this past weekend I attended my first (national) Higher Things conference and I must say I was not disappointed. I will attempt to make this as short as possible as I need another 15 hours of sleep.
we arrived (the conference was held at the Minneapolis University grounds) kind of late and got checked in, then caught the beginning announcements and pleanery (seminar attended by everyone) which was based on the new piece of fine toyery from Wal-Mart. when that was done the 1,200 kids there migrated to the chapel for evening prayer. That was my first Divine Service with more than 50 people. It was pretty amazing.
After that we had free time, in which myself and a few others hung around and lightsaber dueled. About 10 pm someone pulled the fire alarm in the dorm and we were all evacuated. That was entertaining. We eventually got back in and slowly began dispersing to our various rooms and dorms.
The next day Bob got up early and went to breakfast which was amazingly good for cafeteria food. The man who swiped my food card smiled and wished me a wonderful day. I met up with people soon; we talked, messed around, drank too much coffee etc. then came Matins where we sang and prayed and all that good stuff. After that was pleanery II where we were introduced to Rev. Cwirla's preaching/stand up routine. Then lunch, and after the man cheerily swiped my card I went about my eating.
i think my favorite class was the one on cults where we learned that Mormons think they are spirit babies, it would be an even fight in a cage match between the founder of the JWs and Jack Bauer and wiccans are amazingly annoying people.
After that we took over the memorial union, which then became ours by right of conquest. The memorial union is basically the U of M campus mall, featuring shopping, pizza and a massive game room. After having my butt thoroughly kicked at pool by Alex, the rest of the group and I headed up to the top floor to play apples to apples, at which I did, erm, interestingly. We finished up with evening prayer and I spent the rest of the night riding the elevators with large groups of other kids.
The following day was begun with breakfast at which I enjoyed watching a friend fill a hiking canteen to the brim with coffee, and then drink it all. At Matins we went to eh 3rd level rather than our usual 2nd. It was fun, watching everyone below us scuttle around like ants. They are lucky I decided not to step on them…
For a while we went to more studies, ate, drank and were merry and then came 4:00. at 4 the busses to Midway Stadium left and after hopping on one with someone I had just been introduced to I was off to the ball park! Bob found her to be quite pleasant. I believe the whole city is a big pothole, which includes what’s left of Dinkytown. We had a good time at the game, sitting out in the cold rain, shouting “pants!” when they played the charge music (don’t ask…) and playing games we picked up at summer camps.
We had evening prayer there which was awesome; we stood in the bleachers and did the liturgy in the ballpark.
Friday was both the best and the worst. It was, of course, the final day which was sad but at the same time we had all had so little sleep that anything was funny. Anything. This included people taking down eating pavilions, dropped spoons and old cars.
We finished the first service and went for announcements and plenary, then finished off with our last breakaway and lunch.
There was a massive divine service with 1,200 people coming up for communion which was awesome. Afterward we stayed a while to say goodbyes and take pictures, which we did a lot.
The whole thing was a lot of fun and Bob is still kind of sleeping it off. It is, however, a little strange to be around people 24/7 and suddenly hardly at all. So, now that I’ve wasted your time with that, make sure to beware the Ides of March.
