After all of last week's happenings as described beforehand in an earlier entry, this weekend was exceptionally great as well.

On Thursday night, I saw Brooks Williams in concert, and I got to go with Sarah and her mother, and met a few neat new people there. On Friday, I bid Sarah farewell for a couple of weeks (I'll be seeing her again soon enough) and then headed off to the songwriting workshop Brooks was leading. We ended up talking a fair bit about guitars and playing and theory, but I did still take in a lot of it (I don't play guitar, so I really was lost during several of the conversations) and will be able to share some of that with others. After hanging out with some of the conference attendees that afternoon, I headed back home in plenty of time to go back to my house for dinner and a short nap. I went over to one of the local colleges for a concert that night, but got there about two hours early because I didn't know what time the concert would start. So, I saw that right near the student hangout building, there was a track meet going on. I went over to half-watch the meet, but mostly work on some journal entries for English class (responding to poetry and such.)

Watching the runners, I had two thoughts:

(1) I was a distance runner for many, many years. I was decent, too, especially at the 5K. Had I not gotten my ulcer and quit, I might have even become very good on a more-than-only-local competative level. I probably would have earned an extra college scholarship to any school with a running team, and I likely would have been able to continue running throughout my life. It was never this burning passion -- I didn't think to myself "I could be in the Olympics someday!" .. but it was something I enjoyed, was good at, and considered part of who I was. I miss running every so often, and I've attempted to restart (just for the health and sport of it, rather than the competition) a few times to no avail. Watching these runners, though, I decided I really did want to restart and really did want to see if I could get good again. Step by step, though, so getting good won't be a goal for some time yet. Being able to run more than half a block without getting winded would be my first goal.

(2) I thought to myself, "Self -- How in the world did your team and family and other supporters sit around and watch you run all day at meets?!? I know when I was running, it felt speedy and quicknessey, but this just looks SO slow!"

However, when a bunch of the guys started the steeple chase, I realized that there was still the competition aspect to draw interest.. watching two of the guys compete for first was pretty exciting even though it felt like it was in slow motion.

So, then I went in and enjoyed (muchly) the concert.

On Saturday, I woke up just a little later than I normally do for school and church, and I took some time to gather things together. When I was ready, I went out to one of the local stores that was supposed to be having a one-year anniversary celebration. I got there before many of the festivities began, though, and decided not to stick around since the person I knew that worked there wasn't there yet.

Instead, I went out to the Hall's, who had called, while I was getting ready for the morning, to invite me skiing. The Halls are Bob, Terry, Rachael, and Ruth. Bob and Rachael had just gotten home for soccer, and Terry and Ruth were just leaving for horseback riding. I had declined the offer earlier on the basis of needing to prepare for my speech, but decided that I'd done a whole lot of preperation already (and I do better at improv speeches, anyway) and needed to have fun (and get a workout!) instead. So I borrowed their computer (and DSL connection) to gather a few more quotes for my speech, and then Bob and I went up to the stable where Ruth was riding to pick her up and take her boating as well. So Bob drove the boat, Ruth spotted, and I skied for about 10 or 15 minutes straight. (That is, one single run. No falling, no stopping, nothing. Just skiing and pushing my muscles past their limits.)

When I finally got their attention that I needed to stop (Bob was teaching Ruth, who is his 14 and a half year old daughter, how to drive the boat), I climbed in the boat to rest while Ruth and some girls staying at the house we launched from went tubing. When I'd rested enough, and one of the girls had wiped out enough she was ready to rest, I got on the tube with Ruth (she'd been one of my jr. highers since she was in 6th grade, and we get along great) and the other girl took the individual tube. We went out for a few runs in a row, which were all great. I wiped out once on this one, so fantasically that the other tube filled with water and sunk!

Needless to say, I was sore as all get out on Sunday morning, when the jr. highers WERE going to be taking a hike (so I came to church in shorts, a grubby t-shirt, and hiking boots.. we were gonna do our own service at the top of the mountain and then come down, have lunch, and go home) but it was all rainy so we didn't go. I had lunch with the family I used to live down the street from and hung out with all the time and some mutual friends, and spent several hours there. In the later evening, I came home, took a nap, watched a teensy bit of TV, and worked on my speech for today.

This morning, I gave my speech -- which means I'm officially totally done with everything in my communications class. I turned in some more work for Computer class, which means I've just got the take-home final and the powerpoint presentation we're doing during the alloted hours for the final left to do. I turned in my journal for my English class, which just leaves me with the book review to turn in on Friday. And I'm about to go to Ceramics and glaze a few pieces, which will mean just a bit more glazing to do on Wednesday and next Monday.

Not a bad deal. While most of my friends are scrambling for all the many end-of-term papers and extremely hard finals, I'm really smoothly transitioning into relaxation and the summer.

I am a blessed person.

Now I just need to finally register for the fall. That's on the agenda for tonight.