Ramen, Killer Queen and the NSO

Hey blog world! Last Sunday night was absolutely epic! I had the best time with my friend Jim! We attended the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra’s 2024 Winter Pops show, a tribute to Queen starring Kelly-Ann Evans

We planned to start our evening having Swiss Chalet for supper. We arrived at the one in Mount Pearl, but were told that it would be 45 minutes to an hour waiting for a table. We decided to say “Shag that” and left. Now we were left to decide where to go instead. There were so many delicious options in that area. Burgers, breakfast food, pub grub, fish and chips, it was so hard to choose! Eventually, we decided to go to Noodle Express on Commonwealth Avenue for ramen (or, as I explained it to my parents who, when I was telling them about my night, had no idea what ramen was, “Mr. Noodles, but fancy”!)

This was my first time ever in that restaurant, I was very excited to try it! We began with some cheese wontons. Jim said they were his favorite thing to order there. I love wontons and cheese, so I thought together I would really enjoy it. They were… ok. 5/10. I didn’t hate it, but it also wasn’t my favorite thing. I loved how crispy the wontons were, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the hot cream cheese mixture that was inside.

For my main course, I opted to have the honey garlic rib noodle soup. Behold!

Presentation an absolute 10/10. My mouth was watering just looking at it! I couldn’t wait to try it!

Taste gets a 9.8 out of 10. The honey garlic ribs were fall off the bone, the perfect balance of honey and garlic flavor. The homemade noodles were nice and soft, there were lots of yummy vegetables (broccoli, scallions and carrots), the broth was very flavorful as well, it tasted just like the ribs. It was delicious! The only reason its not a complete perfect 10 was the nori. This was my first time trying it and I just wasn’t a fan of the taste or texture.

Side note: I was VERY glad that they had forks available to eat the noodles with. I am not a skilled chopstick user! Last year, I went to Bad Bones with my friends Ian and Andrew from Church and they attempted to teach me how to use chopsticks, but it was a disaster. I wore more of my soup than I ate!

As we ate, Jim was asking me how things were going with “Understanding Wonderland”, a play that my best friend Peter Halley and I wrote together. I was telling him about all the amazing opportunities that have come up for it; getting to perform an excerpt at the CBS library, the big preview event at the Autism Society in November, the next preview we have with the ASNL in March and some other really big and exciting things that I can’t mention just yet! He was amazed and said that I should continue writing, maybe even take some online courses, who knows where this could take me. At the end of our meal we had fortune cookies for desert. I opened mine and my jaw dropped. It said “You will be an accomplished writer!” I was mind blown! How did it know that’s what we were JUST talking about! Whoa! I’m going to keep that fortune and keep working at my writing until that paper fortune comes true.

Next, we headed to the Arts and Culture Centre. Before we headed to our seats, I had a special delivery to make, so I stopped by the bar, which is now operated by my dear friends at Spirit of Newfoundland. The special little treats were for Peter who is not only my bestie but also the artistic director of Spirit. He is gearing up for the St. John’s Kiwanis Music Festival (a regional music competition that many of his voice students are entered in) so as a little good luck treat, I baked him some gluten free, dairy free, no sugar added carrot muffins. Also, cleaning out my storage room, I found the original copies of some drawings of his dog Frenchy that I turned into a calendar for him last year. He was sad that the calendar was over, so when I found the OG drawings, I just knew he would love to have them. I was right! Seeing his big smile made me feel so happy. Gift making/giving is one of my favorite ways to show people I care about them. Its just so wonderful to see the smiles on peoples faces when I give them something I made them.

While I was at the bar, I decided to have a drink. The specialty cocktail they crafted for this show was the “Killer Queen”.

This cocktail is guaranteed to blow your mind! Its vodka, grand marnier, peach schnapps, cranberry juice and lime juice. I don’t like anything very strong, so I thought this was perfect. Sweet, not too tart, very cranberry forward which I liked, you can’t even tell that its boozy! 10/10!

Soon after I finished my drink it was time to head in for the show. It was absolutely phenomenal!

Kelly-Ann Evans was the lead vocalist in the show. I love everything about her! She is gorgeous inside and out and has a killer voice. Every song that she sang I was just in awe of how incredible she sounds! Her stage presence is phenomenal as well. When she rode a bike on stage during “Bicycle Race” I was amazed (yet also slightly terrified as she wasn’t wearing a helmet! Glad she didn’t fall!)

Photo credit: Alick Tsui

She had 4 guest artists with her that night. Steve Maloney, Steve Power, Adrienne Fitzgerald and Vicki Harnett. They are all amazingly talented as well. When Steve Maloney sang “Who Wants To Live Forever” with Kelly-Ann, my jaw hit the floor. I couldn’t get over what a breathtaking, beautiful voice that he had!

It was great to see Vicki Harnett again (who, by the way makes a deadly soy hot chocolate. She used to be a barista at the Starbucks I frequented in college!) She is a vocal powerhouse! She brought the house down with “Hammer To Fall”, it was one of my favorite parts of the first act!

It’d been a minute since I’d seen Steve perform. The last concert I saw him in was Kelly-Ann’s Legends show (a tribute to MJ, Rod Stewart, Elvis and Queen) a decade ago! It was a treat to hear him again. I love his voice, very smooth. He sang two of my favorite Queen songs, “Fat Bottom Girls” and “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. He did an excellent job with both!

I had never heard Adrienne before and I thought she looked and sounded gorgeous! I hope to get to hear her somewhere again soon. She was fantastic!

The musicians were incredible as well! I loved the concept of this show; classical instruments playing rock music, how firetrucking cool is that?! With each song, I was astounded, especially at the end when they did “Bohemian Rhapsody”! It was mind blowing! Best cover of that song I’ve ever heard! Also sharing the stage with the NSO was Frank Fusari on bass, Scott Mansfield on drums, Brian Way on piano and Grant King on guitar. All super talented dudes (and Frank is a really nice guy, I’ve known him for years, glad to call him a friend.) I’ve seen Frank, Scott and Brian in many concerts and they always knock it out of the park. This was my first time hearing Grant and I was very impressed! Jim was as well, he kept going on about how unbelievable he was!

This was one of the best, most unforgettable shows I’d ever seen! Huge congratulations to all involved!

The NSO has many more sure to be fantastic shows coming up! Many classical music performances, a Star Wars concert and, one that I am very excited for, an evening of songs from Oscar winning movies! This show has a stellar line-up of guest vocalists including Shelley Neville, Dana Parsons and Michelle Doyle! For full details and ticket information for the NSO 2024 season, click here.

Leah

Fun Has No Age Limit

If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad

sheryl Crow

Hey blog world! A negative comment I received on Facebook recently re-surfaced in my memories and I just wanted to address it and put my couple of cents in.

A few years ago, I had just finished a solo rhythmic gymnastics practice at the Masonic Temple and had FINALLY nailed a super hard move, throwing and catching my clubs! In weeks prior to this, I really struggled, no matter how many times I tried I would always miss and the clubs would crash down onto the floor (I’m pretty sure that in doing this I put a good few dents in the hardwood flooring of the grand room. Sorry Kathie and Peter!!) The day I finally got the move down pat, I was super proud of myself! I took to Facebook stating how proud I was and how excited I was to get home and put a sticker on my practice sheet (my coach gave us all paper calendars and we were to put a sticker on each day that we had practiced). I felt I had earned it! A friend of mine left a comment saying

A sticker because you practiced? I get it, you’re proud of yourself, but giving yourself stickers is kind of a child’s thing. Can’t you just be happy your practice went well, then after the competition pick a more adult reward?!

People like this commenter are complete and total “fun sponges” (a person who does not want people to enjoy themselves). I hate it when people like them make fun of, put down or discourage others because they like something that is considered childish. I absolutely love stickers! They are bright and colorful and have fun designs! Also, I love the feeling I get when I earn a sticker! Doing something good and earning a sticker for it gives me a euphoric sense of pride!

I have a few interests that some people think I am too old for. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a HUGE fan of “VeggieTales”. “VeggieTales” is a Christian, direct to DVD (with the exception of 2 theatrical releases, “Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie” and “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything”) children’s cartoon series with talking vegetables who tell stories that teach Bible lessons and important moral values like forgiveness and thankfulness. I have almost all of the movies, know every word to every Silly Song, I even had a VeggieTales cake for my 25th Birthday!!

Even though it is a show for children, I still find it very funny and entertaining (and, now that I’m an adult, I love it when I catch on to the jokes and references that go over kids heads, like the nod to “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” in “Josh and the Big Wall”!)

I also love The Wiggles! The O.G’s will always have my heart, but the new ones are fantastic as well. Of them, Simon is my favorite. Fun fact, he is a fellow theatre nerd, thus why I love him so much! He was Old Deuteronomy in a world tour production of “Cats” and played the title role in the Australian production of “Phantom of the Opera”! I got to see them live last September and it was one of the best afternoons of my life! I had a blast singing and dancing along to every song and nearly jumped out of my skin with excitement when Dorothy the Dinosaur came out! She is my favorite of the Wiggly friends! I went to this concert by myself (I had a friend who was going to go with me, but something came up last minute and she wasn’t able to). I am a childless, Wiggle loving 25 year old and not ashamed to say that! Their music is fun and danceable and makes me smile (and, just for the record, I personally think “Wake Up Jeff” has one of the best guitar solos ever! Its absolute fire!) If anyone associated with the Iceberg Alley Performance Tent happens to see this post, I would love if you could get the original Wiggles to play in the tent someday!! Greg, Murray, Anthony and Jeff got back together last year to perform a string of sold out reunion shows for people age 19+ all across Australia (and from all the TikToks I’ve seen from concert goers, a time was had!) It would be incredible to see the original 4 members of one of my favorite bands perform together again! Doing “The Monkey Dance” with hundreds of other grown up Wiggle fans would be such an amazing experience!

Many of my adult friends are into so called “kid stuff”. My best friend Kristen is a year older than me and loves Peppa Pig! My friend Terry is over 60 and loves to surround himself with teddy bears! I absolutely see no problem whatsoever with this! Painted wings and giants rings don’t always make way for other toys and that is ok! It makes them happy and that makes me happy! People should be allowed to like whatever they want to like! Let them have their fun! Screw “guilty pleasures”, you should not be made to feel guilty for enjoying things! If it makes you happy and isn’t hurting anyone, have at it!

The 484 piece LEGO Medium Creative Brick Box states it is for ages 4 – 99. I think all toys should have this same sort of label as should media and books/novels that are aimed at children/teens! I say you are never too old to hug a teddy bear, play Chutes and Ladders or read a Robert Munsch book!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to rock out to The Wiggles while I dry my dishes.

Leah

Life Update June 25th 2023

Hey blog world! Its been a minute! I have just been super busy, as per usual. Some cool stuff has happened, so I thought I would pop on and write about it!

Back in September, I joined the Special Olympics CBS track and field team. I’d never been a runner, in fact, in previous years, if you saw me running, that meant you should start too because something REALLY bad was happening, but my usual fall sport, rhythmic gymnastics, was not happening again this year (coach is on maternity leave) and I wanted to still be involved with Special Olympics. The other sports offered from September – June are swimming, bowling and track. I thought I would challenge myself and sign up for track. I actually really enjoyed it! Playing soccer baseball, playing with parachutes, riding on those tiny square scooters, it felt like I was back in elementary school gym class again! I loved it!

To end off the season, we had a few fun little competitions. We had a basketball free throw contest and a bean bag toss. At the CBS Special O end of the year dinner, dance and award ceremony, my team (Team Ponies!!) won 4th place overall! I was very proud of us!

At the beginning of this month, we had a track meet in Mount Pearl. We competed against the St. John’s Explorers and the Bay St. George Bravehearts. It was an absolutely terrible day weatherwise! It was pouring rain and freezing cold! I was soaked to the bone! I was not a happy camper. Even so, I still did the best I could in my events (I competed in javelin, shot put and standing long jump). I was very glad when the morning was over and I was able to go home. I stopped at Tim’s on the way to get a hot chocolate to warm me up, then when I got back to the house, I ran a hot bath for myself to try to regain the feeling in my extremities! They didn’t present medals that day because of the nasty weather. Instead, they had a ceremony for us a few weeks later. At this ceremony, I was thrilled to receive a silver medal for shot put, a bronze for javelin and a 4th place ribbon for standing long jump! I may do track again in September, all depending on the rhythmic gymnastics practice schedule (we are finally getting rhythmic back this fall and I couldn’t be more excited!!!)

Even though I didn’t get to compete in rhythmic this year, I did get to perform an original ribbon routine in a show at the LSPU Hall! In May, I was in a show called “Open” which was a variety performance that explored the relationship between the arts and mental health. It was a beautiful, raw and emotional show. The performers were all so incredible! There was spoken word poetry, dancing and singing. My act, as I said, was rhythmic gymnastics. My coach, Brittany, and I choreographed a routine together set to “Electricity” from “Billy Elliot”. I chose that song because it really encapsulates how I feel when I am dancing or doing rhythmic.

About 2 weeks (I think… rough estimate) away from showtime, I had an accident. I was downstairs on Zoom rehearsing with Brittany, when a passé pivot gone wrong landed me smack on the floor on my left side hip. Pro tip: don’t dance in socks on hardwood flooring!! I had a nasty bruise and it hurt to walk for a few days. Having to miss rehearsal time to recover put me behind and I was so nervous that I wouldn’t learn the routine in time and there was another worry in the back of my mind as well, what if I wouldn’t be healed in time for the show?! Thankfully, in the end everything worked out perfectly. The performance went off without a hitch! I performed beautifully and so many people came up to me afterwards saying how much they loved my routine.

I was invited back to do “Open” again next year (it will be happening May 4th, 2024!) and I am already so excited! I’ve even got an idea in mind! I’m thinking a hoop routine set to “You Will Be Found” from “Dear Evan Hansen” (for those of you new to this blog, I am a theatre nerd and proud of it and anytime I have an opportunity to use a showtune in any sort of performance I’m in, I jump at it!)

Also in the realm of performing arts, the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador started a physical arts troupe! When I saw the poster for that I immediately went to their website and signed myself up! I was ecstatic when I got an email saying I had been accepted into the program! I couldn’t wait for it to start!

I had such a fun 10 weeks with this group! We tried on masks, had our own Ministry of Silly Walks, played improv games and so much more! One really cool thing we did was we made a movie! The day that we were playing with masks, Danielle (our teacher) had us create characters and do improvised scenes with these personas. It was going so well and we had such an amazing story happening that Danielle was like “Guys, this should be a movie!” so, a week later, we filmed it!

A week later, on the day of the film shoot, it was rainy and cold (our weather is like that a lot, not fun.) Made for a miserable day for an outdoor film shoot, but the show must go on! We ventured out into the cold and rain and shot our movie. Despite the weather, it was a really cool experience! I played Kleptina, a troll that likes to steal shiny and pink things. I got to play with a bubble gun! It brought me so much joy!

Poppy even got to be a part of this movie! He is not on the spectrum, but parents and guardians were allowed to come and sit in on the group. So that Poppy wouldn’t be home by himself (he has a lot of mobility issues and I would hate for him to fall down and nobody be home) I started bringing him with me. One of the boys in the group, DiMarco really took a liking to Pop and when we were planning out our movie, he said “Cyril should be in it too!” and created a character especially for him! Pop played Doctore, a kindly old man who got stuck in a tree. Disclaimer: no seniors were harmed in the making of this film!! He had a stunt double! Pop was safe on the ground, we put a puppet in the tree.

Last Tuesday, we had a variety show! We called it “The Spectacular PhArt Compendium” (PhArt (pronounced “fart”) = Physical Art) We set up a stage in the greenhouse of the Autism Society and got to perform for our friends and family! It was so much fun! The first act consisted of puppet shows performed by the younger group (Danielle had an evening theatre group for younger kids with ASD). Then my older group performed in the second act. There was a video feed set up in the green room for people who weren’t performing to watch the show, but the sound wasn’t that great, so I didn’t really get to hear the puppets, but from what my friends and family in the audience told me, they really enjoyed the first act and had a few laughs, so good job younger group!

My group had some fantastic performances as well! We screened our movie and everyone in the group got stage time to do any sort of act they’d like! Robert, one of our members, performed with his band “The Coolists”. They were awesome! I loved their cover of “Should I Stay Or Should I Go”! DiMarco and Danielle did their own take on some old Jim Henson ads for Wilkins Coffee. They were a bit dark (in one, Danielle got slit in the throat because she doesn’t like Wilkins coffee), but very entertaining and darkly humorous. Side note… remind me not to tell DiMarco that I’m not a Wilkins (or any other kind of coffee) drinker!! Yikes!

My group was all about the dark humor and gore. Two other participants, Aiden and Katie had gory elements to their acts! Aiden went the dark humor route and showed a cartoon he had created where the main character got his foot cut off. Katie put on some bloody scrubs and pretended to be a horrific doctor who had just murdered one of their patients. She was swinging their (fake) body parts around on chains and everything! It was like something out of an Alice Cooper concert! Decapitation and blood aren’t my thing, but art is subjective. I’m sure there are many who were in the audience that loved it (I know for a fact my dad was one. He loves gory, freaky stuff!) and I think its great that Danielle let everyone’s creativity shine and gave us free reign to express ourselves however we wanted in this show.

My new friend Charlotte and I did an act together. We did a scene from “Understanding Wonderland”, a play that I wrote with my best friend Peter Halley a number of years ago. It puts a unique spin on the classic Lewis Carroll story of “Alice In Wonderland”. In this version, each of the familiar Wonderland characters is Autistic and exhibits different traits (the White Rabbit is very structured on routines and schedules and will have a meltdown if plans suddenly change, the Cheshire Cat doesn’t make eye contact, Tweedle Dee is non-verbal). It is my hope that this show will bring more education and awareness and most importantly acceptance of Autism. We performed the White Rabbit’s scene, I got to play Alice. We worked so hard together rehearsing every week. On top of learning lines, our scene had some physical elements that took a lot of work to get just right. Charlotte had to run into me and knock me down (Olive (the White Rabbit’s name in this version) was so panicked because she was late that she was running around and not looking where she was going) and later, near the end of the scene, her anxiety relief dragon (played by Stuffy) had to fall out of her pocket. Big thank you to Eli Lynn, stage combat expert, for your and advice for safely getting knocked down and to Lisa Doyle, Charlotte’s mom, for solving our issue with Stuffy. The falling out of Olive’s pocket stunt was extremely difficult. Stuffy was not being cooperative, he refused to fall! Dropping him was a much better idea! Our skit went amazingly well! We both did fantastic, our stunts were successful and everyone loved our performance!

In Queen of the Side Hustle News, be on the lookout for a Loops By Leah catalogue that should soon be out! I had the photoshoot last Saturday in Bowering Park! It was so much fun! I gathered some of my friends in the park for an afternoon of modelling my products. Wanting to be as diverse and inclusive as possible, I made sure to involve friends of all body types, abilities, genders, ages and races. Every body is beautiful! I loved that I was even able to include Poppy in this shoot. He originally planned to just sit in the car with mom and wait for me, but about 5 minutes into the shoot, I saw mom wheeling pop up towards us in a wheelchair. I invited him to be part of the shoot, he agreed, I threw a blanket over his lap and this super sweet photo was taken

So, that is what’s been happening lately! I am looking forward to even more exciting stuff happening this summer! Bocce and softball with Special Olympics, I have an audition tomorrow for a live radio play adaptation of “Dracula” and I’ll be taking in a lot of sure to be fantastic live theatre too! I have plans to go see Spirit of Newfoundland’s new show “The Show Must G’wan B’y”, Best Kind Productions’ “SpongeBob the Musical” and I’ll be taking a day trip to Gander to see “Come From Away”! I’ll be sure to post about all the cool stuff that I get up to.

Leah

My Janeway Story

Hey blog world! To all the Newfies reading this, happy telethon weekend! To everyone else, happy Sunday!!

The Janeway Children’s Health and Rehabilitation Center (my local Children’s Miracle Network hospital) is having their 39th annual Telethon this weekend!

The Janeway holds a very special place in my heart. Here is why…

The minute I was born, I was whisked away to the Janeway. The doctors found what they thought was fluid on my brain. After further tests, they came back to my parents with good news and bad

Good: no fluid

Bad: there’s a piece missing

I was born with Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum, that’s a big, sciencey way of saying I was born without the Corpus Callosum, which is the wide band of fibres that connects the left and right sides of the brain and transmits motor, sensory and cognitive information.

I was the first case of A.C.C that the doctors had seen. They didn’t know what to expect. They didn’t know what my quality of life would be like. They didn’t know if I would walk, talk or even survive! Spoiler alert: I can walk, I hardly ever stop talking and I am surviving and thriving!

I don’t remember anything from my babyhood, but mom says the doctors at the Janeway that cared for me were amazing! One of them even gave her his home phone number to call if she ever needed anything!

One of the biggest ways my A.C.C affects me is low muscle tone and difficulty with motor skills. To help with this, I would visit the gym at the Janeway on Tuesdays after school for physiotherapy. My physiotherapist’s name was Debbie. We would play catch with differently weighted medicine balls, play bowling, practice balancing by standing on tumble forms and many other fun activities. I also did occupational therapy to help with my fine motor problems

The Janeway was also where I was diagnosed with Autism. Victoria Crosbie, who worked in, I believe, the psychology department of the Janeway, diagnosed me with Autism. She followed me for a number of years, helping me work through any problems I faced due to my diagnosis

In 2014, I started having involuntary shaking episodes. That led to many visits to the neurology department.

I also had asthma as a child. I remember going to the Janeway to learn how to use my puffer. The fake one they gave me to practice on sounded like a kazoo when I blew into it! It was fun!

There aren’t many areas of the Janeway I haven’t visited! I’ve had x-rays, allergy tests, bloodwork, hearing tests, EKGs, EEGs, ultrasounds, several trips to the E.R, you name it I’ve more than likely been there!Each time, I was always provided the best care. The staff are absolutely fantastic!

The telethon is going on until 6:30 tonight on NTV. I encourage you to call 709.777.4502 or 1.855.777.4502 to donate or you can text JANEWAY to 45678 to donate $20 or donate online at janewayfoundation.nf.ca

Mighty Mabel Saves the Symphony

Hey blog world! A few nights ago, I watched a super cool virtual concert thanks to the NSO (Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra) Orchestra Outreach Program. This is a fantastic program that gives schools and community groups the chance to learn about and experience the NSO. One way they do this is giving schools and community groups free access to NSO virtual concerts. One such organization that avails of this program is the Autism Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, which I am a member of. If you want to find out more about this program and how your school/community group can take part in it, or if you want to find some really neat videos and other learning resources, Click here.

Through this program, I was able to watch their Heroes and Villains concert, celebrating the music of superhero movies. Now, I am not a superhero fan. My dad, who is obsessed with them (he has an impressive comic book and action figure collection, is a wealth of knowledge on any and all comic book characters and never misses a superhero movie) has tried to get me interested, but I couldn’t get into it. Superheroes are just not my thing. That’s why I didn’t originally go see this show when it took place at the Arts and Culture Centre back in April. That said, when I saw the link in my inbox, I thought “Hmm… I really enjoy the NSO and Best Kind Productions, maybe I’ll like this.” I decided to give it a chance.

I was wrong, I didn’t like it… I loved it!!! I thought it was absolutely fantastic!! Well done to all involved!

This show was a sort of jukebox musical. It had a script (“Mighty Mabel Saves the Symphony”) written by Kyle McDavid of Best Kind Productions and of course, it featured the NSO playing orchestral versions of Superhero themes.

The show was about a young girl named Mabel who was playing superheroes with her friends and her babysitter. They all had their own unique superhero personas! There was triple threat and future Broadway star Captain Dance Captain (who was my favorite because she’s just like me! I love singing, acting and dancing and hope to someday be in a show on Broadway!), band geek O-Bro (shout-out to the oboe player in the orchestra btw. I loved your interaction with O-Bro! Your wave and “woop woop!” when she called out to you was adorable!), comic book artist Sketch, who spoke in Superhero movie quotes (interestingly, this is called delayed echolalia and is a trait of Autism! I wonder if Sketch is on the spectrum?), The Babysitter and of course, Mighty Mabel! The villain they were trying to defeat was Cubicle, a blah and boring business man who sorted and stapled papers all day and wanted to eliminate all forms of art from the city. He reminded me of Uncle Knit-Knots from “Imagination Movers”, the movers beige wearing, bland neighbor who loved all things boring and hated anything exciting and colorful.

As a person who has her hand in many different areas of the arts (I bake, finger knit, latch hook, sing, play piano, do rhythmic gymnastics, write, act and draw) I loved the message that this show had. Creativity, imagination and the arts are important and the world needs them! I absolutely couldn’t agree more!

The music in this show was phenomenal! One of my favorite parts was when they did Leroy Anderson’s “The Typewriter”. Cubicle was hunched over his typewriter typing away and the clickety clack noise of the keys, the dinging of the bell and the thwunk of the roller being pushed to the side to begin a new line on the paper were all acting as the percussion section as the orchestra played. I thought it was so cool! Funny too! I also loved hearing the Superman theme. Hearing that made me feel like I was 10 years old again, just about to have a meal at Circle Square Ranch (a western themed camp for Christian kids that used to be in Conception Bay South). Before we ate, we would always sing grace. Sometimes, we would sing this one, that went to the tune of the Superman theme!

Thank you Lord for giving us food! Thank you Lord for giving us food! Super Jesus! Super Jesus! Amen.

The Batman theme was another highlight. While the orchestra played this tune, the superheroes had a dance battle and chased Cubicle around the stage! It was so much fun to watch!

A suggestion if they ever do another Heroes and Villains concert. My personal favorite superhero (the only one I’ve found that I actually really like) is LarryBoy, the superhero alter ego of Larry the Cucumber from “VeggieTales”. With his super suction plunger ears, LarryBoy protects the city of Bumblyburg from dastardly villains such as the Rumor Weed, Bad Apple and Fib from Outer Space!!! I would love to hear his theme included if they ever do this show again.

I give “Heroes And Villains: Mighty Mabel Saves The Symphony” a 10/10!

Leah

My Faith Story

Hey blog world! Happy Easter to those who celebrate! Today was a beautiful and meaningful day for me.

For those who don’t know me, I am a Christian. I attend The Crossing Church (formerly West End Baptist) in St. John’s. I have for over 5 years now. Today, I got baptised!

Part of how our Church does baptism is having someone who has been meaningful to me along my faith journey read my testimony. The story of how I came to know and love Jesus. I chose Mary Rowe, the leader of the prayer group I attend on Thursday evenings, to be the one to tell my story. She has been such a dear friend and an inspiration to me.

This is my story…

I was raised in the Anglican faith. Though my parents weren’t Church-goers, my nan Weir was a very devout Christian. She wanted to make sure I knew Jesus, so every summer always included time spent at faith based camps. Circle Square Ranch, Lavrock camp and the VBS at All Saints Anglican Church in Foxtrap. She also would take me to listen to Rev. Roy Martin each time he gave a concert in our area. It was these things that planted my first seeds of belief in Christ.

One night, when I was 12, my cousin Brandy came over to babysit me. She said “I usually go to Connect on Friday nights, the youth group at Faith Pentecostal. I asked your parents and they said it was ok, would you like to go? There are snacks, music and games!” It sounded like fun, so I said yes! I had a great time and met lots of wonderful people. I continued going with Brandy every week. Connect was always the highlight of my week. Attending this group,I got to know Jesus more and I felt my faith grow stronger.

Every year, I would go with this group to Y.C, a conference for Christian youth. In 2014, one of the speakers did a sermon titled “Misfits Welcome”. He read out the verse Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you apart. I appointed you as a prophet to the nations” and he spoke about how those who are different from others and feel like they don’t belong are welcome in the house of the Lord and were made their unique way for a reason, God has a plan for us. As a person with Autism and Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (meaning I am missing the wide band of fibres that connects both sides of the brain and transmits motor, cognitive and sensory information) I struggled to fit in amongst my neurotypical (“normal”) peers and often felt like a misfit. Hearing these words, that I am fearfully and wonderfully made, that I was created like this for a reason, God loves me as I am and he wants to and will use me, filled me with so much emotion it flowed out through my eyes. It was that moment, I truly knew that I wanted to let Jesus into my heart.

In 2015, Faith Pentecostal stopped offering Connect. No longer having this group to be a part of, I fell away from Jesus. I stopped reading my Bible, only prayed every so often. I felt an emptiness in my heart. I longed to find another community of Christian young adults that I could meet with regularly.

How I became involved with Crossing Church is an interesting story. God works in crazy ways! I, for those who don’t know, am obsessed with musical theatre! I listen to showtunes all the time, have gone to numerous performing arts summer camps, I almost never miss a local production of a musical. In 2017, Atlantic Light Productions did “Guys and Dolls” at the Arts and Culture Centre. I received tickets to the show as a Christmas gift. Mark House was in this show playing the role of Uncle Arvide. When he came out on stage, he looked very familiar to me, though I couldn’t place where I knew him from. All night, I was wracking my brain trying to figure out where I’d seen him before.

The next day, it somehow suddenly hit me! Y.C! He had been a volunteer on the prayer team in 2013. I reached out to him on Facebook, “Hi! First of all, I thought “Guys and Dolls” was absolutely fantastic! I loved the show! Secondly, I hope this doesn’t sound crazy, but have you ever been to an event called Y.C? I prayed with a volunteer of the prayer team that looked a lot like you.” He responded back, “Glad you enjoyed the show! You have an amazing memory! Yes, that was me!” I responded back saying it was great to reconnect with him again and I asked if he knew of any youth ministries that I could get involved with, perhaps one at his Church? The one I had been attending at Faith Pentecostal had stopped and I missed having that sense of fellowship and connection with Christian youth. He said that his Church did have a young adult ministry and he would put me in touch with his daughter, Lauren and we could go from there. I joined the Facebook group for the Young Adult ministry and found that Ian, who I went to school with all the way from K – 12 and lives on the same street as my mom, also is part of the group! I thought ‘This is perfect! I’ll already have a friend in the group and I have a ride!”

A week later, I attended a young adults game night at Paul and Linda House’s house. I had so much fun and the people I met were all very friendly. Later that week, I returned to the House’s house for a young adult small group Bible study. It was so wonderful to hear God’s word again. It was also wonderful to once again have a group of Christian young adults to spend time with. With each week, I began to form a closer relationship with Jesus.

I began attending Sunday services regularly and feel that I have found a community here at Crossing Church. Everyone here is so friendly and welcoming and I feel like I belong.  In 2020, I joined Mary Rowe’s prayer group via Zoom. It is one of my favorite times of the week. Mary’s devotions are so inspiring and I love having fellowship with the other members. I feel as though I have gained several extra sets of grandparents! I also now volunteer with the youth ministry. It brings me such joy to share the good news with the young people.

I feel my faith growing stronger with each Sunday and Thursday. I am so happy to have found my way back to Jesus again and am excited to see how he will use me! I feel ready and excited to take this plunge and re-affirm my faith!

Special Olympics Newfoundland and Labrador 2023 Winter Games

Hey blog world!! As my frequent readers know, I am a Special Olympian, I have been for a little over a decade! I recently returned home from the winter games in Grand Falls Windsor.

Usually, when I go to a Special Olympics provincial games, I am a competitor. This time however, I did not participate in any of the sports. One of the reasons why is because frankly, I don’t winter! I would rather be inside sipping hot chocolate than outside in the bitter cold snowshoeing! The sports I compete in are all summer olympics events. Bocce, softball, rhythmic gymnastics and track and field.

The other reason I didn’t compete is because I had a big, important role to play! Last year, I was elected as the Athlete Representative on the games organizing committee! Basically, my job was to give an athletes perspective on things and make sure that athletes voices and opinions were heard, and their ideas used in the planning and execution of the games.

One piece of my job as the athlete rep was to put out a call to all athletes to help come up with a theme and a logo for the games this year. I got lots of fantastic submissions and the GOC all cast their vote. In the end, this is what was chosen

Something that I am super proud of is that my ideas were used here!!! Our theme this year was “Rise Again”, which was my submission!!! I thought “Rise Again” would be a great idea for a theme because it was our first provincial winter games since the pandemic. We hadn’t competed in 3 years, but we were ready and willing to bounce back, rise to the occasion and play our sports!

The logo was a joint effort between myself and my friend Megan Martin who is a snowshoeing athlete from Mount Pearl. Megan thought the logo should be people climbing up over a mountain, which was symbolic of all of us having to overcome the pandemic. I thought a phoenix would be a good logo because like the phoenix rose from the ashes, we were ready to rise up from the terrible pandemic and get back to our sports. The GOC liked both of our ideas so much that they decided to put them together!! I love how it looks!

Another thing I did to help prepare for the games was ask my celebrity friends to wish the athletes well. I messaged many of my famous friends asking if they would do a short little video wishing the athletes luck. These videos would be played at the opening ceremonies. Thank you so much to Darrin Martin, Evan Smith, Justin Nurse, Mallory Johnson and the cast of “ABBA: Gotta Get The Scoop” for your submission!

I had a lot of important roles during the games as well, so important, they brought me out a day early!

Wednesday morning, I was picked up by 2 other GOC members and we made the 4 1/2 hour drive to Grand Falls. A long drive, but that was fine by me! I brought movies! I FINALLY got to watch “The Bob’s Burgers Movie” (I missed out on it in theatres, so I bought it on DVD). It was super funny, I loved the songs and it was really cool getting to hear the origin story of Louise’s bunny ear hat. I also watched “Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium” (which is one of my favorite movies with an Autistic character (Eric, the boy who works in the store. Its not said he has ASD, but I see so much of myself in him that I’m positive he’s on the spectrum)) and “Lord Of The Beans” (a VeggieTales “Lord of The Rings” spoof).

When we arrived in Grand Falls, we went to the Hill Road Manor bed and breakfast. I got inside and felt like I had time traveled way back to Poppy’s younger days. They had a typewriter, rotary phone, record player, old style radio, I loved it!

Later that day, I met up with a young man named Ben and his mom. One of my duties as the athlete rep was to emcee the opening ceremony and Ben was asked to be my co-emcee. The three of us had a delicious supper of Chinese food together, then went to the stadium to rehearse for the opening.

The following night was the real thing! I tell you, the energy in that room was just off the charts. Everyone was so elated to be back together competing in their sports! When Ben, Mayor Barry Manuel (our other co-emcee) and I would announce a team and they would parade in as their entrance music played, the whole place erupted in cheers! We allowed the teams to pick their own entrance songs and there were some awesome choices; “Thunderstruck”, “Get Ready For This”, “Eye Of The Tiger”, but my most favorite pick (I think this was Corner Brook’s song, but I could be completely wrong) was “This Is Me”, and not just because my inner musical theatre nerd had a geek out moment elated that someone picked a showtune for their entrance. I thought it was a perfect Special Olympian anthem! We are glorious, brave, unashamed of who we are and stronger than any bullies who want to put us down.

The whole night was so much fun!! There were some phenomenal performances from Lesley Oake school of dance students, it was an honor to have Lt. Governor Judy Foote there to bring greetings and I loved seeing the athletes faces as the celebrity videos played, in awe that these famous people wanted to wish them well!

Over the weekend, I got so many comments from people, saying I’d done an excellent job and have a voice for radio! That was so nice! It made my heart smile.

On the second day, after relocating to the Mount Peyton hotel (the athlete village) I spent the day at the Gordon Pinsent Centre for the arts (where the athletes would go when they weren’t competing). I spent most of the morning hanging out with some of the bowling athletes from CBS. Their coach had brought a deck of cards, so I taught them Crazy 8s.

Later, I went upstairs and did a mental health workshop called “Healthy Athletes Strong Minds”. There were 5 different stations set up. At the first one, we talked about stress and how it can make our bodies feel and we were given a stress ball to take home with us. At the second station, we got to do a fun activity that doubles as a calming technique, we made glitter jars! We added colorful glitter to jars of water and when you shake the jar the glitter moves around. It was really relaxing to watch.

At another station, we learned about taking slow, deep breaths to help us calm down and to imagine we were blowing a pinwheel. We were even given one to take home! There was a stretching/yoga station (my favorite stretch was the butterfly) and lastly, a station about communication and connection. We talked about how important it is to share our feelings and reach out to others to see how they feel and at this station, we were given bracelets. One is for us to keep, the other we were told to give to someone outside our family who we are close to and consider part of our support system. I’m going to give my other bracelet to my best friend Peter Halley. He is someone I feel I can talk to about anything. Whenever I am feeling sad or anxious or going through a tough time I reach out to him either via Messenger or phone or in person. He is always there when I need to talk and he always has a hug when I need one. It means a lot that he prays for me as well when I’m going through something hard.

After Healthy Athletes, I was back downstairs. I had lunch (a roast beef sub with lettuce, mozzarella cheese and mayo on white bread, some baby carrots and an apple), then, once the hordes of athletes were headed to their buses, I helped to change the tablecloths for the next crowd of athletes coming through. I then helped serve lunch to my CBS team and handled a first aid situation. My friend Glen, a bowler from CBS had fallen on his wrist at the bowling alley and it only started hurting when he’d arrived for lunch. He asked me for an ice pack, I ran to get one, but found something better, a volunteer paramedic. He and his partners took over, got Glen some ice and a gauze wrap. I then went and got the best medicine I knew of for a situation like this, Piff the magic dragon! Piff is my little, blue, furry buddy. I never leave home without him and his uncle Stuffy. They both have helped me through a lot, I find giving them a hug is so comforting and helps me calm down when I am stressed, sad or scared. I gave Piff to Glen to cuddle with for a while. It really made him feel a lot better.

The rest of the day was spent doing one of my favorite things, playing games!! To keep the athletes at the Pinsent centre entertained after lunch, I got out my phone and we played a few rounds of ” Heads Up”, the really fun game created by Ellen where your teammates have to describe what’s on your head and you guess what it is!

That night, there was an athlete board game social at the Mount Peyton. There was popcorn and all kinds of games! I had a few rounds of snakes and ladders with Rose, one of the CBS bowlers and Evan, a bowler from St. John’s, then I taught some Mount Pearl athletes how to play Exploding Kittens!!

Yesterday, I was back at the Pinsent Centre! That morning, I again hung out with the CBS team, I drew a picture, one of the coaches taught us all a dice game called Skunk and we had a few more rounds of Heads Up. After I had my lunch, I helped serve the CBS athletes, got some waters for the Mount Pearl crowd and made sure all the teams had what they needed.

Rogers TV was there that day as well, set up to film some interviews! I got to record an interview with them about my role on the GOC! I made a few slip ups (I gave a shout out to my sister Ben and said I can’t wait to go home to my family and friends in Australia) but that’s what happens when you have been up since 5:30 A.M and aren’t fully caffeinated!

Saturday night was the athlete dance! You have not lived until you’ve partied with Special Olympians!!! They are some of the best dancers I’ve seen! We all had a blast dancing to the music.

Special Olympics Barbie all ready for the dance

Yesterday was the last day. After a breakfast of Frosted flakes, raspberry yogurt, pastries and tea, we made one last trip to the Gordon Pinsent Centre. It was time for the bowlers and floor hockey players to get their medals (athletes competing in curling, snowshoeing and skiing all got their medals yesterday). I was slated to be a presenter for some of the medals!!! Being asked to do so was an absolute honor.

I got backstage with the other volunteers who were to present medals and while we waited for final scores to be tabulated, music played over the auditorium speakers. Myself and some of the other volunteers got out onstage and danced! The crowd loved it! They were clapping and singing and dancing along! Crowd entertainment became my role as the afternoon went on, to liven up breaks between divisions I’d go onstage and dance to the music. Hearing them chant my name as they clapped and danced along with me was an incredible feeling! It was also an incredible feeling to put the well earned medals around the athletes necks when it came my turn to present.

Having fun dancing with props

After all the team medals were done, we were supposed to have the individuals, but those scores hadn’t been tabulated yet. While we waited on that, an impromptu “Special Olympics Idol” happened! The emcee invited athletes to come up and sing a song. It was absolutely awesome! We have some very musically talented athletes! One of the Exploits Hurricanes gave a killer performance of Ian Thomas’ “Painted Ladies”, a Tri-Con Gentle Giant sang Peter Jacobs’ “Take Me Back” beautifully and I was super impressed by Caleb Blackmore, also of the Exploits Hurricanes who made up an amazing song right there off top of his head about his experience at the games!! I got up and sang a few songs too, “Harper Valley P.T.A” by Jeannie C. Rielley and “Ob La Di Ob La Da” by The Beatles.

After the medals were all presented, my teammates and I hopped aboard a bus for home. I enjoyed a feed of Mary Brown’s chicken pop-ins and fries and yet another movie marathon (“Annie” (the original 1982 version), “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything” and an episode of “Scrubs” (season 1 episode 3 “My Best Friend’s Mistake”)) as we made the trip.

When I got home, not gonna lie, I was exhausted! I relaxed with a mug of After 8 hot chocolate, then went right to bed!

I had an absolutely incredible weekend at the games It was an experience I won’t soon forget! Thank you to Kim McDonald Wilkes for giving me this opportunity.

Leah

Poppy’s Picks

Hey blog world! For Christmas this year, Poppy was given a new TV. Its one of those smart ones. One night, two of his other granddaughters showed him that he can watch YouTube on our big screen and that with YouTube, you can watch all kinds of things, even old singers from back in his day. At that moment, a love for concert movies was sparked. He has delighted every night in watching his favorite performers! Here are some of the ones he loves most.

Harry Hibbs Live at Caribou: Harry is one of his most favorite singers. He loves Harry so much that he watches this video at least once a day! He loves to sing along with “Mussels In The Corner”, watch all the people dancing and he loves the band with Harry as well, especially Fred McKenna on fiddle, banjo and steel guitar.

Hee Haw’s 10th Anniversary Special: He discovered this one the other night. We were binge watching old episodes of “Hee Haw” on YouTube and this one happened to come on. He said its “Some good!” which in Newfoundland means really good! It’s a celebration of 10 years of the country music and comedy show “Hee Haw”. It features a star studded lineup of country singers including Barbra Mandrell, Kenny Rogers and Tom T Hall singing some of their big hits and reminiscing about the show. Of course, the whole “Hee Haw” gang is there as well, except for Stringbean who tragically was murdered November 10th 1973, 5 years before this anniversary celebration took place. There are clips from the show and performances from the stars. Poppy’s favorite parts are anytime Grandpa Jones is doing something. He and I both marvel at how Grandpa plays the banjo, he really can make it talk. He was one of the best pickers of his time.

Zachary Stevenson’s tribute to Buddy Holly (this one’s a two parter, here’s part 1, and part 2): Buddy Holly is Poppy’s “top singer” as he says. Last September, I took Poppy to see Zachary’s Buddy Holly tribute at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre. He had the time of his life at that concert. I had a fantastic time as well. We both couldn’t get over how much Zachary looks and sounds like Buddy! When I found one of Zachary’s concerts on YouTube, Pop was absolutely thrilled!

“The Buddy Holly Story“: This is a British theatre production telling the story of Buddy Holly’s life. The night I put this on for him he said “I’m some glad you put dat on for me! I really likes dat because it tells the whole story!” He also thought the actor in the lead did “some job” at playing Buddy. He wasn’t as good as Zachary, but was certainly up there!

Buddy Wasisname and the Other Fellers “Upalong”: Buddy Wasisname is a local band. They are a local band that does a mix of comedic music and skits and traditional Newfoundland music. Poppy dies at Buddy and his foolishness! Quick translation for the non-Newfies, “dies at” means he finds Buddy absolutely hilarious! His favorite bits were the song “Noises and Faces” and the skit where Buddy tries to kill a fly in his hotel room!

Not everything that I put on for Poppy goes over well… I call this next section, “Pop Says Pass”

Hee Haw’s 20th Anniversary Special: Since he loved the 10th anniversary so much, I put on the 20th anniversary for him yesterday. He wasn’t pleased. He thought it was nowhere near as good as the 10th. There were a lot of the big name country stars of the day like Conway Twitty, George Jones and Tanya Tucker, but he didn’t recognize any of the songs they were singing.

John Denver Live In Tokyo: I put it on for him as I knew he loved older country music and John is one of my favorite classic country singers, so I thought Pop would enjoy it as well. He lasted through the opening number, then got bored and asked me to put on something different. He said the music was too slow and lullaby like.

Have any recommendations of concert films for Poppy to watch? Feel free to leave them in the comments! He loves older country music, 50s rock n roll and Newfoundland music (especially accordion players!)

Leah

A Look At My 24th Year

Hey blog world! On Sunday, November 20th, I had another Birthday! I turned 25 years old! Each Birthday is always a big deal for me because it reminds me how strong and amazing that I am. When I was born, my doctors were shocked to find out that I had no corpus callosum (the wide band of fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain and transmits motor information between the two sides). This was the first case of Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum that they had seen. They knew nothing about it and didn’t know if I would walk, talk, live for very long. Here I am now, 25 years later, happy, successful, unable to shut up, lol! Sure, my A.C.C and other diagnosis (I also have Autism and Dyscalculia (a math disability)) cause me to struggle in certain areas, like writing with a pen/pencil, mental math and tying laces, but, as the Beatles say “I get by with a little help from my friends!”

This has been another amazing and super busy year for me, which is why you haven’t heard from me here as much lately. An apology to my theatre friends who have been expecting reviews of their shows! Know that I thought each one I’ve seen this year was absolutely incredible and I loved every minute! I will try in the new year to be more consistent with reviews and other postings on this blog!

I saw many incredible musicals this year! The best one, no question, was “Sidewalk Dandelion” a musical written for Shallaway Youth Choir’s Lauda ensemble by Kyle McDavid of Best Kind Productions. Lauda is a neurodiverse choir. Neurodiverse means having a brain that developed and functions differently than a neurotypical (“normal”) person. The members of this choir have intellectual disabilities. As examples, some are like me and are on the Autism spectrum and there is one member with Down Syndrome. This show was about acceptance and inclusion of those with special needs and the message was conveyed through the story of a young girl named Emily who tended to the creatures in her magical garden. The show was funny, heartwarming and all around beautiful! I loved every minute of it! Daffyd the Aphid was my favorite! I left the theatre humming his song and it was stuck in my head for weeks after!

I got to see some fantastic concerts this year too. My best friend Peter and I got to see James Taylor together for the second time! We went the first time he came here in 2017 and when we heard he was coming back, we had to go again! It was such a wonderful show! James’s voice is so soothing and his music is just lovely. It makes my heart feel happy. I also got to see The Wiggles in September!!! I know I said that I just turned 25, but I don’t care! Yes their target demographic is 2 years old and up, but I say you’re never too old to rock a bye your bear, do the Propellor or play Simon Says! I had the best afternoon of my life at their concert! I had a blast singing and dancing along with every song! I think my favorite part was singing “Quack Quack Cock A Doodle Doo” with Captain Feathersword! I also had a total fangirl moment when Dorothy the Dinosaur came onstage! She is my favorite of their friends and I nearly hit the ceiling with excitement when I saw her in person!

Along with watching lots of great theatre on stage, I got to be part of it several times this year! I was cast in 3/4 shows that I auditioned for!!! Yay! Even though I missed out on one of them (a musical theatre production of “Scrooge” happening in St. John’s), I’ll still chalk that audition up as a win anyway because I made the judges smile and laugh and at the end they said I was fantastic! That was the result I was hoping for!

The first show that I got to do this year was Agatha Christie’s “The Hollow” with Theatre CBS. I was cast as W.P.C (Woman’s Police Chief) Penney. I was second hand to Inspector Colqhoun, helping to solve the murder of womanizing Dr. John Cristow. It was a darkly humorous whodunit that was a lot of fun to be involved in!

In October, I was cast in Terry Nova Production’s inaugural show, “Playlude To Terra Nova” which was a part of the St. John’s Short Plays Festival. This play was a post apocalyptic sci-fi set on a Newfoundland based starship. Basically, the best way I can describe it is Star Trek, but everyone’s a Newfoundlander. That one was HUGE for me because not only was it my first ever PAID acting gig, but, it was at the LSPU Hall! So many of my idols have performed on that stage! Kara Noftall, John Williams, Peter Halley, Shelley Neville! Now, it was my turn! I couldn’t believe I was standing where they once stood! Another super cool thing about Playlude was that it was written by a fellow Autistic person and the main character was on the spectrum! I loved that this play brought awareness of people like us! My character was Artemis Keats, the partridgeberry jam loving computer engineer on the N.S.S Thorburn.

I am a firm believer in the saying “everything happens for a reason”. I believe that not being cast in the St. John’s “Scrooge” was God’s way of saying “Hold on, there’s something better coming.” because a month or so after the audition, it was announced that Theatre CBS would be doing their own version of “A Christmas Carol”, a live radio play version! I was elated to hear that news! CBS is my hometown, so if I were to get cast, it would be a lot closer to home which, with the cost of gas these days, would be so much easier on my parents. I auditioned for the show was was cast! I was so excited that I would get to tell the story of Ebeneezer Scrooge after all!

That show is really unlike anything I’ve done yet and I love that! As I said, this is a live radio play version of “A Christmas Carol”! We are going to do it in the style of a 1940’s radio program like “The Shadow” or “The Lone Ranger”. We’ll dress up in period clothes and read the story as if we were employees of that station putting on a radio drama! There is even a live foley (sound effects) artist! I get to play several different roles. I am Belinda Cratchet (Bob’s youngest daughter), Belle (Scrooge’s ex), Mrs. Dilber (a pickpocket), one of the storytellers and a guest at Scrooge’s nephew Fred’s Christmas party! One thing I’ve been liking with this show is getting to play with different voices. For one character, I speak in a British accent! That isn’t easy, but I think its coming along pretty great! The show is happening December 9th – 10th at the Worsley Park 50+ club in CBS! Get tickets here!

This year has been another big one for my businesses! In February, I became involved with the Youth Ventures program through Empower: The Disability Resource Centre. For those of you who don’t know, Youth Ventures is a fantastic program offered throughout Newfoundland that helps young people age 12 – 29 start and run their own business! My co-ordinator, Sherri Tucker, was awesome. We met once a week via Zoom and would talk about how things are going and if there were areas where I needed some help. She gave me lots of great advice on pricing and marketing and many other things! She also got me connected with Becky at The Hub, who I still go to when I need things printed off.

Also through Youth Ventures, I’ve had the opportunity to do craft fairs again! I went to a few of them a number of years ago, but stopped because I was barely making any money and was getting very discouraged. When Sherri said that Mothers of Avalon was having a craft fair and they had a table for us, I was honestly a bit skeptical about giving it another go, but, the table was free so I had nothing to lose, I thought I may as well give it a second try! I’m glad I did. I had so much fun interacting with the customers as they came to the table, got my face painted like a unicorn for free and I made over $100! That was the best I’d ever done at any craft fair ever! I’ve kept up craft fairs since, attending the Kiwanis Club of CBS’s Sunday Market every second Sunday. Its something I always look forward to!

Back in March, the Empower branch of Youth Ventures had a business pitch competition! It was just like “Dragon’s Den” (or “Shark Tank” if you’re in the U.S). Competitors had to pitch their business to a panel of investors. Whoever had the best pitch would be named business of the year. I decided, out of all my businesses (Loops By Leah, Neurodiverse Nummies, Spirit Art and Movers & Shakers Dance Fitness), I would pitch Neurodiverse Nummies because that is my most successful business venture. I came out in third place in the competition. I think its pretty cool that I am the third best business owned by a person with a disability! What I was especially proud of was that along with my third place title, I was also given a Customer Engagement award! The judges gave me this special award in recognition of my inclusive line of treats. Along with all my regular goodies, I can adapt my recipes to make treats that are gluten, dairy, lactose and/or sugar free!

One of the coolest things with my businesses this year is I’ve had several local celebrity customers! My dear friends at Spirit of Newfoundland allowed me to have a table set up in the lobby of Holy Heart during their 25th anniveresary gala back in June and the stars were out those two nights! I sold gingersnaps to Dana Parsons (a jazz singer and actress who also is the afternoon radio host on Coast 101.1), gluten, dairy and sugar free raisin tea buns to Peter Halley (an actor, singer, piano player and writer who is the president and artistic director of Spirit of Newfoundland) and chocolate chip cookies to Michael Coady (an actor who has had roles on many television shows including “Republic of Doyle”, “Murdoch Mysteries” and “1000 Ways To Die”). Last month, I even sold one of my original drawings to Christa Borden (a singer and actress who was on the Canadian music competition show “Popstars” back in the early 2000s)!

To further my artistic skills so I can continuously improve upon my Spirit Art greeting cards, I began taking art lessons from my friend Darrin Martin, who is a very talented visual artist from Torbay! I have been having so much fun in our lessons and learning a lot from him! Here is one of the drawings that I created in one of our lessons, “Sheltered From The Storm”

I had another great summer this year with Special Olympics. On Monday nights, I played softball. I’m not the best at it, my batting skills really need improving, but I have a lot of fun trying and that’s what matters! The highlight of the softball season for me was for sure the celebrity tournament we had at the end of the summer! It was us, the CBS Bright Stars, against the Coast 101.1 All Stars! Now, I’m not gonna lie, I was intimidated at the start. There were pro wrestlers on the opposing team! These dudes are super tough looking behemoths! Yikes! Also playing against us were some women’s hockey players (including Tina Thistle from last season of “Big Brother Canada”), the announcer of the Growler’s hockey games and Dana Parsons, a jazz singer and actress who also is the afternoon radio host on Coast 101.

Dana is a glitter obsessed ray of sunshine! One of my teammates was struggling to get a hit at bat, she yelled out to stop the game, pulled a Ziploc baggie of glitter from out of her jacket and showered him with it! I loved that! A few of us got glitter bombed by Dana that day and it was the best! I was still wearing her glitter for at least a week after the game! LOL! Lalalalalaloves her!

On Thursdays, I played bocce, which is an outdoor game that is sort of like a mix of curling and bowling. You roll your ball down the court and the aim is to get it close to a little white ball called the polina. Whoever is closest to the polina gets a point. Its one of my favorite summertime games. We didn’t get to have provincials this year due to Covid, BUT we did get to have a competition against each other! I played doubles this year and my partner was my friend Michael Lamond. We did amazingly well! We won 2/3 of our games! I was so proud of us! At the medal ceremony/pizza party a few weeks later, I thought for sure we were shoo-ins for a silver medal, but was very pleasantly surprised when our names were called for gold!!

During the fall, I usually do rhythmic gymnastics with Special Olympics, but my coach is still on maternity leave. I still wanted to be involved with Special O, so I had to pick a different sport. I thought I’d challenge myself and join the track and field team. I have really been enjoying it. It honestly makes me feel like I’m 8 years old again in elementary school gym class! We toss bean bags and javelins, run relay races, play Skip-It (anyone else remember that old school toy you wore around your ankle with a big plastic ball on a rope you had to jump over?! We have our own version of that! A plastic ring on a giant lasso that the coach swings by our feet and we jump over.), sometimes we warm up by playing with a parachute and at the end of each night we play soccer baseball!!!

One thing I love to do is help my community however I can. Back in October, I did my second annual Trick or Treat for the Food Bank. I dressed up in my Halloween costume and went door to door collecting non perishables for the CBS Community Food Bank. This year, I dressed up as Julia from “Sesame Street” (one of the newer characters, she debuted in 2017. She’s a little 5 year old Muppet girl who is Autistic just like me!) I went around in St. John’s and CBS collecting non perishables to give to the food bank. When I dropped them off a few days later, the lady running the food bank said that I had collected more than last year and I would be able to feed 5 or 6 families with everything I had collected! That made my heart feel so happy!

I recently began a new job. I am still going to be with Kent, this new job is just a temporary Christmas season gig. I have been re-hired as a Christmas temp at Canada Post! I had that job last year and really enjoyed it and was thrilled when I got the call asking me to do it again! I work in the big plant in St. John’s. As a Christmas temp (or, as I love to call myself, a “Mail elf”!) I sort all the letters and packages and make sure they get to where they need to go. Its a big job, I’m on my feet for most of the shift and there’s a lot of heavy lifting, but I enjoy what I’m doing. Sorting things is fun! The hours are not what I’m used to (11pm until 7am!) but I like what I do and its extra money for Christmas! I’ll take it!

I got a new adventure buddy this year too. Stuffy’s nephew, Piff (for those who don’t know, Stuffy is my dragon friend that I take with me everywhere. He helps me to calm down whenever I am anxious or experiencing sensory overload.) Piff has been with us since July.He is named after Piff the Magic Dragon, the runner up on season 10 of America’s Got Talent. Piff loves “Dragon Tales” reruns, magic (he wants to be just like his namesake someday) and Tim Horton’s hot chocolate! Piff, Stuffy and I have had lots of great adventures together this year visiting the horses at The Dr’s House in Green’s Harbor, seeing a Buddy Holly tribute concert, even meeting drag queen Eda Kumquat at Bridie Molloy’s!

That has been my year in a nutshell! I am so looking forward to what 2023 will bring! Some of my hopes for my future are to finally get my driver’s license and to open a bakery and create job opportunities for people like myself with special needs!

Leah

Dope Stuff My Friends Do Round 2

Hey blog world! I have some amazing friends that are doing some really cool stuff and putting more awesomeness out into the world. I just wanted to recognize and promote that with yet another edition of “Dope Stuff My Friends Do”!

Starting off, like I did last time, with my friend Phil Goodridge. He is a huge fan of horror movies and stories. Every year, his theatre company, Ladies Who Lunch Productions, produces “Three Tales Of Terror”, an old time radio horror show. Original horror stories performed like a radio play. This year’s edition “Three Tales Of Terror 666” playing October 27th and 28th at the Masonic Temple in downtown St. John’s. Scary stories acted out in a haunted building, absolutely perfect for Halloween! Click here to get your tickets for that!

If you like the idea of live radio drama, but don’t want to be scared (as much… This next production is a 3 out of 10 on the scare scale while Phil’s show I’m sure will go way off the chart), my friends at Theatre CBS will be mounting a radio play version of “A Christmas Carol”! The show will play at Worsley Park in CBS December 8 – 10. Auditions for this show will be held at Worsley Park on Monday October 17th! No experience is necessary! They are also looking for people to help out behind the scenes! If you would like to book an audition time or become part of the backstage crew, send an email to theatrecbs@gmail.com.

On the actual radio (BOIR 100.1 to be exact!) are my friends Sarah Flight and Rebecca Hampton, who I met through Special Olympics events on Zoom over the pandemic. They are the hosts of the Shine Time radio show where they, along with their music teacher Melanie Gosse, talk about anything and everything and sing a few songs! The girls have such bubbly personalities and are so enthusiastic and positive and fun! I love listening to them! Be sure to check them out every Sunday from 4:30 – 5:30 on BOIR (for those not in Corner Brook, click here to listen!)

Something else super dope that Sarah and Rebecca are involved in is a production of “We Will Rock You”! Its sort of a sci-fi, futuristic “Footloose”. Its set in a globalized future where music is outlawed. A young group of Bohemians fight against the Killer Queen to bring back freedom, individuality and rock! This will be happening in November at the Corner Brook Arts and Culture Centre! No date has been announced, neither has ticket info. I will update this post as soon as I find out!

My friend Helen Escott is a bestselling author! She has written multiple crime thrillers (including “Operation Wormwood”, “Operation Trafficked” and “Operation Vanished”) as well as “I Am Funny Like That”, a collection of her blog posts that look at the humorous side of life. “Operation Vanished” won a silver medal for Best Regional Fiction at the 24th annual Independant Publisher book awards. I love her books, “I Am Funny Like That” had me laughing till it was hard to breathe and her Operations series is so nail biting, suspenseful, impossible to put down and leaves you on the edge of your seat! Her newest book “Operation Masonic” is out now! If you are in N.L, it is available at Costco, Chapters and several other local retailers. Everywhere else in the world, you can buy the book on Amazon.

My friends at Spirit of Newfoundland have mounted a revival of their original dark comedy from 1998 “Paddy McGuinty’s Wake”. Poor Paddy McGuinty died in a tragic accident. He came into money and decided to buy himself a goat (which I would do too honestly if I ever win the lotto. Free milk and lawn care! Best kind!) This goat had quite the appetite! One day it ate a bunch of dynamite and a box full of matches and washed it down with a quart of kerosene! Completely ignorant of the danger, he sat by the fireside (right next to Paddy), swallowed a spark, then the next thing you know, BANG! He blows up, killing both himself and Paddy. All that was left of him was his boots. The show takes place at his wake where his family and some old friends have gathered to celebrate his life. It is a hilarious show with some very touching, heartfelt moments as well. I saw it last month and loved every minute of it! I loved the meal too (Spirit of Newfoundland is a dinner theatre)! Roasted tomato and red pepper bisque for starters, then a chicken breast in a white wine cream sauce with veggies on the side and a Bailey’s chocolate trifle for desert, all of it absolutely delicious! This show is playing on the 14th, 15th, 19th and 29th of this month! Click here to buy your tickets for that!

My friend Bill Brennan, who is an absolute gem of a human, one of the kindest, most lovely people you will ever meet, is the director of the Jazz East Big Band and later this month, Jazz East, along with so many of my amazing friends are getting together to raise money for Quadrangle, a group whose mission it is to create a community center for 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and organizations. After 2 years (they were supposed to do this in 2020, but Covid shagged that up) Jazz East is finally able to put on their Queer Cabaret! It’s happening October 22nd at the Bella Vista in St. John’s! This will be a night of 1920’s jazz music, swing dancing and drag! It will feature drag performances by Dr. Androbox, Betty and my friends Madame Daddy and Keith Power and jazz vocals by Katie Hopkins and one of my best friends, Peter Halley! I am so excited to check this show out. It will be my first time seeing Jazz East perform! Can’t wait! You can get your tickets for that here!

Another sickening happening in the local drag scene (sickening, by the way, is a good thing in drag lingo!) is the opening of Kaleidoscope Drag Lounge on George Street!! It is an all ages drag lounge owned by one of my favorite local queens Barbra Bardot! There is something happening every night! On Wednesdays, my friend Eda Kumquat calls bingo! Monday is karaoke night, Thursdays is a Drag Race U.K watch party, this Saturday there will be a drag story time, this Sunday is sip and paint! So much fun! I haven’t had a chance to go yet, but hope I will have a chance soon! Their Facebook stories give me life! It always looks like a fierce, fun, fabulous time is had! I must experience this for myself!

In December, my dear friend Shelley Neville will be putting on her annual Christmas concert, “O Holy Night”. It is such a beautiful evening of music and seeing it is one of my Christmas traditions. It truly isn’t Christmas until Shelley sings the titular song. Her voice is just so breathtaking and it always leaves me with goosebumps. With her as always are Peter Halley, Corey Tetford, David Pomeroy, her brother Johnny and her dad John. I must say, John Neville is one of the coolest seniors I know!!! He is old enough to be my Poppy, and he can still rock and roll like a teenager! His guitar playing is out of this world and his Elvis is spot on! He’s got his mannerisms (the lip quiver and the dance moves) down pat and sounds a lot like him to! Also performing in the show this year are special guests Ukrainian pianist Alla Melnychuk, star of “Come From Away” Petrina Bromley and comedian, musician and alter ego of Snook, Pete Soucy! This show will be at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre December 20th and 21st! Tickets are on sale now at the Arts and Culture Centre box office. Click here to purchase them!

One of my best friends, Evan Smith will be doing a tribute to Billy Joel and Elton John featuring the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra January 27th and 28th at the St. John’s Arts and Culture Centre! I have seen him do his “Piano Men” show twice now and its been incredible both times, I know it will be even more so with the orchestra joining him! Click here to get tickets for that!

If you are looking for a unique gift for a loved one for Christmas, look no further than Pretty Plastic Canvas Crafts owned by my friend Miranda Porter. She can create so many beautiful things, like this lovely necklace that she made for me (the two letter L’s represent the nickname that a close friend of mine gave me, “Double L” which he said stood for Lovely Leah)

She can also make keychains, wall hangings, gift card holders and many other things! Check her out on Facebook here!

If you have someone on your gift list who loves handmade beauty products, check out Shoreside Soaporium, owned by my friend Abrahim Derradji-Aouat. He makes vegan soaps in so many delicious scents including apple pie, peppermint and lavender. He also makes beard oil and lip balm! If you want to buy some of his products, they are available in the gift shop of the Alt Hotel and Rock on Water in Downtown St. John’s and they are also available online at his website

My niece, Samantha Morgan, has also caught the entrepreneurship bug! I couldn’t be prouder of her!!! She is the owner of Spells & Stones, an online shop that sells crystals! You can get starter crystal kits (containing 1 tumbled amnethyst, 1 obsidian cube, 1 rose quartz point and 1 clear quartz point plus a free mystery sticker), crystal, star and moon carvings, keychains, necklaces, many different things! Check out her Facebook page to keep up to date on all the new things she gets in and to place an order!

Are YOU an actor, crafter, writer, doer of dope stuff?! Feel free to promote your show, business, product, etc. in the comments!

Leah