There was a great difference between the first time I went to the Columban retreat and the second one.  Most importantly, it was the people.  The first retreat, I had no idea who anyone was outside of the band.  I was able to break a few barriers that retreat.  But as months passed from that retreat to this one, I was able to make a few bonds and now found myself talking a bit more people.  There’s a lot that could be said about this retreat, but I think the one that takes the top spot: IT RAINED.

To give you a perspective, there are no asphalt roads, everything was dirt.  Now add rain to dirt?  Mud.  But before we get to the meat of the retreat, let me tell you story of the setting up at retreat.  We arrived at the retreat center, with practically three SUV’s full of equipment.  But for some reason, we managed to forget microphones and our acoustic pedalboards.  I mean, those things were practically essentials.  We went wild trying to come up with solutions.  But Kim Pham-Vu, bless her giant heart, made the seventy-five mile drive to just to hand those things to us.

Okay, back to the events.  The night was pretty relaxed.  We were all exhausted and decided to go to our cabin and try to recoop for the next day.  We ended up watching a movie.  Day broke and we went for breakfast.  What a hearty meal it was.  Eggs, sausage, gravy, biscuits, oh, I drool thinking about it now.  Anyway, we went back to our dorms and began watching another movie.  As lunchtime rolled around, we added to our already bursting stomachs.  Then, we took the walk of shame back.  Oh, how we felt like pigs.  The retreatants went out to do their activities, and in that time, we continued where we left off in the movie.  But as the kids began to trickle in, I noticed something.  A lot of them were covered in chocolate pudding.  I have yet to get an explanation from someone about that..

The second half of Saturday changed the tone of the retreat.  As the sessions began to end and evening came crawling in, it was time for the heart of the retreat.  As the skits unfolded and we went into  worship of the Blessed Sacrament, we found ourselves sitting next to Jesus.  Conversing and confessing to him.  It was very heartfelt and meaningful.  Oh, almost forgot to mention Mike’s talk abut being consumed, it really stood out to me.  But as the Adoration transitioned to Face of Faith, thing began to lighten up a bit.

Now, this next part, to give you background, there’s a saying, “What happens on retreat, stays on retreat.”  Some stories are just TOO good to pass up though.  As I urged the rest of the band to go back to the cabin, THEY DECIDED TO STAY.  Follow me, you’ll see where I’m going with this.  So they decided to sit on the fireplace, in front of everyone.  As Becky was assigning dances to the group to do, (note, we’re still sitting there), someone decided to shout, “Hey, the band should do one!”  And thus we were assigned one.  Ballet, to be precise.  The song?  Dancing Queen by ABBA.  So we went back to our cabin and decided.  Are we going to just suck and be embarassed up there, or were we going to blow the fish out of the water and actually try to choreograph something?  We decided to go with the latter.

After a good 5 minutes of choreography, we went back into the room only to find out it would be postponed until Sunday morning.

Then it happened.

Then we dominated.  What. Up.

We’re still very proud of or title of dance crew champions of the February 2009 St. Columban C2 Retreat.

But yes, it was a great retreat.

And I’ve had a higher word count in this blog than any paper I’ve written for school this semester.