IX: Memory is an art

Looking at that roman numeral up there, I've determined I have written entirely too few entries this month. Nine? Nine?? By the 26th? Ridiculous. Very not me. The thing that makes this so egregious is the fact that, even taking into account the Half-Past weekend earlier this month, this has been the busiest/most eventful weekend of recent memory, and at the end of it all I sit and think I've got enough material for three healthy-sized blog entries. Considering some of the meager offerings I've provided in the past, I could easily split the events of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday into their own entries.

And that's exactly what I'll do. Three entries in one night to get to a fairly decent SWP month post count. They won't be long entries, but they'll be easier to digest.

So Friday, I was feeling good and relaxed after a fairly hectic Thursday, what with the whole paper-writing thing. My main task for the day was to go down to the mall and buy Amanda's wedding gift. I've been telling her since the beginning that she's getting a spatula. Not only are spatulas* handy, useful and necessary, it's fun to say. Also, "a spatula" is a good cheap idea for a good, cheap guy like myself.

(*Or is it "spatulae?")

In actuality, I wanted to get her, like, a set, with different mixing spoons and maybe a ladle and stuff, something that came on a stand you could have on the counter. My intention had been to buy this at the mall a week ago, with her in tow (I'd warned her it was likely) but I didn't see what I liked, and resolved to get it elsewhere at a different time. So a different time ended up being two days before the wedding (as you'll recall, the early part of the week was taken up with procrastinating over my paper) and a different place ended up being the same place. The I didn't end up getting the thing we were looking at, because I couldn't find it.

So at the end of it all, I wound up choosing a selection of high quality off-the-racks spatulae, spoons, etc. Kitchen stuff. An ice cream scoop. Good stuff. The checkout lady applauded my choice of brand (Cuisinart, mostly.) I said it was for a friend's wedding, and she said "Oh, was this on the gift registry?" and I said "Nah." I'm too cool for gift registries. I do my own thing and people love me for it. Or at least, they tolerate me for it.

Of course, when I got home, I realized I'd forgotten to buy wrapping paper. that will come up in a later post.

Friday night, we had to eat and run at dad's place. Many weeks ago, B and I got some tickets to an ROH (Ring of Honor Wrestling) event out at the Ted Reeve arena in the Danforth area. If "Ted Reeve" sounds familiar to you, it's because you may be keeping up with the Toronto garbage strike, and know that the Ted Reeve arena is not just "one of" the temporary dump sites, it was elected smelliest. Brando and I were not excited, but we'd already paid our $25.

Add to this the fact that a few nights earlier, Chris had MSN'd me saying "Risk Friday." Basically indicating it was guaranteed to happen - Ryan was down, CB was donw, everything was set. I winced. I've prided myself on never being the guy who holds out, who ruins it, but being all the way out on the East end of Toronto for something I'd already paid for, was guaranteed to go late, etc? Damn - I was in a tight spot.

But still, we went out to the Danforth. It was a nice, small hockey arena, very appropriate for the indy show atmosphere. We had good seats too, third row, that was going to make it difficult for me to leave. It didn't even smell that bad, except for the amount of BO that amounts in a confined space with sweaty people.

There were a few dark matches with people I'd never heard of, good young guys who were just finding their place. The show began after 8 with an excellent Sonjay Dutt vs. El Generico match that saw both men well in control of the crowd, a time limit draw finish that saw the crowd chanting "Five more minutes! Five more minutes!" which of course is the point of a time limit draw. So Sonjay, being the heel, grabs the mic and says "You people want five more minutes? Well I don't!" It was pretty awesome.

Then I saw the Briscoes face a team called the "Super Smash Bros." that worked a comedy video game gimmick that got the crowd chanting "1-Up!" and "Press continue!" These fans love to chant, I tell you. The Smash Bros had some good spots, too, but inevitably, the hulking, jocky Brosicoes had to go over, as established stars of the the ROH promotion.

The last match I saw was an exhibition by former WWE star D-Lo Brown, for whom he crowd went nuts (it's funny, he was hardly a presence in WWE but is highly appreciated by the informed, thoughtful smark crowd. I guess any well-known guy would be in that atmosphere.)

I began to get a little antsy. My plan had been to leave after 9, catch the train back to Oakville for 10:20 and get in some good Risk times. But I was having a good time, so I thought, let's push the time frame back and hour, 11:30 is still an acceptable time to start a Risk game. So I sent Chris a text to this effect,and then a few moments later I got a text from an unknown number saying "Where you at? Let's get some risk going." I guess it turns out I didn't have Chris' number in correctly. Whoops.

So, taken off guard, I bid B. adieu and fled, catching the train with barely a moment to spare, then faced with the awkward proposition of sitting on the train for nearly an hour with no iPod, a Metro I'd already read and no pencil for the crossword/Sudoku. Basically, all I was able to do was sit and contemplate and try not to eavesdrop boring conversations. It's weird. - I love listening in on really bad, private stuff, but sometimes people just banter and I can't stand having to hear it.

I tried to call CB repeatedly, because I wanted him to pick me up at the station to go to Risk, and maybe stop off for eats, because the whole "eat and run" thing had left me unfulfilled. Unfortunately, CB was out of commission for the evening, leaving me to feel some regret for leaving my rasslin' show.

So when I got to town I had to figure out a) how quickest to get to Chris' place, and b) how to get food. I rushed over to the McDonald's but didn't care for the indifferent treatment I was getting in light of my hurry, preferential treatment for the drive-thru, which has always been a mild pet peeve of mine. So after a few minutes I just turned around and ran back to catch the Zone bus.

On the bus, I ran into an acquaintance from high school. We weren't particularly good friends, except in grade 9 when we hung around a fair bit in tech and drama. He'd been out west, but came back when Alberta pretty much collapsed. We talked about, you know, life and figuring your shit out. He was a bit of a burnout when I knew him, but like many of those guys he's starting to think seriously about what he wants to be doing.

I got home, made myself a sandwich, and then headed out to Chris Ferg's, where I saw him and RyLai waiting for the fourth man, as they'd invited a friend of theirs over. It didn't really look like he was going to show, though, so we started to think about what to do, and concluded a three-man game, which we're always against, was possible with some minor modifications - the South America/Australia connection, a dummy player, other stuff.

It ended up being fairly close to our usual game, but with some good progression. I was just glad to be playing. RyLai got an early lead, having South America and Austrlia (we boosted those continents' value too) and Chris and I were mostly on the defensive for the first half of the game but we both managed to make comebacks. Ryan was never eliminated, and he had a set, but by the time we decided to call it a night he had less going on than either of us. Meanwhile, The Big Lebowski and Arrested Development.

So that was Friday. I'll be back in a bit to tell you about Saturday...

Keep on rockin'
-Scott