I will post a brief recap of the retreat so that too much time doesn't slip by without having at least noted some key aspects of it.

Friday afternoon, I got a ride with my friend from biblestudy, because there was space for 1 more in the car she was riding in. I prayed that there would be nothing hindering any of us on the retreat, praying that the Lord would send his angels to clear our path and keep away any spirits that wished to do us harm or deter us. I packed up my stuff, left my house around 3:30, got to my friend's house about 4, which was the time she told me we were all meeting up to leave, lol, we left about 5. There were 4 of us in the car, (The names have been changed to protect the innocent [lol]) Tiffany, Annie, Ryan, and me. Ryan was driving. We went to his parent's house for dinner. Wow! That was an amazing dinner! Tiffany stated what I was thinking, and possibly what Annie was thinking too, but she was quite quiet all weekend, so I don't really know.. Tiffany: "Wow, when I saw this place, I thought that's such a beautiful home! And then he pulled into the driveway!" The house was very beautiful! Ryan introduced me to his parents and his younger brother (who is bigger than him, lol). They are very cool, very polite, and very welcoming ^_^ I love them. His mom made us a 4 course meal! =-O I was like Wow. THe appitizer was a curried carrot and sweet potatoe soup, the next course was an apple and walnut salad, the main course was something with chicken and rice pasta noodles (don't remember exactly what, but it was good!), then there were 2 desserts, cranberry apple crisp (mmmmmm.........) and vanilla waffers with a pumpkin dip. As I was eating the cranberry apple crisp, Ryan's mom politely said to me that if I didn't want to eat it, it was perfectly all right. ANd I told her no, I'm just eating it slowly because it's very very good, then I tried to describe it, and got tongue tied, so I just left it at it's very very good, and just continued eating. Tiffany teased me by saying "he said very like 6 times" we all laughed, and Ryan's mom said "No, don't exaggerate.. it was only 3" and we all laughed more. It was good fun :)
~started this post at 7:00... current time 7:20... brief... >.< ~
We then went to Paradise, PA to where we were having the retreat. Just about everyone seemed to arrive about the same time, 8:00. First night we just hung out together, I played a game of chess. i felt really disconnected from everyone.. everyone had broken up into little groups of like 2's 3's and 4's and were having their own little conversations about stuff I didn't know about, wasn't interested in, or they were relativly private. so i just went to sleep about 11. Saturday morning got up, had breakfast, poked fun at all the people waiting for coffee ^^;; then we had our first meeting/class/discussion and it was about Worship. (the retreat was basically about what our church believes and what it means to join in membership) Then there was a break time, then another meeting about community. Then lunch, then another break time, then dinner, then a meeting about tithing and the church's budget. Then hang out til whenever you wanted to go to sleep. Then Sunday morning breakfast, meeting about baptism and the sacraments. Then eat leftovers for lunch, clean up, and go :)
Saturday I was really disconnected... i was in such a beautiful place but i could not see what was right in front of me... i felt constricted and contained in such an open and free environment. i kept praying about it though. i knew in my mind that the day was beautiful, but not in my heart... it was quite unnerving. I got to talk with my friend Bob though, he rocks. It's easy for me to encourage him because it seems like the main source of discouragement he has is himself. Talking with him helped get me out of being stuck in the void i was in. After lunch I took a nap, mostly cause i couldn't find anything to do and felt a bit tired. The evening was good. I kinda thought that the opportunity would come for me to have a conversation with Tiffany. And the opportunity came, and we had a good long conversation about our family lives. The next day it was hard for me to keep my attention off of her.. i was just aware of wherever she was, no matter what I was looking at. That only lasted a few hours though, so that's good. When we left, we stopped at Ryan's house again to drop off sleeping bags. Ryan's mom gave us a tour of the outside of the house, she has a beautiful arrangement of trees and benches and gardens. Ryan's parents gave me an open invitation to come visit them whenever I need to get out of the city ^_^ I want to go back in the spring or summer to see the trees and plants when they are in full color. Ryan gave me a ride back all the way to my house, which was cool :) And he gave me his number. He's cool :) I think I got to learn a bit about him over the weekend.
And that's about the long and short of it ^_^ lol, a lot less brief than I had expectec, but I did cut out elaborate visual details.