Casting Tease

So I WILL NOT BE AN EXTRA IN A MOVIE next week. This is sad. I got an email yesterday from the casting director saying she wanted and needed me to work Monday through Wednesday. She was supposed to call me last night with the details about what to wear and when to show up. She never called. When I got home there was an email from her saying they do not need me next week but will need me for the skating scene. I am supposed to call her about it.

I have been sick so I decided to not go to Regina until mid-February. I was overwhelmed with the urge to be responsible. I still need to go for an appointment with the allergist sometime plus I want to see my family.

Last night I went 5-pin bowling. The first game I did poorly, only bowling 106. This is well below average for me. The second game I did much better. I bowled 216 and had 4 strikes in a row. This is my third best score and only the third time I have bowled over 200. Congratulations me! I know I can be a good bowler, I just don't get to do it often enough. A lady who worked there told me that she was sure that there was league bowlers that would pay me to do as well as I was. That was encouraging.

I woke up with a sinus headache this morning. I was still feeling queasy so I took a Dayquil on an empty stomach. I was a little buzzy today. I felt like my brain was detached from my body. Like I was watching someone else's life.

I was so sick last night. I started to feel queasy two days ago. I thought I was feeling better yesterday until after I got home from tutoring. Last night I was running a fever. I felt cold but to touch my skin it felt like it was on fire. I slept with two comforters on my bed last night and wore fleece pjs. I'm trying to take it easy with the eating today.

I got a call from a good friend. She is going to be in the city for the day. I'm going to tag along while she shops.

"Every night has it's dawn"

It is almost finalized for me being an extra in the movie Just Friends. I received an email today from the casting lady. I might be in two scenes. I would do the first one next week on Regina. The next one would be in the middle of February in Moose Jaw. The one in Moose Jaw is an exterior shot and requires extras that can skate. Should be a fun time. My cousin/friend Lyn was supposed to send in her info to be an extra also. I don't know if she has heard back yet. I hope I won't be by myself. We need to have a Janny/Lynnie adventure.

There is a slight chance I might be an extra in a movie. I find out for sure tomorrow morning. I'll keep you posted if I will or not.

The world traveller returns

I typed this big long blog after my trip and then Firefox froze and I lost everything. I have been procrastination since then to write it all over again.

My trip to Calgary was fun. On the way there the roads were not great for about the first 150km of the trip. We ended up taking an hour longer to get there because of the roads. We had supper at 10:30 our time then we went out to met up with our friends.

We got directions to the house where everyone was from the people we stayed with. When we arrived at the house we were unsure if it was the right place because all the lights were off. We walked up to the door and saw people we knew moving around inside. We knew it was the right place. There were some people playing sardines but no one was looking for them. I find that to be rather funny. They were in their hiding spot for a long time before they came out. After some visiting, we went to Denny's to eat.

The next day we went over to our friend John's house to help him fix up his kitchen. After much discussion John decided on yellow, red and caramel for the paint colours. During the day people came and went to see the progress of the kitchen, to visit but to offer little or no help. At 8pm, I stopped working because I was tired and had been working all day. Everyone else had breaks running errands. I left my car and went over to my cousin Stephanie's place. We mostly played games and visited. I was a little disappointed that I missed out on a monopoly game. I did get to play Cranium (Ky was on my team) and we won. The win was cheapened by the fact that we had many of the questions before. At least we won.

The next day at church, I was completely shocked when I was called up to hold the microphone while the children said their verses. My friend John was leading the meeting and when he called my name I was stunned. I figured I must of heard wrong. When no one else was going up I figured it must be me he called. I was so nervous all I could think was "Keep the microphone 2 inches from their mouth". Those years of vocal jazz training have done me well.

After church, people were going to eat at Wendy's. They were going to ministering at a nursing home in the afternoon and the Wendy's is near by. We were following people (boys) there and got lost. They didn't get lost, we got lost. They were racing each other. We were told were the Wendy's was and we thought we knew where to go but we turned the wrong way on a road. We had to call John to ask for directions. We were convinced everyone was going to be gone by the time we got there. Everyone did leave shortly after we arrived but quickly returned. The got a call from the nursing home saying that too many residents had the flu so they were going to cancel for that week. We had a good visit.

It was after 4 when we left Calgary on Sunday. We didn't get home until after midnight.

Monday evening on my way to choir I got stuck in the snow. I live in an area that is right on the edge of town. Last week, with all the snow and wind, we got lots of snows drifts in our area. It took 6 people to get me out. I arrived at choir over a half hour late.

Tuesday evening I tutored twice. My brain was so fried afterwords. For one of my tutees, this was our last time meeting. She had the final for her class on Wednesday.

I found out that the new boy I tutor is the son of a former professional hockey player. He retired from hockey in 1997 and now he is a resort developer. I found out his wife is a cousin to my uncle. It is a small world after all...

Cute Boys: Now Available in Paperback

Reza Aslan was on The Daily Show again. I am so excited! He has my vote for cutest religious scholar ever!

"Everything's so fancy, and there's some kind of hot cheese over there. "

The doctor at the walk-in clinic does not think I am sick. He thinks I just strained my back. Like I don't know the difference between muscles and my innereds hurting. I have not done anything to strain my back anyway. I got some blood work done so we will see what the result is.

I wrote an email to a news program this afternoon. I am disappointed that it did not get read on air. I'll try it again some day.

I just found out my doctor moved to B.C. That was quite sudden. He had been my doctor for 5 years. By chance, we even moved to Saskatoon at the same time. He just moved here in August and he is already gone. I wonder what is the deal with that. I am sad now. He was a great doctor.

"Hahaha. Mine is an evil laugh."

I sent an email to The Hour. I hope it gets read on air. That would be cool.

My kidneys still hurt. It isn't constant but occasionally I am in a great deal of pain.

Yesterday, I intended to go to the bank. It took me so long to scrape the ice off my car I would have never made it there before it closed. I had to run my car for a half hour before I could get the ice off. It was a couple millimeters thick. I hope the weather and road conditions improve so I can go to Calgary this weekend. Fun and good times are promised to be had.

"We will rule over all this land, and we will call it... this land."

My kidneys hurt. Seriously, I am on painkillers because of it. I have been getting very little accomplished as a result. I am putting off going to the doctor. If it gets worse I will.

I seem to have a lot of free time this week. I had choir on Monday night (my new favorite German word is schlangelt). I do not have anything else on the schedule until Friday morning. It is probably for the best since I have been feeling so crummy.

My roommates and I watched 2 episodes of Firefly tonight. We only have about 5 more to go and we would have seen the whole series. I found out this week that the movie based on the show, Serenity, is coming out in September. I plan to watch the episodes with commentary on before then to get a few clues to the mysteries of the show. High excitement.

Amusing Pictures

David Hasselhoff peeking around the corner.


Sean "P. Diddy" Combs eating some ice cream.


Naomi Watts and a man named Juan Valdez (seriously that is his name).

"Doris, I just met a girl name Doris"

We had a girls' night last with the young ladies from my church. We had a pretty fun time. We did facials, manicures and pedicures. I got to know a new girl a lot better last night. She is getting to be much more comfortable around us girls.

I tutored twice today. The one girl I tutored last semester for Stats and now this semester for Calculus. This was our first time meeting today for Calculus. I am so much more comfortable with this subject matter than Stats. Even though it has been 8 years since I took my last Calculus class, it is the only class I have tutored before this year.

Queen of West Procrastination is my sister's new blog. It is pretty funny. You may know her as Sister Mary from the comments on my blog.

What happen to you Mike?

It was even colder today. It was -39C with extremely high winds. It was not a good day for going out but I had to.

I was almost in a car accident with a Staples delivery truck. He was coming the opposite direction trying to turn left onto a busy street. I was trying to go straight and had the right of way. There were lots of cars coming because it was rush hour traffic. He was behind another vehicle and got so impatient he pulled out of the left turning lane and into the lane where you are only supposed to straight. He turned left right in front of the car that was in front of him. He almost hit me and the car trying to turn left. Way to represent your company buddy! I am going to call Staples to complain.

I am so exhausted. I have not gotten a decent night's sleep in days.

Yesterday I subbed out of town. It was forecasted that there was going to be this massive blizzard. It never came. It was cold and windy but no blizzard. The kids were buzzing all day. A couple bus drivers picked up their students in the mid-morning. There was no reason at all for the students to leave. After that no one could get their students to work. The mentality was "My bus is going to pick me up any minute so I don't have to work".

I was supposed to tutor two people last night and two people tonight. I got two cancellations. I appreciate the work but I am so tired that I am glad for the break.

awesome possum

I had my first choir practice of the new term. All of our songs are in German, it is so great. It just doesn't seem like university choir without songs in a foreign language.

I got a call this morning for a potential new tutee. It for a boy in grade 7 whose parents are trying to get him into a private school. I meet with the mom and the boy tomorrow afternoon. From my conversation with the mother, this sounds like this would be a very regular thing for the rest of the year. Their former tutor had to quit because he now employed by the Saskatoon Public Board full time (they have rules that you cannot tutor students in school division if you are employed full time.)

Dancin' like a black bean

I had a pretty good day.

Last night at the young people's meeting the college and career group were not able to meet to plan our activities for the next couple months. We were making thank you cards for the retreat that ended a week ago and things ran a little long. That is ok. The new plan was to meet after church and have lunch together.

The service this morning went really well. It was mostly lead by the new people. They usually have us share what we learned after have been to a camp. I think the best thing happened before service. The doctors think my great aunt had a small stroke in November and she has not seemed like herself the last couple times I had seen her. Today before church I spoke with her a bit and she seemed like her old self. I am so thankful she is doing better. It is a real answer to prayer.

After church we met at my friends Graison and Joel's place. We ordered pizza and then planned activities for until a little after Easter. When we were done, we got into a really good discussion about relationships. This is a continuation of separate girl/ boy discussion groups we had been in at the retreat. I invited anyone who wanted to come over for supper tonight to watch the season premiere of "Alias" (I had it on tape).

At around 6:30 people started showing up for supper (we had a late lunch). We watched an episode of "Firefly" I have on DVD while we were waiting for people to show up. We ended up having 12 for supper. I had already watched the episode of "Alias" but it was a lot more fun with a group of people. We had lots of fun. Before the majority of people left we had a huge group hug. A couple boys stayed after most left and we played Trivial Pursuit. It was a supremely frustrating game for me. I normally do quite well but I kept on forgetting things I know well and getting questions on obscure sport figures. Before we quit I was doing better but I will not admit defeat. I was only one pie piece behind the leader and we never finished. Anything could have happened.

Tomorrow I truly hope I can go out and visit a couple high schools in the city. I keep on saying I will but it doesn't happen.

Me need to sleep.

Hayley Mills, Hayley Mills

I thinking about the movie The Parent Trap (the one from 1961 starring Hayley Mills and Hayley Mills). The parents split up when the twin girls were babies so that is why they do not know each other when they meet. The parents had a stupid argument and pride drove them and kept them apart all of these years. At the end of the movie the parents reconcile, admitting that they never stopped loving each other. I was wondering, could a couple really overcome that many years of hurt? Is it possible to reconcile without the help of Hayley Mills, Hayley Mills and a clever Disney plot?

Paradigms are shifting

The last couple days in my household have been strange. Yesterday I went to work and my roommate was at home (sick). Today all three of us are home because both of my roommates are sick. It is a rarity for all three of us to be home at the same time.

I am going to make cream of carrot soup because my parents, grandma, both roommates and I will be here for lunch.

If Love Were Oil, I'd Be About a Quart Low

Where shall I begin...
My church retreat was good. The classes were very good. Socially it was a little uneventful. I did try to make amends with a former friend so hopefully we can patch things up. We are going to see each other in a couple weeks so that will be the true test.

After the retreat, group of us met at my friends Shannon & Ky's place. There were about 16 of us there and we played Cranium. I had such a good team. (We won, I don't lode board games often). It was really strange because me and my friend Alex seem to have some sort of nexus. We seemed to be the only ones to know what the other was thinking during the game. Alex is a strange duck so that is a little scary for me.

Monday night, me and some friends went to watch a friend's hockey game. She is a 13 year old girl from my church that I tutor. It seems strange to have such a young friend but she is such a sweet girl. I have got to know her quite well since I began to tutor her. I feel like her big sister (she has none). This is the first time I was able to watch her play hockey. The best part about the evening was we were able to embarrass her "thinks he is too cool for words but really a goof ball" 15 year old brother. My friends and I yelled "Woooo Kyle!" as he passed by. His friend (also named Kyle) put his hand on Kyle's shoulder in sympathy.

Tuesday night we had another dinner party at our household. We quite the gang because a guy that likes one of my roommates (don't worry Mike, it is not your wife) and my roommate just wants to be friends. She wanted as much support as she could get. I made stew and apple-pear crisp. The plan was for my friend Ky and I to spend the afternoon together then everyone else be there for supper. She is one of my closest friends and we never have time to hang out just the two of us. Everyone else came early but she came late. We spent the afternoon watching my season 1 DVD of "Corner Gas". All I got to say is "My loins ache for goat felons" (You'd understand the hilarity if you have seen the show).

Wednesday, Ky and I attempted again to hang out with each other. She invited me to her house for the afternoon to watch Superstar and for supper. She was so sick and both of us were so tired. We spent the afternoon trying not fall asleep. I forgot my cell phone at home and I kept getting calls at her house. I probably got more calls at her house than I do at my own house normally in a day.

I cannot seem to shake this cold. *Cough, Cough* It is a little worse today because I subbed in a class with a chalkboard. It is really just an allergy thing. I was at my cousin Pamella's (intentional misspelling) school. I have subbed there before but we have never run into each other. We saw each other twice today and it freaked her out. The only thing I have to say about the rest of the day is in my professional opinion grade 9 boys are idiots. It is a scientific fact.

My mom and dad are stopping by my place tomorrow. They are on their way to take my grandma to North Battleford and to stay for the weekend. I also hope to visit some high schools in the city to introduce myself to the vice principals (the ones who call subs). Hopefully I can start getting more work. Even though at the end of the month the school division is getting an automated system to call subs. The teacher might be able to request a specific sub so it still might be a good idea to do some networking.

Mike, Stephanie and Angela would like to thank you for the pizza. I told Ang you are practicing a love ballad for her but I refuse to tell her which one. She thinks it is "Lost that Loving Feeling". She is so naive.