Hello, all of my faithful readers!
Now that things are ramping to the magic date of July 11, I have decided to start my travel blog that will be separate from frenchgeek.net. You can find all my new posts at the site, vivalas2e.blogspot.com . There, you’ll find an itinerary, and also the blogs that my fellow castmates are going to be keeping so that you can follow them around on their journey as well.
So, again that site is:
Happy reading!
So, the Facebook group for Cast B 2008 is up and operational, and I’ve already chatted with people from 6 countries, and gained about 100 friends already! It’s insane. Anyway, on one of the forums, Katrin from Germany posted her blog address, and I looked on there, and there was a city-specific tour schedule, which she got from Ana from Tbilisi, Georgia, (the former soviet republic) who got the schedule amongst her visa papers. So, without further ado…
USA
Denver, CO - 11 July-11 August
Peublo, CO - 11 August-18 August
Mexico
San Jose del Cabo - 18 August-25 August
La Paz - 25 August-1 September
Tepic - 1 September-8 September
Guadalajara - 8 September-15 September
Hermosillo - 15 September-22 September
USA
Nogales, AZ - 22 September-29 September
Albuquerque, NM - 29 September-6 October
Durango, CO - 6 October-13 October
Provo, UT - 13 October-20 October
Jackson Hole, WY - 20 October-27 October
Sioux Falls, SD - 27 October-3 November
Waukesha, WI - 3 November-10 November
Peoria, IL - 10 November-17 November
Philippines
Manila - 17 November-1 December
Subic Bay - 1 December-8 December
Cebu - 8 December-15 December
Manila - 15 December-16 December
So… I’m going to know what the inside of the tour bus will look like in a hurry!
Love you guys!
s2e
Never in a million years did I expect to have a limited-edition lip balm formulated just for me.
Several years ago, my cousin, Emily Caswell, started a small business concocting bath and beauty products from her own home. At first it started out with a couple of products with a limited amount of varieties and has blossomed into a business that has dozens of flavors of lip balms, and numerous body scrubs and bath salts to choose from. Her specialty is putting together themed packages from bridal and baby showers to “divorce parties,” where one can celebrate a new-found independence from the relationship scene.
A couple of weeks ago she e-mailed me and said that she had been reading my blog, and wanted to help me raise money by formulating a lip balm with a flavor all my own which I could sell at my various fundraisers and around town. When she first thought of a flavor for me, her mind quickly sprang to after I got back from my trip in
I gave Emily the green light with everything, and within the weekend, she made up a batch of lip balms, packaged them and made up some professional-quality posters to put up places. And she “interviewed” me and put that up on her blog. It’s amazing what she can get done over the course of the weekend.
Okay… let me tell you about this lip balm: it is all-natural, and has all the ingredients that go into making a high-quality lip balm without all those fillers and carcinogens that you would get with Chapstick®, or Blistex®: everything on the label is totally pronounceable, and everybody knows what each of the ingredients are. The selling point of the product is that it has Ghirardelli® cocoa in the formula. How fancy is that? Ever since I’ve received my first shipment of lip balms, I haven’t stopped sniffing them. It’s like a slice of heaven in tube form.
If you want your own slice of heaven in tube form, all you have to do is either give me a call, stop me on the street, and ask me how much they are, or you can go directly to my cousin’s website and order it there. They are $3 a piece, and 100% of the sales go directly towards my program fee. So, please, if you’re tired of dry, flaky lips and want to give them the moisture and healing power they so desperately need, buy my signature chocolate mousse lip balm today! And while you’re on Emily’s site, don’t be afraid to poke around there a little bit and see what other products she has to offer. You’ll be glad you did!
As Up with People’s Cast A 2008 was visiting the Mexican Presidential Palace and meeting the First Lady of Mexico, Margarita Zavala de Calderón, I was being presented with my first oversized check!
I subbed for the Life Skills class again yesterday, and I knew that their bottle drive on my behalf had come to an end on March 31, so I kind of expected to get the money from that yesterday, but I didn’t want to say anything, in case they weren’t quite ready to give me the money yet. But all was confirmed when Mike Kelly, who is very good at keeping secrets and in fact has aspirations to work for the CIA, asked Mary Ward if she wanted to give me the check. The conversation went a little something like this:
Mike: Mary, do you know Stew?
Mary: I’ve met him once or twice.
Mike: Mary, are you going to give Stew the check?
Mary: Shhh…
Mike: What about the check we—
Mary: Shhh, Mike.
Mike: The check?
Mary: Shhh!
Me: Mike, the next time I plan a surprise party for someone, you’re the first person I’m going to call.
Fast forward to about 1:00 in the afternoon, after everybody got back from lunch. Mary told all of the students to sit at the big table next to the chalkboard because they were about to have a meeting. I knew something was up, but I decided to play it cool. Mary left the room and came back with a 4-foot-by-2-foot check that the students obviously worked very hard on. And then she gave a little speech: “Stew, we appreciate you very much, and as you know, to show you our appreciation, we’ve been collecting bottles and cans to help you raise money for the trip, so it is my great pleasure to present you with this check for $343.42. If you try to cash it, we’ll be having a little talk…”
I was amazed that they had taken the time to construct an oversized check for me. And that they had raised that much money for me just nonplussed me. I couldn’t stop smiling, and I thanked them very much, and told them how much I appreciated them, and afterwards all of the students and I lined up to take a group photo of the check. We had a bit of difficulty when Bruce apparently didn’t want to have anything to do with the group picture and kept standing up and walking off. After the fourth attempt, he finally sat down long enough for the group picture to be taken. (I will post the picture when Mary e-mails me the photo.)
So, once again, I want to thank all of the people of the Life Skills class at
This week has been an exciting week. Not only has spring officially started, and the snows will melt and the mud and the black flies will be everywhere, but the great folk at Up with People posted the preliminary itinerary, so I have a very general idea of where I’m going to be traveling.
Without further ado, here it is:
Orientation in
New Mexico/Colorado: September 29 – October 6
Utah/Wyoming: October 7 – 20
South Dakota/Minnesota/Wisconsin: October 20 – November 9
The
Keep in mind that I am not too sure if the slashies represent “and”s, “or”s, or “and/or”s, or all three of those possibilities. I’m hoping for the first choice. I’m not going to lie: I am slightly disappointed that we aren’t going to be stopping in more countries on the tour. That’s kind of a bummer. But the good thing is that I’ve never set wheel/crutch in any of the places listed on the itinerary, and I have no idea what the Up with People team has in mind for the tour. I know that I am lucky to even have this opportunity, and know that this adventure is going to shape the rest of my life in a good way. Everyone that I have talked to who has been through the program, both before and after 2000, has told me that, which is why I’m kind of antsy to get the show on the road. I’ve filled out all the forms and am in the process of getting inoculated against Hepatitis A and B, and I am getting kind of restless. But, I have some more fundraising to do, so I have to keep my mind focused on that and not lose sight of it.
Here are things that are coming up on the horizon: On April 19, I am hosting a Public Supper upstairs at the
July 11th is only 111 days away, and I am starting to get excited. I’ll keep you posted on how you can help me during these last couple of months.
Again, thank you all for your support and stay tuned to frenchgeek.net for more updates!
When I first started substitute teaching, my vision was to be used in the capacity of the main sub for foreign languages. Little did I know that I would become the Go-to Guy for a program that has always been near and dear to my heart: the Life Skills program, a program which takes under their wing young adults in the community with profound mental deficits and gets them ready for real-world situations by teaching them things like money management, being savvy supermarket shoppers, and all-around productive members of society. I love going in there to teach because the kids are always happy to see me and are very appreciative of my help. It also really makes me feel good that I can make a difference in these people’s lives, and know that there are other people out there that care enough to make this their life’s work.
Every year the Life Skills program does a couple of fundraisers, the first of which happens around Christmas, where they make a wide selection of chocolates that they sell around the school and in the community in general. But, this is much more than a fundraiser. It also serves to give the students a taste of what it would be like to work in a factory setting, or in a cashier-type situation. Every day before the students start working with the chocolate, they punch a time clock, they wipe down all the surfaces that will make contact with the chocolate, and they wear gloves. Mary Ward, the director of the program, serves as their ever-vigilant supervisor, and enforces the rules of the chocolate factory. There are certain actions that the students take that are grounds for dismissal, for instance eating the chocolate. At the end of the day, the students punch out and prepare the factory for the next day’s preparation. The other aspect of this fundraiser is to teach the kids how to make change. Throughout the day, students and teachers alike walk in, cash in hand, ready to purchase chocolate. Students are taught phrases, such as “How may I help you?” and “Thank you for shopping here!” It was a real pleasure to get to roll up my sleeves, and get some chocolate made.
Throughout the school year, I have been telling all of the students about my upcoming Up with People tour, and explaining that I am going to be traveling throughout the world, and working with many different kinds of people. I have also been telling them that I, too, have been raising money for my tour and that I still have a long way to go to reach my goal and there isn’t a day that goes by that one of the student’s hasn’t asked me when I’m leaving. I thought it was awesome when Mary Ward and Eleanor Degraff both gave me a donation, but one day in February I had a surprise in store… I was working with one of the students, when Mary directed my attention to a poster with one of those fundraising thermometers on it, and a big sign asking people around the high school to donate their bottles to go towards “Stewart Caswell’s Travel Fund.” Mary then explained to me that each year the students run a bottle drive and the proceeds of that go to a charity or a deserving person. When it came time to vote on where the bottle drive money would go, they voted unanimously to donate the proceeds to me. But, the overwhelming generosity doesn’t stop there, folks. Mary then explained to me that when all the money is tallied up on March 31st, she and Eleanor Degraff, another teacher for the program, will individually match the grand total of the bottles. So, every soda can and bottle is effectively worth 15¢, and each alcohol bottle/can, 45¢. I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard this. Everyone’s support has been awesome, but this kind of support tips the scales of awesomeness. I can’t express how much this support means to me, and I don’t know how I can repay such kindness. The last time I checked the thermometer, it was up to $43 collected.
So, this is definitely going to be a substantial amount of money that will be headed my way, thanks to the incredibly warm-hearted and special people in the Life Skills Class!
When I first got accepted to Up with People, and started thinking about the overwhelming task of raising thousands of dollars on my own, the first kinds of fundraisers I went to in my head were the ones of the “-a-thon” genre: fundraisers where each participant has their own pledge sheet and gets donations and then goes to the event and does whatever activity is connected to the beginning of the “-a-thon.” Of course, being very aware, pop culturally speaking, I asked myself, “If they had to raise a whole bunch of money, what would the gang on Happy Days do?” The simple answer to that question is of course, a Dance-A-Thon, with people who would dance far into the night, and only be barely able to hold themselves up when it reached 6am, and of course enough hilarious hijinx to make your head spin. Mom says I was born way too late, and I totally agree with her. I would have rocked the ‘70s.
So, that was my plan. Until I found out how überly difficult planning a dance marathon can be, and I effectively only had a month to plan everything. So, my dream of having a dance marathon went by the wayside. There will be other opportunities to let my inner Fonzie shine through. The first step was to get a venue for this little shindig, and I knew that I wanted to maximize my profits in order to get the most out of things, so I called around the area for a good dance hall, and settled on the Waldo County Shrine Club because the price was very reasonable, and it was centrally located within Belfast, which was a plus since in Maine you never know what kind of mess Mother Nature is going to throw your way, at any given minute. I knew that renting a hall was going to be hella expensive, so I approached Greg Dutch, of Dutch Chevrolet on Route 3 in Belfast, and explained what my plans were and asked him if he would take care of the expenses of renting out the Shrine Club, and he graciously agreed, and instantly became my favorite car dealership owner, bar none. You should buy a car from there. Tell ‘em Stewie sent ya. I can’t really guarantee that you would get a discount because of that, but they sure would get a kick out of it.
After all that was planned, a couple of fortuitous accidents happened. I decided to call Sandi Fletcher, one of my good friends with whom I had just re-connected just to talk about anything and everything, and not only that, but she was a Fletcher, and I thought she could help me score some arrows on the cheap… Because… fletchers make… arrows… Anyway, we were talking and she said that she would not only come to the dance, but she would make an appearance as “Tempet,” and read Tarot for $3 a reading. And I knew instantly that that would be a selling point for the dance. The second fortuitous thing that happened was that the school I teach French for, the River School, was having a fundraiser of their own a couple of days before V Day, and Louie Carl, one of the directors of the school, had picked up a chocolate fountain at Ocean State Job Lot. Because the hamster in my brain had just taken his inhaler (apparently, asthma is an ever-increasing epidemic amongst the brain hamster community), and had picked up speed, I instantly realized that that would fit in perfectly with the whole Valentine’s motif. And of course they were gracious enough to donate the chocolate fountain.
After all that long, laborious planning, promoting, and leg work, February 16th finally arrived. I met my committee outside of the Shrine Club at 4pm, and we instantly went to setting things up. My friends Mike Phillips and Chrystal Thorne came up from
For the most part, the dance went off without a hitch. People from all age groups showed up to shake their respective groove things. Even people who hadn’t learned how to talk yet. One of my cousin’s girlfriend’s best friends was visiting from San Diego, and brought her eight-month-old over, so I was honored to make possible her first dropping it like it’s hot experience. I had slight difficulty with the levels with the iPod hookups, and blasted everybody out a couple of times, but once I found a comfortable level with everything, things went smoothly. Towards the middle of the dance, I felt like I should mingle with my peeps, and Mike took over the DJ-ing duties and did an awesome job. Any DJ who is not afraid of playing a Weird Al polka medley is my kind of DJ.
Then it was time to hand out the door prizes, the biggest of which was a complimentary one-night stay at the Gull Motel, donated very generously by the nicest British motel owner I know, Peter Friend. Peter just bought the Gull last year, and has done a bang-up job at renovating the place. You should stop by and say hi. The other door prizes, supplied by the industrious Jeannie Buzzell, included one of those giant Hershey’s kisses, a jar of Valentine-themed Hershey’s kisses, and a very lovely picture frame with phrases like “Love,” “Friends Forever,” and “Shut up already and kiss me,” printed all over it.
I thought it would be great to have Peter announce the winner of the Night at the Gull, which he agreed to do. The first name we drew was Luke Johnson’s, which was all kinds of ironic because Luke is Peter’s son and has permanent residence at the Gull. Then, the next name that was drawn belonged to Fernanda von Schiller, the German foreign exchange student at the high school who had come with about six other teenage girls. As Peter read her name, all of the girls started hopping up and down and screaming, and I think they managed to scare the bubble and squeak right out of him. I thought that a person from the
In conclusion, let me say how grateful I am to my fundraising committee, whose help was instrumental in getting this dance off the ground. I would like to thank the Waldo County Citizen for their donation of two ¼-page ads, and the Waldo Independent and Jane Andrews for doing a story about me and the dance. Also, a thank-you goes out to Scott Perrow and Brian Gee for their generous donation of your sound equipment, and to Colby Horne, Brian Horne, Cathy Horne, Adam Bowden, and Mike Phillips for supplying the music. This was instrumental (forgive the pun) to this dance, because the only CD I own is Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon, and I am almost certain that people would have left after the seventh playing of Money. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank the Life Skills Program at the Belfast Area High School for donating their time and chocolate to making heart-shaped milk and while chocolate lollipops. Another thank-you goes out to the fine people at the
Since I’ve really slacked on my blog, I’ve decided to post events in reverse order, since that’s how my brain works. I know it’s been awhile since I’ve posted, but without further hesitation…
Today, I got the opportunity to speak with the Rotary Club of Belfast about all of my plans for my upcoming tour, thanks to Guy Hamlin, my 7th grade Social Studies teacher. We won’t get into how long ago the 7th grade was for me, but let’s just say that it was before the internet… For all of you young people out there reading this: yeah… I’m that old.
Anyway, going to the Rotary Club today was like being in the green room for the taping of my episode of “This is Your Life.” I kept expecting Ralph Edwards to walk through the door with a huge leather-bound book at any moment. That’s what is so great about living in a small town. There was Mr. Hamlin, (sorry, for some reason I just can’t bring myself to call you “Guy,” but I’m working on it.), then there was Bruce Starrett who acted in the first play I was ever in, and Patty Ann Lord who worked with my mother forever, and Jill Goodwin who worked with my father forever. And then there was the husband of a woman who used to go to my French group, and actually changed my life by teaching me the word for “shrimp.” And Mr. Chesterton (I’m still free if you need a translator to go with you to Paris!) who used to sub for the district, and made me hope that some of my students will remember me subbing for them one day. Seeing those people in the audience definitely helped quiet my nerves. It also felt good to be the speaker at the event. I got to draw the playing card, and I did such a good job at it, that two people actually won!
There were the typical announcements, and a girl spoke who had majored in Molecular Biology at UMaine, and finished her degree in 3 years, and is now finishing her Master’s in the same subject in 1.5 years, which made me glad I finished my degree in ten… years.
Then it was my turn to come up and speak. For fifteen minutes. But it went well. I started out introducing myself to the few people who didn’t know who I was, and then started going into my background. Then I started talking about Up with People and their whole mission statement and how that is carried out. It still amazes me that whenever I say that I am going to be touring with UwP, that I have never once heard, “Why are you touring with them?” It’s always extremely positive. That’s why I’m really honored to be touring with them.
After my kind of long and very circuitous speech, I did a little Q and A for the Rotarians, which included questions like, “Where do you rehearse for the show before you perform it?” and, “Do you remember when Up with People came to the area in the 80s?” Luckily they were all questions I could answer.
But what really was the culmination of the whole day was when one of the local priests came up to me and said that he appreciated me saying that I don’t let my disability get in the way, and that he felt the same way: “Heck, I have been a stutterer all my life, and I became a priest!” That goes to show you what a good attitude and a healthy perspective can do. Thank you, Father, for those kind words.
So, I’d like to express my gratitude to the Rotary Club of Belfast, not only for the really nifty pen, and the personal donations from some of you, but also for inviting me to speak and share my excitement about the tour and the plans that lay ahead!
I was planning on posting some things with pictures, but I can’t seem to get my computer to recognize the camera. So, for those of you expecting a post of the day of wrapping at Maine Sport Outfitters in Rockport, Maine, where I made over $100, it’s coming soon.
I hope all of you have a great holiday season, and a healthy, happy New Year.
s2e
__________
J’ai voulu faire quelques entrées avec des photos, mais je n’arrive pas à faire reconnaître la caméra à mon ordinateur. Donc, pour ceux entre vous qui vous attendez à l’entrée sur le jour d’emballage à Maine Sport, à Rockport, Maine, où j’ai collecté 100 $, ça se montrera bientôt.
J’espère que vous tous passez une belle saison de fêtes et une très bonne nouvelle année, pleine de bonne santé et de bonheur.
s2e
No truer words have been spoken. After yesterday, I really am ready for Denver. Bring on the altitude!
Today Ariel and I had the opportunity to get a VIP tour of the inner workings of the Up with People show, and meet a lot of the people that make everything happen. I thought the day was going to be a disaster, because when I was backing my van around in the driveway, I backed up a little too much, and went off the driveway ever so slightly, and when I kicked it into drive, all I could do was spin my wheels and make my tires smoke. So, needless to say, the day did not start out so well for me. But breathing in the no-doubt carcinogenic fumes from the tires did help get me into driving mode.
When we finally arrived at the Bangor Auditorium, it was locked up really tight, so Ariel and I had to bang on quite a few doors to try to get someone’s attention. Luckily Wouter Oosterheert from the Netherlands was there to help us through the door. The next task was to find Tina Mårlind, the Admissions Coordinator for Cast C, but apparently, we kept asking the Auditorium staff and not any of the UwP people, because nobody seemed to know who or where Tina was. But then we had the bright idea to ask the person who seemed to know their way around one of the boards that had all the wires running from it. Thanks to Andrew’s help we found Tina, and waited on the bleachers until all of the rest of the tour group showed up.
Then it was time for the backstage tour. Shannon, I think, was our tour guide for this part of the proceedings. It was very cool to see what goes on backstage and stuff. She showed us the various costumes that the cast wears during the course of the show, and also the equipment that is used to make the show possible. The most impressive parts for me were the moving lights that didn’t take gels because they could change color on their own, and they also could change gobos, which is teckie-speak for the filters that make patterns of light on the stage. So, for instance, you could go from circles of light on the stage to stars by the push of a button. Everything was state-of-the-art. While touring, the cast members have the option of going through an internship in a wide variety of areas, from admissions, to lighting and sound, to vocals and dance. I’m thinking about either going for the admissions internship, or maybe one of the technical internships; I haven’t decided yet.
After the backstage tour was complete, Tina presented a PowerPoint presentation to promote the program, and to recruit some of the young people that were there. After the main presentation, Tina asked us if we had any questions. We all just stayed pretty much quiet, which took Tina by surprise. “Are you guys from Maine usually this quiet? Is it part of your culture?” she asked. We then just looked at her, silent and questionless. So, she told us a story about being in Florida and seeing dolphins for the first time. That was pretty cool.
After that, it was time to learn the STOMP portion of the show where people from the town they’re visiting come up on stage to perform. This was the part I was kind of nervous about because I really didn’t know how much of the routine I could do. So, I tried, and it just looked like I was pretty much standing there, and then we did a dry run on the stage, and I before I could get out of my scooter, everybody was on stage and dancing. So, in retrospect, I probably should have been in the front of the group. So I didn’t end up performing, but it was an excellent learning experience.
So, while they were rehearsing, I took the opportunity to introduce myself to Faith (from Chicago) and Vania (from Bulgaria) to talk to them about some things. Vania suggested the Passport to Success Program to me, but I looked online, and you have to be recruited by an alumnus/a and then be accepted in order to get the $1,000. Thanks, anyway, Vania!
One of the things that really struck me today was that when I introduced myself to people, they were very polite, and said, “Nice to meet you,” and then when I told them I was travelling in July, invariably they would open up to me and say “Congratulations. You must be really excited.” And they were always willing to share experiences and answer any questions. Most of the time I was with Ariel, in which case the conversation would go a little like this:
Ariel: “Hi, I’m Ariel. I’m going to be touring in January.”
UwP person: “Oh, wow! I’m going to be the (insert cool-sounding job title here) for that tour!”
Stew: “Hi, I’m Stewart. I’m going to be touring in July.”
UwP person: “I don’t think I’m going to be traveling in July…”
That’s pretty much how it went. So, out of the people that I met, I’ll definitely be seeing Martin, the cast manager, I maybe will be seeing Jordan who will help with staging, and maybe Dave, who will be doing Tina’s job in January. But it’s all good. The more people I don’t know, the more interesting things will be.
Okay… after STOMP came dinner, and our first real interactions with the cast. This is where things started getting cool. I wheeled into the dining area, which was a long, narrow hallway in the Auditorium, and went as far as I could go, and I saw Jalee Kate Fusselier, whom I recognised from her blog. That’s what was kind of surreal about the day. I had followed these people through their blogs, and saw every picture that they had posted along the trip, and knew their ups and downs, and here they were—real people—and not just pixels and text. And right beside Jalee was Amy from Malaysia. We talked about a whole bunch of things: UwP things, what I can expect, how I’ve done with fundraising, etc. I found out that Jalee wants to learn French, so there’s another person I can help out with that.
So, after dinner, there was time to kill before the show. So, Ariel and I just hung out in the hallway, and started talking to the the foreign exchange students that were invited to do the VIP thing. When Ariel asked the two Thai foreign exchange students if she needed a malaria shot before traveling to Thailand, they started speaking Thai to each other, which really started to frustrate the lone Chilean foreign exchange student, who said, “You guys aren’t speaking Thai to each other again, are you?” So, I decided to speak up and say, “Podemos hablar español.” Then her face lit up, and she said, “Hey, he can speak Spanish!” And then she didn’t feel so alone. I love being a polyglot sometimes. My first patented UwP Bridge of Understanding. I’m quite proud of myself. We talked for a little while longer, and then I noticed that people were filing in, so Ariel and I scanned our tickets, and went our separate ways.
I was keeping the passers-out of programs and tissues company when Dave came out to invite me to the Green Room before the show. The Green Room is a UwP tradition where the cast gets psyched up for the show, and gets centered and all of that jazz. Dave pointed to me to introduce myself, and when I said, “I’m Stewart Caswell, and I’m going to be traveling with UwP in July,” everybody that was standing in that narrow, cold hallway started “Whooo!”-ing, and clapping, and a wave of positivity and acceptance enveloped me, and suddenly that hallway was no longer narrow or cold.
And as I was thinking to myself, That was my first UwP warm fuzzy, I realized that for most of the people in the room, this was their last experience as UwP students. And as Aoife (pronounced EE-fa, gotta love those Gaelic vowels) was reading from the Book of Appreciation, I looked around, and most of the people were crying, and I was thinking to myself how lucky I was to be sharing such an important moment with this group of people whom I’ve been following since the beginning, and how that was going to be me exactly a year from now. Then, we got to participate in some of the pep-rallyish “games” that the cast did to pump themselves up, (which involved peeling bananas, and various other things) which was überly fun, and after that, they dismissed the guests to their seats, and started (tearfully) preparing for the show…
…which, understandably, started a half-hour late, which perturbed the people sitting behind me, and I almost said something to them, but I decided not to because that would have just ruined the positive mood I was in. The show was everything I expected it to be: colorful, energetic, inspirational… all of that. At a couple of points in the show, the cast would go amongst the audience, and during the first song, the Mexican participant that I had had a brief connection with in the Green Room was in my vicinity, and I was singing along, and she waved, and I waved back: my second warm-fuzzy. The third came during a song called One to One, which I know pretty well from the internet. I couldn’t resist but sing it with the cast, and the cast member that was near me, Shannon, from Colorado, and I sang a whole chorus of the song together, and she leaned in and said, “You’re ready for Denver.”
“I am so ready for Denver,” I said, and with that the song was over.
Then during the last song, the whole audience took out tissues and started waiving them, not because it is cold and flu season, but because I guess it’s a UwP tradition to have the audience do that for the last song. Then, it was cool to see Jalee sing the lead vocal to the Up with People song at the end. That’s something really special for the cast member that does that, so I was definitely happy for her.
After the show, I saw Dave, Vania, Wouter, and Jordan all over again. We hugged, and they gave me their congratulations. Then I saw Jalee again, and we had a really cool exhange:
“Are you excited?” she asked me.
“I want July to come tomorrow,” I replied.
“Don’t worry, it will, and then the tour will be over just as soon.”
“Yeah, I bet July feels like just yesterday,” I said.
Then she got a glint in her eye, because suddenly her yesterday was my tomorrow and she said, “Yeah, it does.”
And we had a moment, and then she exclaimed, “Let’s be friends!”
And I said, “Any time you need help with French, I’ll be there.” And we hugged again, and we said, “See you online!” And that was that.
So, I definitely made some real friends today. It’s really inspired me to work even harder at fundraising and physical therapy, so I can really enjoy the crap out of this experience.
Read about Jalee’s tour from the beginning
Read about Vania’s tour from the beginning