of us because she is so great. I love that even though Sophia fell asleep in her dorm and we ended up not being able to go to Young Life leadership, we all went with it and had the best time. I love that we drove around for forever singing to Disney music like Hilary Duff and the Cheetah Girls. I love that none of us like "Bridget Jones' Diary" because we couldn't handle the awkwardness. I love that we went out for a spontaneous late-night Giant Eagle run. Obviously we had to buy the half cake. Who wouldn't?

Saturday afternoon, Maddie and I went down to the OSU campus for the OSU vs. Illinois game. It was so cold. So cold. Thankfully we had enough fun people-watching and cheering for our favorite team that we were able to stick it out for three whole quarters! Then we caved and beelined for the warmth of Burgerworks with Maddie's dad and brother, Alex.

Being this pretty is hard work, as shown in take one.

 

Sunday morning Maddie and I went to church together, then sadly it was time to head home. But I wasn't about to leave without pictures with my new family. Mama and Papa Epps are seriously wonderful and so is Andrew, Maddie's little brother who was nice enough to pause his video games and take pictures. 

And of course... my love Maddie! I Twitter messaged Maddie after seeing that we were on the same Work Crew sometime in March. I was positive that we weren't going to be friends because talking on Twitter before you know someone in real life is awkward. I couldn't have even predicted how close we would be! Maddie is a gem (one of her favorite words!) and I'm so glad we get to be in a long distance friendship. Do those even exist? Well yes. We created them.

So... was your weekend as ratchet as mine?