If you're new to following either of my blogs, I'll catch you up on my purpose for running them. This blog has always been used as my 'mission trip' blog. I like to update supporters, family, and friends via blog. My other blog, Unbounded, is actually more for myself. I don't journal, but I do love expressing my thoughts and stories, and a blog sometimes is the perfect way. Unbounded can be a little all over the place, which is why it's probably best to just stick to this blog if you want to keep up with my actual stint in Venezuela. This blog will include a closer look into my stint, tell funny stories, and explain some stuff that my prayer letter can't. I hope you enjoy it and are encouraged by what the Lord will be doing in the ministry at Maracaibo.
Unbounded:
http://unbounded2011.blogspot.com/
Here is my story about my time in Chicago:
1st time newby! We were staying in Naperville, though, which was about an hour-long train ride away from the actual city. I was really confused about this... How were we in Chicago, but still an hour away from the city by train. Did the train travel around the city in a circle? I know Chicago is large, but I didn't realize how large. But I digress...
I was rooming with 3 other guys, one of which was John, my teammate. Now, I'm usually a fairly good bedmate whenever I'm forced to share a bed with someone.
~I'm slender and don't take up very much room.
~I tend to be very quiet and softer spoken
~Once I fall asleep I'm out like a rock
~No snoring, no sleepwalking, no nighttime activities
However, this week, I was almost the complete opposite person. And by this I don't mean that I got really fat and loud.
Some of these events were only told to me days after they occurred, but I'm going to tell them in the order they happened.
1st Night:
You know that point in the night where you are so groggy and delusional that you could easily be mistaken for a non-sober person. I don't actually know if this happens to everybody else, but it most certainly happens to me. Well at some time in the night I had just enough consciousness to know that I was stretching my arms across the imaginary center divide between me and the other guy, Mark. However, it was not enough consciousness to care.
My hand slowly reached across the bed to his face, and I just held my hand there. On his face.
Now I don't know if I thought this was a dream or what at the time, but it didn't even phase me. I knew it was happening, I think. And this is why the Bible tells us not to be drunk with wine. Because things like this become suddenly acceptable (For those of you who randomly skipped to this paragraph, no I was not drunk, I was in a sleep-like stage that mirrored that of being tipsy).
Anyways, a couple days later, bless his heart, Mark and I are sitting down and he tells me about it, thus confirming that it definitely was not a dream. Why he never broke my arm and flung it back in my own face, I'll never know.
2nd Night:
Before you can fully understand what happened this night and share emotional sympathy for Mark, I must explain more about our living situation. We were living in a Marriott Hotel in which the AC was set on the Arctic Tundra setting. Everything - the hallways, the bedrooms, the conference rooms - were freezing cold. Why we didn't think to at least turn the temperature up in our room until like the 3rd night is also beyond me. Needless to say, the Marriott blankets were a key asset to not getting frost bite during the night. Now, me being the excellent planner that I so naturally am, brought nothing but shorts and t-shirts for this trip. Because it's summer, and all weather everywhere, whether inside or out, should require me to put no more clothes on than a thin shirt and some shorts.
Each night I would sleep with just some gym shorts that I brought with me. The beds were so comfortable that I needed nothing more. However, the room was so frigid that to be out of the blankets was instant cold death.
One thing fancy hotels like to do is put a nice blanket folded horizontally across the bed that covers just yours legs for aesthetic appeal. Obviously, you can unfold it and use it as an actual blanket, or just chuck it on the ground.
Well, the second night rolls by, and I wake up grasping the edge of the blanket. However, it's not the edge of the blanket that's even supposed to be on my side. It's the edge of the blanket from Mark's side. Apparently, throughout the night, I kept pulling the covers over myself and letting the excess blanket fall to the ground. So when I woke up, the entire blanket was on the ground except for a little portion covering myself. Again, in my sleepy mode, didn't think anything of it.
Mark confronts me that night, bless his heart once again, and asks me what happened to the covers last night. He was forced to use the leg blanket after waking up in the middle of the night from being cold and blanketless.
3rd Night
So after recently being told of my sleeppranking, I made every effort before I fell asleep the 3rd night to tell myself to not be a jerk while sleeping. After a few hours of sleeping, something woke me up ever so slightly to catch in my peripherals Mark slowly arising from his slumber. He was muttering some words that didn't make sense. At first I couldn't tell if he was awake and talking to himself or if he was just sleeptalking. But after a few more moments, I knew he was definitely still asleep. He got out of bed and just stood there motionless for a few seconds.
Now if you've watched some of the same horror movies I have, your heart would probably be pounding just as hard as mine was at this point. Still very sleepy, my mind went to the only explanation I could conjure up at that point: Mark was being possessed by a demon. My body completely stiff, I watched as he walked over to his pillow that had been pushed farther down the bed, mutter something than pick it up.
I was a little more awake now, but still not enough to be at all rational. I braced myself for the worst, believing that he was going to smother me with his pillow for all the psychological pain I caused him throughout the last two days. You may find this hard to believe, but yes, I truly thought these things at this point in the night.
Anyways, he suddenly collapsed on his side of the bed, falling to sleep shortly after. I knew I was safe for the night and fell back asleep myself.
With all this being said, Mark and I got along quite well while we were awake, the few times we saw each other.
I'll post a more serious and thoughtful Part 2 at some point in the near future giving you more insight into my time at Chicago.
No comments:
Post a Comment