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