Persistent Illumination

Not having the energy to plan anything last night, nor the finances to do so (thank you, OSAP), I just hung out and saw what would happen. Retrospectively, it was not a bad time.

The Friday afternoon finished with my self-demotion as a fundraising volunteer for Engineers Without Borders. While I will still volunteer, I will no longer be co-VP. Still planning the Xbox party on February 4, so stay tuned...

Then I had a meeting with Maureen Jones and Alice Pelkman, the acting director and manager of UW Student Awards, respectively. They seemed to take my problem a bit more seriously, and are forwarding a letter to the National Student Loan Centre on my behalf. Also, maybe some UW bursary money might more easily come my way now - I do not think that UW has ever awarded me bursary money.

Then I hung out at the ASU with Andrew Kloiber and Jennifer Diebolt - two of OCD's FOC for 2005, waiting to start their FOC training weekend that night. It's nice to be in the company of a few solid people on campus. That, I think, is why the OEA is getting off the ground. :)

They had to head off to their weekend at about 6pm, and by that time I had MSNed with Meagan Dilworth (another OEA member) and been invited by her to a VIP free show at the Bomber - local musician Craig Cardiff was recording a live CD there and there were about 50 in attendance. He's very mellow, so everyone I was with (Rebecca Temmer was already there, and Sarah Lewis joined later) felt sleepy. Satisfied, but sleepy. Not a bad time, considering the rest of the night was filled by people paying $9-12 to get through the door.

It was still only 8:00pm by this point, so when Sarah Lewis was helping with Warrior Weekends, in the good spirit of selfless volunteering I helped set up some chairs and the sound system. Setting up things in the SLC Great Hall brings me back ... and makes me feel old.

By this time we had all been joined by Adam Kaufman, a pleasant surprise considering that he had been spending considerable time getting ready to head to Cambodia for seven or eight months as an intern with Engineers Without Borders. He's also not having a good 2005, but not for financial reasons, so we agreed to share stories over pints at Molly Bloom's (he paid). Dilworth acted as a sort of judge, as it became a mock contest to see who's year was worse.

Fetching Sarah from Warrior Weekends at about 11pm, Adam, Sarah and I went back to my house for some Crown Royal Special Reserve. At first we were all skeptical - they were both preferring wine that night - but it's really some quite good whisky. Very smooth. Many hours and conversations on development later, we all passed out here. They, and you, my readers, are almost always welcome here at my house. Nothing like a little southern hospitality up in the north!

That was my night, really. Not bad for no plans - perhaps I'll try that again someday. Once this hangover wears off.