A Grand Rapids Weekend

"This is not what I want,
This is not what I planned,
And I just got to say,
I do not understand"

All joking aside, this weekend did not go as planned, AT ALL. But that was okay. It was amazing anyway. I got to be with friends and attend a fabulous conference and a hockey game and make wonderful memories.

Several months ago, Phylicia Masonheimer started talking on her Instagram stories about an idea for a conference in Southern Michigan. Would people be interested in coming? I immediately sent the story to my two friends to see if they'd want to go? Eventually we had details and someone suggested that we make a whole girls' weekend out of it. Go Friday to sightsee in Grand Rapids, do the conference on Saturday, and sightsee more on Sunday.

You know what they say about the best laid plans. Things came up for both of them on Friday, so instead, they wanted to drive out Saturday morning. Well, I'm not a morning person. I texted my friend who actually goes to school at the college where the conference was being held to see if I could stay with her Friday night. She said "no problem" so I drove out on Friday and spent the evening with her.

We used to be in a girls' Bible study group together in high school and since she's away at college, we only see her in the summer and at Christmas. It was nice to spend some time with her and see her campus.

Saturday morning we got up to attend the conference. There was a morning session on discernment & depth. Discernment is something I've really struggled with recently and Phylicia had some good insights for me to think about. As far as depth goes, she is all about helping women get into the Word for themselves. She shared about why it is so important for us to know what God says and it actually tied in to her afternoon session, which was on church history. I love history, so that was very interesting to me. I know some, but there was new stuff for me as well. The reason she wanted to talk about that was because it is important to know the "legacy of faith" that we come from and to see what the church has gone through to get to where we're at today.

The conference was very well done and I would totally go again if she did one next year.

A close friend goes to one of the other colleges in Grand Rapids (there's about fifty*) and he plays on their hockey team. Last year we were robbed of getting to see him play TWICE and this year, the one time he'd be by us, the other team had to forfeit. But thankfully, he had a home game while we were there, so after the conference, we went to see him play. It was a good game and they won 9-0! If you know anything about hockey, you know that's a crazy score.

The game was long and by the time we got to see him and he was done talking to everyone, it was almost nine and we still had to go to dinner! Most of the places we had as options to eat were closing at nine, so we ended up going to Chipotle with our friend and one of his good friends from school. Then we stayed there until it closed at ten. Our friend wanted us to come back to campus to hang out but we needed to check into to our hotel still and we were tired.

A very grainy selfie in Chipotle :)

Our hotel room made SO. MUCH. NOISE! The door made weird noises, the fridge/freezer sounded like there were Riverdancers in it, and the heat/air conditioning unit sounded like a sci-fi machine every time it started up and stopped. But it was a room and it worked for us.

Sunday morning we got up and got ready for church. We were planning to eat some of the grab and go breakfast the hotel had but there was oatmeal with no spoons or hot water, one kind of muffin, and some granola bars, so we ended up getting bagels and smoothies at Panera. Then we met our friend and two of his friends at church. After church we went to campus and hung out with our friend. We played fooseball (we played three times to all be on each other's teams and my team won each time! I haven't played since high school :) and met his roommate. Then we were going to have lunch at a place called Anna's House, but it was PACKED, so we went to Grand Traverse Pie Company instead. I'd never been there before and it was good. (Note: my cell phone stopped working for several hours Sunday morning. There was an error on their end, but it was a bit of an adventure all the same).

Guys, I'm a planner. I like to make lists and have things scheduled because then it saves time in the moment. It's borderline a problem with control which is why when I do things like this weekend, I am VERY careful to watch myself and make sure I don't let my desire for plans and schedules become controlling. I roll with it. It's hard, but it's important. So, yes, I planned and had addresses and times, but when it came down to it, we didn't need any of it. We didn't do any sightseeing or eat at any of the restaurants we thought we would. The only things that went as planned were the conference and the game. Even the church ended up being different, as we went to a different campus than we originally were going to attend, but we had fun and spent quality time with good friends and that's what counts.

Have you done a trip that was totally different than planned? What was a trip you have fond memories of? Have you done a trip just with some friends? I'd love to hear about it!

*I'm pretty sure it's not fifty, but there are A LOT of colleges in Grand Rapids.