Florida Bound

I'm heading to Florida with Providence Soccer in a WEEK! Getting another shot at a NCCAA National Championship and I can't wait! We beat Faith Baptist Bible College 8-1 yesterday in our Regional Final, and totally came out wanting to win BIG. Two goals in the first four minutes helped a lot with this score. I almost scored, which would have resulted in the Stationary Speedskater... but it wasn't meant to be.

I'm actually listening to the live seeding show right now and we acquired the fourth seed for the tournament. Our first game is going to be against Philadelphia Bible College (#5). If we win that game we'll probably play Clearwater Christian College (#1), who won last year, so that'll be tough (but anybody can beat ANYBODY, right?!). Apparently we're going to be seen as the dark horse this year and that's perfect. Last year we went in as the first seed and I'm not a fan of being considered the favourite. It's better to be the underdog; less expectation and less pressure. People seem to be curious as to who's really injured on our team and how good we actually are also... excellent. If we're a mystery, we possess the advantage of being unknown and may be feared because of that. I'm excited for this tournament.
There will be live radio commentary streaming on our games at ccsnonline.com! I'll mention this again soon.

I just want to get to the final... no matter what it takes. It's a win-win situation though; if we get to and win our semi-final, we have a chance for our first NCCAA National title ever. And if we lose in that semi-final it means we get a pick-me-up mini vacation to Disney World... so those are two pretty decent outcomes!

Anyways, I just want to head down there now and get away from this chilly Winnipeg weather. This week better go by fast.

p.s. I don't really care for Halloween at all.

A Month's Worth of Weddings

Well, I didn't pull off the perfect wedding month but 3 in 3 straight weekends is preeeetty close! Time for a quick, few sentence summary of each... but first:

Life Lesson: If in doubt, collaborate when it comes to wedding gifts... especially if you're not family.

One thing I've learned, is that you feel way less pressure and more secure with a group rather than going solo in giving a wedding gift. Who wouldn't want to receive a gift from a bunch of friends, that shows love and appreciation with compiled thoughts and efforts! I'm not bashing individual gift giving... there's just power with numbers, you know?!

Alright, here's the summary... First wedding: Jesse Lofthouse & Jennifer Parker!

You already know it's going to be fun when you recognize and know over half of the people that are going to be there. And it was. This was the only wedding I went to this month that had a dance... and it was a blast. Actually my last one did too but I had to leave before it sadly. At times it felt like a rave due to the compactness on the floor. Fun times.

Second wedding: Owen Woodyard & Lorraine Fast!

This was my out of town wedding as I headed out west to Blaine, Washington. Small wedding, but included a significant amount of Bodenseehofers! So it doubled as a Bible School reunion. It was nice to see these people who I haven't seen in a few years and interact with them as if the absence never happened. Fun times. When Owen and Lorraine left after the ceremony and reception, they had people blowing bubbles in a gauntlet line outside as they rushed through. It was very creative. Here's a piece of that event:

Third wedding: Stephen Koop & Aymee Rahn!

This was another half Bodenseehof wedding (as in only the bride was at the Bode) but there was only a few of us from the Bible School who were able to make it. I didn't know many people at this wedding, but it was fun nonetheless. The cakes at the reception were UNREAL! I didn't get around to the Oreo cheesecake though, which I am deeply disappointed about.

Fun fact of the reception hall: I was fascinated by the bathroom technology; finally they are making the doors motion sensored! You wave your hand over the sensor on the wall and open sesame. Brilliant and about time!

Also, here is a priceless clip I captured of some children warming up on the dance floor:

My next potential wedding won't be till February.
Can't wait.

P.s. I'm going to miss wedding food.

A West Coast Surprise

BOOM, mission accomplished! I've finally surprised someone to the point of utter, speechless shock! Lindsey was STUNNED, and when I walked into that Boston Pizza it looked like she had seen a ghost (in a good way... if you can think of such a look haha). Amazing!

So it was on September 20th that I fully decided to attend a wedding and surprise my girlfriend in the same weekend. I can't believe I kept this a secret (with the exception of telling Josh, my cousin, the bride-to-be, and my soccer team) for a whole MONTH. Usually I crack under the suspense and start to laugh when I'm confronted... but this time was different. I conspired with Josh on how to surprise Lindsey a couple days before I flew out. We had a couple good ideas; one included me putting my phone in a box, starting a video of myself putting it in the box, and having her open it to a note that said "keep it rolling." I thought that would have been epic! But... my plane ended up being delayed and therefore we were delayed in getting to Boston Pizza in time to carry out an epic surprise. Josh had told Lindsey and Kaitlyn to meet him there because his parents had given him an almost expired gift card. Brilliant! I waited (as you can see in the video) for Josh to go in first and then I casually walked in and up to their table a few minutes after. We did end up paying for the pizza because they technically were offered a free dinner. Anyways, we went back to the girl's apartment and played Settlers. Fun times, just like in the summer. The next day I hung out at Trinity and White Rock with Lindsey before heading down to Bellingham, WA with my cousin for the Bode wedding/reunion.

At the wedding I surprised some people too. I actually was surprised myself at the amount of classmates that showed up! It was nice to see half of the first term 10-room present, and overall there was approximately 13 of us Bodenseehofers altogether. Congratulations to the newly weds, Owen and Lorraine!

I headed back up to Langley later in the night and actually caught the tail end of a Holsby reunion! And when I got there I heard of another engagement... unreal! Congrats Priebe and Stine! I can't believe it's that time in my life already where a lot of friends are getting hitched. This month I've had 2 weddings already and have one more this weekend. That's 3 in 3 straight weekends! Ridiculously tiring yet super fun (blog to come). My pockets are dented and hurtin', but I'm loving being Wedding Manny.

I'm also exhausted... I don't recommend traveling all weekend, playing the full 90 minutes in a soccer game right after getting off a plane, writing two papers, and studying for/having two exams in one week.

PEACE... I need some.

Surprise! (Prologue)

Well!!! I was out on the west coast this weekend! I didn't advertise it because I went out and surprised a special someone. I've never really done anything like this before, so it was awesome that it worked out!! I was also at a Bodenseehof wedding down in Washington, but I'll talk more about this weekend later! I'm boarding a plane to go home now...

Ciao for now.

Ps I gotta blog more often... Busy time though.

The Stationary Speedskater

Well, I'm in Moberly, Missouri... Yeaaah, there's not much else to say about that.

Jokes!

I am here for Prov soccer and we play Central Christian College of the Bible (odd name if you ask me) tomorrow, and Saturday we play Atlanta Christian College. If you're still wondering, we play in the NCCAA Div. II in the States. Fun times. If we win our region, we get to go to nationals in Florida. Yeyeah! Last year was so much fun. Though this trip isn't our regional final game we just want to play some other teams from different regions. It's not the best though when you have to drive 16 hours straight to get there! Especially on a 21-seater handi-bus (that's where a work-out mat for sleeping on the floor comes in).

Anyways, I should really be getting to bed rather than straining my thumbs on this touch keyboard. As John Legend and The Roots would say, "You don't say good luck, you say don't give up!"

Can't wait to show these Americans how it's DONE! If I somehow score this weekend (we've been practicing surprise/sneaky free kicks), my celebration will include the stationary speedskater. You have to see it to believe it.

CIAO... for now.

For Your Wildlife

Here's another impersonation of Josh (Extreme Wildlife Adventure Guide) I did while waiting for the trucks... Check it!

Untitled from Joshua on Vimeo.

PEACE, I'm off to Missouri for soccer. See ya next week!

"I'm Josh D, and I'm Gone... Peace."

This is one of the things I did while waiting for the trucks at the end of our canoe trip! Thanks Josh for catching on to my hint and posting this bad boy! Enjoy...

Manny as Josh from Joshua on Vimeo.

Just in case you missed it in the video...

Life Lesson: Disguise yourself as a friend; that way no one knows who the heck you are, and you've got an own costume of yours.

Lake Hillock and Haps

Alright, now for the canoe trip that I was on. I know this was just under a month ago, but it was such a good get-away-from-it-all vacation. Three words: So much fun. It's great to get out into the outdoors with a great crew of people who enjoy camping and enjoy each other's company! I used the word outdoors to describe our surroundings because I don't like using the word wilderness. It's not as wild as the word implies. You get out there and realize how peaceful, quiet, and tame everything is. Though it could be unpredictable and therefore not in your control, if that is your definition of "wild". But the whole time of our trip was calming and relaxing! Anyways, let's move along! We canoed a cycle of lakes and started with Lake Hillock which is a bit east of Kenora. Beautiful area!

It took me a couple hours to figure out the J stroke again, but I got it somewhat down and was cruising in no time (straight, that is). Most of our time spent was camping which was awesome, we played games, ate, relaxed, told stories, went cliff jumping, and swam. Bob brought a hammock which he said was a two person one, but Josh and I tried it and it wasn't that comfortable! He has it on video, maybe he'll read this and post it. We also quoted Brule's Rules ALL weekend, good times. Side note: I pronounce hammock, ham-mick; while everyone else that was on the trip says ham-mock. I just think it doesn't sound fluid when you say ham-mock, even though it's spelled that way! Maybe it's my Ontario accent creeping in again...

On the way back I looked after the gear as the rest of the crew hiked back to get the trucks. I made a new friend in those two hours. I called him Mortimer (I just love that name):

Life Lesson: Always be aware of where your toes are in regards to the location of a snapping turtle.

Yes, this ol' snapping turtle was brave enough to come out of the lake and chill with me. I believe he just wanted to bite my toes, but nonetheless this big guy was the best turtle ever! I lured him out by dangling my toes in the water and by tossing trail mix in front of him. He was about a foot away and almost pounced!! I would make a sudden movement and he'd retreat slightly but then always returned. I took these pictures with Kristin's camera, here are a bunch of others that she took from the trip! Enjoy!

Here are the two videos I promised. I KNOW I say wilderness in the first one here, so after my little spiel up top about how it doesn't necessarily hold true to what it describes, don't think I'm a hypocrite! It's the default English word for such a location! Step off... The road we were on was a wild ride though! Josh took a bunch of vloggish type vids on the trip too, hopefully he can compile them or somethin' and post them soon!

p.s. On the way back we stopped for dinner at a place called Haps. Great food, but the one thing I remember most was that on the back of the menu it advertized Naughty Bingo, Thursday nights. As the bingo fans we are, we were intrigued... not as good as it sounds. We'll stick with regular bingo.