Sunday Pt 3 - the Piston

Yes, there is in fact a part 3. The party continued pretty late into this night. We walked into the Piston, and it was surprisingly packed for it being a Sunday night. Apparently anything is possible in Toronto. I was looking for drinks, so I pushed my way through some people to find some room at the bar. I started talking to a young man and for the purpose of this story, we'll call him The Jumper. The Jumper was my intel guy, as I found out quickly that we were in the process of crashing a staff party. At some point in the conversation free drinks were mentioned, and I did my best to figure out how I could get in on that. Unfortunately there was a drink ticket system that I was not able to master on the fly, and we had to pay for our drinks.

This bar had a pretty cool layout with a big opening towards the back and lots of room to dance. It seemed like it was a little slow in the dance department at first, but things were definitely going to heat up. Before long we had infiltrated the dance floor and were doing our thing once again.

At one point it was suggested that a dance off should occur between myself and one of the other good dancers on the floor. That was a great idea, but much to my chagrin, it never materialized into a formal dance off. After dancing with her for a little while I realized that it was probably for the best, because she could have taken me to school.

There was a slightly elevated stage towards the back of the dance floor where I was dancing. Beyond that, at the very back, there was yet another elevation where The Jumper was dancing with some of his friends. I was strictly doing my own thing and not really paying close attention to my surroundings when The Jumping occurred. Apparently my brief conversation at the bar had peaked his interest. All at once he was on me. He started leaning pretty hard into my body and I wasn't exactly sure what to do. I grabbed his shoulders, extended my arms and kept him away while shouting "no", repeatedly. Eventually his friends came over to make sure I wasn't in a violent mood. They simply explained that their friend just thought he was gay.

After all that we decided that maybe the stage wasn't such a good idea. We returned to the lower dance floor and kept the party going until closing. There was a girl I was dancing with who was clearly a lesbian (for real this time), and at the end of the night, I thought it would be funny to try to get her number. When she got around to explaining that she was there with another girl, I quickly responded that I knew. Still, I was not fazed and got the number. Despite that very last part, the phrase "keep it straight in Toronto", was born. Sunday had finally come to a conclusion.

<-- Sunday Pt 2 - Strip Comedy

Sunday Pt 2 - Strip Comedy (Toronto Edition)

Now I can tell everyone wants to know what happened to us in that dark alley. While a 6 man team could have beaten anything, we were undisturbed in our short jaunt through the blackness. We emerged on the other side, unscathed, on Bloor St. By this point, we had carefully recycled our road pops (most of them), and we were once again prepared to take on the big city.

We found the comedy bar without a problem. As advertised, we were in for a night of cheap entertainment. The time we'd spent together already, at the BBQ, and surely what was to come, would of course be priceless.

When we first walked into the bar we must have looked lost. Quickly within about 2 minutes we'd been approached twice, to make sure we knew exactly where the show was located. A girl named Georgea, was the second person to kindly direct us towards the strip comedy show. I happened to be alone for this encounter, as I was at the back of our conga line. My friends, unfortunately, missed the starstruck look on my face as I said "Hey! You're the girl from the poster!" She confirmed that it was in fact her, and disappeared, as the show was about to begin.

On the way into the show I was pleased to see another familiar face. The man responsible for getting me out that night, Evan, was hanging around outside the room where the performance was to take place. This was the first time I'd seen Evan in around 5 years, so we were both excited. After a quick chat, it was time for the show to start. None of us really knew exactly what strip comedy entailed, but we were about to find out.

Previous to the show, we thought we could manipulate the show to our manly benefit. The poster read that comedians who bomb would have to strip. We were all on the same page that we would cheer for the men and boo the ladies. Great idea in theory, but we found out from the start that there was a judging system to prevent our disgraceful behaviour.

The show turned out to be pretty normal, with barely any actual stripping. Having said that, we were definitely not disappointed. The comedians were all hilarious and we were all getting an intense abdominal workout through the laughter.

Eventually it was Evan's turn to perform. While there wasn't much stripping for most of the show, Evan had a special surprise in store for us. He got up there and was pretty funny. Now I wouldn't be telling the whole story if I didn't mention the bombs. There were a few punch lines that just didn't quite hit home, and it wasn't long before Evan was telling jokes in his boxers. He ended up leaving us with an amazing joke about buying socks and boxers, which thankfully prevented me from being scarred for life.

Out of the 6 of us guys, Femi was the most willing to interact with the comedians while they were performing. One of the comedians mentioned that he was living in a basement and Femi saw an opportunity to make a connection when he shouted out, "living at home?" The comedian who was performing took it as being a cat call. While he did acknowledge it, he moved on with his show pretty quickly.

At this point one of the co-hosts jumped in and said "wait!" He went on to read Femi like a book. The male co-host said that Femi sounded like he probably lived at home, and even went on to guess that he was probably in public relations. Bang on! At this point none of us could control our laughter. That had to be the highlight of the show!

After the show we spent some time with Evan and the other comedians. Eventually we heard that the party was actually shifting next door to a bar called the Piston. We lost most of our 6 man team at this point as Saw, Melvin, Rimoun and Ahbi all had work early the next day. Evan joined our crew, and the 3 of us strolled a few doors down to the next bar.

<-- Sunday Pt 1 - BBQ                                                         Sunday Pt 3 - the Piston -->

Sunday Pt 1 - BBQ (Toronto Edition)

Waking up that next morning wasn't too bad. The only real issue is that the blinds were wide open. Our old nemesis, Mr Sun, was beating down on us once again. With Femi and I not being familiar with the operating controls, combined with our lack of clear thought process, we struggled, but finally managed to block out that direct glare.

Femi instantly suggested we watch a movie. Ahbi's collection of movies spanned far and wide. We had a pick out of over 100 fairly recent and popular movies. By the time we'd finished scrolling through the entire list, I'd forgotten which movie I really wanted to see. We decided on Limitless, starring Bradley Cooper. Little did we know, we were watching a story that became an almost perfect comparison of our great weekend.

Without ruining the way the movie plays out, I'll just explain the premise for those who don't know. In the movie, Bradley Cooper's character, comes across an old acquaintance, who happens to have a magic pill. The pill allows him to use the other 80% of his brain that most humans are unable to access.

In all fairness, there's no way we were actually accessing the full 100% of our brains. I think it's OK to say that our luck so far this weekend was not a matter of pure coincidence, and that we had been given a solid 20% mental boost. No pills required.

Our Sunday had been fairly well planned out. We were going to be BBQ'ing for dinner, hosted by Ahbi's friend Melvin. We also had plans to see, my friend Evan's, Strip Comedy show. They both happened to be located fairly close to each other, which at this point, should come as no surprise.

The BBQ was going to be a well organized feast. We had purchased steaks the day before, because Ahbi was intent on a full day of marination, in his special Korean BBQ sauce. We still had to make a trip to the grocery store in order to add some potatoes, vegetables, and corn on the cob. No stone was left unturned.

While I was in Toronto purely for the party, the guys I was with are all men of business and deadlines. Ahbi and Femi had work to do in the afternoon. We were later joined by their friend Saw, who also had his own stuff to get done. The four of us were posted up on our laptops, a unique scene for me. We got some distracted work done, while witnessing a great finish to an NBA game, between the Knicks and Bulls.

After that small break in the festivities, it was time to grab all our food and make our way over to Melvin's place, for this much anticipated meal. When Melvin had told Ahbi that he had a BBQ, we weren't picturing a small camping charcoal BBQ, that could only take on one steak at a time. In addition to the size of the grill, to actually get a fire going on this windy day was also a challenge. Luckily, at this point I had been given the task of chopping vegetables. I had a great vantage point to view the furious fanning that was going on, in order to get the coals lit. As we all know now, it's not the size of the grill, it's how you use it.

The steaks were cooked one at a time, with the rest of the grill real estate being used for the vegetables. Ahbi was the master chef. He intended to follow through on providing delicious steaks from start to finish. Everyone enjoyed their steaks thoroughly, and it turned out that the one day of marination truly did make all the difference. All of the food was being finished in stages. It kept us eating for a solid two hours, as each dish continued to magically appear.

It's important to note, that throughout the BBQ there was house music being played the entire time. It was a great mood setter, as Melvin described it as "Some dirty tracks, mixed with top 40, and back to being dirty." We were only going to a stand up comedy show, but I was definitely ready to dance.

Considering the last few days we'd just had, it's not hard to believe that we spent a great deal of time telling stories of what had already happened on our trip. Melvin's friend, Rimoun, joined the group and actually ended up having the best story of them all. This man clearly deserved to share in our beer, and whatever food we had left.

When the subject of the comedy show came up, invites to Melvin and Rimoun were a given. They both had work the next day, but the laughs we'd been sharing were priceless, and were more than enough motivation for these guys to join our crew. In the interest of being frugal, we grabbed the remaining beers in the fridge, and set out down side streets with our walking pops.

Clearly the time had come to give a name to our posse. Isn't it true that sometimes the simple things in life are the best. We were still riding the wave of laughter at the time when Melvin put it best. "Six man team can take on anything!" And then we took an abrupt right turn into the darkest alley I've ever seen.

<-- Saturday Pt 2 - NFL Party                                       Sunday Pt 2 - Strip Comedy -->

Saturday Pt 2 - NFL Party! (Toronto Edition)

You really can't go wrong with an NFL party. You rarely hear about Canadians being signed in the NFL. To actually have gotten a ride down, with good friends of a guy who made it, was highly unlikely. But here we were, making the impossible happen, due to our incredible luck (and charm).

Beer pong made the most sense as a pre-drinking game and I was feeling pretty good about my chances. I'd had a little practice within the last couple of months. The team of Femi and myself had no way of knowing what we were in for. Kevin and Ahbi were essentially professional beer pong players and wiped the floor with us. After having lost about 3-4 games in a row, I was there as a witness to one of the greatest trick shots in the history of the game. Ahbi took careful aim and threw one the wall, into the cup! Femi and I managed to win the last game, after we hit a stretch of some hot shooting, to gain a little redemption. I blame Femi for our lack of success, because it seemed like he was more interested in ironing his shirt. After some mandatory vodka shots, we were on our way.  

We had done just about as good of a job preparing as we could have done. Including a last second addition to the guest list, which reduced our cover charge from $20 to $5. The party was to take place at Faces Night Club. The only three things we knew going in were that Faces rated as a 5 star night club, we'd be meeting up with our new friends from the rideshare (Nouva and Cruz), and most importantly an NFL player was going to be in the building. We arrived around 11:30, and upon inspection of the layout, it was obvious this would be a great place to party. The only problem being that the place was pretty much empty, both upstairs and down. 

We started out on the upstairs level, because there were literally zero people downstairs. Like most people, I'm comfortable on dance floors that already have people dancing on them. A select few have had the privilege of witnessing me get out there in solo situations. Let's just say that this was a night where nothing could hold me back.

This wasn't exactly what we had expected out of a 5 star night club in Toronto. Little did we know the party was just about to get started. It wasn't long before Nouva and Cruz showed up, and there was finally some excitement on the dance floor. Nouva introduced us to some of his friends. Without even knowing it, due to the loud music, I'd shaken hands with one of the newest members of the Miami Dolphins. 

From there Ahbi, Femi and I seemed a little more willing to approach girls on the floor. I struck out on my one attempt at conversation. A girl with a balloon tied to her belt loop was dancing by herself and looked like she could use some company. When I asked her about the balloon, she replied that the information was confidential. Without wasting any more words, I got back to grooving on the dance floor. To me, it seemed like the social aspect of this dance floor was going to be tough nut to crack, because of that, and other less funny encounters.  

We ended up back downstairs again to buy drinks at the bar. The place was progressively filling up and finally living up to its 5 star billing. We decided to give the dance floor on this level a try. Instantly we found the perfect girl to dance with. The tone was set with the music as the song Move Bitch by Ludacris started pumping. Femi and I moved over to dance with a group of girls and one of them in particular had a surprise for us. For the sake of the story we'll call her The Ripper. As the song was playing The Ripper approached me, and planted the palm of her hand directly on my forehead. When the lyric, "Move!" was spoken, she shoved my head back with force. Femi got the same treatment. We must have been in a trance, because we went back for more. Once again we got palm-to-forehead shoved. 

Thankfully for us the song finally changed, and the The Ripper didn't seem to mind that we were still around. She was even suggesting that we danced with her friends. She was dancing with Femi and I was a keen observer to this. It looked like she was digging her fingers into his shirt between the buttons near his collar. That was when The Rip occurred. Buttons were flying everywhere and I had a hard time staying on my feet controlling my laughter. I told The Ripper that Femi had just bought that shirt earlier in the day. She instantly told her friends, and we were all laughing. The ice had finally been broken. I took advantage of the opportunity and danced with The Ripper for a little while. She must have thought I was getting a little too attached, because it wasn't long before she turned around, and claimed that she was a lesbian. 

After that mini-adventure, it was time to return upstairs to where Nouva, Cruz and the NFL party was going on. There was just one obstacle. A gigantic bouncer was on the stairs. After asking him how we could get upstairs he responded with the classic line, "Cash talks, jokers walk". I was furious, but also determined to return upstairs to the party. I rounded up Femi and Ahbi with hopes of only having to pay one bribe for all of us. 

Meanwhile, a fight had broken out somewhere near the front door, and an amazing opportunity presented itself. The bouncer from there stairs had to leave his post, and I excitedly hurried my way over there. Instead of quietly making my way up the stairs like everyone else, I decided to make a scene. I climbed up about 3 steps up and started helicoptering my right arm, screaming "Let's go! Everyone upstairs!" It wasn't long before I was yanked off the stairs, and dragged into a back stairwell in a tight headlock. This guy was crazy. He refused to let go of his grip on my head, despite the fact that I was clearly not resisting. The boss gave the order to throw me out the back. The bouncer decided the best way to start that action would be by pushing me off the flight of stairs. He was instantly on me once again and was looking for any excuse to do more damage. I quietly allowed myself to be forced out into the back alley. 

At this point I was thinking that I really hadn't done anything worth getting kicked out. Not to mention, I was furious at the abuse I'd suffered, for absolutely no reason. I made my way around to the front of the club, and tried to calmly explain the situation. By this point Femi and Ahbi had caught wind of what had happened. They joined me outside. Coincidentally, The Ripper and her friends were also outside. We couldn't miss an opportunity to argue the legitimacy of her lesbianism. After a careful debate she was clearly not going to pull off the charade any longer. She ended up leaving us, yelling "I love the sausage! I love the sausage!" That was comforting. 

After a long enough wait, it became obvious that the outside staff didn't seem to care that their co-worker was a piece of shit. On my way out I had another profanity laced tirade directed at the night club and everyone who worked in it. So ended the NFL party!

<-- Saturday Pt 1 - Downtown                                          Sunday Pt 2 - BBQ -->

Saturday Pt 1 - Downtown (Toronto Edition)

Our ride on the train was a sharp contrast from our rideshare experience, from a comfort perspective. Femi had enough room this time so that he didn't have to be constantly leaning on my leg. It was a really smooth ride, and before we knew it, the train had arrived at Union Station.

We were once again entering a new situation, and I, hadn't exactly spent any kind of extended amount of time with Femi's best friend, Ahbi. I had been told that his condo was extremely close to the Rogers Centre and I had even Google Mapped it to check out the proximity. In this situation, seeing truly was believing, as the CN Tower was clearly visible, up close and personal, from Ahbi's window.

We didn't even need to adjust anything to find our comfort zone, as we already had so many great stories to tell. Ahbi's roommate, Kevin, joined us and we were once again sitting around, laughing, while making plans for a somewhat productive day.

Femi was fairly set on making sure we got some shopping in that day. He had packed so light, that he didn't have anything to wear for the NFL party. We ended up only going into the Gap that day, where Femi and I both bought shirts. I tried mine on but made the careless mistake of not actually checking out how it looked in the mirror. You can't go wrong with 40% off!

Seems that we got sick of shopping pretty fast. The next thing on the agenda became finding a patio to enjoy a beer on the nice, sunny day. This was proving to be a little more difficult than expected, as the first patio we attempted to join actually had a significant lineup to get in. We finally settled for the pub that was right across the street from our home base, where we decided it was too damn windy to sit outside anyways.

After a nice little dinner at the pub, we went back and got changed into some clothes that would be more appropriate for our next activity. We were going to play a pick up game of soccer at the sweet field, that also happened to be right across the street. For me, it was my first time playing any kind of soccer since before I left Ottawa over 5 years ago. I was so thrilled to be out there that I forgot how to play any kind of position, and was running around like a mad man. This behaviour exposed me in a cruel way that I wasn't prepared for. There was no way I was in any kind of shape to play soccer for an extended period of time. Femi and I probably could have used oxygen masks, while Ahbi was the strongest player on the field.

Following these little outings, it was time to start getting serious. The NFL party was looming large in front of us and our plans leading up into the night had to be bang on. Or at least that was the tune that was playing in my head. We purchased the appropriate amount of alcohol, set up the beer pong table, and started pumping the tunes.

<-- Friday Pt 2 - Oshawa                                              Saturday Pt 2 - NFL Party -->

Friday Pt 2 - Oshawa (Toronto Edition)

Upon arrival in Oshawa, this was really one of the times that I had been looking forward to, for about two weeks. Drew isn't someone I've ever had a chance to spend a significant amount of time with. At least not since I'd grown up and started picking up great habits. Drew and I had an age gap of 6 years and for many other reasons there hadn't been a great opportunity until now.

Sure enough, we'd picked out a great spot to meet and he was there to pick us up within 5 minutes. It was almost like we had actually made a solid plan. Femi and I were still in slight awe, of our amazing fortune, with the company we'd had for our ride down. Seemed like it was all we could talk about for a while. We arrived at Drew's house, to which he referred to as a "shithole". To me that couldn't have been further from the truth. There was a lot of open space, and conveniently three bedrooms upstairs. At this point Drew's longtime girlfriend Andrea was added to the picture to provide some balance to our once again male oriented conversations.

We happened to get there on the perfect day as they had just moved their beer fridge out onto the back deck. Anyone who knows the joy of not having to go inside to retrieve the next beer will know what I'm talking about. Drew had kindly offered to pick us up a case of beer on Thursday, so we didn't have to worry about potential Good Friday, Beer Store fiasco. We lasted outside in that beautiful setting until the cold forced us inside. At that point, we moved things to the equally comfortable indoors.

We must have just sat around and talked for hours. We were clearly riding the momentum from our experience earlier in the day. It was the family bonding experience that I was looking for and so much more.

Later that evening we added two more people to the party. Lauren and Liz not only brought alliteration to the party, but also seemed to be matching the general frequency of the room. We were so consumed with the social part of the evening that we forgot to eat until 9pm. 

I swear it wasn't my idea, but later on in the night someone started dancing. It wasn't long before we all ended up around a table with one of us positioned at every corner, moving to the music. When asked about my unorthodox dancing style, I casually answered, "you can move however you want, as long as you do it to the beat!" 

Drew and Andrea were perfect hosts, and really made sure that we had nothing to worry about. We pretended we were a Seinfeld episode, and talked so much about nothing until 5am. In life we all have moments where we take our families for granted, and while it wasn't a priority earlier in my life, it was amazing to develop deep roots over one grand night.

Our time in Oshawa ended the next morning. After sleeping in, Andrea cooked us a great breakfast, which was exactly what we needed to start our day. I'll do my best to make sure it's not too long before that visit happens again, as our amazing luck just refused to stop.

Drew dropped us off at the GO-train station, where a pretty cheap ticket had us on our way to Union Station and our final destination. Femi had arranged for us to stay with his best friend Ahbi, in a swanky condo, located about as far downtown as it gets. It was time to enter a new setting and to start getting excited about the NFL party.

<-- Friday Pt 1 - The Rideshare                                    Saturday Pt 1 - Downtown -->

Friday Pt 1 - The Rideshare (Toronto Edition)

Just as I feared, 7:30am arrived with a vengeance. The first thing I noticed was that the sun was coming directly into my window. With that ball of fire taking direct aim at me, my translucent drapes really stood no chance. I had given myself 45 minutes to pack for a 4 night trip, which ended up being wise. The lingering alcohol in my system was making it impossible to be anywhere near efficient. In the end, I had put forth possibly my greatest ever packing effort, as I covered every single base, and didn't leave anything important behind. Everything was set, I just had to drag my luggage down to the O-train station at Carling for a short ride to Greenboro, which is where our ride was to begin.

An hour after having woken up, the sun was still doing it's thing, in addition to my other self-inflicted condition. Along the way I decided to give Femi a try for the second time that morning on the phone, to which there was no answer. Having known Femi for quite a while, this was starting to stress me out just a little bit, because that guy basically spends 50 minutes out of every hour with his eyes glued to his Blackberry. The only reassuring thought in my head was that there was no way in hell he'd sleep in on this morning, that had been planned for quite a while.

After the short walk I was feeling pretty good about being on time, with all my stuff ready to go, but there was still there was still the issue with Femi still not having responded to my two calls. On the third attempt at making contact, on what had to have been the last ring, a strange voice, speaking in slow motion answered. At that point my greatest fear had been realized. Apparently Femi had one upped me, and had been doing his own partying until 5am. We were going to miss our ride. After an obscenity laced tirade, which seemingly was never going to end, I hung up the phone, and continued the tirade at the same volume within my head. Not only were we not leaving at the planned time, but I had to explain to our ride, at the last second, that he was going to be out 60 dollars in our absence. Thems the breaks.

The walk back home also happened to be uphill, just to add salt to my wounds. The never-ending tirade included thoughts as extreme as not wanting to go on the trip at all. At least my bank account would have thanked me.

I got home, had to unpack all my clothes (the laptop happened to be in the bottom of my bag) and set out on some serious damage control. Much to my surprise and relief, a rideshare apparently isn't all that hard to set up at the last second. The ad I decided to call had been posted 33 minutes ago. They ended up having two free spots, and they weren't opposed to dropping us off in Oshawa which is where our first night was planned, to visit my cousin Drew. Problem solved.

The thing people need to understand about a rideshare is that you're essentially being picked up by complete strangers, who are filling a car with other complete strangers. It's basically the proverbial box of chocolates. After having set up the ride, that was leaving only a couple hours later than we'd originally planned, the only thing left to worry about was the company we might have on our 4 hour drive. For me it was my first time, and I hadn't received the most glowing reviews on the experience from Femi. Who really knew what we were in for.

For the second ride we didn't have a meeting point as the driver was willing to pick us up at home. I happened to be the first person picked up and I climbed into the back of a Honda CRV with Nouva (the driver) and Cruz (his roommate). I wasn't instantly included in the conversation and I was content to sit back and try to get a general vibe for what I was in for. En route to picking up the fourth person, Cruz noticed that the Beer Store was closed, which I confirmed was the case all across Ontario. For these guys that was a major issue. Without a second thought, they came to the conclusion that a trip across to Gatineau would be necessary to ensure that their first night would not be a disaster. Our next passenger happened to be Nina, who was also pretty laid back. Introductions were made all around and the tone was quickly set for a solid roundtable discussion.

After picking up beers we were on our way to pick up the last piece of the puzzle, Femi. By the time we had made our way out to College Square to pick up my previously disgraced friend, I was ready to quickly forgive and forget as the conversations were quickly turning into great ones. I got out to help Femi with his bags and reassured him that we were in for a good ride, at which point he decided to take the middle seat between Nina and myself. We're finally leaving the city and heading out to the highway, a moment I thought would never arrive.

I can't quite remember the specifics of everything we talked about as you can really cover a lot of ground on a long journey. It's just important to note that we went in depth on all the key subjects in our world.. those being religion, war, sex and drugs. It was apparently quite a learning experience for Nina as the guy talk was impossible to avoid with the 4-1 ratio. The connections made in the SUV were, for lack of a better term, epic.

Along the way we discovered that Nouva and Cruz were on their way to Toronto because their friend had just been signed to the Miami Dolphins, and there was going to be a big party happening on Saturday night. We were all invited and our imaginations ran wild with the possibilities of what might go down at the event that became known as the "NFL party".

The first stop we made along the way was in Brockville, mainly because Nina was craving McDonald's, and she would not take no for an answer. This has to be mentioned because it was the most unique ordering experience I'd ever seen, and I felt pretty bad for the girl taking the order. We went through the drive-thru and performed 5 separate orders. It was hard to contain laughter as we arrived at the first window and had to pass the debit machine around to everyone. They definitely hated us.

It's also worth noting that everyone in the SUV had been out partying the night before so we were all suffering from a collective hangover. The goal was to drive all the way to Oshawa, where Femi and myself were being dropped off, but after a few hours cooped up a breather was necessary. We stopped in a parking lot off the highway, got out, pumped the music, and proceeded to dance around a little while going directly for the beers. As everyone knows, one beer is often the best cure for that dizzy feeling we were all suffering from. Not only did we talk a good game, we made the break as close to a party as possible on that 10 minute breather.

Once back on the road Femi and I were 45 minutes away from our destination and feeling great. The last little bit flew by and we were dropped off at the right spot, fairly close to my cousin's house. We all exchanged numbers and were poised to take advantage of the NFL party invitation for Saturday night in Toronto. The next part of the journey was about to begin, and I was excited to be spending my first real, extended quality time with my cousin Drew.

<-- Prologue                                              Friday Pt 2 - Oshawa -->

Prologue (Toronto Edition)

No good story can exist without context. At least not the kind of ones I'm involved with. My friend Femi and I have been going out to bars quite frequently for several months now with the goal of meeting girls, drinking, dancing, and generally having a good time. At the end of each of these nights we usually spend a great deal of time reflecting on those good times and all the incredibly hilarious situations that arise throughout the night.

For a while we've also been floating around the idea of doing some blogging about what happens, with the goal of preserving those memories and, possibly sharing them with others. This didn't get too serious until it became obvious that we were in the middle of one of the more fun weekends in each of our respective lives this Easter long weekend. It became deadly serious at the point when I was on Queen Street, in downtown Toronto, trying to break into a vacant hot dog vendor stand for a photo opportunity, when I suddenly realized that the camera was missing. Not only the camera, but all of the photos we had taken over the last couple days. Coming to terms with that was truly heartbreaking. Alas, here we are attempting to paint a picture with words.

In order to give true context to this story I probably should start at birth, but for the sake of being somewhat concise we'll start on the Thursday night previous to the long weekend. 

At the end of my work day I was fairly resigned to staying at home, doing some laundry, packing and pretty much not going out in order to save some money for our trip. Femi and I also had a rideshare set up for 9am the next morning which was going to be tough to get up for without any additional distractions such as alcohol and sleep deprivation. 

Within the last couple months or so I've been going out to see a band called The Wicked Mercy, which happens to include a friend from high school/elementary school, Case. They had been great the previous two times I'd been, but as Femi told me "You can go see Case's band anytime." 

About 30 minutes before the show I'd received a message from Case indicating that another one of our friends, Dave, who we go way back with was going to be performing in the opening act and that was more than enough to change my mind. At that point I threw on some clothes, hopped on my bike and was off to the races. 

The show was amazing, by far the best of the 3 I'd seen, not only because of the band's performance, but also because of the way they were received by the crowd. At first I was a little apprehensive about ripping up the dance floor, but after seeing some inspirational moves by the lord of the dance (Hank), it was on like Donkey Kong. The dancing was fast, furious and contagious. After a really long set that included a packed dance floor and several encores it was finally time to go home...or was it.  

There was an after party invitation which was basically impossible to turn down especially after all the great vibes from the show. I'm the kind of guy who likes to keep a good thing rolling as long as possible. It wasn't until 2:30am that I hopped on my bike once again and swerved my way to some mandatory McDonald's before finally calling it a night. My alarm was set for 7:30am and I knew I was in for a struggle...

Friday Morning Pt 1 - The Rideshare -->