I'm Going to Dream of the Sahara Desert Tonight!

When you think dedication, what do you think?  Getting up in the wee hours of the morning to go work out, shoot, lift weights, or run.  Something physical right?  Well, on Sunday, dedication meant something completely different.

Sunday afternoon, we get back from church and we notice people carrying futons, blankets and everything to camp out for the night.  They were headed to Mackey.  Monday were the sign ups for the all important Paint Crew.  I knew this was a bad sign.  We had church Sunday night so I was looking EVERYWHERE to try and find someone to stand in line for us while we went to church.  I exhausted all of my options after many hours on the phone I realized it was pointless.  We were just going to have to hustle right after church and get in line and see what would happen.  Because, there are only 1,779 people allowed into the PC.  That is 360 groups.  There were already a couple hundred people in line.

It's 7pm.... throwing stuff out of the truck... I yell to Tori (Executive Board Member) "How many spots are left" She yells back, "How many groups?" "3" "Your in by 4 groups."
Biggest sign of relief!  I was praying the hole way from church that we would get there in time.  Thankfully we did!  I don't know what I would have done if we didn't get in, but that doesn't matter now, does it?

Dedication:  What is it?  I think it might be the following:
We (Avery, Bre, and myself) starting at 7pm.  We got our papers filled out and were officially in.  Then, we began to set up camp.  When I say camp, I mean a tarp, sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, and hot chocolate.  No tent.  It wasn't aloud.  This was going to be a long night.  Sitting there, we weren't too cold.  Until the sun went down, then it got pretty cold.  But, thanks to Michelle and Andy, we had some fresh hot chocolate and some visitors.   Later, Brian, Justin, Jacob, and Jordan came up to camp for a while to hang out.  That made the time go by much faster.  We were having too much fun to realize that it was cold.

Later that night, around 12:30, after all of the boys had left, we got down in our sleeping bags.  I was pretty warm, even though we looked homeless... I told myself, I'm only going to be cold if I think I'm cold.  So I'm going to dream of the sahara desert tonight!  I actually got to sleep very quickly.  I was shocked.  From about 1am-4am I got good sleep, after 4, the concrete started to get to me.  I never realized how hard concrete was until I tried to sleep on it with just a sleeping bag and a tarp between me and it.  I don't recommend it if you can help it!

We woke up about 6:30 because we just couldn't handle the hardness anymore.  I felt pretty good about the sleep I managed to get, all things considered.  Even though we did wake up with FROST.  Yes, FROST on our sleeping blankets, I stayed pretty warm through the night.  Avery and Bre left at 7 when Audrey and Michelle got there, because they had early classes.  I had to wait for another hour.  But I knew I could make it.  I was never so excited to see Justin in my life.  He was there to take my spot with hot chocolate!

So I went to class, and then decided to go back up there again around 10 or 1030.  By that time, the line had already moved to in between Mackey and the IAF.  I knew it would be happening soon.  At 130 I got the text.  WE HAVE OUR TICKETS!  I was never so excited to see those words in my life.  The expectations for this season are so great, I was just excited to get through the line with no problems and have the tickets in our hands.

Now, if November 2nd would just get here.

Boiler Up!