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 -->