C'mon, peeps. This is my fifth post in a row!! SAVE ME!

I never got to tell you guys about DCON! WOO! (Well, if you read my xanga, you'd know, but that's another story...) It's full of references of people you don't know, so just ignore that part.

Left on Thursday morning around 10. Spent 2 and 1/2 hours in the van with about 5 other close friends. Dropped stuff off in our rooms and worked on stuff for about 5 hours. Had our final dinner together as a board at Olive Garden.... That has to be one of the happiest and saddest pre-convention moments we've had all year. Steph and her "pregnant" after-dinner belly, Preston serving mints, all of us sliding the salt and pepper shakers down the 16-person table, the guys sitting on one side and the girls sitting on another and realizing we were reverting to our middle-school selves... (Yes, I realize that this all means more to me than you and that you really don't understand the references, but this is me recalling what I remember, so deal.)

Headed back to the hotel and watched Erica's video, which was made up of pictures from throughout this year. My favorite was the pic taken at KFC on the way back home from Ohio last May, where someone had snapped me practically throwing the bucket of chicken at Janice, telling her to "take the last piece or face the consequences." I never knew someone had gotten a pic of that, and it just made everyone crack up. Or cry. Or both. Hehe.... *blush*

Friday: Set up construction stuff. Worked registration booth and gave out t-shirts and construction hats. (We had 320 people attend! YES! We met our goal of over 300.) Had a short candidate's meeting. Ran with the others to our rooms to get changed into our overalls and flannel shirts for opening session. Were introduced to all the attendees at 7:30 sharp, all in a dancing "conga" line and carrying large cardboard hammers, wrenches, and screwdrivers.

FUNNY (OR NOT SO FUNNY) STORY: During opening session, I was supposed to go up and read the invocation. When I do go up, I see that someone has written a note for me to ask a moment of silence for the Pope. And so I did. It wasn't until I sat down that Erica whispered across the table to me that the Pope was not exactly declared dead yet. So, all Friday night I was known to the guests as the "white girl who falsely claimed the Pope was dead." *sigh*

But the good news was that my first (out of three) speech for bulletin editor apparently knocked the socks off everyone and my impromptu question went well, too. Then we had the casual get-to-know-everyone dance, which was SOOO much fun!!! OMG!!

Saturday: Went to breakfast. Helped Steph with the bulletin editor workshop. My heart condition from Wednesday night began to worsen, so I got escorted to my room, where I stayed until about 6:45. (For those who don't know, when I get stressed, my heart skips beats quite often and I have trouble breathing. Saturday, however, brought on such a bad spell that I thought I was seriously going to die. Seriously. You can't breathe or think or do anything when your heart skips abeat every 10 seconds.) Around 3:00, Janice came up and volunteered to read my speech in my place at the House of Delegates at 5:00. According to a heck of a lot of people, she did a really good job. (THANK YOU JANICE!!!) Felt a little better, so I got into my poodle skirt and sweater and headed down to join everyone else for the 50's dinner and dance. Everything went SO WELL. I had so much fun, even though I couldn't dance because my heart would go crazy if I did.
The best part of it all was that random strangers would come up to me and make sure I was feeling better, and they were quite sincere. I was sitting down w/ Janice, and several guys, all independent of one another, came up and asked me how I was feeling and either hugged me or rubbed my back. I remember that after they left, I turned to Janice and she was laughing.
Me: "Who was that?"
Janice: "I have no idea."
Me: "I just got hugged by a stranger. A guy, at that."
Janice: "There's nothing wrong with that!"

Sunday: Farewell brunch. Cannot describe in words at all. When you have the entire board, filled with macho 17 and 18-year-old guys and a bunch of girls, all bawling their heads off along with half the audience, it cannot be said in the few minutes I have left to write this before orchestra. Long story short, I did get the position of bulletin editor. I was ecstatic. OMG... EXEC BOARD!!! It was hilarious because Charles Bentley, the KCI president, was in attendance, and he came up to me to congratulate me and went, "You spoke once, got sick, and still managed to win the elections! That's amazing!"

I am going to miss everyone. Gosh, the seniors..... I have no idea what I'm gonna do without them. :( I'd compare it to how Olivia feels with the Habitat for Humanity people, or how close Ash is with her small group, or the friends Jane and Ali have up at the Academy. You learn to live with them, and then you have to learn how to do without again. I guess I'll just take it one day at a time. *sniffles*

BTW, here's the schedule I promised:
April
6 - Wheeler from 4:15-6:15
7 - Holocaust speaker at 7
8 - KELLY CLARKSON!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! So excited!!!
9 - KC Exec Board training from 10-2 or so, Starbucks at 3 for another KC meeting
11 - orch rehearsal after school, lessons
13 - driver's ed starts (lasts until May 4th or something like that)
14 - Jap. II classes start (continue on the 21, 28, May 5, 12, and 19)
22-24 - KC LTG training
23 - ISSMA (how I'm gonna work this out, I don't know)

I'll add to this when I know of more stuff, like the exact date of when I'm going to see "Grease." NOTE: I want another group dinner. The one at Buca's in January was so much fun!!! I wanna get out and shop and talk and be semi-girly and not all professional and tense and working on crap. I want to let loose and laugh and just have fun. It's spring. It's nice outside. I want to experience all that and enjoy it and not spend my time indoors blogging. *cough* Like now.

Off to do PreCal. I want to keep my A!!!! MUST KEEP A! MUST SKIP FINAL!!!!

They will make horrid cheerleaders. Though I'd like to see Evan in a little skirt. -Mandy