And that's how a p.m. shindig is done!

April 17th, 2012.

What a day.

It was the first. The last last. The best. The worst.

I had slept too late the night before, & woke up too early the morning of.

Sleepy and emotional about undergrad and LIFEgroup ending that day, I started the day off in an unfortunate wow-everything-sucks-at-6-a.m.-grogginess. Jet off to Lansing to listen to angsty teens present world-changing ideas in front of a panel of old people with my friend Mandi, who was kind enough to drive me (Mandi, you will never ever read this. But thank you!). Then, bad news.

Got dropped off to Mason Hall for my very last college class ever, pulled up my g-mail and, bad news. Good news! More bad news. Followed by some sad news. Something exciting! Bad.

Walked home. Good! Bad. Happy! Sad. Angst.

(For more intimate details regarding all the happenings on this oscillating day, ask me to share my journal entry with you! Which I probably will never actually show you, HA.)

By the time I showed up at Viscount #17 for lifegroup, I was emotionally confused. At least my tan still looked good.

But actually, the entirety of this post was never supposed to be centered around me. I wanted to write about my beloved 2011-2012 senior year lifegroup, JARHEADS.

First off, everything about this night was just so good. On the car ride to 178 Easton Dr., South Lyon, I had the pleasure of enjoying an in-car concert, free of charge! Bryan, Barbara, Maria, & Albert graced me with their angel-voices. Especially Albert, who sang an incredible rendition of Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing." Windows down, radio loud, I knew it was going to be a good night.

Upon pulling up onto my driveway, who should come out to greet us but my mom, who's even smaller, and way cuter than me. And Findora! My dog, who's even smaller, and way cuter than my mom.

We hurried to make ourselves at home while the rest of the lifegroup filed in, one car at a time. Bryan started the fire in the backyard fire pit, errbody took lots of photos with Finny, and everyone enjoyed copious amounts of tuna dip and almond butterfly cookies. We did some brief worship, paired off to do an even briefer Bible study (which Jessica and I took to mean girl-chat in my room), and then everyone tag-teamed a lifegroup timeline poster. We ate dinner, which was super tasty. In fact, Jessica whispered to me at the end of the night that the only thing that could've made the dinner better was if we had some hot dogs.
 
Outside, we huddled closely together around the fire pit. I witnessed the most successful and high-speed game of "Boom Chicka-Boom-Boom" of all time; we played Bo's "Affirmation Circle" game, cuddled, worshiped, talked, laughed, threw glances up at the starry sky, and made s'mores, obviously.

 Then Bo and Nayoung ushered us back inside for presents!

They presented us with.. jars. (I love Mason Jars!) ("Awww")
Then Nayoung pulls out these incredible flip calendars for all the graduates (applause)

Then I, in a couth manner, turned off all the lights and Barbara emerged from hiding with glowing gifts for the leaders (very wild applause)
Then, Jessica stood up quietly and said, "And these are for the missions people," as she handed out large, autographed Nalgene bottles to everyone (medium applause)
 Then, Nayoung comes forward and presents Robby and Richard with Jarheads stickers for their gee-tar cases (the wildest applause of all)
And then, Nayoung remains forward and yells out, "Just kidding! There's more!" and she and Bo proceed to hand out Jarheads journals to everyone (very wild applause)

Afterwards, we discovered Bo's attractively long model legs, took a thousand photos (the kind worth more than 1,000,000 words), laughed and hugged and participated in an extended jam session, complete with multiple pianos, guitars, and tiny bongo drums.

Truthfully, when I look back at the ride that this lifegroup has taken on the Jar-bus, (or, if you're really sleek, the jaa-car), and all the nights that we've spent in the Jar-cave, and all the fun Jarbecues (complete with hot dogs) that we've enjoyed, I can only stand amazed at God. What started out as a group of awkward, though admittedly strangely loud, strangers, transformed into a family before my very eyes. I have enjoyed getting to know each and everyone single one of my Jar-fam members, and I'm more than blessed.

The car ride home that night was just as eventful. We resumed singing really loudly (except for Jing, who sang at regular decibel, and refused to get any louder), and more hilarity ensued. There are, however, two specific moments that I would like to document so as to remember them forever and never forget:

As we're driving towards Maria's house..
Albert: Oh look! Somebody got pulled over by a popo!
[the intonation of "popo" was similar to that of "grandma" in Chinese]

Listening to Flo-Rida's "Low" on the radio; lyrics: "she turned around and gave that big booty a smack, ayy!":
Bryan, who had been singing along and dancing excitedly: (smacks dashboard)
Albert: Oh my gosh Bryan just slapped my car. That's not good."

What a perfectly sentimental, happy way to say good-bye.

As Jade said that Bithiah said, "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER!"

Minus the 80 hotdogs that Bo chose to hoard for himself. Ruuuuuuuuuude.

Aaaaaand that's how a p.m. shindig is done!

Thanks for the laughs, the hugs, & the prayers. My prayer for every one of my beloved brothers and sisters is that you will continue to grow in your knowledge, love, intimacy, and likeness of Christ. When things are hard, turn to Him with faith and trust; and when things are good, testify to his goodness and grace. Never stop serving those around you; you do it so well! I pray that we will all continue to strive to do the ordinary things with an extraordinary love for God and his people. And that we will always strive to become as popular as Albert Wu.

I will miss you, Jars.

Cheers!

bcl.