Congratu-frickin-lations Mr. President!

Yay for Mr. Cranky, aka Ryan for sweeping the elections! I knew he had it in the bag, but he won by 500 frickin' votes! He got 700-some votes, while the other 2 candidates got only around 200 each. Congrats to Ryan, the new Student Union President!

As for the other SU positions, Ry-Dog didn't win VP Activities. He should have though, he's perfect for that - he was NSO coordinator and that took a lot of hard work. He and Mr. Cranky had a joint campaign and wanted to work together in the SU, and they would have made such an awesome team. Terence ran for valedictorian but didn't win. Some people think it's because of the glitch in the computer system that affected voter turnout for valedictorian, but either way they won't have a re-vote.

Covehead show last night for Way of the Cross - 480 big ones, plus a $200 cheque, and the $20 cheque donated by Mark Cameron. That was our most successful show yet! Tomorrow we're hitting the road for Cardigan, and since Rachel's entire family lives there, they're getting everyone and their dog to come to the show, which means we'll end up with another successful performance. And we know we're going to make a killing on the Good Friday show at St. Dunstan's. Plus, we now have an extra show on Easter Monday at the convent. A few nuns came to the show, loved it, and suggested that we bring it into their convent so that all the sisters can see it (some of them can't leave the convent because of extreme old age - apparently there is a pair of twin nuns who are in their 90s). The Sisters of St. Martha are going to be there, as well as the Sisters of the Precious Blood (the little old ladies who wear the full habit). The Good Friday show is going to be the grand finale for our big tour, and the show at the convent is going to be our encore performance.

Doran knows about the show (probably because of the poster and photocopy of the newspaper article/picture I posted on the English dept bulletin board), and I'm surprised he actually asked me about it. A few people I know have also asked me about it. Tonight at the International Tea House, Prof. Beck from the Religious Studies dept said he would like to come to the St. Dunstan's show, but he has something going on at his own church that evening (he's a church minister, so he can't miss his own church's events!).

I've noticed a lot of interesting things about the show and the way things worked out. A few other members of our troupe have noticed it too:

-Maureen and a few other people got a cold, but Sara-Sour didn't. "Coincidentally", she's the narrator - the only one who talks for the whole show (well, Ryan talks too but he only has one line and it's in Hebrew). The music ministry didn't get sick either. And even when Maureen had a cold, she was blowing her nose all the time backstage, but on stage her nose didn't even drip.

-Even with all the props and stuff we have, and our own stuff that gets scattered around backstage, we have never lost one item so far. When I was in Faustus, I lost my cape and my contact lens case (which had my contacts in it, grrr).

-No one has had a wardrobe malfunction or major costume mishap, even though though it could easily happen in the scenes where Ryan is wearing only a loincloth. Rachel and I wear veils, and those never fell off either (and mine is only held up by a few bobby pins and clippy pins, Rachel's is light enough not to need pins). When I was in The Actor's Nightmare last year the zipper on my black dress got messed up and I ended up having to wear the Queen Gertrude dress over the black one - and the same thing happened for the 3 shows we had. And in Faustus, on opening night one of the girls in the chorus couldn't find her cape and had to go on stage without it. The closest things we have had to a costume mishap in the Way of the Cross was the time Neal forgot his leaf crown for when he plays Pilate, and had to go on stage crownless (which wasn't that big a deal, he still had his cape and everything else), and last night when Tasha forgot the sandals (but she wore Maureen's instead so it worked out well).

-There have not been any injuries either - even when I have to stumble around in the dark after my scene before putting my glasses back on. And Jason can still hold up that hammer even with his sprained wrist. No one has knocked down any of the music stands or equipment, or tripped over electrical cords either (and the potential for that was huge for some of the performances).

-No one has quit and we have never needed any replacement actors (except when Nancy couldn't come to the show last night, but Mindy and Steph were able to do the music just fine). In Faustus, a few of the original cast members quit or couldn't take multiple parts, so Marieve was left scrambling for replacements (it worked out in the end, but it was extremely stressful for her).

Maybe it's just coincidences, but I think God helped us out so that we'd be able to make it all the way. God called us all to be in this show, and He has been with us all the way to help us in this production.

That's all for now. I should go study... I've procrastinated enough lately.

Blaspheming profs, femi-nazis, feisty Russians, and newfound fame.

Hoo boy, Prof. Doran really pissed me off this time. Comparing the Eucharist to cannibalism? I don't care if you claim to be an Irish Catholic, actions speak louder than words. This is probably one of the most extreme blasphemies I've ever heard.

I couldn't go to the pro-life meeting last night because of dance classes but lots of my friends went. Apparently, the femi-nazis from the English department raided the meeting and started spewing pro-choice propaganda. Though they're usually nice to me, I have a problem with the fact that they always look down on the things that are important to me (religion, morality, etc). That's one of the reasons I don't hang out in the English lounge anymore - I was sick of being picked on and patronized because I'm saving sex for marriage and don't like getting drunk. There are some people from the English department that I have nothing against - Donya is cool (and not a femi-nazi) and Jon is respectful of me and my beliefs - but some of the others often got on my nerves.

I went shopping after class today, and the Canada World Youth crew was in the mall doing a radio show. Canada World Youth is a work exchange/internship program and the people in this crew were from Canada and Russia. They did their internship in Russia last fall/winter, and then started the Canada part of the internship in January. I met them at Culturama last month and chatted with a few of them. At the dance, every time Russian music was playing, the Russians would get all hyper and dance all over the place. Those Russians are feisty! After the dance, Ifo (African guy I know from university) invited everyone to an after-party at his friend's place, and a bunch of them came. The funniest part of the after-party was the attempt to play a prank on Igor (one of the Russian guys). I told them about that old trick that if you put someone's hand in a bowl of warm water while they're sleeping, it makes them pee in their sleep, so they decided to try it on whoever falls asleep first. At first it seemed like Ifo was going to be the unfortunate one, but he didn't fall asleep after all. Igor fell asleep first, so JF (Canadian guy from NB) filled a mug with warm water and put Igor's hand in it. Then the guys started making peeing sounds to try to get him to pee, but it didn't work and Igor woke up to see us all staring at him. The freaked-out look on his face was priceless! Hehehe... Anyway, today I chatted with JF and he said they're going back home this weekend. Canada World Youth seems like an interesting program, I might consider applying...

I bought a pair of dance shorts, a swimsuit, and summer shorts. There were a lot of sales in the mall today, but most of the things on sale didn't have anything in my size... Everything on sale was extra-small, and I wear a large. I know I'm not fat, but anyone can agree with me that it's frustrating when you can't find anything you like in your size.

The Way of the Cross is becoming quite famous around here. Someone I don't even know recognized me from the newspaper picture, and said she wants to come see the show. Whoo!

The Student Union elections are today and tomorrow. I voted, and if things go as they should, Ryan will be Mr. Cranky President rather than just Mr. Cranky.

Well, that's all for now! :)

3 More Shows To Go...

The Way of the Cross show at St. Pius went awesome. We got a standing ovation and made 610 bones. Bishop Vernon was there too. We've got 3 more shows to do, with the last one being at the Basilica. That one is gonna be huge. I put up some posters for the show in the English lounge and the bulletin board in the English department, and Jon (an English major who was in classes with me) said that if he doesn't make it to the show, he'll still donate money to support us. He doesn't even believe in God, but still happy to support our church fundraiser. Yay Jon!

I had an extra dance class on Saturday, to make up for the modern dance classes we missed. And on Thursday I went to the senior jazz class that's dancing to the David Bisbal song. I'm going to be in the piece after all! Yay! We're dancing to "Como Olvidar" - one of my favorites. It's going to be great, and it's a good challenge for me too. It's the most advanced jazz class so I feel like I'm getting a strong push to be a better dancer, which is always good.

Grrr... VirtualTourist is NOT a dating site. So why do some guys join VT for the sole purpose of picking up girls? I don't know. I got 2 messages today from guys who actually think they have a chance with me. Sorry dude, I don't go for guys who are so desperate that they have to look on the internet to find a girl. So just go away already. If you want to find a mate, go to a dating site, not a travel site.

It's hard to believe Lent is almost over. I actually survived without the thing I gave up. I decided to give up eating chips at work, since I always ended up getting a bag of chips from the vending machine to eat with my lunch. I often felt tempted to get chips anyway, but I didn't give in to my cravings. My "Lent resolution" wasn't too tough this year. Last year I gave up McDonald's and I survived, and the year before I gave up cookies but cheated once. I was living in Sweden during that time, and once when I was hanging out with Marloes and Elisa at their apartment, they offered me cookies and I ate one because I felt it would be impolite to refuse. I miss Marloes and Elisa... and the rest of my Dutch crew. I talk to Wouter on MSN occasionally, and we often end up reminiscing about all the good times we had in Sweden - the great parties, the nights out on the town, the crazy antics of Remco, Wouter and Andries (the 3 stooges), and my romance soap opera in which the Dutch crew ended up being caught in the middle. My 5 months in Sweden were truly unforgettable...

Well, that's all for now. I gotta go to bed, I got class in the morning...

Mr. Cranky for President!

The show at St. Anne's went quite well, and now we got 3 more shows. Plus, we had our picture in the Guardian, so that should give us more publicity. I photocopied the article and picture and and put it up on the English department bulletin board, the English lounge door, the Modern Language department bulletin board right by the language lab and stairway, and one of the boards in the religious studies department. When Neal brings me the poster, I'll photocopy that too and put it up in different places around campus.

Ryan is running for Student Union President. I'll definitely vote for him, since he's obviously the most qualified candidate. Even if he weren't my friend I'd still vote for him. He is very dedicated to the student union and knows his stuff. I almost ran for valedictorian but decided not to. No time for it. Terence is running though. Though the election hype is fun, it also reminds me of high school when I ran for positions on the student council executive twice and lost both times simply because I wasn't part of the popular clique. Grrr... stupid popularity contests. Then in grade 12 I ran for valedictorian, and lost again. In my first year at UPEI I though about running for Arts rep in the student union, but I didn't. I was sick of school politics and didn't want to go through that hell again. But when I vote, I vote based on qualifications. I don't vote based on popularity, I vote based on who I think would do the best job. Which is why I'm supporting Ryan all the way.

Prof. Doran just loves to piss me off. Today he talked about the "Eden myth" symbolism in a play we're reading. I don't like it when people refer to my religion as "mythology". Another day, he talked about Quebec politics and said that the Quebecker view of the FLQ crisis and all the hoopla that came with it is biased and wrong, etc. Well, the Anglo media is biased too, buddy. Not all French Quebeckers are separatists or FLQ supporters. And saying that Quebec was being an ass? Well, the Anglos weren't exactly saints either. I happen to be very proud of my Quebecois heritage, and I don't appreciate the insults and stereotypes.

Speaking of my Quebecois heritage, this kinda reminds me of that time in Sweden when the Belgians freaked out over my accent. They'd never heard a Quebec accent or dialect before, so they were like "Whoa!" when I started speaking French. Then Helen said "She has a crazy accent when she speaks French!" It was quite funny.

In other news, the World Youth Day formation meeting went well, I have a German test tomorrow, we now have a pro-life society on campus (yay!), and I finished the big jigsaw puzzle I brought to the Chaplaincy Centre (yay again!). And I'm still auditionning for Canadian Idol in April. That's all for now...

Next on Jerry Springer... Catholic pilgrims and how they fought to get to Germany World Youth Day

Whooo! Ryan put my picture in the Cadre! And my joke too, and an inside joke of ours. On the front page, he put the "joke of the week" which is the one that I told him and our friends a week ago:

Why does Snoop Dogg carry an umbrella?
For drizzle.

Hehehe... and he actually credited me for it! I guess he took it seriously when I said I'd kill him if he published it without crediting me. After all, plagiarism is a serious academic offense...

And he put my picture in the back page of the Cadre too! The back page always has a question, and different people from UPEI answer it, and he puts their picture and the thing they said. This week the question was "What really pisses you off?" There are lots of things that piss me off, but I ended up saying "When I'm ranting about parking and people tell me to shut up". Hehehe... when I ranted about that parking ticket I got for parking outside the lines, he's the one who kept telling me to shut up. So I continued calling him Mr. Cranky. Terence and Luke also answered Mr. Cranky's question.

Luke - When someone farts in class and everyone thinks you did it and they all start staring at you.

Terence - Shiners and a bruised nose the day before your grad pictures. And drunken disgruntled elves that give you the finger at the Wave.

And the Mr. Cranky inside joke made the Cadre too. In the Mr. Advice part (a satirical Dear Abby) , someone (I'm pretty sure it was Neal who wrote this) wrote the funniest thing ever, and included something like "Mr. Cranky, sorry, Mr. Gallant is just jealous..." Hehehe... my friends and I laughed our heads off when we read that.

Oh the perks of being friends with the editor of the Cadre!


Woohoo! We're going to be in The Guardian! Because of the rave reviews we got for our Way of the Cross, the newspaper wants to do an article about us! We've got a bunch more shows coming up - St. Anne (out in the boonies), St. Pius (in town), St. Eugene (Covehead), Cardigan (sorry, I have no idea what the name of the parish is!), and St. Dunstan (in town).

Since the weather was so crappy today, dance classes got cancelled. Which kinda sucks because I have 3 dance classes on Tuesdays (jazz, ballet, and modern). But we'll probably have extra classes to make up for it...

My friends and I probably won't be having a World Youth Day group meeting till next week at least. Right now we're so busy with Way of the Cross so we don't really have time for other fundraisers at the moment. Besides, our meetings have been turning violent quickly these days. It's catfights galore! Hmmm... maybe we should tape our meetings and sell the footage to Jerry Springer. No more slaving over petty little bake sales and 50/50 draws that earn us a grand total of 20 bucks each... Considering the fights we have in our meetings, Jerry Springer would likely pay us enough money for all of us to go to Germany, and then some! That footage would be priceless. Contrast our Way of the Cross footage where we're all serious, cooperating with each other, and in tears over the emotions of the show, against the footage of our meetings where we're all yelling and attacking each other (fistfights, throwing couches at each other, you name it we have it!). And bonus footage - Ryan in his Jesus costume being a stereotypical diva backstage before the show starts. We'd all be millionaires!

Anyway, that's all I gots to say for now. Toodeloo!