My Crazy Regatta Day: August 2nd/2006

So first of all, I woke up at around 6:30 a.m ( I missed my chance to hear the 6am VOCM announcement as to whether or not the Regatta was going ahead..) And well, I got up and ready and got the 8:15 a.m Bus to the Village and got the Special bus to Stavanger Drive( The Regatta). And so ya, I walked around ( ran into some of my friends) a bit, looked at all the various stands ( non-profit organizations, profit organ. ,etc..) , got 2 slices of pizza at the Old Town Pizzeria at the Regatta, watched some of the Regatta races and read my copy of the Wedsday, Aug 2nd of ' The Telegram')

At around 11am, I decided to help the Anchormen Barbershop Chorus at selling 'Games of Chance' tickets at their booth at the Regatta (Because i'm an official member of their chorus) from thenon until 4 pm. At first, it was raining a little bit when I arrived at around 8:20/35 a.m, then it started to pour down, really pour down and it only continued to get worse with it 'letting off' a bit on occasion in a rather random fascion. Anyway, I was helping to sell tickets for '10 cents a ticket....!' ( and later ' 25 cents a ticket..!) Also, I was holding up some of the different prizes that could be won, moving them through the air in a rather silly way (ex. making a Bear Medium-sized plush toy and moving its arms to get it to wave at people) and shouting silly slogans to keep people to buy tickets ( I have Justin Foley to thank for that bit of inspiration. But let me give you an example... I once hold a medium-sized frog toy, mainpulated its front legs to get it around my neck in a nuise-like fashion and said, ' C'mon, buy a ticket, your killing me already!' and while waving a bear plush toy, ' C'mon , buy a ticket, it's more than I can bare/bear ( you'd have to speak it to yourself for it to make any sense!)

Other than the fact that the rain might've made some potential customers too busy trying to leave the Regatta ( or do other activities) instead of buying tickets to support the Anchormen Chorus, we all forgot to bring a pitch pipe ( Now, for those of you who aren't into Barbershop, it's a device you blow into in order to hear the first note in the key of the song you wish to sing (ex. A Flat) and each part tunes to that notes and then deviates up or down 1/3 and/or 1/5 to get their first note... and well without it, it's difficult to sing a barbershop song in tune) So ya, we sang on two occasions today ( Once in front of a camera although we were sometimes out of tune and I was the only barbershop 'tenor' ( who usually sings in falsetto))

So once 4/4:15 p.m rolled around, it was raining far, far too much in order to continue selling tickets, so like many other booths, we started to 'pack up and leave' ( Also, one lady went around offering a petition stating that groups that bought and/or rented booths for Regatta day ( which aren't cheap from what i've heard) that they should get a refund because the person responsible for choosing when Regatta Day was going ahead choose a day when it was set to rain the whole day and cut into everyone's margins of revenues for both profit, volunter and non-profit organizations with booths there.... but in my opionion, although this would be a good thing, it wasn't all bad and i've learned to try to make the best of these situations...ideally ( although I sometimes mess up)

Anyway at around 4:20/ 4:30 p.m, I bought myself 2 sausages on buns and a pepsi at the Regatta, put lots of ketchup, bacon bites and hot peppers on them, had a mid-afternoon snack and headed for the 'Special' metrobus going to the Village ( I also bought another copy of today's paper because my previous copy got 'soaked' by all the rain!) and then transfered to Route 1 to go home...

And well then, when I got home around 5:30 p.m, I spent the time continuing to read today's paper, we ( me , my mom and my sister) ordered pizza and garlic finger for supper and watched the movie, ' Last Holiday' ( with Queen Latifah in it) And well, the character Q.L was playing was a middle/ lower-middle class American working as a retail clerk in the cooking section and she founds out that she has ' Larkinson's Disease' and that she only has 3 -4 weeks left to live. So, she decides to 'blow' all her savings in order to go away to a fancy hotel in order to make the best of the last of her days. ( To avoid ruining the movie for you, i'll just tell you what I got outta it) Well, one of my cousions (I'm not completely sure which one) recommended that my mom watch this film as we all discovered last week ( I found out last Friday) that my mom has Terminal Cancer and that she probably has approx. 1 month left to live. And well, the movie for me showed that in such a situation, one should make the best of the time (i.e my mom and anyone else for that matter) and just try to spend more time with family and friends and fulfill some goals that we've always wanted to do

Yet for me, I know that ' living life to the full' isn't just some human idea. It also has its roots in the Bible. I can't remember exactly where but in the New Testament, Paul writes to his readers that we oughta learn to make the best of every situation, and in the book of John in the Gospels, we are told that Jesus came to ' give us life and life to the full' ( Now that mostly applyes to the spiritual side of life but it also extends into the social side too and well, not so much wealth). And the previous Sunday, Laws (spelled more like Lois H.) gave a message on 'The Kingdom of Moab" from the Old Testament and how the Moabites defied God and disobeyed him ( Much in the same way that Lob's two daughters defied god by commiting incest with their own father). And then , you have Job who was punished and tested by God even though he was innocent. So for me, it shows that suffering can serve two purposes in God's eyes: 1. To Punish those who've done wrong ( and to 'open their eyes' so they may seek God) and 2. To test the faith of the faithful and help their faith and relationship with God to grow.

So ya, other than that, i've just been typing on this blog and talking to my friend Sarah C. about how my mom got terminal cancer and about my day today.

Well, i'm going to probably check out Celena Boland's Blog, check my e-mails and that kinda thing. And that's all that I have to say... Until next time... feel free to post comments and i'll keep you posted ( to the best of my ability..!)