Oh My Word!!! BEACHSTOCK baby!!!

You guys, I just got back from Beachstock '05 yesterday and OH MY WORD!! It was so amazing!!! Beachstock is an annual event (well, it seems set to be annual...this is the 3rd one so far) that's sponsored by the Hampton Roads Church of Christ over the USA's Memorial Day Weekend. It's geared specifically towards the Singles and Campus Ministries although a few marrieds did manage to sneak in :). The theme this year was "Live Right", which I guess is kinda self-explanatory.

It was held at a park in Virginia Beach, and so while some folks chose to stay in hotels or households around the area the more rough-and-ready among us (woohooo!!) decided to camp out in sites near the beach instead. I kid you not folks...nature...in pitch blackness...is a strange, interesting and kinda creepy thing. The B'more campus sisters (Aisha, Becky, DeeAnn, Maria, Rachel, Tina, and me) figured that we were hardcore and that pitch-black nature wasn't nuthin but a thing (what!!) b/c we just so happen to be gangsta like that. So yeah we decided to camp out and become one with the wild...and I have to tell you that quite a few mosquitos became one with me. We got there on Friday evening at about 7:30ish pm after a whopping 6+ hours on the road. According to Maquest it was only supposed to take us 4hrs and 23mins but we got stuck in some serious stop and go get-out-of-your-car-and-run-to-the-car-in-front-of-you-for-a-snack type traffic. Well i didn't do that (the get out of the car thing) but i was seriously tempted b/c aisha was in front of us and she had all the juice.

But I digress.

Friday
So yeah, got there at 7:30ish registered, picked up the tent we'd rented and headed to our campsite which was, of course, all the way out in the boonies (relatively speaking). While we were setting up camp (or rather while a generous soul was helping us set up our tent - thanks Isaiah!) a minivan pulled up and the brother in the front seat proceeded to warn us to keep all our bags and stuff zipped up/closed as much as possible because of the 'natural wildlife' in the area. Of course with an opener like that he had to be a Jamaican :). We had a short "You're from JA too? Which part?" conversation then he drove off to find his own site and I went back to finish helping with the tents and to share Natural Wildlife's advice. It turned out to be pretty good advice too because trus' mi...I have neva seen so many spiders in one place at one time. Usually me an spiders doan really have any beef, but one night there was this particularly fleshy, particularly large one that jumped like it had springs in it's legs...fleshy spiders aren't really my thing especially when they can jack you from a yard away...