Sunday, June 28, 2009

Wow. The ACS is Cool.

The last two weeks have been crazy.
Science Fact: #1 You have more bacteria living in your small intestine than the total number of cells in your whole body.

We haven't been up to anything special, just a lot of little things.

The mini burritos.

For those who have been dying to know we got our car back out of the shop. The "Rear Main Seal" is a $35 part which cost us $650. You have got to love an industry with very little competition in it. The company that did the work did a good job and ended up sucking up the cost of buying a broken part first, and allowing us to borrow a car from them for the week. They did a good job.

The other exciting thing was that I failed the FA100 class for this semester. You have to attend 7 events throughout the semester and we lost our tickets on Saturday, plus I was beyond exhausted from staying up all night and then working that day so we didn't go. It was the last choir event of the semester so I missed it and that means. . . I'll be repeating the class next semester. Grrrrrr. Oh well, Band was a blast and I enjoyed the play too.

The coolest part of this week happened Friday night starting at 6:00. I headed over to the local high school and spent that night until the next morning counting money. Oh it was nice. I brought a bunch of homework with me hoping to be able to do a bunch of it. I got nothing done.

Instead I watched as a little tiny town like Rexburg with a total population (including surrounding areas) of about 30,000 raised over $35,000 in the fight against Cancer. It was pretty darn awesome.

The best part of the day was the rainfall. It downpoured at about 4:00 for 20 minutes and then stopped suddenly. The grey and nasty clouds overhead were really high and I had great hopes that we wouldn't see anymore.

At 5:30 I got to the high school for the team meeting and again it started to pour. At this point quite a few of the teams were disheartened because they had put a lot of work into decorations and what-not and it was all ruined. A few even went home. Those who stayed were in for a miracle. It stopped raining at 5:50 (remember it started at 6:00) and then at almost 6:00 exactly the sun broke through and lit up the entire track and field and it remained sunny and nice throughout the rest of the day. The evening and night were only slightly freezing and the next day dawned bright and early and beautiful.

The best parts of the night happened during the first lap, when the survivors walked and I was so amazed and overwhelmed watching grandma down to a little girl walk that first round, some with crutches, some riding in the golf cart. The most amazing was a woman who was quite bowed with years. A young man, probably her grandson walked beside her with a wheelchair in case she needed it, but she made it the whole way and even went the second lap with all of her caregivers and family around her. I was quite literally crying as I watched the strength of these people who have gone through a hell I can only imagine.

The second most amazing part was watching them light the luminaria bags. One bag for each family member or friend that was being celebrated and remembered. On the bleachers they spelled out the word HOPE and then with a few minor changes it became CURE. The rest of the bags lined the track and provided a ring of illumination for those who were walking.

The night was full of activities from tennis ball in a pair of hose tournaments to giant twister games it was fun. I think I would have recommended a guitar hero stage area... Everyone knows that I would have spent quite a lot had there been one, so it is probably for the best. I am so grateful that I was able to be a part of it. We raked in over $13,000 that night alone because of the generosity of the people. Checks were flying and cash was just as prevelent. Hearts were generous and I am excited to get involved with the Tucson group for next year. I was definitely touched.

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