UYIHF 2010... (Part One)

What could be better than a day doing what you love most? I'll tell you what! Here's my Facebook status from this morning:

"...had an interesting day yesterday, full of sore feet, fainting people, sex offenders, three Lehi High-ers, a strange note hidden in a tree, a fly that drowned in fry sauce, becoming closer friends with one (okay, more than one) of the most amazing people on the planet, and a TON of singing! Gotta love UYIHF!!"

So yes, that is just the beginning of what my day was like.

Utah Youth In Harmony Festival is a day-long camp for all youth ages ~12-18 or something like that. You spend all day with (in my case) about 100 girls from all over Utah and learn about and perform in Barbershop Quartets. It sounded SO. FUN. and I was SO. EXCITED.

My day went something like this:

(don't worry, it gets more exciting than I'm about to make it sound)

It all started at about 8:30 AM when my carpool (which was very entertaining) and I got to the college where this was being held. We signed in and walked into the very tiny auditorium, which I swear was half the size of our cafeteria. We were welcomed by the Chair of the festival, were given a taste of Barbershop Quartets by an AWESOME women's group called Bounce. Then we jumped right into singing! They split us into boys and girls and started teaching us the songs from about 9 to 11.

It isn't even an hour into it the day, and things are already getting exciting.

We were in the middle of one of our songs when I hear this little "Ohh..." from behind me, and a huge THUNK. I'm talking riser-shaking, teeth-rattling THUNK.

Me and all the girls within 5 feet freak out and turn around just in time to hear and see the cause of the second THUNK. The girl that was standing directly behind me is suddenly on the floor. Strangely, human bodies seem to become twice as dense when they pass out. It's not like a dainty fall to the floor. This was as serious THUNK to her knees then another THUNK forward onto her face. She probably would have broken her nose but she lucked out and just missed the edge of the riser. The director, Tori, hadn't noticed any of this, and didn't stop conducting until we all started yelling at her to stop and that there was a girl on the floor. She didn't move from her spot, but relaxed when she saw a bunch of adults lifting the girl from off the risers. I guess she's seen quite a bit of locked knees in her time as director, because it didn't faze her. When she saw that the girl was awake, she just got us right back into singing for another hour or so until we had like a 15 minute break.... then back to singing for like an hour until lunch!

Here's where the Lehi High-ers come in.

We had to go to another building on campus for lunch, and my friends were slower getting there than I was. I got my sack lunch that they provided and proceeded to look for a table. There was none. They were ALL taken except for one in the corner of the room which looked really disgusting. I grabbed a bunch of napkins and started cleaning while looking around to see if my friends had come yet. They hadn't, so I sat down.

Before long, three guys wander over looking for a place to sit. I was thinking I must have looked pretty lost or lonely or something, or maybe they were just really desperate for a table, because next thing I know I hear one of them saying loudly, "Hey, guys! Let's make a new friend!" They come over to me and ask if they could eat with me.

Oh dear. Ooooooh dear. Having lunch with three guys that are obviously older than me who I have never met in my life? WAY out of my comfort zone.

I was going to say that I was waiting for some of my friends when I opened my mouth and said, "Sure!" Stupid instincts. I was pretty mad at myself for not even hesitating, but it turned out to be a good choice.

Of all the Juniors I could have had lunch with, these were probably the coolest. They introduced themselves with smiles and asked me what my name was, even though we were all wearing name tags. They made me feel really comfortable because they didn't try to make conversation, which really drives me crazy. They would ask me the occasional question like what school I was from and what I was interested in, etc., but there was no we're-cooler-than-you-because-we're-older-and-wiser-so-we're-going-to-ask-you-questions-in-a-condescending-way kind of awkwardness. They just cracked jokes the entire time. And they weren't even dirty, stupid one-liners. These were entire-conversation kind of clean jokes!

My favorite one that they started towards the beginning was when the one sitting next to me said, "Guys, I have a confession to make. I'm addicted to water. I swear I go through like five glasses a day!" Then another would say something like, "Yeah I'm the same way with air. I don't know how I'd live without it."

"You mean like my grandpa?"

"Yeah. Is he dead?"

"No, he's in a better place."

"But doesn't that mean he's dead?"

"No, he just lives in Bermuda."

The conversation would go on like that for a while until they ran out of random things like that to say. All in all, they were pretty darn cool :)

I shall continue the rest of my story in a later post, but for now I just need to get this one posted. Stay tuned for the rest of my exciting adventure!!