We Survived...Barely

Well folks, we made it through Engaged Encounter in one piece. Every second of the weekend was exactly what I expected. The good news is, throughout the entire weekend, we were only forced to participate and share with the whole group once, most of the time the "sharing" was done on our own. Here's the breakdown:

Day 1: We started off strong by getting there a little late, luckily we weren't the only ones. Upon entering our rooms, which were in separate "cottages" we were greeted by a fairly nice but stark bedroom and bathroom. There was a queen bed and a cot in each room...that's an awkward way to make friends. My roommate had already been by to drop her stuff because, of course, she wasn't running a little late. We started promptly at 8:00 and the 2 "presenting couples" (aka couples that have been happily married for a long time) and the priest introduced themselves and we went around the room and did the same (this was the only forced group share). Then we jumped into our first 2 activities. What did we learn? I don't necessarily remember but each activity went the same way. Listen to the presenting couples talk for about 20 minutes about real-life examples of whatever the current topic is and then the priest wraps it up. We then separated (the girls and guys take turns leaving the room) and we had 20 minutes to write in our little journal about the topic at hand, luckily there were some leading questions to help this process. Then, you go find your fiance and spend the next 20 minutes reading each others journal entry and discussing. At 10:40 we were released to our rooms where we crashed. PS my roommate, Grace, a very nice girl from the Philippines, insisted I take the queen bed and how could I argue?

Day 2: Let the torture begin. Breakfast, which began with a prayer of course, was promptly at 8am. I tend to try to avoid 8am on Saturdays but I guess this wasn't an option. Breakfast consisted of fake eggs, french toast, bacon, sausage, fruit, cereal, yogurt, coffee and tea. We then had more "activities" from 9-12. Noon was lunch: sandwiches (turkey, ham or tuna), chips, cookies, chili, cheddar and broccoli soup. Then from 1-2 we had another activity and then the best part of the day. We had a BREAK...FREE TIME from 2-4 where we could do whatever we wanted, on the property. Many people took their comforters onto the lawn and laid in the sun like a weird picnic, we wandered around and rocked in the big comfy rocking chairs. From 4-6 we had more sessions, dinner was at 6 (caesar salad, tortellini, meatballs in marinara, shrimp alfredo, garlic bread, strawberry cheesecake). We had another sessions from 7-8. At 8 we hit the chapel for a teaching-mass where the priest did a normal mass but stopped along the way to explain things to those who aren't catholic (or don't pay attention normally). I actually enjoyed that because I finally knew what the heck was going on. Also interesting: In the cycle of 1 year's time, they entire Bible is read during sunday mass. Which leads me to my next question: If you get through the whole Bible every year, why go to church every sunday for years and years and years? Mike said until I memorize the Bible, that's flawed logic. I disagree. More activities after mass. One of these activities included pulling questions from the box in the front of the room where people could submit questions for the group to answer. These questions included "Is it true that priests hate weddings", "How does the church feel about women who undergo a sex change and marry a man?" and "If I'm not Catholic, can I still take communion at the wedding?". Most of these were nothing but awkward until we got to this communion question where one delightful soul ended up going into a fit of rage that ended with yelling "MAYBE YOU JUST SHOULDN'T GET MARRIED" at the couple who asked the question. I caused a scene in the middle of all of this because 1 person from each couple had to sit on the floor, Mike voted me. Of course while I was on the floor some strange bug-like creature was crawling quickly toward me causing me to jump up in the middle of the circle while Mike and his neighbors tried to find the monster and everyone else stared at me as I hopped around. As soon as I sat down it started crawling around again and the guy next to me had to kill it. Not sure how the church feels about that either but the person who was talking continued through my display of nonsense. Back to our rooms around 10:30. Oh and there are no TV's in the rooms, only in this little lounge that's in each cottage so we went and watched football with another couple.

Day 3: Breakfast at 8am. Our tummy's hurt but it's breakfast time: more fake eggs, biscuits and gravy, some garbage disposal mixture (which seemed to consist of ham, sweet potatoes, onions, green peppers and other unidentifiable objects), fruit, yogurt, cereal. Needless to say I ate very little and by this point, Mike was threatening to go find the completion certificates and make an escape. 9-noon, more activities. Lunch rolled around at noontime, I thought it was a joke. Actually it was a nice gesture but still a little poorly timed: Turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberries (which were too tart to even consider eating), rolls, and apple pie. The apple pie stuff was the best part and made up most of my lunch. After lunch we had a little seance or something. I just know there were candles and when asked to hold mine, I was certain I'd drop it and burn the place down. Turns out I just blew it out...hope that's not a sign of our marriage! Because we had mass on day 2 instead of day 3 as planned, we escaped from Alcatraz at 2ish.

Topics Mike and I discussed during our hourly 20 minute sessions to discuss our feelings: 5 minutes of feelings, 15 minutes of whether or not the duck in the pond was real (it wasn't), how sick we feel from the food, what we should get people for Christmas, schedule for Thanksgiving, the houses we've looked at and hated, reflection on how Belle's weekend at the pound was...ok you get the idea.

More details on the girl who exploded: She is weighing in at a very unhealthy weight but that's not as disturbing as her overall demeanor. She is having her reception at the Buccaneers stadium (which doesn't please her) and it's a Buccs themed wedding (which also doesn't please her) and her fiance is doing the planning. The colors are "red and pewter". When the presenting couples were talking about having a fair argument and not to use name-calling, they asked if anyone was guilty of that. While most people wisely kept their mouths shut, this kind lady shouted "YEA! I CALL HIM STUPID"....that happened early on Day 2 and basically set the stage for the rest of their weekend and probably their marriage.

PS...this post got very out of control in the length department!