One for the ages

Well this past weekend was one for the ages. Probably the best weekend of the summer I'd say.

Thursday was my 21st birthday, but we kept that night low-key with a family dinner downtown. I hung out with my bro, Dale, and Thompson for awhile afterwards, but we didn't do much.

Friday I got off early from work and got into the beers at a good hour. Then it was off to the Green Day show at Molson's Park. The group of us that went were Ryan, Calder, Dale, Thompson, Missy, Jay and I. And despite the fact that I knew alot of people going to the show, the only one I ran into was Joaner in the beer garden.

While Jimmy Eat World was on we moved deep into the crowd to get a good spot, and we ended up getting really close to the stage. Jimmy was really good live, and proved to be a solid lead-up to the main event.

And when I say event, I mean just that. This show wasn't just a concert, it was a fricken spectacle. A guy in a giant pink rabbit suit came out and chugged a few beers to keep the crowd interested, and then Green Day themselves appeared and the mosh pit went fuckin nuts. We had planned to keep an eye on Missy, but within 30 seconds I had lost everyone in our crew. As soon as the body-surfers came in and the crowd started surging, it was hopeless to keep track of anyone. We were all soaked in sweat in about 5 minutes too.

The set-up for the stage was awesome, with two huge banners flanking the sides, and a long catwalk style stage coming out for Billy Joe to walk down. They had a huge light-up sign with the band's name on it, and anotherbackground light board thing with some cool effects on it. Then there was the pyro shit that blew huge flames up it all the important moments. (Note the irony of wasting oil ten foot flames when they're preaching against Bush.) The show ended off with a wicked fireworks show that was probably better than the city of Barrie puts on for the Canada Day show.


But as for the music, it was dynamite. They led off with alot of new stuff, and threw in alot of classics too. Funny saying that, since they all seemed to be classic. But busting out with the old "Shout" just reminded me of how awesome Otis Day was in Animal House. And playing "We Are The Champions" by Queen was also a nice surprise.

Overall it was probably one of the best shows I've ever been to. And it was kinda liberating for me, since I don't usually get too excited over anything (as Claire could tell you). Jumping and shoving and grabbing ass as the girls floated overhead was a nice change from the ordinary.

After the show the crowd ripped down a fence, as most people were tired of waiting to get through the one small exit from the concert bowl. I bet there were at least 20, 000 people at the show, so it's hardly any wonder. We all met up to the side of that scene, then piled into the car to get some drinks into us, since we were hot as hell. Jay and I rode in the trunk under blankets, and when we popped out at the convenience store the hot little number standing by her car beside us looked a little surprised, to say the least. So we all downed our drinks and popsicles and headed home for a shower.

The next day we gathered up our shit, and Calder, Ryan, Dale, Thompson, Cerswell and I all roared down to London for the big birthday bash. Since 5 of my friends down there all have bdays withing 2 weeks, we do a big party all in one shot.

Our little group was the first one to arrive on the scene for the day, and we started boozing as soon as we could. And the drink of choice for the evening was.... OLDE ENGLISH! And in the end, it chewed us up and spit us out. This shit is 8% beer, and it cost us $5.50 for a 40 of it. All the other boys got two 40's, but I just got one cuz I had a 12 pack of Sleeman too. I didn't end up making it through the Sleeman, but I was ridiculous anyway.

We were pretty well the life of the party (from what I can remember) for most of the night. We were singing and yelling and talking hockey and all that BS. I wore my "Vote For Mintvis" shirt that my bro made me for my bday, and when we busted out The Killers' Mr. Brightside, all that could be heard down the block was "It started out with a kiss, how did it end up like this? It was only Mintvis! It was only MINTVIS!!!!"

A great deal of beer and a few hours later, we went to Barney's for some more brews. Sadly Cersdawg was too hammered to get into the bar. He actually got rejected twice, and fell a number of times downtown. He scraped himself up pretty good, but Dale took him back to Ali's place to sleep. Unfortunately they had no keys, so they got their sleeping stuff out of my truck and went to crash in the back yard. Then it started to rain so they climbed into the truck with all of their shit and tried to crash there too. Later in the night we would stumble upon them, but we'll get to that.

We stuck around at my place (where the party was held) until my old man showed up. He was none-too-pleased with the whole situation, since my joint was a wreck of broken glass and wood. But we hit the bar with him anyway. I remember Hurley buying me a shot, but that's about it. Ali was kind enough to let us stay at her place for the night, though she didn't even go home; she stayed at another friend's place.

Somehow we all got back to Ali's, where we found Dale and Cerswell in the back of my truck, sitting like scared raccoons in a dumpster. My dad got Ali's keys from her at the bar, so we went in to crash. Thompson and I cooked up a sausage that he had stolen from a cooler, and I ran around in my boxers with a glow-in-the-dark skeleton, wearing a girl's cowboy hat that I'd found in the house. We ate our sausage with some salsa found in a cupboard, and sang some Green Day tunes.

My dad didn't like that. He got all pissed and told us all to shut up and sleep. I hear that Cerswell was singing offensive songs as he fell asleep on the loveseat. Luckily I stole Ali's bed, which is an unbelievably comfy pillow-top mattress. I had a great sleep there.

In the morning we had to collect our memories to figure out what had happened. Calder had spent part of the night in the truck too, and it turned out that Cerswell had left all of his clothes, shoes, and Ryan's pillow out in the rain all night in the back yard. Idiot. I think the three worst drunks were Cerswell, myself, and Thompson. The others were just honorable mentions.

So 291 was trashed, and my dad ended up cleaning alot of the glass and shit off the lawn. We all went out for breakfast, got our shit together, said our goodbyes and were on our way home.


I'm sure I've forgotten to mention alot of things in this post, but what can ya do? I need sleep now.