30 Hour Famine

Okayy, so basically the 30 Hour Famine was sweeeeeet. For those of you that didn't go, a group of around thirty VIers stopped eating on Friday at 1:00 pm. We gathered at the church at 7:00 pm for some hanging out, worship, and a lesson from Annie M. Around 10:00 we went to St. Paul's gym and goofed around. By midnight we were back at the church. Some people watched House in the youth lounge, others played video games in the family room. I fell asleep on a couch around one in the morning and was out cold til ten =)

I woke up on Saturday really excited to eat breakfast. Then I remembered...no eating until six that evening. Grrreat. After getting up and dressed for the day, we all gathered in the fellowship hall and were split up into groups that we would be going around with to collect cans. My group consisted of Acheson, Slon, and Olivia. We gathered several huge cardboard boxes and shoved them in the back of Chris's car, then set out to Madeira. We had three hours, and covered two streets. Now, you have to understand that these two streets were the longest I've ever seen in my entire life...no joke. But the three of us worked diligently while Ach sat in his warm toasty car and watched a movie on his iPod (coughslackercough). Haha, just kidding =). We got to meet some preeetty interesting folks, just ask Olivia about the huge dog that she encountered, or question Slon about the creeper who begged her to babysit. But overall it was really fun and rewarding. All the residents were really generous, and we only got one "no" from the many people we asked to donate food. I think the hardest part was getting the two big boxes stuffed to the brim with cans out of Acheson's car. The first one got in the church successfully, but the second box broke, and despite a desperate attempt to save the food, the cans all ended up falling on the ground...but thankfully none broke. My group came in 5th in the can/cash competition, with 128 cans and 5 dollars. The money was given to me at the last house I went to, by this adorable little old man, who insisted that I buy the cans for him, because he was afraid his wife would get angry if he gave any to me. Overall, the entire group collected 1,400 cans, which is pretty good if you ask me.

When I told my family and others about the famine, the first thing they asked was: "Geeez, weren't you hungry? Wasn't it hard?" I'm not gonna lie, around five on Saturday evening, after 28 hours of not eating, I got a little grumpy and really wanted something other than juice and hot cocoa. Collecting cans was sort of hard, because some people gave us food that looked really good, and obviously I couldn't eat it. But I found that if you just stopped thinking about food and focused your attention elsewhere, you forgot that you were hungry. However, I could not live like that all the time. As Lee mentioned, we knew that after the 30 hour famine there was going to be a nice, filling meal for us to eat. People in Africa don't have that comfort. They don't always know when or how they're going to get their next meal.

I know that part of this famine was to help relate to the starving citizens of Africa. And yes, I felt what it was like to be really hungry. But I didn't know what it was like to walk six miles to get water, because all I had to do was walk to the drinking fountain outside the youth lounge. And as Katie K mentioned to me, it's not like all of us survived solely on water. There was juice, Fanta, and hot cocoa. You think kids in Africa get that? Most likely not. And none of us that went to this event experienced the fear that those children live with daily. We slept in a warm church, in an extremely safe community. None of us had to worry about getting abducted by rebels and forced to become children soldiers. So, while this famine did give me a small idea of what some Africans go through, it mainly showed me how incredibly blessed I am. I have lots of food in my pantry, clean water, a safe, warm house, and my community isn't unsafe or frightening. It allowed me to truly put my life in perspective, because when I get angry and might think that my life sucks, I'll just think of those kids on those cards that we read, who don't know where their families are, who have to walk five miles just so that they can sleep in a safe place, who are blind or paralyzed...and then see how truly lucky I am.

Overall, the thirty hour famine was awesome. I really encourage everyone to do it next year, because it's not only rewarding, it's also extremely fun. Congrats to everyone who did it, great job =). Wellll, this blog is already really long, and I have to do my homework now, so I'll see you all at small groups tonight!

Love you all very much,
<3 Hold-That-Line

Snow Day...again!

Ok, this is officially a miracle. Mariemont has had THREE snow days within ONE week. I honestly don't know how that happened, but I'm SOO glad it did!

Welllll I really don't have that much to blog about, because my Tuesday was spent inside writing my bio paper (biology is continually keeping me inside on these lovely days). But I did get to sleep in, which was awesome, but was woken up by texts from Katie Keiser and Maddie Barnhill excitedly informing me that we had a snow day and no school. Thanks guys =)

Did anyone else think that the ice on the trees was insanely cool? I took some pictures, which I might just post, if I ever figure out how to do this little picture thing (as previously mentioned, I am a computer dummy). So anywhoo, I was outside yesterday in the freezing rain taking pictures, dressed in my mom's coat and my dad's enormous boots (shut up, you know I'm cool), when the wind blew. Because of all the ice, the tree branches were all cracking and crinkling when the wind pushed them together. And if you stood really still, you could hear the ice/freezing rain falling. My mom and sister Katie heard three trees fall down, and apparently they were as loud as gunshots. I love all this weather, it's so pretty and exciting!

I hope everyone had a lovely snow day, please comment to tell how yours went (I really love getting comments, but so far the only one has been from my sister Julia, which is fine, but also sort of sad, considering I was sitting right next to her when she commented). The process isn't that hard, just type your comment, and make yourself a username and password, it's just like the message board.

Stay safe in all this slushy and icy weather, guys! I won't see you all until next Wednesday (the 21st...man this month is going by quickly), because I can't come to VI today because I'm babysitting, and Thursday afternoon the Mariemont band leaves to go to Disneyworld until Monday (SOO PUMPED). Have a spectacular week everybodyy.

Much much love,

<3 Gaburray

Snow Day!

AHHHH! Does anyone else think that this new blogging thing is INSANELY cool?? Personally, I'm ecstatic. This website is really easy to work, so you'll be seeing a lot more of these blogs of mine! Yes, I know you're extremely excited =)

Ok...so yesterday was a SNOW DAY for Mariemont, Madeira, Indian Hill, CCD, and pretty much every school in Cincinnati. I must say, when I was watching House (ski retreat got me addicted) and saw on the bottom of the screen that "Mariemont City Schools are closed", I jumped up and down and screamed. Yes, I'm being serious here. I didn't get to go sledding because I had a game that was an hour away and I had to be at the bus at 3:30 and do my bio outline (grr...I'm still mad. I mean, if both Taylor and Mariemont are closed, shouldn't there not be a game?? Oh, the injustice).

Anywhooo, I just got home from play practice. The musical we're doing is Guys and Dolls, and Katie Keiser and I are pretty much sleazy bar dancers. We perfrom from March 22-24, and you all should definitely come because it's going to be beast.

Allright...so here's the funny story of the day. Soo I'm a freshman, right? And freshman and sophmores at Mariemont take gym. And our gym consists of a 6 week swimming unit. Yes, our school has a pool, and every tuesday and thursday, at 8:40ish (second bell), I swim. If you know me, you know that I basically do not function until at least 9:30 in the morning. Seeing as this is way before the time where I actually become alert, I'm usually not a happy camper. Katie Keiser, Laura Martin and I are all in the same gym class. Katie Keiser + Laura Martin + Annie Gaburo + Cold water + Early hour of the day = Trouble. I guess you could say we get slightly delirious...or hyperactive, whichever you prefer. Something about seeing Laura flailing in the water trying to do elementary backstroke...running into Katie while trying to swim freestyle, or having Laura cut me off while she cheats while doing 50s just cracks me up. Just picture me laughing hysterically in the water, trying to swim, inevitably inhaling the water and only laughing harder. That's basically our whole class in a nutshell.

Oh, one more thing. I mentioned that my cheerleading squad went to the Gator Bowl over Christmas Break. Like I said, our outfits are preeeetty sketchy. To lighten up your day, I'm going to try and post 2 pictures of us in our lovely uniforms.

Don't forget...Thirty hour famine is coming up on February 23-24. It's going to be really fun, so don't forget to get your sponsors!

I'll post another blog later, once I figure out how to post a picture (I'm computer-challenged)

Have a fantastic week everyone, I love you!