I'm going to give you the most in-depth view of convention because I'm just like that. I will describe just about every event that seemed important in order. So here goes.

Well I woke up Friday morning a little before 6 full of excitement. I packed the remainder of the things I needed to bring that I also had needed that morning. I brought my duffel bag downstairs. Most of my stuff was already at the school since I had brought my suitcase to Mrs. Holmes' room at the Key Club meeting the night before. A little later, Jill and I left for school and sat through two boring periods, Sociology and Accounting 2, before preparing to board the bus. We met up with the rest of the Club in Mrs. Holmes' room and walked down the hallway to board the bus, which already contained Spalding's Key Club

Once on the bus, we began our approximately 4 hour drive down to Chesapeake, Virginia where the convention was being held. We watched "Liar Liar" and listened to music to pass the time. I got Danny and Mrs. Holmes to sign a page in the scrapbook which was necessary to enter. I had worked for about 30 hours on the scrapbook over the past few weeks and was fairly confident about our chances in winning the contest. I didn't want to be too confident though so as not to set myself up for disappointment. We stopped at Burger King for lunch. The brewing relationship between Mike Robertson and Spalding's Katie Goff was obvious and predicted by many.

When we arrived in Chesapeake, we found out that the Key Clubs were scattered around three different hotels and all the meetings would be held in a convention center in the middle. Luckily, we were staying in the Holiday Inn, the nicest and largest of the hotels. In the lobby, we picked up a free, ugly Capital District t-shirt. Different from last year, we got our rooms right away and went up to hang out in them. All of the Arundel Key Clubbers were staying in the same section of the 4th floor, a nice location because it was right next to the rooms of all the cool LtGs.

We got back on the bus at 4:30 to leave for dinner. Busdriver Bob started driving looking for a nice place to eat. We wound up going about 20 minutes out of our way before backtracking to a Pizza Hut. We picked some songs for the juke box, including "No Woman No Cry", "Big Pimpin'," and "Aaron's Party." Like every Pizza Hut I've ever been to, the service sucked so, even though we were in a rush, we didn't wind up leaving until around 6:45 when the opening session was supposed to start at 7.

We got back to the hotel complex and rushed into the convention center. Luckily, the majority of us were already wearing our cool D-14 shirts which we had purchased from Susan earlier and which was considered proper attire for the event. This was the fun meeting in which each division showed their pride by making as much noise as possible. Division 14 was the largest there and we definitely showed it. Susan brought noisemakers for all of us and we put them to good use. Every time throughout the weekend that D-14 or Susan was mentioned, we cheered as loud as possible.

After the meeting, since nothing else was scheduled as necessary to attend for the rest of the evening, we went back to our rooms to chill. I'm not gonna lie and say we didn't make any purple (defined as girls in guys' rooms and vice versa). We did. Mike hung out with these three chicks who must've been cool since they had heard of Hybred, but wound up hooking up with Kathryn, an LtG who was sharing a room with Susan.

Like last year, we made our appearance at the casual dance that night wearing ultra-casual clothing: pajamas. Last year, we had worn only boxers, but we decided to be slightly less progressive this year, especially since we had to walk from our hotel to the convention center. Most of us left the dance soon afterwards since they weren't playing much good music, although word is they played some New Found Glory later on. So back to our rooms we went. Many of us wound up in room 403 which was assigned to Danny, Mike, and I and which would become the party room many times throughout the weekend. Since the hotel had free HBO, we watched "Real Sex" until curfew at 1 am. Interesting stuff.

Saturday morning began when the alarm went off in our room at 7:30. We were supposed to be at a meeting at 8:45. We heard loud talking outside our room and when Mike opened the door, we found out we had been pranked. There was an incredible amount of toilet paper and other trash sitting in front of our door. So much that the door was hard to open. We started looking through the trash and found a paper with the name "Briggs" on it. Obviously we guessed that Eric, Jed, and Nick, who were in the "Briggs" room had done it. But we found out that they had only added trash to the pile, which I'm still pondering why. The Meadians had contributed the toilet paper to the mess. We immediately started thinking of ways to get back at them. Our best idea was tricking the hotel into giving us a key to their room, then covering their shower drain and turning on the water. Eric put duct tape on the windows of his and our rooms spelling "D-14 Rules." When I looked out the window for the first time, I saw Talia, one of the Meadians, standing outside about to take a picture of the windows. I managed to stick up my middle finger just in time for the picture. Boy do I hope that one comes out.

The Saturday meeting was boring, doing little besides announcing the activities for the rest of the day. Immediately after the meeting, the forums were held. These were designed to teach the attendees about certain aspects of Key Club. There were forums for Presidents, Vice-Presidents, etc., along with forums dedicated to such things as public speaking and ice breakers. Jill and I decided to skip the forums since we didn't think we would be able to spend any other time alone the rest of the weekend. Don't worry though. We didn't do anything TOO purple.

Later in the day, the caucuses were held, in which candidates for the district board positions gave speeches to each division. After the speeches, members of the divisions got to ask serious and silly questions of the candidates. Danny received a number of pickup lines, the best coming from governor candidate Lacie, who we knew not to vote for based on that alone. Stephanie, a Broadneck Key Clubber, friend, and editor candidate, came to our caucus accompanied by Mike, who was serving as her campaign manager. She made fart noises for us and danced. When we were done questioning her, we made Mike slither like a snake out of the room. After the completion of that part of the caucus, Susan handed out gifts to certain people in the division. I got a toy bowling set since I had kicked everyone's butt at a bowling event we had held in January. Also, each of Arundel's officers were honored as distinguished.

Next, we had a little time off. Mike hung with Kathryn more and we threw a hallway party. A security guard yelled at us saying that we created a fire hazard by sitting in the hallway. So we went into our rooms instead and made purple. Hey, it was her fault, not ours. Finally the time came for the Banquet, the dressiest event of the weekend. I wore my nice suit and Jill looked beautiful in her Homecoming dress. After taking some pictures and getting some pictures taken, we went to the ballroom and found our seats. The dinner was surprisingly good: stuffed chicken. They presented a slide show with pictures from events of various clubs. Many pictures featured our Club, including some from the Halloween Parade and PieCM. They played music in the background and virtually our whole Club sang along when they played "Waldorf Worldwide" by Good Charlotte.

After dinner, the district board started handing out awards. One of the first awards to be given was the award for "Best Publicist." It was presented by Ashley Clempner, Broadneck Key Clubber and current district Editor. I didn't want to be overconfident but when she started saying stuff about the winner creating his Club's web site and sending a weekly newsletter with pictures and quotes, I was elated. I had worked hard all year publicizing the Club and I was finally getting recognized for it. Our Club gave me a standing ovation as I jogged to the front table to get my award. I gave Ashley a hug and gave my camera to district Secretary Heather Wilson, whom I had talked to before but never met, to take a picture of us. Mr. Rudy, the incoming district administrator told me that my plaque was in his car and he'd give it to me tomorrow. Oh well.

That night, we also earned honorable mention in the single service award category for our work with the "Do Good for Good Charlotte" food drive. The scrapbook didn't win, but I didn't really care. I won the award I really wanted. Winning the scrapbook contest would have rewarded me for 30 hours of my time while the award for best publicist was a year-round thing. We thought we had a chance at winning "Club of the Year" but it went to some Club that wasn't even attending the convention. What's up with that?

During the recitation of the winning essay, Veronica accidentally set off one of our confetti poppers. Not a good idea. We had brought them to set off at more appropriate times, such as if we were being recognized for something. But she picked the absolute worst time to accidentally pull the string. She got lectured and threatened by some mean old woman, but didn't get in much trouble besides that.

Following the Banquet was the performance of the hypnotist, the same one as last year. Some of our members went back to their rooms to watch the Maryland/Duke game and they really missed out. Many people I knew were hypnotized, including Nick, Susan, Kathryn, Heather, and Alden the district Treasurer. They ate fish food, danced, sang, watched puppies get run over and recover, sang Britney Spears sing "Man I Feel Like a Woman," and carried the Olympic torch. Nick danced the worm, despite claiming that he didn't know how. He sang "Pardon Me" quite well while Susan sang "Hit or Miss," probably the only time we will ever hear her sing in our lives. The whole thing was hilarious.

Afterwards was the Gala Ball. We only stayed for a little while since the music was once again crappy. When we left, it was raining so we ran across the parking lot in our best clothes. Jill ruined a pair of stockings in the process. We changed and hung out in Room 403 again for another party. A bunch of us got together to play a big and very fun card game. There clear winners were the guys in the room for reasons which will go unnamed. Mike and Kathryn came up a little later saying that Susan has downstairs going crazy. Apparently the hypnosis was having some negative effects on her. We went down to see if she needed any help walking. We found her laying on the couch refusing to get up. It turned out that the hypnosis and stress didn't mix well. She was nervous and she still had to write two speeches since she was giving out the Alan D. Devers Award and the award for Most Outstanding President tomorrow. When we got her upstairs, we went right to bed since no soft-core porn was on HBO.

We woke up at 7:30 after losing an hour due to daylight savings time. I was really tired so I decided to skip a shower since we had to be at the convention center at 9. They started handing out awards for the best secretaries and treasurers and stuff and I noticed a trend. The Lieutenant Governor from the division in which the recipient belonged gave out each award. So when Susan began her speech about the Most Outstanding President, we knew who it was right away. Our hopes were confirmed when she said "He decided not to run for Lieutenant Governor this year to devote more time to his Club." I looked over at Danny and saw a huge grin on his face. Immediately after he received his award, Susan began the speech about the recipient of the Alan D. Devers award which recognized the best overall member. She told the story of a guy who had run halfway across the Crofton Parkway just to attend her summer PCM: Mike Robertson. Then Ashley got up once again to give me the award for Most Outstanding Editor, one I didn't know I even qualified for. Finally our Club was getting the recognition it deserves.

After the ceremony, we were told to be out front in 20 minutes, which seemed unlikely since few of us were packed. I met Jennifer, a girl who I had met and had a huge crush on at last year's convention, after the meeting. She lives 4 hours away so we haven't seen each other since. I hope I see her again sometime. We then rushed upstairs to pack our stuff. I put on my Capital District t-shirt, probably for the last time ever since it's so ugly. Eric and I were the last people to get on the bus since we went to pick up the scrapbook. On the ride home, we watched an 80s dance video that Susan had given Mike at the caucus, and then "Dumb and Dumber." We stopped at McDonald's for lunch. We also wound up trying to ignore Danny as he made out with Janice, Spalding's Vice-President, the whole way home.

We got back to the High School at around 4:15. I drove home and showed my parents the two plaques I had won. Then I hopped into bed and slept the best in my life. I slept a total of 15 hours: from 5 pm to 8am since I skipped 1st and 2nd period Monday morning.

I had been looking forward to District Convention since the day we came back home after convention last year. Normally when one has great expectations for something, he winds up disappointed. Well not me. I had expected this to be the best weekend of my life and it was. Now I can't wait for International Convention in early July.