The Princess in the Castle

This past weekend was Spring Retreat for one Mickeyla & I.

Retreats are always interesting, in that you get to learn so much and hang out with your class, goof off late into the night and wake up with the sun to avoid dealing with foggy mirrors and puddly sink areas in the communal bathrooms.

The joys of below 40 {possibly 30} degree temperatures in SoCal and ants the size of roly-polies, snow late at night that doesn't stick and is gone by morning, scalding hot chocolate in small styrofoam cups and Costco muffins for breakfast.

Me, actually. Someone else's camera, though.

The number of cameras attempting to capture every photographable moment was amazing to see. I've learned over the years that there is really no point in me trying to do that since there's always someone who's got the shot. And especially since I don't have a fancy-schmancy camera, they probably got a clearer, brighter, more beautiful shot than I could've caught with my trusty, little camera.

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Bananagrams done right.

One of the things I learned this particular Spring Retreat that I just had to share has to do with guy-girl relations, specifically all this secret vocabulary that the guys in GOC have that the girls aren't aware of at all. See if you can follow this analogy.


"There's a princess in a fortress. The princess obviously stands for the girl of interest, the fortress is any and all obstacles that either she puts in the way or that just happen to be issues that need addressing before the guy can get the girl. There are four ways to get to her: using a battering ram, digging a moat with a spoon, being a ninja, or posing as a violin teacher. 

The Battering Ram is obvious in his intentions. You can spot him a mile away and everyone knows that he's interested. He's relentless and persistent and eventually gets past all obstacles to get the girl.

The Spoon-Digger is much more subtle, taking his time and carefully and methodically wearing away at the obstacles in his path. He's intentional and quietly gets past her defenses without her knowing that's what he's even doing.

The Ninja appears out of nowhere, vaulting over the walls and surprising everyone. Basically, if she asks 'Who are you?'-- this can work out for some though, as can be seen by those couples whom you never saw coming {Who got together? I didn't even know they knew each other... *O.o*}.

The Violin Teacher is someone who was invited in-- never having to deal with the obstacles that kept out others. She's unsuspecting until one day, she realizes she really likes him. This could be that guy the girl never considers as possible significant-other-material, until she suddenly does."


These categories aren't exclusive and possibly not all the methods that could be used, but these are the ones that the GOC guys use and keep secret from the girls. A perk of being friends with a lot of guys is that, at some point, someone will explain all this secret lingo to me. *grins* And goodness, is it hilarious.