Spandex Band, Lemonjellos, and Flash Mob

I had the opportunity to hang out with CIY Staff, guests, and Bible College Students during my time in Holland, MI. I really got to know people well during the weekend when we had a bunch of free time. On the Saturday night, we had an awesome picnic involving some tasty BBQ Ribs, KanJam (www.kanjam.com), and a baseball game. In the middle of our picnic some older dudes showed up on their bikes hauling instruments. It turns out they're called The Joybox Express (www.joyboxexpress.com), and bike across Michigan to raise money and awareness of the arts for children. The juxtaposition of their beautiful music playing and their spandex fitted bodies was the true expression of art in my opinion.

There is a great coffee shop in Holland called, Lemonjello's. I got in a little bit of trouble, because the ignorant human being that I am pronouncing words as they're spelled, called it Lemon Jellos. It's pronounced "Lemawnjawlos." It's kind of like the whole "Target/Tarjay" thing, except less absurd. They have a great atmosphere, wonderful coffee drinks (I recommend the Stress Reliever), and one of the coolest soda drinks I've ever had. It's called a "Green Army Guy" and here's the ingredients: green apple soda+strawberry+an army guy. That's right! There is a little green army man floating in your drink. Phenomenal!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Mike, Chris, Annie, and Bethany from Central Christian College of the Bible (www.cccb.edu) for taking the time to hang out with me. We all learned a lot about each other. For instance, Chris and I could become professional KanJam players if there were such a thing, Mike has an inner-Martin Van Buren like no other, Annie could never be on the A-team due to a fear of vehicles with open doors, and Bethany has strong opinions about Chipotle. They actually offered me a scholarship if I were to come to their school and gave me a T-shirt. I didn't say anything, but I would've come just for the shirt.

The last week at Michigan consisted of 1300 fired up high school kids, who I once again referred to as Martha. One kid on the last day, hugged me and whispered, "Marth loves hugs." I'm not sure he understood how creepy that was. This group was especially cool, because they pulled a planking flash mob on me. It was very well planned, because none of us on leadership had any idea it was going to happen. I was doing my thing one night on stage and when I put a picture up on screen, 1300 people dropped to the floor in unison to plank. It was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen.

In closing on my CIY MOVE adventures, the fine CIY people made a great film about the persecuted church around the world that they showed at these events. It's called Love Costs Everything, and was very intense, but also very challenging and eye opening. It's not available yet, but you can check out more info here: http://2011.ciy.com/lovecostseverything.

Dave

My Clogs Were Useless in Holland, Michigan

After San Francisco, I got home, mowed my lawn, and the next day went to Holland, Michigan for 2 weeks of Christ in Youth's (www.ciy.com) MOVE events. My flight was later in the day, so I got to the event with about 20 minutes to spare to get on stage. This meant I could only do half of my pre-show Pilates routine.

Fortunately, having already done the Durango event, I went in much better prepared and more confident. It's a good thing, because there were over 1900 teenagers there and they were ready to party. There were teens dressed as Gorillas, some as bananas, and even a kid in a camouflage, full-body spandex suit. He was kind of a walking oxymoron, because he wanted to draw attention to himself with the suit, yet it was camouflage. For one of the games I lead, I didn't have a prize to give since I had just gotten there, so I gave the winners a Sky Mall Magazine, and a Barf Bag.

I felt that referring to the audience as "The Audience" or just the name of the event was tacky and impersonal. I decided that when we were all together, I would just refer to the audience as "Margaret." Separately, the audience members were individuals, but as a unit they were Margaret. Kind of like how the different Power Rangers were The Blue one or The Pink one, but would combine to make that Vultron Robot at the end of every episode. I really feel Margaret and I connected that week.

On the Wednesday of the event they had a Volleyball Tournament. Apparently, I'm not too cultured, because I pronounce it "Tour-nament" and not "Turn-ament." Thank you midwesterners for setting me straight. Anyway, when I arrived at the event I met a team from Illinois that was gracious enough to invite me on their team. My childhood dream had finally come to fruition. I was a member of The Bleeding Frogs volleyball team.

Our first match is one that will be discussed for years to come by mostly me and other members of my team. Maybe just me. One of my teammates had a nasty serve and sent a message to the other team in an unorthodox way. She smashed the ball into her brother's face, thus telling the other team, "I'm not afraid to take anyone out, not even my kin."

We were down by about 5 at one point and on the cusp of defeat, when I had a sweet put-back that swung the momentum in our favor. We went on from there to maintain possession and score our way to victory. There was a lot of rejoicing, except from the other team, and the kid that got smashed in the face. Unfortunately, we weren't so lucky in the next round. Maybe we were tired, or maybe we should've smashed another teammate in the face with a serve, but we just didn't have it. We may not have won that tournament, but wherever there is a frog bleeding, it has been honored through volleyball.

Bleeding Frogs 4 Eva

Dave

San to the Fran

I got home from Durango and not even 24 hours later, I was back at the airport with the whole fam to head off to San Francisco. Not sure if you've ever traveled with a 2 1/2 year old, and 7 month old, but I'm pretty sure I've discovered the premise for a new challenge on "The Amazing Race." The plane ride wasn't that bad it's getting through the airport. You have both kids, luggage, stroller, birth certificates, bottles, and the love of family which seemed to have a slow leak as we made our way through security.

We landed in San Francisco at 9:30 PM Pacific which was 12:30 AM my time. You know how in Gremlins they weren't supposed to feed Gizmo after midnight because of what he would become? I think it's worse when you wake up a toddler and infant to get off a plane after midnight.

We went to San Fran for my wife's work so I'd like to thank the University of Pennsylvania for putting us up in a sweet hotel by the Pier. While my wife had meetings during the week, the boys and I hit the town. We were able to rock the Zoo, The Exploratorium, The Maritime National Historic Park, and the 39th Street Pier. Nolan and I also checked out a Giants/Twins game in which the starting pitcher was pulled after only 1 out (which was the opposing pitcher), and giving up 9 hits and 8 runs. What did Nolan talk about most? The trolly ride there.

It only took until the 2nd day there to realize a mistake we made. The main mode of public transportation in San Fran is Trolley Trains. Between that, the boats, and bridges, my son Nolan was in a sensory overload. We were basically on a real life train table and his head was about to explode. We'd step outside and he would literally start stuttering he was so excited. When I started running out of ideas for what to do, we would just go to trolley stops and watch people get off and on. What's odd is when I do that with 2 kids, no one says anything, but when I do it by myself, someone calls the cops.

All in all it was a fun trip. I had a good amount of seafood, walked a ton of hills, and had a homeless guy share with me his idea for a diaper that lights up when wet. I love that city.

Durango (Colorado, not the automobile)

Hey everyone. I'd like to give you some excuse like travel, family responsibilities, or witness protection as to why there hasn't been a blog in forever, but I believe I can sum it up perfectly with just 2 words: Lazy Writer.

It has been a crazy few weeks for me. Brian and I were booked separately to Emcee MOVE, which is a week long high school event put on by Christ in Youth (www.ciy.com) all over the country. Brian did an event in Tennessee and one in Florida. I did one in Colorado and 2 in Michigan. Actually, in the last 4 weeks, I have been in Colorado, California, Michigan, New Jersey, and Illinois. I have only been home for probably a total of 3 days combined. It wasn't that bad, except my kids are calling me by my first name, my wife rented out my side of the closet, and my dog keeps growling at me.

I will give you the run down on my journeys, but will do so in separate blogs. This first one is dedicated to my trip to Durango, Colorado where I Emceed a unique MOVE event that had over 900 teens from a church in the Phoenix area. Colorado is a nice place, but I do have one recommendation for those people. They should definitely look in to oxygen. We have it here in Philly and I find that it helps so much with things like breathing. Some might argue that the air is cleaner there, which it is, mostly because there's less of it to get dirty.

It was weird to be on stage by myself. I used to do stand-up alone all the time during and right after college, but Brian and I have been doing our show for over 7 years now. I mostly did jokes at this event, for 2 main reasons. If I were to do the songs, they'd all just be a cappella and some would be just a harmony, which can be off-putting. Secondly, the only instrument I would be playing is the Glockenspiel which needs the guitar to tone down it's power.

All in all I had a great time out in Colorado. I learned a new game called KanJam (www.kanjam.com), hung out with some cool teens from Phoenix, and discovered a new phenomenon called "Planking," which is pictured above. It's basically where you lie down very straight in unique places, and get a picture of it to can post on line. I wish this would've started while I was in college. I could've gotten some great "Planking" pictures around the Frat Houses on Saturday mornings.

All in all, the week was fun and a good learning experience for when I would be heading off to Michigan. I learned how some of the games I was supposed to lead actually worked, what material worked best and when, and not to announce Basketball Tournaments when they don't exist. I also helped organize the longest side-hug to try and set a record for the summer (video below).