What a week.

Some people have been asking me, "Lauren-why were you in Virginia with a bunch of kids?"

The answer is "Yes, and..."

Performing improv is a large portion of my life. I also use a lot of improv rules in real life, which sometimes means that I say Yes before I even think about things. Life is too short and all that.

Last week, I drove with 11 girls and one youth group leader, followed by a van with 3 boys and another female chaperone to Vienna, VA for a week of service through Week of Hope, a religious organization that teaches about the works of Jesus through community service.

I am an agnostic/deist.  I have my doubts but can see some sort of order to the universe. I definitely don't like organized religion. Definitely. Don't.

So, I just spent a week sleeping in a church classroom with those 11 girls and that other female chaperone. On air mattresses. There were 2 showers. For 60 ladies. Adults had to shower between certain hours. Meals were held in the gymnasium. I coined a catch phrase when I thought the kids were misbehaving. "Whoa, whoa, whoa." They started repeating it back to me by the end of the trip.

It was awful and it was great.  I was the sole person in charge of a group of 5 kids. 5 kids who ended up being atheists/agnostics who really just wanted to help out and hang out with their friends for a week.

Day 1:  Got there late. Did not get schedules. Did not get paperwork. Got assigned a group comprising of two girls from the youth group I was with and 3 from another group from Delaware. They were not very communicative at first, but were "besties" by the end of the week.

Day 2: Went to the home of David and Virginia, an elderly couple with some major health issues. Cleaned their house. Edged and weeded their yard. Scraped and painted a swing that they courted on. It was sweet and awesome. Then we fliered a neighborhood for 3 hours in the heat with no access to the bathroom. I was mad at that.  The pastor of the church we were staying in was a jerk. A big jerk. I kinda hated him.

Day 3: Spent all day at the home of Betty, a lady with heart issues and one lung. Did yardwork. All day. We got done early, but were at the mercy of one of the organizers as we had no vehicle. We spent the last hour laying on the grass under a huge oak tree, chatting about life and goofing off.  That was the highlight of the trip for me. The whole youth group went to DC. We visited a couple of museums. We ate junk food. I pretended to be running really fast on the Metro every time it started up.

This group of knuckleheads made the week worth it.

Day 4: Yardwork. All Day. At the church we were staying at. I took the kids to Starbucks and Dairy Queen. We ended the day by spraying each other with the garden hose.

Day 5: Yard work. Half the day. Then got to organize a flower closet that had an a/c leaking all over the floor. We put garbage bags in the baptismal pool. Classy. Two girls had allergic reactions to a plant and almost passed out on Benedryl.  Then asshole pastor made us flier. Again. It was stupid. We walked back to the church from the school where he had us passing out things to kids (creepy) , and he pulled up behind us in the bus honking the horn, startling all of us. As we walked past, I muttered to my kids, "What a dick." They laughed.  The kids were allowed to stay up until midnight. I told them to wear their blankets as capes. We went to Wal-Mart to resupply for the ride home the next day. I bought giant marshmallows and incited a marshmallow war with all the kids at the camp. Fun. Sweaty. Times.

Day 6: We finally left at 8:41am. Got home at 4:30am on Day 7 (Saturday). I got in my car, drove to my brother's house as Kevin was there and it would have been silly to drive from Delray to Gardens only to drive to Boca the next day. My lovely sister in law made their bed up for me. I slept til 8:20am and headed home as my brother was sick and sneezing everywhere.

I am still tired. I ache all over. I have muscle definition in my arms. I lost two pounds.  My mom and sister keep telling me that I need to run every decision by them from now on, as it was a crazy week and I really didn't even have to do it. Eh. I like my Yes, And attitude. I have much better stories to tell when I embrace it. And my arm jiggle is gone. WIN WIN.