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.
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