Snowball 2002


I recall last year about this time writing an article on the Snowball for my old website. My how things have changed. Things like the number of people attending the Snowball, which to my knowledge was under 100 this year. A very unfortunate thing, because the evening was otherwise excellent. Well it was definitely fun anyway. The reception was great, I was able to mingle with various people I now know and talk to people that I didn’t know very well at all. Then came dinner - twice :) Buffet style, I had no problems going up for seconds - and at $18 a ticket (subsidized) who could blame me. The awards ceremony, if that would describe it, started next. I must say that this particular part of the night was lacking a bit of life, including a great speech by our new dean that no one could quite hear properly. Dr. Karl Dilcher walked away with the Srini Award (of course, he wasn’t actually there) and the Citizenship Awards went to Andy VanSlyke and Carrie Gates.

The music started after the awards were presented and right there we lost about 25% of our already low numbers - but this is expected. Mike Cowie and the Funky People laid down their funky beats for a rather unmoved crowd for a while. I must say that I myself found it hard to get going myself, maybe a result of the high end being way too loud from the band, making it hard on the head to get all that close. But some people eventually got up and danced, including myself. But Mike Cowie wasn’t there for too much longer and turned the stage over to a rather unambious DJ Bruce Johnson.

It started off with I Will Survive by Cake and just as I was getting regrooved, he threw some Shania in the deck and I was the hell out of there. So I shot the proverbial shit with some of the guys in the hallway and waited for the music to get better. And waited. And waited. Eventually, P!nk got my party started and I went back inside to dance. I don’t really know how long I was dancing before I took a bit of a break. It was then that Andy asked me whether I wanted to head to the Mercury. Sure, what the hell. So we all pretty much just bailed around 11pm and headed to the Mercury. And the rest they say, is history.

On a side note, for those who aren’t aware, I have a star on the back of my head, a star of hair. You can check my photos if you want to see what I mean. Well, last night was the first real time I had it out in public. Let me tell you that whoever’s job it was to teach people not to point and stare at people has failed miserably. And to answer all the quesitons I got: Yes, I know that it is there, yes it is a star, no I’m not Jewish, not I’m not in a cult, yes I shave it myself, and I did it because I’m a university student - we do things like that - and it was easier to shave than a Christmas tree. Check my photo section for pictures of the Snowball.

Written by Colin Bate