cheers

Toot toot. Happy birthday to me.
I know he's excited about it.

papers are no good

I want to procrastinate. Bah. No good.

NZRizing

So my short reign as Nezzar is over. Time for blogging... :)
I'm currently sitting at my home home, I'm listening to Madagascar soundtrack (I like to move it move it .. oh yeah) and get crap pounded out of my back by my sister --- ah yes, this is the life.
Yep, so now that the play is over, apparently my life is supposed to turn back to some sort of normalcy. Ha, that's a good one. Say goodbye to the play, and say hello an abundance of papers and reading. :) Yeah for also being an english honours major.
The play went really well which was a huge blessing from God. It was richly rewarding to find that the school accepted and applauded our work so profoundly. I mean, I think the work would have been rewarding either way, but it could have been more frustrating had the school body not understood the work we did. But God finally showed me my purpose in choosing the mainstage over the independant .... I mean, I knew I was supposed to do the mainstage and that I made the right choice to work with Tom and the cast, but it was hard when all the rest of my friends were working on a very comical fun show together and I couldn't be apart of that... and I could have, had I just told them that I would. I often times felt a little punished for making the right decision. But this week, I felt happier about the show than I ever have before. It was an amazing run and I won't forget it for a long time. God is truly good. I just need to trust Him a little more. :)
Anyways, I have to get ready to go to church-in-the-box. Oh yeah, I sent out my application for LA film school. So now I get to experience the joy of waiting, and waiting.....woot.
Cheers.

awww

I enjoy being their aunt.

(photographed by brother Steve.. :P)

tee hee

How I love Lord of the Rings humour.
So cheesy. But so enjoyable.

My life today

Lord of the Rings -- you make me happy and rather emotional.
Rehearsal -- you make me very tired.
Reformational Theology -- you make me want to roll over and die.

yummm....... food and phlegm

I love family. I just spent less than a day with my family and even though the time was short... it was great. It was my neice's baptism today so I went home last night and hung out with my family doing very little other than sitting and talking ... but I loved every minute of it. My brother was up from Jersey so that was great. It's always fun seeing him and wowing over all his toys... UNBELIEVABLE some of the stuff that he has (you should see his car... handydandy features on that thing). The baptism was very nice.... and the party afterwards was also lots of fun, if a little... shall we say.. chaotic. This is what happens when you brother-in-law's family has 10 little kids running around! :) But they were cute. It was nice to just hang out with family members.. takes the stress off of school.
And now I've been coarsed into watching the Superbowl. Let me tell you what game I care about least..... FOOTBALL. Let me tell you what I actually should be working on: HOMEWORK. Will I be able to do both??? No. Will I enjoy the food? YES. Oh yes. And the company. Of course the company.
I also got blessed with a cold this morning. I'm kind of glad because I've been feeling kind of gross for a little bit... but it's never become a full-fledged cold. And now it is. Let the people rejoice.
Well, I guess that's it for now. I get to go get my ears blasted off by surround sound... of football. Oh my life is so good.

Mouse Trap

Last night I got to witness the marriage of two people who have shown me what true love can really be like. Of course, I get this example from all of my older siblings, but I had yet to watch it bloom in any of my friends from Redeemer. I am very cynical when it comes to romantic love due to the terrible influence of chick flicks and our hollywoodized culture, but when I watch my friends Tasha and Danny, it gives me hope that there is such a thing as true love and that young people of our generation can still find it. Their wedding (which took place last night) was beautiful and in just being there, you couldn't help but be filled with joy for these two people and for the love that they shared. I was so happy to see two people that I admire, respect, and love get married. I also spent the evening talking to people who I hadn't seen in quite some time (for some it'd been 2 years!) so it was really great to catch up with familar faces.
And now on the completely opposite side of things, I am the newly designated #1 Mouse Catcher of the dorm!!!! Gold star for Stephanie! Okay, I kind of designated that title to myself but I did in fact catch a mouse! For a couple weeks now, our house has had the joy of entertaining another dormate.. Sir Thomas the mouse. Myself and my roomate Amy were the only ones who didn't really care about the new addition to our family... everyone else in the dorm was freaked out. We had tried to catch it a number of times, but he was soo tiny that he could hide virtually anywhere, and, well, our rooms aren't very tidy. But then Sir Thomas made the mistake of entering our (mine and Amy's) room.. I guess he thought that since we didn't really care about the thing our room would be rather safe. But he didn't count on the fact that I would be in there with nothing better to do then to hunt this thing down until he was trapped and then catch him. Because while I didn't really care about him, I also wasn't scared of him.. and I didn't want him making himself too comfortable. So that's what I did... I closed off the exit from the room, shooed him into the closet, blocked off his exit from there and trapped him! Of course the whole operation was a bit more complicated and time consuming.... but I caught Sir Thomas! We made a video of him, and then we let him go outside.. a good block away from our house. We spent the whole evening in celebration until about 2 in the morning.... when I then saw Sir Richard. And the fun continues..... anybody know how to set mouse traps?

Procrastination in my fingers

My ears are having a wonderful time slowly losing their hearing capabilities due to the fact that my roomate and I both need music on when we do work. Since neither of us enjoy warring music (we try to employ a peace-love mentality in our humble room), one of us has to give in and wear headphones. And now my ears get to be blasted by the melodic voice of Aqualung in order to drown out her music (which I can still hear through my headphones). mucho fabuloso.
So while this is going on, I am struggling to put my thoughts on paper about the differences between the book and the movie of Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien. Not only is this a hard enough task on it's own (oh you think it's easy until you actually sit down and try and do it), but to add to my trepedation, the prof of the class doesn't like my writing style. In fact I believe he ripped apart every paper I wrote for him last semester. Makes me very nervous to write anything for him. But he's a fabulous prof so that does make it better.
All of this leads to blogging -- my wonderful friend that always lends a helping hand when procrastination tugs at my brain and creeps into my fingers.
So my newest mission (when I have time to do them..... which is virtually never) is to learn the didgeridoo. I received a small Australian didgeridoo for Christmas from my sister (who recently just came back from Australia if you haven't been in the loop) and now it sits under my computer so that whenever I am sitting here typing at the compy it reminds me that I should keep plugging at how to play the darned thing. It's way harder than it looks. Or maybe it looks hard to begin with, I don't know. But learning how to play it is proving to be difficult, especially since I have very little time to do much of anything (except when I'm procrastinating!) except school. But one day, I will be a player of the didgeridoo. And I will hold concerts. Woot.
That's all for today.

Calvin and Hobbits

I truely have a love hate relationship with education. On the one hand, there is nothing better than learning. To be in an environment where there is such an emphasis on improving your intellect, stretching the mind, and delving into research and books etc. --- exploring the different facits of our world and our worldview. It's so exciting and it's an amazing place to be as a young adult trying to find your way in the world and where you fit in the equation. But while this is truely an exhilerating and stretching experience, it can take such a toll on your life. Let's take my current semester as an example. There are so many things about this semester that make me so excited to be in a learning environment. I'm taking three courses in my majors ... Playwriting, 20th Century British Literature, and the Literature of Lewis and Tolkien. I could not be happier! Each of these classes holds such interest for me that I yearn to eat up everything taught and just suck it all in. But with upper level classes come upper level workloads ---- reading galour, writing due every week, presentations up the ying yang. Since I hold such a high standard for myself and since I love each of these courses, I really want to do well... and so this means that I will be devoting myself to my studies. Okay, so far busy, but managable. But this semester I also have two other courses that I don't really care about ---- Reformational Theology and French. Oof. Okay, in defense of these classes, both of them are interesting, I'm glad for the opportunity to be taking them and in their own light, they are surely necessary, but they also eat up the time that I need for my upper classes that are in my majors -- what I'm here at Redeemer to study. Add on top of this that I am in the mainstage performance this semester -- which is called NZR.. it's a play that the performers (me included) are writing and acting based on the story of Nebuchadnezzar -- and that I am the TA for the English dept. as well as that I am the Editor-in-Chief of 'The Minstrel' -- Redeemer's Literary Magazine ....... and that, ladies and gents, is a deadly semester. This is why education and I have such a love hate relationship. I love to learn, so I lap up every opportunity I can.... but while I'm actually learning, I nearly kill myself trying to get everything done and my faith life suffers. I have some help this semester in that I'm helping write a play based on the Bible and I'm taking Ref. Theology... but education and the strain of deadlines and papers and presentations and the copius amounts of reading do not make for an easy faith life. I should push myself and put my priorities elsewhere... but that's extremely hard when in the environment.
Hmm... I wish I could expand on this more but I've spent too much time on this --- I should get back to my reading before people come back home and there's no silence in which to peacefully read. Oh how I love it when reading Lord of the Rings is homework....

new years.......

I guess it's time for me to come out from hiding and write a blog.
Well ---- here I am. It's a new year and no, this isn't one of my new year's resolutions. :) I'm home for the holidays and spending time with family is wonderful. I think it's one of the few places where I feel completely comfortable and at ease and that's a nice feeling. My sister is home which is absolutely fantabulous!! I missed her soooo much over the year --- but I think the year was really good experience for both of us because I think we grew tighter through emailing and calling. But it was a long year.. and it's really nice to have her back. She's probably my closest friend in the world -- I can tell her anything -- and even though we fight now that she's home (you need physical contact in order to fight.. it's hard to fight over the phone) I love knowing that's she's around and I can talk to her.
Yet being at home can also be frustrating. Really frustrating. I guess because I'm realizing that I never feel completely satisfied when I'm with friends. It's really frustrating when you never feel satisfied about yourself when you're with the people you care about. Like on New Years, I went to hang out with friends that I've had since grade 9/10 -- somewhere in there, a good 6 years anyways....... and yet whenever I see them, I still feel like I'm visiting. I'm never IN. The big thing is always that they're going to make a movie or start a theatre company........... I'm a theatre major and yet they haven't seriously asked me to be apart of this ... while many of their other friends get asked at random... Okay, I'm not upset about not being in a theatre company or anything like that because there's a good chance this thing will never get off the ground.... but for once I'd like to feel INCLUDED. I hate the fact that when I'm with them alot of the time I'm wanting to be someone else --- not ME. And this is a horrible thing. I love these people very dearly, and maybe that's why I haven't just given up. It's odd when through out whole evening one of the best conversation I had was with someone whom I haven't even known that long when I'm surrounded by people who I've known for a long time. It's just frustrating when you know that if you were a different personality or if you changed where you live, they would probably finally ACCEPT you and want to be around you --- and yet that SHOULDN'T matter. Grrr.. Lord help me deal with my insecurities.
Anyways, I'm looking forward to going back to Redeemer though school will be really busy..... but I love nothing better than delving myself into something that I'm so passionate about. I love theatre so much and I'm truely thankful to God that he's put that passion in my heart.

Olivia Anne Mantel

I am sooo happy to welcome into the world a new little addition to my life. Olivia Anne Mantel was born on December 9, 2005, weighing 7lbs 7oz. This means that I'm an aunt for the third time! I am so blessed.... she is simply beautiful!

God is amazing!

God has been so good to me. And I am thankful. So many things are happening in my life and it's really a comfort to me to know that His hand is over it all.
Hallelujah!

A little of this, a little of that

Wendy's is DONE. HALLELUJAH. Praise be.
I have 2 1/2 days left at the office.
And then: HOLIDAYS. Good times -- definately looking forward to some R and R.
I no longer like the radio station 96.7..... same music, every day. Seriously going insane.
Now onto movies, my favouritest topic of conversation...
Movies I've currently watched: (out of five)
Dear Frankie **** -- This movie dissappointed me, but I think if I were to watch it again I would really like it. I had high expectations for this one, and the trailers kind of portrayed the storyline differently then it actually was. But Gerard Butler and Emily Mortimer were very good. And it was set in Scotland --- you can't go wrong there. It was a really nice movie --- I think I will watch it again sometime so it can redeem itself.
Million Dollar Baby *** -- a little slow on the uptake with the million dollar baby craze. Not a fan of boxing, so it was a little difficult to get excited over this one. As well, I already knew the ending to this one so that didn't really help. Yep, this movie had alot of things going against it for me... but still, it was a good film. Morgan Freeman, Clint Eastwood and Hillary Swank did very well and I could see why it created some Oscar buzz. Probably won't see it again for a while though.
Shine ****1/2 --- My sister had been recommending this one for a while now, and I finally saw it last week. Such a good movie, wish I had seen it earlier. Geoffrey Rush is quickly moving up my "favourite actors" list. This story is gripping and entertaining and Rush does an incredible job (for which he won an Oscar I might add). The music is also quite beautiful and it's an Australian movie so there's Australian accents! :)
Quills **** --- Morally, this is not a good movie. Otherwise, it is a funny, bold, engaging, well acted movie. Geoffrey Rush, Micheal Cain, Joaquin Pheonix (also another of my favourites) and Kate Winslet put on wonderful performances and the movie poses some interesting questions. But I'm not sure if the final outcome is worth it for the Christian viewer. Really too bad.
The Five Obstructions ****1/2 --- this foreign film has a documentary feel to it. In it, director Lars Von Trier challenges director Jorgon Leth to remake his short "The Perfect Human" five different times, each with a different obstuction. What he comes up with is truly amazing, even if you don't really get it (I didn't). But what is just as interesting is watching these two men interact with each other. Being a huge fan of Lars Von Trier, this movie gave more insight into the way he works. It was thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
That's all for now. Cheers.

love stories not yet written -- by ryan weberling

there was once when i found a book whose main character had your name. i went through all 572 pages, tore out every place your name appeared, and put them in my pocket.

it snowed hard all night long. the next morning, i went to the biggest field i knew of and wrote our names together in the snow, secretly hoping that someone (maybe just the aliens) would see it.

we used to call each other late at night and press the telephones close against our skin, just so we could fall asleep to the sound of each other's breathing.

at the fair,
you won a goldfish and named it Cher.
when it died,
we sat beside the toilet and cried.

the first Valentine's Day i knew i loved you- i bought and brought you chocolates from a strange store in Chinatown. they made us so sick we couldn't eat for a week.

i was at the beach- you were not. so i wrote you a 10-page letter, pressed it into an empty root beer bottle, and threw it into the ocean as far as i could.

we took one piece of paper. you wrote the words "i love you" a hundred times. i turned the page over and wrote "i love you" a hundred times. then we held it between our faces and tried to kiss each other through the paper.

we danced
in the snow
in our underpants-
then we had to go
to the hospital
where we, uh,
dance our way (all
the way) outta pneumonia.

our car broke down in the middle of a huge state park. sure we had a cellular phone, but we just walked until our legs gave out and fell asleep on a blanket of pine needles, holding each other close to keep from getting cold.

i can't help but smile when rememberingthe time we signed up to singin the all-community Christmas choir-you dropped your candle and set my robe on fire.

i saw you glance at me. i tripped and fell over.

oh how much you hated mice. when we saw one run under the bed, i took you out the window and we slept on the roof.

you tricked me. i felt something wet and sticky when you grabbed my hand. "it's nothing," you said. well, it was actually super glue.

While I was standing at an intersection this morning, I was honked at repeatedly by a little red car carrying three young men, who then proceeded to hoot at me out the open window. I was wearing kind of a frumpy shirt and my hair was messy.

I will never understand the male sex.

Not another love song

Why does it seem like everyone and their uncle is hooking up? It seems like the latest news from everyone that I talk to is that they're now going out with someone or getting married to someone. I know that in my last blog I said I was satisfied with being single, but the truth of the matter is that it is very hard to stay satisfied under these conditions. Yes, I'm in a little of a love phase.. and I don't like it. I feel like I'm in grade 7 again, pining over boys who will never return my affections. I thought I was over this. It doesn't help that I seem to only attract guys with whom I have no romantic attraction (except for the only one who came the closest to dating me). I just want to find someone to laugh with, to pray with, to share with, and to lean on. Someone who can somehow find it in themselves to love little old impossible me for who I am. I know God already has someone for me (Lord willing) but I just want a little reassurance. I want to be able to hold someone and touch them and know that that touch means something unbelievably special to them. I don't need to be married any time soon (I have way to much learning to do before that), I just want to share life with someone and know that they want to share it with me too -- and at least see marriage as an OPTION in my future.
Lord, give me a little patience.

The Dreamer.

Dreams can mess with you head. On the one hand, I think dreams are just about the most wonderful and stounding gifts that God has given us. The fact that we can slip into unconsciousness and then witness a cacophany of wild and imaginative experiences, all while we're ASLEEP, is pretty darn amazing when you think about it. But how much stock should we put into dreams? Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was pregnant. It was pretty exciting, but also scary because it turns out I wasn't married. Like it so often happens in dreams, I knew that the baby was a boy (without any medical person having told me), but the best part was that I was going to name the baby..... Brink Sven. In all honesty. Who the HECK names their child BRINK SVEN???? I mean, I like some doozy of names (just ask my sister) but even that one way out my ballpark. Seriously. Now, obviously I'm taking too much stock into this dream. Actually, I don't usually. If I did, I'm sure that I'd be sending crap loads of love letters to JTT (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) because I dreamt about him for a week straight when I was younger so that MUST mean that we're going to get married. But the day before I had that dream, I was listening to a CD and I heard a song. And while the song was playing I had a flash picture of me dancing with my husband to this song at our wedding. It surprised me really, because I had heard this song many times before, and I hadn't even really liked it all that much. But I had never had that happen before. And yes, I saw my "husband". And in the dream I had, (in which I was pregnant) this same guy said that he would marry me. This is where I start to wonder how much stock we should put into dreams. Now my practical/rational side would tell me that my subconscious put him in both of those situations because I do like him right now and I'm rather confused as to what to do about it. So rationally, I have tried to dismiss the connection. But my romantic/non-rational side wants me to see this as a sign.
I was talking to a close friend the other day who is getting married, and she told me that the year before, she was walking down the aisle at another wedding, and she knew that the next time she walked down the aisle, her now fiance would be standing at the end (they weren't even going out at that time). And now they're getting married. Obviously they're not getting married because she just knew that they would, but who's to say that my little flash prophesy might actually have some truth in it? Maybe there is some merit in these 'feelings'. Okay I know this is a somewhat dangerous and stupid way to go about it. I mean, if I were to believe every premonition I have, who knows what could happen. But I'm kind of sick of not knowing what to do. Can you have the feeling that you've found 'the one' when you've never dated before, let alone this guy????
Not that I'm pining to get married or anything. I'm quite happy with my life right now and I'm somewhat satisfied being single. Not to mention that I really can't see myself getting married any time soon. This just has been bothering me for a little bit. Because I can also see myself completely and utterly happy with him. And it seems like everyone is finding a boyfriend or getting married. And, no, I'm not going to say who the guy is. No one knows. Except my sister. And she's in Australia.
Well, I guess that's about it. I was going to write more but I have more numbers just waiting to be typed in.
Cheers.

My life as a mastercard commercial.

Being a Wendy's girl: crummy. Being an office girl: nice. Being a Theate girl? Priceless.
Oh yeah -- life in the fast lane. Things have been.. busy. I've been working up a storm and not entirely disliking it. I like to feel busy. Course my free time has been rather diminished but really, my free time consisted of watching TV and movies so I can handle that. I don't get to see my friends as much so that rather sucks, but what can you do. Oh BLECH I just took a swig of very cold coffee. Talk about gross. My office job has been going great. I'm now indexing on the computer so my days consist of typing in numbers all day long. I know, it sounds horrible, but compared to Wendy's it's a dream. Ah Wendy's. Well, it continues to be horrible, despite the fact that I'm only working 3 hour shifts. Thursday the people just kept coming through those doors... for 3 hours straight! And I had to work with a manager that kind of grates on my nerves. But hey, it's money.
I'm also volunteering at Theatre Cambridge which takes up my friday evenings. And I don't mind one bit. I get to see the shows for free and I love the theatre atmosphere. It's good to be back in the theatre. The show playing right now is called "Five Guys Named Moe" and it's a jazz musical so it's ALOT of fun. One of the leads is quite attractive.. and was on "Instant Star" apparently. Who knew. So yeah, that makes all of my evenings full through out the week.
Thank goodness for free weekends. This past one was spent in Grand Rapids, Michigan celebrating the wedding of my cousin Michelle. Almost all of my cousins were there so that was awesome, especially seeing my cousins from South Dakota. We get to see them only on rare occasions so even if it's just a day and a half, it's still nice. The wedding was a fun time... it was my first outside wedding. Thank goodness it was under a tent though.. it was a wee warm. But the reception was inside -- in a musuem. It was so cool.. there was a carousel there so we all rode on the merry-go-round and there was interesting stuff to see. We were in the lobby of sorts but there was neat stuff all around. Very cool atmosphere. Oh and I also got a compliment on my black dress from a complete stranger -- a guy. A pretty good looking guy. That was fun.
Well, I suppose I should get back to work. It's very nice and air conditioned in here. :)
Cheers.

Movies seen recently: (rating out of five)
Ghostworld *** -- I bought this movie not having watched it. Not usually a rick I like to take. This movie is quirky. That's about the best description I have for it. It's about a girl who is trying to find her place in the world. There is alot of swearing but I enjoyed it. Not entirely sure I would have bought it had I had seen it before I had the option of buying it.
Frida **** -- interesting movie about painter.. a little more than a bit of nudity though.. go figure, it's a movie about painters.
Alex and Emma *** -- watched this one at the hotel. Very cute movie. I liked it as far as romantic comedies go. It made me laugh and it pokes fun at romance books a bit so that gave it some points in my books... but in the end, still a wee but cheesy.
The Aviator **** -- Leo Decrapio actually had me convinced in this movie. I think he did a really good job of this film and I was really impressed with his dedication to this movie. I don't know if we'll ever see this from him again.. but hey. The movie did have a crap load of swearing in it though.. most of which I thought was unnecessary. Still, four stars.
The Far Side of the Moon *** -- a French Canadian film. Pretty much enough said. The film techniques were rather interesting but I didn't really know where the film was going. Still, it wasn't time entirely wasted.

For Ireland

Liquid threads of colour
Pool across a palette of infinite dimension
Stretching the breadth of human emotion with its thundrous vitality
A canvas of serene sacredness and raw power:
Rolling fields slumber in tranquility, embraced by tangled bushes,
Frothing water of a laundered bed --
A masquerade of faeries shimmering in a wonderland of mist and spray.
Fierce strongholds boldy curse time's passing hand.
They whisper to me tales of their childhood
Of swords and magic and kings.
Standing in the recesses of your spirit
Nature and myth collide in waking dream
Reviving my senses from numb apathy.
I run my fingers along the rough Celtic legends
To suck the marrow of my paramour.
I will revel in the silken coolness of your breath
and forever rest in the arms of your ardent lullaby.
I am home.

It still needs some editing.. but I'll sit on it for a while. In the mean time, here's the first draft.

Acting angst.

So I watched the second half of “What a Girl Wants” the other night, because I was bored and it was on TV. Let me just say that I have great pity for anyone who loves that movie. After about 10 minutes every inch of me felt entirely compelled to change the channel. Amanda Byrnes CAN NOT ACT. Every time she spoke it sounded like she was reciting a script. If it’s good acting, you should never hear a script. “Why are you trying to fit in, when you were born to stand out?” Please excuse me while I throw up. So why did I keep watching it, you ask? Well, for one thing, my parents sat down and started watching it with me… but the main reason I started watching it in the first place is because Colin Firth is in it. And believe me, I am very disappointed in Colin Firth for doing this movie. I mean, he’s about the only thing that’s good in it, but even that doesn’t save it. Why does a really good actor do a movie with a crap actress who is only famous because she’s pretty and she did a kid TV show? The same thing goes for Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff. Blech. All these kids, who can not act to save their lives, get to work with these credible actors just because they’re pretty and marketable. There is no justice in this world. Then there’s Jim Carrey, who I am starting to have more respect for as an actor. I saw the Majestic over the weekend and it’s not a bad little film. I don’t particularly like him so much as a comedic actor (although I do have respect for his abilities in that area), but I think he does some good stuff as a dramatic actor (dramatic meaning ‘not comedic’ rather than soap opera, overdone acting), especially in “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. I think Canada should be proud of him. It has taken some time for him to convince me of this conclusion so there it is. I’m sure he’s reading this now and jumping for joy because he now has my respect. I know I would if I were him.
I saw my friend Jenna two nights ago -- I haven't seen her since Christmas. That made me happy. It's always nice when you can see someone who you haven't seen in months and it feels like you last saw them a day ago. It makes you really appreciate your friendship. I think that's what having a best friend is all about. And it feels good.
Cheers.

*Scream*

I'M GOING TO SEE LES MISERABLES IN TORONTO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Join me, as we all curse scanners.

I hate scanners. Stupid stupid machines. And along with the hatred of scanners, comes the hatred of thin wimpy paper. Normal paper? Scans like butter. Wimpy paper? Not so much like butter -- more like a porcupine in a patch of thistle bushes... Do thistle bushes even come in patches? And do thistles even come in bushes? Questions questions questions. Although, I must admit, when I have to de-staple, wimpy paper is easier then normal paper because you can feel the staples through all of the paper. Makes me feel like the Princess and the pea. Only instead of a pea under a matress.. I can feel a.. staple. Through.. wimpy paper. Okay, it's not quite as cool, but hey one has to stay entertained.
Well, I can now say that I officially own a sexy black dress. Really, a female must. And I've been depriving my feminity all these years because I never owned a sexy black number. But that's all behind me now. Yesterday, I bought a sexy black dress. At Le Chateau. Oh yeah. I feel good.
I just scanned in 162 papers at once. Booyah! And now my computer is uber slow because it can't handle my awesome scanning abilities. Stupid machines.
So I found out that Mariska Hargitay (from L&O SVU --- sorry ... I'm not really that addicted but I just recently checked out their website) is an rape crisis counsellor in real life. I think that's pretty cool. I think if I ever got raped (heaven forbid) I would probably go to New York (at least I'm assuming she's in NY becuase that's where they film the show) and get counselled by her. Now, I know what you're thinking.. Steph, you're only saying that because a) you love that show, b) she's pretty darn cool, c) she's famous, and d) she's a golden globe winner. And those are all valid statements my friends. But I wouldn't go to her becuase of that... more because I feel like I know her already. Granted, I feel like I know Dectective Olivia Bensen, not necessarily Mariska Hargitay, but I'm assuming that if she's doing rape counseling I'm sure the sympathy she shows on screen is not far off from the real person. And feeling like you know the person already would definately be helpful becuase then you wouldn't feel as inhibited to tell them things. So that's my reasoning. Here's hoping I will never have to use my reasoning.. but it would be kind of cool to meet her though. :)
I'm a sad sad human being.
Cheers.

Notable Quotables

I feel ugly today. Maybe it's the black hair and I'm just not used to it yet. Or maybe it's my clothes. I don't really know. I mean, what makes a person feel ugly? I'm sure the people we think are the most gorgeous people on the face of this planet feel ugly sometimes. Or all the time. Kind of weird if you think about it. Who's to dictate what's "pretty" and what's not? Why, when I looked in the mirror this morning, did I feel like I wanted to sink into the largest hole I could find because I was so disgusted with the way I looked? Now I know what you're thinking.. Oh boy, here it comes, she's going to come up with some big social philosophical thought here that might change the way we view ourselves.
But I'm not. I'm just rambling.
I don't really have that much to say today (besides letting everyone know that I feel ugly). I had a pretty crappy morning before work. I was pretty tired because I went to Guelph last night and partied it up. Oh yeah. So when I got up it seemed like I hadn't really slept at all.. kind of like I went to sleep and the next thing I remember is waking up. I don't have that very often so it was kind of odd. Then I didn't like what I was wearing so I changed a couple times (that wasn't that crappy, but my self-esteem didn't enjoy it too much), shockingly burned my tongue and lips (you know, when you're not expecting it and then wham! shit!) on my coffee and my mom got mad at me for something. Then on the way to work I spilled my coffee in the car and I almost got hit trying to salvage the ruins. Stupid, I know, but man, was I tired and therefore not really thinking straight. I've never confessed to being an excellent driver, but I'm not really that bad. So my morning got an overall rating of: SUCK.
I've been having lots of dreams lately though so that's kind of fun (obviously except for last night). Recently they've been about Christopher Meloni (that's even more fun) mostly because I'm completely HOOKED on Law and Order SVU. I have three episodes waiting for me tonight because I've been gone these past two nights so I had to tape it. Well, on Tuesday night I wasn't actually gone -- my family and I were watching AFI's top 100 movie quotes ... and wanted to see the top ten which were on during my show. The top ten were pretty good so I think it was worth it. The number one movie quote of all time was (take a guess...) "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" from Gone with the Wind. Go figure. "Here's looking at you, kid" from Casablanca made the top ten as well, along with "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore" (Wizard of Oz), "May the force be with you" (Star Wars) , and "Go ahead, make my day" (Dirty Harry). "I'll be back" "Life is like a box of chocolates" and "Housten, we have a problem" didn't even make the top 15.... stupid really. What do these people know. And 2 and 3 were ones I hadn't even heard before. I mean really. Get it right.
Anyways, that's about all for now... time to get back to work.
Cheers.

Monday, monday.. la da la da da da

Ah... mondays. But there's lots for me to do so it's not so bad. I have these big piles of paper to scan in... which keeps me busy, but the probability of something messing up during the scanning process greatly increases. Oh blech -- cold coffee.
Good weekend for me. Didn't get much sleep but that's okay. Went to a wedding shower for my friend which was fun but wierd at the same time. She's my age... and getting married. I'm not even looking for a freaking boyfriend and she's getting married. Not to mention all the other people I know that are around my age that are getting married. Silly people.
I dyed my hair again..... black. oh yeah. My friend Crystal did it.. Man, Crystal's great.. she pierced my nose, she dyed my hair... she's going places. Yeah, so my hair is black now. My friend Tiffany would call me a "stranger in the land" (she did that the last time my hair was dyed black becuase I happened to be wearing my "stranger in the land" t-shirt -- I never did live down that nickname from her). I'm feeling a little goth, but once I've had it for a few days it will be fine.
Oh, I heard great news on the radio this morning -- Les Miserables is returning to Toronto one last time in September. I'm going. I don't care how much it is. Who wants to come with me??!?!
Almost time for lunch... roughly a half hour. Booyah.
Saw some good movies recently. I went to the movie theater 3 times in the past two weeks. Unusual for me. I saw Star Wars 3, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and Batman Begins -- all action type movies which is also rather unusual for me. But I guess that's kind of what's playing right now. Star Wars was okay -- the dialogue was soooo sad.. I cringed inwardly whenever someone had to speak. And Hayden Christiansen? Help us all. Mrs. and Mrs. Smith and Batman were both really good, but I think I'd rate Batman higher just because Mr. and Mrs. Smith is too hyped up with the whole Brad and Angelina thing.. and, well, Christian Bale is very nice to look at (and might i add -- this is risky -- even b. Not to mention, Tom Wilkensen and Liam Neeson are in Batman... it doesn't get much better. Although 'Smith' is pretty funny and has some great fight scenes. Another excellent movie that I just recently rented -- The Sea Inside. About a rather hard issue and not one that Christians agree with -- assisted suicide. It's inItalian (I think) with English subtitles. And it really makes you think. It's almost completely clean and totally worth seeing. I don't know, I was so clear on what I thought of euthenasia but this movie really challenges you to really come to grips with this issue. I recommend it to anyone. It also won an Oscar for Best Foreign Film and it's based on a true story.
Well, that's about it for now..... looking forward to watching my show tonight -- haven't seen it all weekend. :)
Cheers.

A business woman? Me?

So here I am, typing a blog since who knows when. I'm currently sitting at my desk at work, trying not to look at my watch too much -- time goes faster that way. It's almost 3 which means I have an hour and half left of work. Whoppee! Not that work is horrible or anything.. actually rather like it.. but the end of the day is the end of the day. Doesn't matter. Right now I'm going through old files and taking all the staples out so that I can scan them into the computer and then file them. I know, it sounds so exciting. My hand is starting to hurt though, from the staple-taker-outer. Poor me.
So work is going great. I can make my own hours sort of thing, I can have lunch when I want to, go to the bathroom when I want to and I even have my own desk! I'm trying to decide whether I want to dress it up a little bit in good ol' Stephanie style... But at the moment it's covered with paperwork and that's making me feel pretty important, so I don't know yet. One thing I do know, though, is that my foot is falling asleep right now becuase I've had my legs crossed for quite some time. Not good. Oh, another thing we get here is free coffee all day long. And yes, I've now officially become a coffee drinker. Sad and pathetic, I know, but all too true. Oo, I'm reaching the end of my pile.. almost time to scan.
So I'm addicted to Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. At least my mom would definately think so. :) Okay, so I watch every day at 7:00 without fail (escept maybe two or three times when I forgot to set the tape and I wasn't home.. pity) but it's such a GREAT show! And maybe I'm just a little in love with Christopher Meloni. But even when he's not featured in a particular episode, though the episode suffers, it's still good. The only thing I don't like about the show is Ice-T. Blech. The guy should cut off that thing hanging from the back of his head (and for those of you who haven't seen the show, I'm talking about his ponytail -- no, he's not an alien). But besides him, the show is so exciting. I don't know why, call me gross, but I find sex crimes interesting.
Anyways, it's almost time to go home so off I go.
Cheers.

I'm still alive..

Here's a recent photo of me... taken and edited by me. It's a fun one. Anyways, I'm still alive people and I've just reactivated my blog. Not that it needed reactivating, I just enjoyed saying that. Blog to follow.

of singing and swearing... but not at the same time

Procrastination -- the evil leach upon my back. I have ample time to write an essay right now before my friend Noah comes over to watch a movie, but what am I doing?? Writing a blog. Because I feel like it. And I don't feel like writing an essay. It's not a long essay mind you, but it's an essay none the less. Blech.
Went to the opera this pastThursday. It was my fourth opera -- my, am I getting cultured or what. Booyah. Sharon, Amy, Noah and I went to see "Abduction from the Seraglio" by Mozart. It was so beautiful. It did not make it into my very favourite opera book (and yes, I definately have one of those) mostly becuase it had a lot of dialogue which I didn't mind, but didn't like as much. But it did have Benjamin Butterfield in it. He is such a cool guy. He came to Redeemer for Opera Day and then he found out that Redeemer students were coming to the show and that was very cool becuase we got a special invitation from him for us to come backstage after the show. Oh yeah. Special invitation from Benjamin Butterfield -- world renown Canadian Tenor.
In other news, I'm completely and madly in love with Colin Firth. *sigh*
The play is going well. Lots of fun, but also rather demanding. Didn't really think this character (Duchess of Berwick) would be as challenging as she is proving to be. Not challenging in a bad way but one really never stops working with her. She's not in the play alot but when she is, she definately ON THE STAGE. She has quite the presence so one can get a little tired. :) But she's an absolute blast to play -- I love taking on her character. She just requires alot of energy.
I just found out yesterday that someone I am somewhat aquainted with has died. I didn't know him really well or anything but it's still a shock. He died in a head on collision. It kind of hits ya hard -- and to make matters worse I found out during my lunch break from rehearsal so I had to go back and go through the rest of rehearsal. Blech, what a weight.
So I've seen Pride and Prejudice (1995 version with Colin Firth -- hence the uber Colin Firth love) twice now in 5 days. All sixish hours. Oh yeah. But I have discovered that this movie leaves me somewhat depressed... mostly because a) I wish we could dress like that -- but maybe not so much the dresses worn in P&P becuase they make them look pregnant, but nice dresses none the less, b) I wish everyone still talked that refined and distinguished and with those accents .. I'm so sick and saddened by the erosion of our English language c) I wish men were still that civil and respectable with the ladies and d) I wish I could find and marry my Mr. Darcy. mmmm.. Or maybe just marry Mr. Darcy period. :) Why oh why was I born in Ontario in this century?? I know, I know, I have a purpose here.. but still.
So I might be going abroad. But not really all that far. This is still very very tentative but I might be going to a Christian film school in L.A. for a semester. It would be my first semester of my fourth year so it's a ways off yet but I have to plan and stuff so I just might do it. I'm pretty excited about it, but I still have to do a lot of research so we'll see.
I'm listening to Josh Groban right now... and he's still amazing. Life is good.

reading shmeading

So I'm supposed to update my blog so my sister can read how much I miss her. Ummm..... okay I'm done. There you go Trish.
hee hee.
Alright, alright. I know I haven't updated or anything of late but I kind of forgot about my blog. I mean, I don't really know if people read this thing so that doesn't make it a huge priority... it also doesn't help that our internet is NEVER working at school. *shaking of fist at computer guys* gr. But it's reading break so I have time and the internet. I know, try to contain yourselves --- that's a uber combination. Funny... that's always how I pictured "uber" to be spelt but now that I type it out, it looks weird. huh.
In local news, I made a recent exciting discovery. I discovered that our library has a pretty impressive movie/dvd collection and that it only costs 50 cents to take out a movie/dvd!! What have I been missing!??!?!?!? Course you have to have it back the next day but I beleive that's the only drawback.. that and that our library is about 10 minutes away. But besides that, I'm totally excited! They have a huge (well, huge compared to any movie rental place I've seen) foreign films section and they have a pretty good selection of "artsy" movies as well a recent releases... wow! I'm so stoked. How did I make this amazing discovery, you ask? Well, I went to the library! Yeah, I know ... shocker. And with all this great selection what did I end up renting? Shakespeare in Love. Yep. Okay, my sister recommended the movie to me, and honestly I didn't really mind it, but Trish, it was not as awesome as you made it sound.. I don't know why it won best picture nor why Gwenyth Paltrow won best actress for it. And it wasn't THAT funny. It had it's moments, yes, but I didn't come out thinking that it was really funny. It did have a stacked cast though... Geoffrey Rush, Rupert Everett, Joseph Fiennes, Tom Wilkinson, Judi Dench.. some talented actors.
Anways enough of my ramblings...
I have to be off.. time to go to church. To those of you in far away countries.. I miss you dearly....

the phantom of the opera is there...

okay... so school is what 2 weeks in and it's already busy. Man alive.. can they not give us a LITTLE break?? And in true form, it's 2 weeks in and Stephanie is (what else) ... procrastinating. Ah it's going to be a great semester.
I'm all alone tonight ... sitting at my computer, listening and singing to the wonderful tunes of Frou Frou (playing very loudly because I don't have any I-don't-really-like-your-taste-in-music roomates around to tell me to turn it down), looking at the different books that I have to read, thinking hmmm... I probably should be reading these, and searching through a decorative bucket full of cassette-tape ribbon to find the fuzzy peaches that I have hidden there. Fun times, let me tell you.
I will be doing a lot of memorizing this semester (sorry, quick change of topic). I don't know if my brain will be able to handle it. I mean, I did a lot of memorizing last semester for Perfect Pie, but this semester the memorization is for three/four different things rather than just one play. I have to memorize a certain number of pieces for my communications class, I have to memorize two big monologues, a song, and lines from a 50 minute play for my preformance 300 class and I'm in the play. And I have to memorize a song for vol lessons -- but that's not as difficult I don't think.... it's different memorizing songs. Ahhh memorization.
I'm also taking voice lessons this semester as I just stated. Fun fun fun... watch out for me in the newspapers... the next Brittany Spears -- right here.
I learned how to waltz today.. the basics, of course, but the waltz none the less. I felt kind of elite and knew exactly what the camera angle is like when they film people waltzing.. you know, when they just show the face of the man or something. Well, I've been there now, and I know what that's like... that might be confusing to some but it makes sense to me. I also learned the merengue which was a lot of fun. Lots of hip action....oh yeah.
I have also decided that it is not cool that three people I love dearly are leaving me. To go across the world. My sister is leaving on the 26th of January for Australia.. she will be there for a year. NOT COOL. And two of my really good theatre buddies at Redeemer, Tasha and Amy, are leaving for a semester at Oxford England on the 21st or there abouts... ALSO NOT COOL. I mean it's very cool for them because I'm sure for all three of them that they will have AMAZING times but it's not so cool for me because a) they are going abroad and I am not, b) they are going to England and Australia specifically and I am not and c) I'm going to miss all three of them terribly -- I will miss my sister more becuase obviously she is my sister, but all three of them will be sorely missed. Sad sad times.
I want to go abroad. It's in the plans. Definately in the plans. Now if my life would just work around my plans. That would be so convenient. And it would also be nice if my foot would stop hurting.

movies seen recently: (out of a potential 5 stars)
Phantom of the Opera **** Very good movie, know the score by heart and they did alright in that dept, haven't see the play but liked this version, one really big misfortune is the dubbing.. not so good there .. but Gerard Butler .... he could make masks a new fashion trend
The Hours **** I really enjoyed this movie -- has some homosexual stuff in it though.
Stage Beauty **** Phenominal ending.. a story about an actor who plays females on the stage in the 1800's when males acting females became "illegal" -- don't know how historically accurate it is.. also some homosexuality stuff but there's Billy Crudup and Rupert Everett
The Village ***1/2 I have to say that it's my favourite of M. Night's movies so far... really really good cast... Joaquin Pheonix, Adrien Brody.. good actors and good looking
Wimbledon *** And that's only because Paul Bettany is in it... other than that not a huge fan... Kirsten Dunst = annoying
** I'm not really all that boy crazy... these movies just have good looking actors in them*** honest

Christmas Time

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!
First semester of the year 2004/05 is done! On Tuesday, December 21 at roughly 3:00 PM, I handed in my last paper and I was free!!!!! Man did that feel good. :) Now I have next semester to look forward to.. uggh. Next semester is not going to be pretty: Reformational Theology (a 3 hour night course), Canadian Literature, Communications, Environmental science (with a 3 hour lab on top of the regular course), Philosophy of Aesthetics, and 19th Century Drama (which should be a great course but it's third year level and it's at 8:00 AM... grrr). So as you can see, I'm just chomping at the bit to get back to Redeemer!
I'm actually surprised I made it out of 1st semester alive... okay, maybe a strong statement, but I definately worked myself to inhumane lengths. I pulled 3 all-nighters in the last 2 weeks before exams... and I don't think I got to bed before 2:30/3:00 AM once.. not counting exam time of course. I was so sleep deprived that I actually made myself sick to the point where I was throwing up.. pleasant. That also made it harder to get the rest of my papers done because it took me two days to recover. Man, what school will do to you.
My exams went okay. I had rather a bummy schedule ... I had my first exam at 2:00 on Wed. Dec. 15.. History 107. It went alright even though I didn't have alot of time to study cause I had to finish a paper for noon on the tuesday.. second exam was the next day at 9:00 AM.. so no real time to study there either.. that was English 257 though so that was okay. The third exam was the day after English so I had three exams in a row.. it was also at 9:00 AM and man was it a doozy. It was for History 104.. a first year course. I don't think they should make first year course exams that hard. This one was rather brutal and unnecessarily long. Verrrry agrivating. My last exam was on Monday afternoon at 2:00 PM. Theatre 226.. not too difficult. But yeah, we'll see how my marks turned out. :)
Christmas holidays have been wonderful. I haven't really caught up on sleep as I thought I would but the fun times been worth it. Christmas day was spent with the family --- alot of fun. My brother and his wife couldn't be there which sucked, but I got to talk to them on the phone so that was really nice. My neice and nephew were so cute and so much fun. I've simply loved spending so much time with them. My neice speaks like a four year old (she's only 2 and a 1/2) and she is just sooo sweet. My nephew is the cutest little boy, even though he can be a bit cranky. But when he's happy and giggling and making noises.. man what a heart-breaker. :) The girls will be lining up for him I tell ya.
I've also been spending time with alot of good friends too so that has been great fun. It's always nice to catch up with old friends during the holidays and find out what they've been doing and pick up where you left off. I don't know if I'll be able to see everybody I want to so that rather bites but I'm enjoying seeing the ones that I've seen. :)
My eyelids are drooping. I'm tired. I'm sick of being tired. But what can you do. My mom thinks that sleeping past 9:30 is a crime so it's early mornings for me. :)
Oh... and I deeply and passionately despise and loathe dentists. I think putting people through that much pain with sharp metal tools that make horrid scraping noises should be illegal. Either that or I should be exempt from the system. Take your pick oh ye dentists of the world... or just Cambridge. What ever you choose won't really make me like you more though. I don't think it's humanly possible for me to ever like the dentist.

grrrr...

I hate papers.
I hate exams.
I miss sleep.

I love Christmas.

Alright.. school can be done now.

okay, so october 31st was my last entry... it's now december 11... man that's a long time. ahh well... I'm sorry to those who actually read this. I really am. So I guess at this point I would put in all my sorry excuses as to why I haven't written (and there are lots of them) but I'm just going to skip that part because I really don't feel like doing lots of typing.. and besides the fact that me writing this blog right now is a really big procrastination technique (I believe it's the sixth one now, after going to the library, doing dishes, doing some shopping, eating lunch at my grandparents, doing some more shopping, and eating supper with my sister and her friends.. okay so that's seven, but I only counted shopping once) for this rather big paper that I have due on monday (and yes, my first exam is wednesday and I also have an audition on monday). Ahh procrastination. I think my life would be a whole lot easier and a whole lot less stressful it wasn't for that dreadful monster called procrastination. I think it's made a perminate home on my ankle. Why my ankle, you ask? I don't really know.. ask it, not me.
So the play is over. It's actually been two weeks to this date. At this time two weeks ago, I was standing on stage in the wings, listening to the pre-show music and feeling the butterflies in my stomach. I'm actually getting them again, just thinking about it. How weird that we associate bodily feeling with certain moments in time. yeah. I miss the play alot. It's kind of like there's a hole in my life... You work so long on something that means so much to you, you perform it for one week, and then poof -- it's over and you'll never do it again. That has got to be one of the most depressing things about theatre. It kind of hits you hard if you've really emmersed yourself in the play. For me, it hit when I came to church in the box the next day and saw the empty stage for the first time.. I looked up and it kind of hit me, like a shock.. and since I was already a little depressed, I cried through alot of church in the box. I put so much of myself in this play -- it was kind of my life. Especially when we had all that crap about the language and stuff... I was sooo bloody mad about that. If I had had the time I would have written a blog because MAN I would have loved to have vented. Maybe I will right now .. okay, pretend it's about second week of november...
"So yeah, I have just found out that they are going to have restrict our audience to just the Redeemer community... and to make matters worse, they are going give us only three shows.. instead of the regular five. And would those shows be the thurdsday, friday and saturday? Oh no, that would be too much.. it has to be tuesday, wednesday, thursday.. all work days and all days when people have classes. I'M SO MAD!!!! I found out in theatre 226, Sharon told us and yep, as per usual, emotional Steph starts to cry... course I held it in because it was class.. but I had to do some wiping control around the eye area. It just seems like they're making such a mockery of all the work we've done.. All becuase of a couple of "oh my gods". I'm sorry but our story is real life people..."
Okay, I'm going to stop there because I realized that I could keep going for a while. Man, was I pissed.. Surprising how quickly those feelings resurfaced. Of course, that doesn't mean anything now becuase we ended up getting all the "oh my gods" taken out (except for one.. mine of course) and we got all our shows back, but that all happened a week before the show opened so we didn't get near the audience we were hoping for.. pitty. People really missed out.
Each show was so wonderfully different for me. Monday's dress rehearsal went horribly. I got so many notes from Ray and some of them were about loosing text (like, not being able to hear it) and that got to me the most because that is one thing I never let myself do... really frustrating. So I was really nervous for Tuesday's performance... which for me was one of my freshest performances. It was the first time infront of an audience and everything was so new and wonderful. I felt alive during that performance. Wednesday's was a deadbeat. Matinee performance, no sleep the night before due to adrenaline (sp?), dead audience, no laughs.. all around not cool performance -- of course that was the one that they taped. Go figure. Thursday's performance was a solid performance for me. Friday's was our most emotional performance. It started out weird for me because my apron was left on stage so I had to put it on in the blackout and yeah, I put it on backwards.. threw me off for the first little bit. Lindsay (older Marie) got really emotional at her "rape speech" so that got me more emotional than I'd ever been. The rest of the play was just really emotional for us. And Saturday's performance was the last one.. bittersweet.
Well, enough of the play. Since the play has been over I've had to write 7 papers in 2 weeks, plus take a final and 2 quizzes. Let's just say that I burnt out. I haven't had a good night's sleep since the play finished.
But yeah, one of those 7 papers is the one that I'm supposed to be working on right now... It's now 8:30.. I believe I started on the computer at around 7.. pathetic really.
Over and out.

*Sigh* ... Halloween again

Trick or treat.

I like finding new singers.

Well, I'm here at home, sitting with my sister at the computer, listening to a wonderful singer by the name of Hayley Westenra... a New Zealand singer who is kind of like Charlotte Church, but, in my opinion, she might be better (sorry Sharon, but I think she is.. you'll have to hear her -- I think you'd like). Okay, so now she's done and I'm listening to Maire Brennan, who is equally as entertaining. Although she's singing a song right now that I think is supposed to say "change the words, don't change the feeling" but we think it is really saying "change the herds, don't change the feeding". What a funny song.
So I have just had WAY too much theatre rehersal for anybody's good, especially mine. Because we're on reading break right now that means.. lots of rehersal time! We had practice 7-10 Wednesday night, 9-1 Thursday and 10-4 today. Wow. We worked on the second act. And I'm so proud to say that I have basically commited all of act 2 to memory! Yeeehaw! I have one scene that I have to memorize yet, but that should go pretty quickly since in the course of one rehersal I go over those lines at least 4-5 times. Now I just have to work on the stuff at the beginning, and my page and a 1/2 monologue, ending act 1. wahoo. I am starting to get a little nervous -- I have never had to memorize as much as I do for this play .. it's sooo overwhelming.. and the play is less than a month away! ACH! But I'm really enjoying working with the cast and director and stage managers etc.. I love my character and this play seems so ... fulfilling somehow, I don't know.
My head still hurts, but not as much. I'm not too worried since I did some research and I think I sustained a mild concussion when I wacked it on the table. Who knew you could get a mild concussion from hitting your head on a table?!?! But yeah, I've had lots of headaches, dizziness, nausea.. all that fun stuff. Not cool.
So yeah, I'm a little sore, but basically happy. Maire Brennan is still entertaining. And Viggo Mortensen is still darn sexy. Life is good.

Why am I such a klutz?

On top of the blooming headache I have from the bump on the back of my head, I just burned three of the fingers on my right hand. My thumb, my peter pointer, and my middle finger -- the three that I use to write with. What a cruel cruel world.

Buff firemen. My specialty.

Mmmmmmmmm.... Joaquin Pheonix. On friday I went to go see Ladder 49 with two of my roomates Amy and Cheryl.. Okay, first of all, it has come to my attention that I watch too many movies. Honestly, I don't think 2 movies a week is all that bad. I mean really, I am a theatre major.... heeeellloo. And I still get my work done. But yet my roomates tell me that myself and my fellow movie buff, Sharon, watch too many movies. You'd think there would be other things to do besides watching movies (and studying of course) around here. But let me give you an example situation: the other day Sharon and I were scotch free of stuff to do (and in self-denial that I had a paper due in a day) so she said to me "let's do something" ...I frantically searched my brain for something exciting and exhilerating to do other than watching a movie.... and wouldn't you know it. NOTHING came up. Therefore, we watched a movie. Now see, if we had found something to do that really didn't require much energy and that allowed us to escape from our menial existence for a couple hours, then heck, I don't believe we would have watched a movie. But the point in fact is that we didn't. What a sad world we live in.
Okay, so now I come to Joaquin Pheonix ---- so sorry to have put him on hold. Yes, we saw Ladder 49 on friday... I'm still reeling. It was such a good movie. And how much do I enjoy my wonderful Leaf Pheonix. I think this movie was one of his better ones to date. Of course L49 couldn't quite beat his fabulous portrayal of Commodus in Gladiator... but it takes a lot to do that! But this movie is really good publicity for him because he's the big gahoona in this one. Although it makes me kind of sad now that he's becoming way more famous, because he's no longer a wonderful well-kept secret.. :( But this movie... seriously cried and cried. And yet, I came out of there really wanting to marry a firefighter... especially if it is Mr. Pheonix. Yum yum yum. He is one buff and attractive man. John Travolta was surprising alright. I'm not a huge fan of him, but he wasn't too bad.
So yeah, four thumbs up, and definate ownerige when it hits stores.
In other news I hit my head... again. I think I'm going to have perminate brain damage some day. This time I hit the back of my head in that spot right where your neck stops and your head begins. I was sitting down and I went to lie down and I wacked it really hard on a rediculously low children's table. We were having a break during rehersal yesterday. Let's just say the rest of rehersal was rather painful and a little out of focus. I really should stop doing these things.
My cousin Heather got married yesterday. She's three years older than me and we hung out together at every family thing. I'm so incredibly happy for her, yet completely weirded out. It still hasn't really sunk in that she's married -- she's only 3 years older than me! And the family all thinks that I'm going to be next. Yikes. That means I have hit "you-could-possibly-get-married" age. Double yikes. Someone help me.

Women...sheesh

It's been one of those days... you know, when you wake up kind of mopey and it sticks with you the whole day, even though you can't really pin down why you feel that way and everything kind of gross that happens in your day becomes 10x worse and even though some really great things happen to you during the day, you just can't shake the "I'm not in a good mood" feeling... and other people can sense it too and avoid you, which just perpetuates your mood because who the heck likes to be alone. Grr. Thought for the day : If I'm not in a happy mood people, just GIVE ME A HUG! I won't bite, I promise.

Stress should be covered in honey, then thrown into a den of bears. Sleepy bears, who become violently angry when disturbed. And who think you're after their babies. Maybe then I'd be able to relax.

Theatre: the world as we imagine it to be...

How much do I love the theatre. This past weekend, a group of my theatre friends and I decided that we were going to have a theatre weekend. What an AWESOME idea. On friday night we all went to see Ovid's "Metamorphoses" at Theatre and Company. I enjoy Theatre and Company. I had already seen the play (it's a string of myths about love of different kinds) but the second time was just as fabulous as the first. Of course I didn't have as good of seats as the first time... but it was okay.. I could still see all the people flesh that graced the stage (and there was lots of flesh! :P). The set was a big pool which was just fabulous -- provided such creativity and beautful movement that just isn't capable with a normal set. Jealousy burned. I want to play in a pool on a stage.
The next day (after an emotionally and physically exhausting rehersal for Perfect Pie) the same troup of us (plus two more -- one of my friends, Sharon, and another friend) went to the opening night performance of Donizetti's "Don Pasquale" at Opera Hamilton.. I love Opera!!!! I honestly think it is a wonderful form of entertainment. The first act wasn't quite up to snuff to me, in terms of quality of acting... but the singing through out the whole opera was BEAUTIFUL. It had some wonderful chorus numbers and the leads had some fabulous ensemble pieces. The acting did pick up so that was good. I don't know if this opera was better than "Barber of Seville" because Seville was my first opera, and I think that the story line of Seville was funnier and it had one character that was funny through out the opera. "Don Pasquale" didn't really have that... but it definately had its moments that were just wonderful. I mean I completely loved the opera, just in comparison.... We also got to go backstage and walk through the FABULOUS sets -- it was all wild wild west... definately cool.
Anyways.... theatre theatre theatre.... and I only spent 35 dollars in total! Yeah for student tickets and having connections. I love connections.
This morning I drove to St. Thomas with my sister to catch up with the music group 'North of OK' .. they were doing a worship service there and it was also the church that I went to Kansas (where NofOK is from) with, on a SERVE project. Catching up with people is a wonderful thing. Often times rather awkward, but still wonderful.
Sigh. What a wonderful weekend. Too bad I have to leave my theatre fantasy world for another week of classes, papers and torture. Thank goodness I still have Josh Groban to keep me happy. mmmmmm

Miss Stephanie Woodsworth

Why couldn't I have been born into a British aristocratic household of the 1800's??? This truely puzzles me. I am currently taking British Literature and the more novels I read and the more movies I watch of that time period (Emma, Jane Eyre, Persuasion, Portrait of a Lady etc) the more I believe I was born in the wrong century. How I pine for the curteous chivalry that seems to have all but dissappeared in our day in age! To have nothing to do but paint and read literature and walk through the extensive and beautiful grounds of your luxurious home, with a wonderful British gentleman on your arm who is trying to win your affections in such a polite and chivalrous manner and who speaks in such an aristocratic form of English and with such a charming accent! sigh. Of course much of this picture of life is Hollywoodized and there would be the problematic 17th/18th century views of females in society to deal with (if Jane Austen could break free from the mold so could I!) .. but still. I would not complain with having a Mr. Knightley on my arm or having a man stand up on my entering the room or having men refer to me as Miss Elgersma (um, well, the Elgersma will have to go obviously.. I can not be aristocratically British with a Dutch name, especially a Friesan one. Maybe I'll be Miss Woodsworth or Miss Elliot ... delightful ... Miss Stephanie Woodsworth).
It is a truely sad state that I am in... Perhaps that is why I am a theatre major.. I can reenter the century that I was supposed to live in. It will be a reawakening... I will be home!

A little thankfulness never hurt nobody

Thanksgiving.. a time for thanks.
I am thankful for the home that I am sitting in right now
I am thankful for the huge group of people that love and support me, despite the fact that I am horrible at emailing and communicating my appreciation of them
I am thankful for all the experiences that I've had at Redeemer -- the good and bad -- and the profs who continue to teach us new things day after day
I am thankful for my talents in Theatre and English because I love my right brain more than my left
I am thankful for planes
I am thankful for literature, movies, and music -- even though sometimes they can hinder rather than help
I am thankful for my roomates and my really good friends from Woodland and elsewhere
I am thankful for a loving God -- Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- who forgives me when I continually fall and loves me unconditionally no matter what
I am thankful for the people who are in businesses -- becuase then I don't have to be and I can remain wierdly-dressed and a little crazy
I am thankful for my family whom I love with my whole heart (and my cats and my fish and the little hamster that lives with us at school, even though she bites)
I am thankful for Europe and other wonderfully beautiful places of the world
I am thankful I can drive
I am thankful for my neice and nephew (I realize that they are part of the "family" catergory but they're special so they get their own...)
I am thankful for so many other things that I don't really want to write down becuase the list will be tooo long and I'm kind of sick of writing "I am thankful for" over and over and I am just thankful for sooo many more things that it would be hard to name them all
That's about all for now... and no, they are in no particular order
Cheers

Return to the rat race

I am not dead.
No really. It has been sooo long since I have written on this blog -- one could begin to wonder. The world which enveloped this blog from the start (aka Europe) seems soooo painfully far away. So many times I have had sudden pangs of longing for the lands of beautiful lilting accents and rolling green hills. I have had so many conflicting feelings about traveling of late ... the more I see of Ireland and England (in movies, pictures, books etc), the more I feel like I don't belong in Canada. But yet I don't think I could perminately leave the safe shroud of the ones I dearly love. I don't want to live in Canada anymore, but I can't leave my family and friends and the security of my world here. What is beautiful scenery if you don't have those close to you to share it with?
My life since returning to Canada has been hectic. It makes me long for the tranquility and peacefulness of Ire/England even more, but in some respects I enjoy being busy. I did miss Redeemer during the summer and it's nice to be back, but there have been many a struggle in the short month since I've returned. My first biggest struggle was jetleg. Jetleg coming back from a trip is WAY worse than when going there. It also didn't help that I went to a concert the day after our return, basically pulling an allnighter, according to my body (the concert was from 7-12PM, -- 1-6AM to me). But the singer was my good friend Joel Geleynse so it was a good cause. And he even kept me awake -- that's how good he is! :) Besides the concert, I moved into my dorm and got shoved into middle of things at Redeemer. I was a week late so all my classes had already met at least once... it was a struggle to get everything I missed and stay on top of the new stuff.. Second year is much more stressful and time-consuming than first year! I have no time to do anything anymore. All I do is read and go to class.
There have also been major computer issues to deal with.. such as not having the internet until YESTERDAY... and also having problems with my floppy drive, preventing me from handing in papers.. grrr
And on top of all that, I had auditions for this year's mainstage... it was a full week process becuase there are only four roles to hand out (all of which are female -- so I was okay in that catergory), but by the end I found out that I had gotten one!!! This is a MAJORLY EXCITING thing for me. But there being only four roles, it's also MAJORLY time consuming! That, with my six other courses, keeps me pretty busy! The play is called Perfect Pie and it's by a Torontonian, Judith Thompson. It is going to be soooo good -- the techies almost started crying just on the first read through.. we weren't even acting yet! It's a really powerful play and I encourage anyone and everyone to come out... November 23-27.. more details will come as I continue the rehersal process.
It's 2:00 AM (my usual bedtime since I got here... ), need to go read history and work on a theatre presentation... I love school

There's no place like home.

Well, now it's really back to reality... and I hate it.
I am sitting at my computer at home, wishing desperately to be back among the cows and the sloten, where there are achres of land between houses and windmills along the highways. It's hard to imagine that three weeks have come and gone. I feel like my whole person has expanded and become much bigger.. it's really hard to explain -- but I feel different. Nothing feels as satisfactory here, but yet there is still a Canadian pride that keeps me going... Everybody loves Canadians in Europe (but not Americans... Europeans usually asked for our forgiveness if they had assumed we were Americans tee hee) . It is also helps knowing that there are people here I love and dearly miss.. But without that...
Our last couple of days in Holland were pretty fun. On Monday we relaxed all morning, then mom, Trish, my aunt Pat and myself went to Utrecht on the train (just hadn't had enough train travel for one trip) to do some shopping. Shopping with my mother can get a little wearisome (as we found out in Amsterdam) but it was still fun none the less. Utrecht is a pretty nice city, full of narrow streets and shops. Trish and I didn't buy anything but it was still a fun cultural experience.
On Tuesday my family spent the day in Amsterdam. When we arrived (we went again by train) our first order of business was ... a coffee! Go figure. I had a hot chocolate and they gave me a whole bowl of whipped cream to go on top! Yummy yummy... We then took a boat tour on the canals. Amsterdam is a beautiful city. The streets are full of narrow houses all connected together. They are so tall and narrow that most of the houses have pulleys jutting out of the roofs so that when they are moving they can tie up their furniture and hoist it up to the appropriate room. It was rather fascinating. We then went to the Anne Frank huis (or house) which was exciting and depressing all at the same time. Being rather tired, I felt like crying most of the way through the house. I'm sure lots of you are familiar with Anne Frank and her diaries, but if not, Anne Frank was a dutch Jewish girl that went into hiding during WW2 and wrote diaries during that time which were later found and kept by friends. Her family was discovered and brought to a concentration camp. She died a month before the camp was liberated, thinking her whole family was dead, not knowing that her dad still lived. Her dad survived the war and made the diaries into a book. It was quite a moving "museum".. we went through the actual house and all the rooms and stuff. They had eight people crammed into this small little place.. sad sad sad. After that we toured around the city for the rest of the afternoon and tried to find T-shirts for my neice and nephew (which prooved to be quite a trial --- we had had quite enough of souvenir shops by the end of the day!) Our tour also included going through the red light district. I don't think I've seen anything so blatently and publically geared to sex in all my life. It was disgusting. The streets were full of sex shops and sex shows and obsene fountains (dad wanted to take a picture of one of the fountains but my mom wouldn't let him.. it was quite the masterpiece!). One man called out to us to come to some sex show, telling us that we could get family discounts! :) We had a good laugh over that one. In many of the doors and windows, women were just standing there, scantily clad, to try and entice men to come in. It was so sad. You just have to wonder what is going through these prostitute's heads.. And we were there at maybe 2:00 in the afternoon! I would hate to be walking there at night.
Yesterday was another relaxing day. We went to a big garage sale in an old village (I bought two shirts and a really cool guinness glass that ended up breaking.. I was rather bummed about that one), we saw a Dutch castle that was right by my aunt and uncle's house, and we went to my cousin's place where we got to go on a boat ride on one of the dikes.. The boat was about 40 years old though, so halfway through our ride we had to stop and bail... :) It was fun. Then last night was our last night with my dutch relatives. It was really sad to leave them because I hardly ever see them so who knows when the next time will be.
And today we left. We were at the airport by 7:00 in the morning .. meaning we were up at 6:00.. My mom's aunt and uncle surprised us by showing up to say good bye... and then my aunt/uncle/cousins etc all had a coffee with us and we said good bye. It was really sad to leave. Our plane left at about 9:30 and then we had a 8 and 1/2 hour plane ride. I was exhausted by the end of that one. But we had three in flight movies -- Raising Helen, 13 going on 30 and Love Actually. All chick flicks. But ah well, it kept the time going and it was something to watch. We arrived at about 12 our time here and now we have returned and am starting to unpack. My enegy is draining though because it's now getting to be 10:00 PM Holland time. Jetleg is such a wonderful thing.
I can't wait to catch up with everyone and get my pictures developed!
Hopefully I'll be back in Europe in my dreams.

Ready? Ha! I was born ready!

We have returned to Holland! Sadly our trip to Ire/England has ended, but it’s not too sad because we still have one more day here in Holland! It is Tuesday now, so it has been 4 days since I’ve written. So much has happened in those four days it’s hard to know where to start. The Saturday we spent in England was one of the best days of our trip. I wrote about 6 pages front and back about that day in my journal so I’ll have try to give the abridged version here. We got up at 5:30 to get on the 6:15 train to Stratford. Blech, not a big fan of waking up that early. But when we got there, the town was just beginning to wake up so it was really neat to see that. Of course our first matter of business was Shakespeare’s birthplace. We were not dissappointed! It was sooo cute and quaint! It was rather weird to think that the great Shakepeare himself was born there! Nuts. We then walked around the village, hit a big garage sale they were having and then made our way to Warwick to see the infamous Warwick castle. Warwick castle was the funnest castle that we went to. It was also the biggest I believe, and the most touristy (which kind of sucked but in this case it was a lot of fun too). There were people all around the grounds that were in costume of the medieval time period (such as a knight -- he was soooo cute! He was australian and reminded me of Russell Crowe.. I got a picture with him. Awww what a cutie -- a keeper of the dungeon – who was also not too shabby of a guy -- a duke and duchess, and a jester). These people gave little demonstrations or entertained or gave history on the castle and the time period in which it would have been used (the title of this blog is from one of the demonstrations). The rooms in the castle were also all decorated in the time period décor and in some they had wax figures doing the trade things they would have done back then. Across a little river they had tents set up in a little “village” and there were real people there doing such things as sewing, calligraphy, cooking, etc. all in period costumes again. A lot of the demonstrations in the castle were geared towards more children, but it was still tons of fun and was a great way to relax for the morning (you know me, a child at heart.) Once done there, we made our way to Oxford … the city “of dreaming spires”. That saying is not a lie. Oxford is a beautiful city! I only hope that I can return some day as a student… Of course, Oxford is also the place where J.R.R. Tolkien lived (the author of the Hobbit and the infamous the Lord of the Rings) so I had made a Tolkien tour for us to do. :) We saw five out of his six houses, his church, his college, and the Eagle and Child!!!! (his pub) We were going to have supper in the pub, in the very room where the Inklings would have sat and talked about their books and what not, but the pub’s kitchen was closed for the evening. So we contented ourselves with just going inside and walking around the place. It wasn’t very big. I also got a picture in front of the building which I hope to put on this page when I get back to Canada. While we were infront of the building a guy from Turkey tried to “pick us up”, so that was kind of fun. He was going to school in London and so he really wanted to know how much longer we were going to be there… but we said we were leaving the next day. Too bad for him! He was in the picture too, but to the side, watching me pose. Kind of creepy but he was really nice so it was okay. And he wasn’t old!! Yippee! We then walked around the city… and lo and behold… I met my philosophy prof from Redeemer walking down a little street in Oxford!!! Holywell St.— where one of Tolkien’s houses was.. It was the craziest thing ever!!!!! He recognized me and we chatted for a little bit. Had we been a little bit later or earlier, we would have missed each other completely… all away across the world. Man, the world is small. We went back to our hostel where both Trish and I managed to get hit on again by another guy. This one was definitely desperate because he tried to pick me up with the line “nice glasses, where did you get them from?” I think that has got to be the LAMEST pick up line ever!!! Where do guys get these things??? He also told me that fifteen minutes with me would be heaven, but he would take one minute if he could.. and when I left him he said he was going to kill himself. I mean really.Our last day in London was spent touring the rest of the city. We saw Buckingham palace and the British museum (I saw the Rosetta stone, which I’m sure I’ll be proud of some day) and then went back to the Theatreland museum to go to the costume workshop. That was soooo worth it because Trish and I were the only ones there, so we got to try on what ever we wanted! I tried on a dress worn by Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera, an Elizibethan dress, and the skirt worn by Sandy in Grease! It was a blast! But the cost of such a fun thing was that we were late for leaving for the airport. Our plane left at 4:10 and we didn’t leave the TheatreLand building till1:30. We then had to take the underground to our hostel, run in and get our bags, take the underground to Hyde Park, stop for two seconds at Speaker’s Corner, run through Hyde park (yeah, that park is big and it was hot – around 30 degrees – and we had our big backpacks on.. man were we sweating and red faced!!!) catch the subway and arrived at the airport at 3:00… an hour before our flight. Luckily we made the plane but then our plane was delayed for 1 ½ hours. Lovely. But we made it to Amsterdam and now we have been here for two days. Since this blog is already pretty big I won’t really elaborate on what we have done, but Monday we went to Uterecht for the afternoon (did some shopping) and yesterday Amsterdam. We also went through the Red Light district in Amsterdam.. wow what an eye opener!! A rather depressing and revolting area of the city. But this also means I have seen every capital of every country I visited in Europe.. Each is soo different but all are beautiful and unique in their own way. Today we are relaxing – going to a town which has many secondhand shops (yeah second hand stuff!) and seeing a castle – because we are leaving early tomorrow morning. :( Truly truly sad… Anyways this is pretty long so I will write more later.. I will be home in 2 days!

Your brother will die tomorow. Content yourself!

London oh London!
Once again, we join you from a little internet cafe.. I really like these things. Especially the cheep ones. I think I'm going to get a bunch of computers together and start one myself. Look at me -- a little entraprenaur. Too bad I can't really spell it. But I'll be a good one.. just you watch.
Anyways, we have made the transition from Ireland to England! I seriously felt like crying as the Ireland coast drifted from view. I love that country and it will always have a very special place in my heart (let me dry my eyes a second). I was also a little bit sad becasuse Trish and I had met two WONDERFUL and goodlooking young men that morning .. and had to leave them in Dublin. A Swede (that would be from Sweden) and a Brit (and that would mean Britain -- Liverpool to be exact) . That was definately crying worthy. Anyways, our ferry ride back was absolutely fabulous compared to the one there! There was a casino, three restaurants, a play area for kids (and no.. I didn't go in there -- tempting) a store, a bar.. you name it! It was just wonderful! And no one getting sick.. Once we hit British soil, it was train time! I think that day we spent about 8 hours on the train. Talk about fun. :) To liven things up a little bit, Trish and I stopped over in Shrewsbury -- which may be actually said shrowsbury but we're not exactly sure -- the birthplace of the infamous DARWIN. But that's not really why we went (we did see his statue though!). We toured around the little town and all it's little alley ways (Trish and I took a little walk through grope lane.. which surprisingly still lives up to its name -- yummy) and then stopped for supper in.... McDonalds! It definately lived up to all of my low opinions of that fast food chain. BLECH. But hey, we were hungry and it was cheap.
So we finally pulled into Paddington Station (which is where the bear is from.. how cute!) at 11:45. I needed sleep. We went to our hostel -- no swede there :( -- and went to beddy-by.
Today was our second last full day in England. :( This trip has gone by soo fast! London is definately alot bigger than Dublin. We took the underground (our new best friend) to all sorts places -- starting with the parliamentry buildings, Big Ben (oh yeah! In real life! And yes, it's big -- no false advertising there), and Westminster Abbey. All of which were exciting. Then it was Theatre time. Right up my alley. Trish and I first went to the TheatreLand Musem (free of cost) which was all about the WestEnd (which is the area of London where all the Theatres are), how it came to be, it's history etc etc. There was also exhibits on the Redgraves (a very famous British acting family -- where Natasha Richardson is from) and on staging stuff (such as lighting, different costumes, weird stages etc). It was really fascinating. We were also there in time to see a makeup workshop. A guy did the make up of the Restoration period (the white powder, small lips, big hair).. it was so great! We then headed to London Bridge (and it didn't fall) and went to Shakespeare's globe theatre to see Measure for Measure -- one of Shakespeare's lesser known plays but one that I particularily wanted to see because I had done a scene from it in theatre class. Trish and I stood in the "yard" (which is where all the commoners would have stood in Shakespeare's day) and we were right infront of the stage -- I actually leaned on the stage the whole time and almost got kicked by an actor and hit with a sword -- that's how close I was! It was sooo awesome! I have never felt that close to the actors on stage before. The play itself was really good. The actors were very fun to watch, even though they didn't do my scene as well as me and my partner Todd did. But how could they have?!?? It's just not possible.
Anyways, the rest of our day was spent looking at the Tower Bridge, the London Tower, and riding the underground. We looked all over for Dicken's house but could not find it, so we'll just have to content ourselves with having seen his neighbourhood.
So now we are planning to go back to the hostel, have showers (something everybody on the subway should have done too... I love eau de B.O. ) and then hit the hay... we have to be at Paddington station by 6:15 tomorow so it's going to be an early morning!
Hope everyone is doing well... I do miss Canada.. kind of... okay, I miss all the people -- yes, you guys do still mean something to me! (although that swede... brown piercing eyes, tall, curly shaggy hair -- and interested in me too! sigh. If only I had gotten a name.)
Well, I'm knackered. (that means tired)
Cheers.
ps. the title is a line from Measure for Measure

My Goodness My Guiness

Hello from the wonderful city of Dublin!
I am sitting in our hostel writing on a pretty darn old keyboard. We have now been 2 days in Dublin and I can definately say everything is fantastic since our problems of monday! Dublin is wonderful. It is nice to finally be situated in one place for a couple of days!
Well, let me try to sum up what we've been up to in the big capital of Ireland. We arrived on Monday night and in the morning (after eating a real breakfast! Hurah!) we set out to see the sights that Dublin had to offer. The first place we went was the Kilmainham goal or jail. This jail was used during the various rebellions in Dublin, the civil war and the famine. Having watched the movie 'Micheal Collins' in World Issues in highschool, it was like history (and movie) coming to life. It was sooooo cool! For those of you who haven't seen the movie.. watch it! It stars Liam Neeson.. very nice. Anyways, after that we just toured around the city. We saw various churches that were rather large, we went to Trinity College to see the Book of Kells (yeah about that... it was 6.50 Euro to go in and see this silly book -- so we weren't going to go... then when we were in the bookstore - where the entrance to the book was - Trish just walked in when the guy was gone (not on purpose mind you -- honest!) and saw the book for free! Yeah for being Dutch!), we had lamb kabobs (there's some Irish food for you) and went shopping down streets reserved only for pedestrians. It was such a wonderful day.
Today was reserved for a tour Trish and I decided to go on called the Celtic Experience. It was with a tour company but there were only allowed 14 people per tour so we knew it would be a more intimate tour. Our tour guide's name was Chris and he was great! He was a funny guy and loved talking to us about Canada and telling us interesting things about Ireland and his life. On the tour we went to a bunch of places... we started with Fourknocks which is a burial mound outside of Dublin... it had buried 65 people... it was very cool. Next was Mellifort abbey.. a ruins of what would have been a beautiful abbey.. we are soo proud of ourselves because we only took ONE picture here, despite the fact that we are SUCKERS for ruins. I just can't resist take pictures of crumbling buildings surrounded by green! It's just so appealing to the camera's eye. Anyways, from there we went to MainisterBoyne which was another abbey ruin... but this one's importance was the fact that it held the highest celtic cross in Ireland and the best preserved and best example of a celtic cross (that would be 2 different crosses). Next on the list was Slayne, where we stopped for lunch (we ate in a beer garden -- a dream for some of you, I know) and then we went to the hill of Slayne which held the abbey where St. Patrick first defied the King and lit the famous fire of Pashel. If you don't know anything about that.. then you should learn. The last leg of our tour was to the famed Hill of Tara which used to hold the powerseat of all of Ireland. The High King lived there in his big castle (no castle remains because it was built of dirt -- talk about fancy) and there is also the Lia Fail.. a big rock jutting out of the ground. This is also known as the stone of destiny. Once again... do your homework.
So yeah, once the tour was done, we bought some souvenirs, did some groceries (um, bread and chips.. or crisps as they call them here) and then got ready for a night on the town. Trish and I decided to go to Knightsbridge Pub in Dublin which had live music and dancing. And no, we're not talking clubbing dancing where you dress in scanky clothes and bop your head.. no no... this is dancing the Irish way A. K. A. --- RIVERDANCE! Wahoo! We spent 10 Euro there.. on dessert and a drink. Yep, and that would be splitting that dessert and drink. But the drink was alcoholic (GASP!) .. but it was NOT Guinness. I didn't think I'd like the stuff (sorry jody!) so we got a shandy instead. But the entertainment was totally worth it. Live Celtic dancing right infront of us! It was awesome.
So now it's off to bed because tomorow we leave for the wonderful but expensive England! We're staying at the Brown's Hostel.. tonight will be our third night. Our bedroom is being shared with 18 other beds (not all which hold people). The amount of people in our room changes each night. Last night was the most interesting because there was ourselves, one other female and about 9 males. Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about. Unfortunately I was already asleep when they all came in, but Trish informs me that they just strip down to their boxers and hop into bed! Man alive... why must I be so tired!??!?! But waking up to 9 guys around you is rather interesting. Let's just say I tried to make it to the bathroom as soon as possible, then once done, made my entrance. :) LOL . But don't worry, no attatchments as of yet.
WEll, I don't know how much time we have left so I better sign off.. these things always end up being soo long! Sorry but there's so much to tell!
Oh, by the way, some of you have been asking if I have pictures... I do, but they are currently in a tight little film canister. So you'll have to wait until we get back.. then I can scan them into a computer and put them up somewhere.
I hope everyone is ready for school!! (that is, if you're going...) tee hee, I won't be there for another week!
Love lots and lots -- thanks a million!