Official Newsie

Well, it appears that I have been less bloggy than usual. I've been busy but since I'm sure you've all been so eagerly awaiting my updates on my awesome life, I took some time to narrate.

WARNING: This will be lengthy, even on my standards. But I have bragging rights. You'll see.

This past Tuesday was the craziest day of my life. Tuesday is usually my quiet day. My day of rest, relaxation, sleeping in, reveling in the fact that I have no classes. But THIS Tuesday was the day that I had to hunt down my story for the Charlatan. Oh yeah! Alas, I learned the hard way that Lady Luck is a heartless b****.

My Mission: Show the world how Carleton University was celebrating Ramadan on campus.

My Deadline: Tuesday night.

My Lead: a link to the Muslim Students' Association (MSA) where the name of the executives are listed. There are no phone numbers. There are no email addresses. Rock bottom is ugly.

I ended up going on Facebook (that's right) and did some digging for an MSA group in Carleton and I found it! There was one measly email to contact for more info but whenever I tried to send them something, I got the stupid postmaster email telling me that the email was invalid. Boo, technology. Boo!

But I, Veronica Tang, am a persistent reporter! Nothing shall stand in my way of knowledge! For the quest of truth, I know no bounds! So I ran to the news editors with my desperate pleas for contact info. One told me to facebook the MSA president. I repressed a scoff of disbelief. The other one was much more promising.

Good news: She has the number for a Ryan Fournier, the Head of Islamic Programming and Prayer Services (what a mouthful).

Bad news: She failed to record the last name in her cell and she knows 2 Ryans.

Great...I get to make the awkward wrong number call. But no matter! I was in no position to turn down any leads. So I trekked home and dialed the first number. Perhaps Lady Luck would stop shunning me.

Fat chance.

It was the wrong Ryan. I call the other number, very confidently, but no one picks up and there is no voice mail. Damn you, Lady Luck, damn you. I turn my attention to the President of the MSA, a Najeeb Siddique. Remember I have no contact info. But I figure: how many Najeeb Siddiques could there be in Ottawa? It's not exactly a John Smith situation.

And so, with the help of Internet (ahh, Internet, my cup runneth over with thine undying faithfulness), I search the yellowpages and I find 3 N. Siddiques. Excellent!

5 minutes and 3 phone calls later. I am miserable. None of these N. Siddiques is the one I'm looking for. I should probably also note at this point that I have also been running around campus at regular intervals looking for Muslim students to interview. As my luck would have it, they all chose Tuesday to go into hiding. I found no one.

Short of "my life sucks," I had no profound thoughts at this point. I decide to seek the big man himself, the President of Carleton (a woman in this case). She's handed out cookies on Wednesday to "celebrate the end of Ramadan." I decided to interview her, better than nothing and I was desperate. But just before I left to find her, I acted on the best idea I had all day. I called the second Ryan again. HE PICKED UP! 15 minutes later, I had an interview. Can you say, "RIGHTEOUS!"?

It did not occur to me that the President of a university might be busy on a Tuesday morning (it was about 10:45 a.m. at this point) so when I show up, the receptionist basically laughs in my face when I said I didn't have an appointment. I felt a little stupid. But finally, I hit a stroke of luck! The Pres was in between meetings! That's right, receptionist! In yo face! How do you like them apples!? Huh? Huh? What choo know about me?

Enough trash talk.

The Pres was in between meetings and I saw her in person but she didn't want to rush the interview so she offered to answer all my questions via email ASAP. Excellent.

Things were finally looking up. I had Ryan, I had Pres. I facebooked Najeeb. I found out that one of the guys on my floor was Muslim, but he was out for the day and would be back at night. So I wrote as much as I could with my info and played the waiting game.

Something unrelated to Ramadan: I got a call from a guy saying that he had a fruit basket to deliver to me. It's not code for something. I actually have a fruit basket...well, fruit bouquet. It's one of the Edible Arrangements that Daven keeps handing out flyers for. It turns out my mom sent me one while I was miserably trying to find some way to get published. What can I say, my Mommy loves me! However, this does not negate the fact that I laughed in the guy's face initially because I thought he was kidding. More about this later.

You know that feeling when you're waiting for a call and it never comes? And then you wait and wait and you have to go to the bathroom or take a shower or something but you decide to wait so that you don't miss the call? You wait, and wait and wait some more. The call never comes. You finally give up. You go to the bathroom. You're going to take that shower! It's almost a proven law: the minute you step into the bathroom and are past the point of being able to run out at a moment's notice, the phone will ring.

I know the phone-bathroom law well, having been a victim many a time. But this was just ridiculous.

I waited all day in my room because the fruit guy said he'd be coming by in the afternoon. 3:00 went by. 4:00... no fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. 5:00...no fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. 6... no fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. I went to dinner. No fruit guy. No Najeeb. No Muslim. I went to a club meeting. Everyone contacts me.

I'm telling you. My luck is really terrible. Right when I walked into an important meeting, I got a call from the fruit guy. I couldn't answer it. Najeeb text messaged me asking to meet for an interview. I couldn't reply him. The Muslim guy, Anas, came back from class. I wasn't in res to ask him for an interview. Life sucks.

As soon as the meeting ends, I'm running out of the room (for a while I was trying to chase down these two Muslim girls who were also at the meeting but I lost them. It was a very desperate point in my life. I'd rather not dwell on the fact that I was stalking other students). I'm running back to residence to catch Anas while I'm on the phone with fruit guy and then texting Najeeb. It was the most hectic 6 minutes of my life.

The next half hour was a blur. I got my fruit, I got Najeeb, I got Anas. I finished my article by 11:30 p.m. I may have sprouted more white hairs but other than that, I am no worse for wear. I have never been so panicked, stressed, desperate, miserable, happy, exhausted, and exhilarated in my entire life.

It was awesome!

As soon as the paper comes out (it's actually out today but won't be fully circulated until tomorrow), I will be posting a link to the Charlatan online.