We’re Number 2!

First self-taught lesson at Girls State: Don't start a speech off with "Hi, my name is Jane Smith and I'm running for Auditor," or anything that sounds even remotely like that. At Girls State, the day starts at 6:30 in the morning and ends at eleven at night - and that's on the good nights. And so the minute your pitch starts off exactly the same as everyone else's, people start dozing off.

Yup, this is it - one of the most prestigious conferences out there - affording its attendees the privilege of rubbing shoulders with the most brilliant, inspiring, and exhausted seniors-to-be in the state of Washington. Here, impossible dreams seem a little easier to reach, friendships reach critical mass quicker than the Senate can adjourn for dinner, and the political system changes from the providence of lawyers gone-rogue and Wall Street moguls to something that is actually susceptible to (gasp) change.

Upon arrival, every citizen is assigned to one of twelve cities, each of which is named after a female political leader. I was in the city of Cantwell along with thirteen utterly amazing girls from all over the state. Each city is also assigned a problem. Cantwell's consisted of an outdated (and leaky) sewer system.

Our solution, after several nights of gummy bearfueled collaboration, was to build a treatment plant that would reduce the waste to clean water and sterile nutrients via superheating. The water would be rerouted back into the city system and the nutrients fortified with crushed seashells and washed-up seaweed from the local beach to produce fertilizer. We made a diorama of this using a crepe streamer surf, constructionpaper mountains, a Rice Krispie Treat town populated with gummy bears, a sewage plant with a licorice smokestack and crumpled Kleenex steam, and trees made from the shed tips of pine branches.

Our solution placed second in the city problemsolving contest, which (although a bummer) lent itself to a number of excellent sewage puns. ("We're Number 2! We're Number 2!")

Along the same lines, when the other cities began developing complicated chants to say before mealtimes, our citizens decided on "Cantwell Can't Flush!" and a single bang on the table. It wasn't as catchy as Murray's, which entailed a clever parody of a '70s pop hit and well-synchronized dance moves. But it got everyone laughing!

On Friday (the last full day of Girls State), I was looking forward to a lovely, restful night of sleep. But sometime around Friday afternoon, somebody googled the Central Washington University dorm a bunch of us were staying in, and discovered that it was one of the 10 "most haunted" places in America! The resident ghost, allegedly named Lola, and I never personally crossed paths. But a fellow Cantwellian of mine had a creepy story to tell - while in the bathroom, she had heard a mechanical voice and faint music coming from very close by. She was alone, so she figured her cell phone was the culprit - but it was turned completely off. Later, in her dorm room, the same thing happened - a mysterious voice from close by, but the cell phone was off.

That evening, she discussed this turn of events with a friend of hers. As soon as she finished her account, her phone (again off) made an inexplicable "pop" noise.

I didn't sleep terribly well on Friday night.

But when I got home to Waitsburg and fell into bed, I was out like a light.