Drakemas

It’s been a very busy week & weekend, given that the old social life has been fired up, and all the Americans being off work meant Sean & I were carrying the load at the office. Hence, not a whole lot of posting.

However, there are lots of stories arising from the last few days.

On Wednesday night, for example, there was a fairly wild evening that was nominally the celebration of the birthday of Halifax’s best salesman. (Who, in a lovely bit of synchronicity also appeared on the cover–he’s the one on the far left– of our local entertainment weekly on Wednesday.)

I got a place to stay in town, so that I could booze off and not have to worry about getting all the way home. It didn’t take long for things to go sideways.

However, instead of trying to capture everything that happened myself, I’m just going to quote from the (hilarious) summary of the evening that was prepared by Neil A. MacFarlane, Esquire (edited only to correct the spelling of my last name.)

For all of you who weren’t there–and for those of you like me who were there but have blurry memories–here are some of my keen observations from the night:

• The new decor of the Seahorse is reminiscent of something from a bad ’80s cop show, only with romantic candles on all the tables and less in the way of white blazer jackets.
• Drake has many attractive female friends, each varying in age from 19-22 with grasps on their respective sanities ranging from “tenuous” to “non-existent”.
• Jaegermeister and beer is an excellent combonation, with no ill-effects or vomit-inducing hallucinogenic states to speak of.
• Chris McLaren is the loudest snorer I have ever heard in my entire life.
• In blatant opposition to traditional interpretations of Newtonian physics, it is apparently possible to teleport from the doorway of the Seahorse directly to the dancefloor of Reflections, as I have no recollection of any transit in between these locations whatsoever.
• My roomate thinks that loud yelling, hooting, a constant stream of smokers and wild, silver-goalie mask wearing interpretive dancing outside his doorway at 6 a.m. is very excellent.
• The best way to impress someone you just met is to stagger around drunkenly in a velour leopard-skin pimp jacket, a massive plastic Thor helmet and a constantly spilling tumbler of gin. Follow this up by revealing your darkest secrets to her during casual conversation.
• The smoking room at the Seahorse might be the bleakest hellscape on face of this planet.
• Bottles of water at Rejections cost more than shots do at the Seahorse, which is downright madness.
• Although you might think those cigarettes on the table are yours, there’s a decent chance they are not, especially if you find yourself with three identical packages of cigarettes in your pocket at the end of the night.
• It takes approximately 18 minutes to cook a McCain International Pizza in the oven. You can time this by asking Chris to tell you the story about the time he drove his friend’s car across the country. When he is halfway done, your pizza will be ready.
• Tequila, despite its bad reputation, is decidedly delicious.
• Although spelled and pronounced differently, the phrase “please leave now, the sun is coming up and I am going to bed” apparently means the same as “feel free to stay here and make out on my couch as long as you’d like”.

I am sure I am forgetting a lot of other happenings, but frankly I am surprised I can still tie my shoelaces after the brain damage that night caused me.

Oh, and here is a shot of Neil rocking the aforementioned coat and helmet:

I am impressed that I managed to make it to work on Thursday.

Also, on the walk from La Hacienda MacFarlane to my car, I walked past the NSCC building on Bell Road, on which demolition had apparently begun that morning. I was quite torn. On the one hand, I am an engineer–and a guy–so watching big machines push a building apart fascinates me. On the other hand, as you can imagine, this process is somewhat loud, and not necessarily what you want to be hearing The Morning After, when you have not yet had recourse to ibuprofen.