This week has been totally awesome, with so much happening and going on. But it hasn’t been without its share of trials.
The week of Porn Nation has flown by, and it was a huge blur at some points. Starting with practice at Jess’ basement on Sunday, it just kept going and going. There was a big assignment due on Tuesday, and a midterm Thursday, and I don’t really want to say I survived them, because the essay still isn’t done, and the midterm I haven’t received back. But I know that they totally got thrown out the window, in some ways, so that I could properly organize all that I was in charge of for the event.
Monday I tried and tried to get some writing done but I couldn’t even really find quality sources for my arguments. I went to work at Black’s and learned a lot of stuff about how to close the lab down, and work more independently, under Heather’s supervision. I know this job will be really beneficial to me in terms of money, environment, and non-school life outside of Campus Crusade. And I enjoy it. But if I didn’t have to, I wouldn’t have worked Monday and Wednesday nights during the busiest week of my university life.
After picking up Meredith’s vehicle (named Hector) after work, I drove around Alex, Jill, and Ben as we picked up the drumkit from Priory and some sound equipment. Knowing that lots of the stuff was costly I didn’t want to leave Hector in the driveway, so Mark and I spent 20 minutes trying to find the best way to fit Hector in our garage. Now we know why you don’t put a bike shop into the same one-car garage as the one car. But it worked out without the bikes having to be stored outside.
Tuesday included going to a bit of class, trying more to write my essay, and finding out that there was no extension allowed to the essay apart from a medical note. Not a big worry, as the late penalty is 2.5% of the essay off each day. I can handle that. After that class I had to talk to TSS (Teaching Support Services) about confirming the equipment booked for Thursday, and it seemed to be all worked out and fine with Frank, the dude who helped us last year at Ravi Zacharias’ talk and is very helpful. Shortly afterwards I met Drew at Jess’ house and started moving equipment, bringing stuff to War Mem for the evening program of Pure Freedom (the Christian event version of Porn Nation). Essentially, we had 1 hour to set up a large sound system, band equipment, do a gains check, monitor sound check, and main mix sound check. Definitely not enough time. It was good that we had so much equipment, and so many hands to help us out, but if we had more time the monitor mixes would have been way better. Another huge wrench that was thrown into the fray was the fact that Heather didn’t show up, as she had run into some problems earlier that day and returned home to her family. Only about 5 minutes before we had to start did I find out about this.
It was really frustrating because Heather would have really lead the band and the crowd in singing, and I would not have had to lead as much. I wasn’t annoyed or frustrated because she ditched us or someone didn’t tell me or any of that, but mainly because I really wanted Heather to be there for the night. Because we’ve been organizing the band stuff for the past semeseter already, Heather not being there was as if I was playing guitar without one of my arms. I could handle it, but it wasn’t the same.
Very very very fortunately Meredith offered to help me out in any way possible, which turned out to be joining me and the band at the last moment before we began. Actually, Mere has been helping me out in EVERY way possible, what a godsend she has been this week.
I’m also really glad that I brought an extra guitar from Priory, because guess what, I broke a string. The D-string to be exact. It always happens when you’re playing live, not practising. So I switched guitars as Mere prayed between songs. But the big difference between the two guitars was the first one used a soundhole pickup, whereas the new one had a built-in pickup, and no volume dials whatsoever. When I plugged the guitar in, it was deafeningly loud in the monitors. And I guess Sam didn’t have much experience with monitors or maybe not enough, but he just turned down the main mix fader and not the gain, so it remained deafeningly loud in the monitors throughout the next 2 songs. All I could do was finger pick instead of strum with a pick in order to keep the volume from killing us. Oh well, it wasn’t the end of the world.
That night ended pretty late, and after Paul from Audio Access came back and picked up the equipment, I drove Mere straight home. A little bit more effort and attempt at writing the essay, but I soon crashed into bed and fell asleep. Tuesday over.
Wednesday began by driving to Alex’s and Ben’s and picking some guys up to help me return the PPark equipment. Turnbull was a great help. But soon after that, I dropped those guys off and picked up Middletone to head into Toronto. We spent Wednesday from 12:00 noon until 4:30pm driving to Toronto, picking up equipment, and driving back. Equipment picking up locations included the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Long & McQuade at Bloor and Ossington, BCOQ office at 427 and The West Mall, and Middletone’s friend Bell’s home. Other stops included the Queensway Cathedral to meet my dad and grab my dress shoes, and Middletone’s house to grab some snacks, and Tim Horton’s to grab more food.
This is getting superlong but I have to keep writing or else I’ll never finish it. My week was just long, I guess.
After getting back and leaving Middletone at my house to test the equipment setup, I headed to work for another night of developing pictures. It’s been pretty slow most days I’m in because I’m with someone else, and things get done fast that way. I found out that I’m working the sales floor next week, even though I was only hired as a mini-lab operator. For what reasons I have no idea. It shouldn’t be too bad, but it just wasn’t the position I was hired for, sales floor. It’ll be an interesting time.
After work and driving Middletone back to Awesome House, I forced myself to study for the Earth Material Science midterm by printing off the powerpoints and going to Tim Horton’s around the corner to read. I was able to pull off about 1 hour and 15 minutes of studying. Ate a bagel with butter, emptied a bag of Ms Vickies chips, and downed a large hot choc. Went back home and after a bit of insane late-night style chatting, I went to bed. Wednesday over.
Thursday was the big day. I went to class via Hector the Explorer and parked across from the university at an undisclosable location and wrote my midterm. It didn’t go too horribly. But we’ll see how it really went next week when we get them back. I’m surprised I remembered so much. It really must have been a result of prayers, mine and my family’s. We just prayed that I would remember what I studied, for empowerment, and that kind of stuff. I don’t expect God to give me perfect or to remember stuff I’d never studied. That’s not realistic expectations of God. We have responsibilities and if we fail those, God doesn’t always save us from those necessary consequences.
Lots of craziness in picking up equipment from TSS because they wouldn’t deliver the stuff for us to War Mem. We got 3 vehicles all lined up at Rozanski and loaded them up and unloaded them at War Mem with many hands. I’m really glad that we got to move stuff into the basement earlier than 5:20pm. Hooking up the equipment was pretty quick with so many people helping out, and stuff went well. Apart from the fact that TSS gave us a really old crappy but still working amplifier that gave off a lot of static and hum, the first show went off without a hitch. Even though we were set up to do a live feed and all, there really wasn’t anyone in the basement watching it except for a few ushers and Jon Yao, my sound guy down there. The whole tech equipment live feed thing I think mainly helped the other students and staff see just what we can pull off. For the second show I switched the mixers and everything quieted down a whole lot. I should have done that from the start. Next time, I’m either going to ask TSS for better equipment or not book from them at all. They rent out some pretty junky equipment sometimes.
That night concluded with about an hour of teardown, sorting equipment into 3 piles (TSS, Toronto stuff and my stuff, and Middletone’s stuff). I’m really glad that we had so many hands, yet again. Sorting stuff took the longest, because for a lot of equipment only Middletone or I knew who it belonged to. So much information in our heads that is hard to convey to people even if they were willing to help. We hung out at East Sides for some quality food afterwards, since we hadn’t really eaten a proper dinner. I parked the car in the garage again, and soon went to bed. Thursday done.
Friday, that was today. Wow, this morning seemed so long ago. I woke up at like 6:30am so we could depart at 7:30am and return all the equipment that we had borrowed on Wednesday. The traffic wasn’t too bad, as some parts I was able to go 140 but other parts it was a bit slow. I think we only literally stopped the vehicle once or twice for a few seconds. Not bad for rush hour driving into the city. I’ve got most of the destinations memorized in my head, so I’m pretty confident driving to Toronto along the 401, 427, and QEW, and in the downtown core. Had to return back to Guelph for noon, which I almost managed to do. When I returned Hector to Mere at around 12:15-12:30pm, it pretty much concluded my whole week. We had a bit of tea, some lunch from leftovers from a while ago, and chatted about a variety of things. It was really nice to close the week like that, both of us absolutely exhausted but still somehow getting conversation across.
And now the snow has arrived, a new season has begun. I really want to just go into hibernation.
