Good Samaritans and Square Dancing

I was still sick, and yet I served food all day Saturday. Is there something wrong with that, or is it just me? 

At 10:30 I met with the people from the Presbyterian church so we could go to the Samaritan Center to volunteer. I am actually Catholic, but it doesn't really matter. 

The Samaritan Center is in a basement behind a big green door, wedged between the YMCA and a cathedral. When we got there, I was really apprehensive, and it didn't help when this homeless man with an orange hat started talking to us. It was better when we got inside and I was surrounded by people I knew. There was this somewhat grouchy woman named Marianne who told us what to do. We spent most of the morning setting up for the lunch. 

We went looking for a bathroom at one point. There was one in the antechamber to the cathedral, which was above us. While in line, Erin and I investigated the cathedral from where beautiful organ music was playing. It was magnificent. There were beautiful windows, and a high vaulted stone ceiling. It was amazingly pretty.  Later, Erin joked that she had found the church that she wants to get married in. (Me, too). 

At 1:30, the doors opened and the people came in. It was a little weird. I was helping Ashley, Mackie, and Erin supervise the salads and desserts. I saw the guy in the orange hat again, with the weird voice, as well as a guy with major dreadlocks and a poor teenage girl talking care of her two sisters. 

Then I got demoted to wiping trays, which got really tedious and I didn't get to stand with anyone I knew. =/

At 2:30 it was over, and we got to eat our lunch - the leftovers, actually. The biscuits were actually really good. As we were eating, this guy named Adam (a homeless guy) came up and said, "Do you mind if I ask you some religious questions?" He was a bit of a nutball. He laughed randomly every so often and asked questions like "What color was Jesus?" and "I don't get it, so who was more important, Jesus or Moses?" It was very bizarre. I was kind of glad when we got to leave, also because my feet were tired. I rode home with the Noonans in their very crowded car (Jesslyn, Caitlin, Greer and I were all crammed into the back seat). 

At 5:00 Dad drove me to the high school to set up for the Square Dance. When we got there most of the stuff was already set up, so we were baffled why we had to be there two and a half hours early. I still am.  At least my friends were there. And we got the canopy that had Mary's cow curtains on it. 

At long last, the Square Dance started. However, by 7:45, we had an inkling that it was going to be a bust. About twenty people had shown up, and ten more showed up later. It was pretty bad. In the end, the total might have been around 40, not counting Interact kids (like me). So for most of the evening I just hung out with Mary, Kat, Sarah and Tirzah around Sarah's and Tirzah's hot dog booth, which by far beat selling popcorn to a non-existant crowd. I estimate that we sold four bags of popcorn, one of them by me. The majority of it we had to throw out in the end, though I took home a bag for Emme. 

I think the pretzel kids sold two pretzels. The nacho people did slightly better...maybe around seven to ten trays? They ate a lot of the chips themselves, so I can't be sure. The hot dogs and baked goods were probably the most successful. I'm guessing they sold twenty hot dogs? Probably more, actually. I'm bad at estimating. 

Around 8:00 ish, Kat, Tirzah, and I went up to the road to jump around and wave in the hopes of increasing our traffic. We jumped around and screamed for about ten minutes. No one even slowed down. They all just stared at us like we were crazy. A little while later, three boys (I don't know their names, but they were selling the nachos) came up and pretended to play with an invisible jumprope in the road. Then when a car came, they would run to either side and pose like they were stretching a rope across the road. They got a lot of cars to slow down, which is more than we can claim. We were worried that they would get in trouble, though, and we didn't want any responsibility in it, so we left. Sarah, who had seen, said that that was the most brilliant thing she had ever seen. I'm inclined to agree. It was pretty hilarious, especially when they got yelled at by a lady with puffy hair in a red car. 

I didn't square dance at all. Dancing isn't exactly my thing...especially square dancing. I did attempt the Cotton-Eyed Joe once, but not for long. 

For dinner I ate a bag of popcorn, two cupcakes, and two peeps.  Yum. The peeps were actually on the cupcakes, which was doubly cool.

The dance ended at 10:30. Minie and Dickie (my grandparents) took me home. Minie actually gave me a tulip! It's red and pretty...I love flowers. :) It was actually one of the ones that we grew in the greenhouse. It was a fundraiser for FFA, but as I am not in FFA, I didn't get to share the profit, which sucks because us amazing Horticulture people were the one who actually grew them, not the FFA people. (yes, we are "amazing". Don't ask.) 

I found a three inch long toad on the driveway. It was three inches wide, too. It was flipping HUGE. I need to think of a name for him in case I see him again. If anyone has any suggestions please tell. If anyone actually reads this blog that would be even more awesome.