Hung over Monday: Stampede Wrap up edition.

I'm glad it is over.

I knew these last 10 days were going to be interesting. They were that for sure.

Last Monday I talked about what happened last weekend in this thing I call my life. Well this weekend was almost as ridiculous.

Remember Heidi from last weekend, well Junior was all about trying to get to know her a little bit better. He had even been talking to her all week. So, when it came time for us to figure out what we were going to do on Friday it didn't take a whole lot of brain power on Junior's part to invite her out with us. This was her last weekend in town and Junior wanted to show her a good time.

We started by pre-drinking at his place. I don't think I've drank that much beer that fast before, but that night we tore through a large amount, even before we made it to the bar. Heidi the positive influence that she is brought beer for the short, 5 block, walk to the bar. Fast forward past the walk, which despite being rather intoxicated and walking with open alcohol in the down town core of Canada's third largest city was uneventful, and we arrive at the bar. We managed to pick a bar that wasn't huge on stampede partying so we wouldn't have to wait in line. Once inside it was shots and beer and then shots and beer. Rinse and repeat.

My favorite quote of the night was, "Nice to meet you. What made you decide that plaid was a good idea?"

It's funny because, during stampede, if you're not wearing plaid you stand out. I mean every single person was wearing plaid. When you ask them about it they just shrug and say "It's what you do during stampede." Fucking Sheeple!!!

Which makes me instantly think of how as a society we are willing to do something just because it is what we've always done. (I'm thinking about the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson)

Anyway, back to the story of the weekend. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't me that ended up getting belligerent.  It was Junior, which is odd for a stoner. He legitimately was so hammered that he tried to push me into traffic. He almost took off a guys head for bumping into him. He was really pissed off. I didn't care. I was just trying to keep everyone together... ish.

Needless to say Hiedi bailed on him pretty quickly after that. I say good riddence she was a head case. Living in Calgary for three weeks to take a course. We found out that night that is was married but going through a separation. It was a whole bunch of drama that I didn't want to worry about. So What did I do?

I went and got Falafel. Fresh made Falafel, at 3 am.

This was so good I didn't care about anything else.

This kinda pissed Junior off. So I went home and passed the fuck out. I woke up around 830 am, Drank about a liter of water, that would be a quart for my imperialistically inclined readers, and went back to bed. Woke up at 1 pm, feeling awesome. 

Picked Junior up from work and headed over to Vegas's place. Vegas has lived here now for probably 28 of the last 36 months. However he hasn't had his own place, nor any of his shit from back home. This all changed on Saturday when he finally was able to get his furniture from back home and fill his new place that he has been in for over a month with nothing but a borrowed blanket and his clothing. Needless to say this called for a Drink. We drank beer and helped him unpack and then we drank more beer. 

Vegas and Junior hadn't slept a whole lot the night before so they opted to stay in and drink. Which is probably a good thing because there was a gnarly storm that hit and we probably would have been soaked. 

I fall asleep with beer in hand around 1 am. I know weak sauce, but hey I'm getting older. 

Sunday wake up and get everything moving. We floated down the river. We have two of them here in Calgary, one big one, one little one. I prefer to float down the little one. Less shit to worry about means more illegal drinking and gawking at hot chicks in bikinis. 

I don't know these people, but it's something like this.

It isn't like white water rafting, at all. It is more like those meandering tube rides at water parks. Just with better scenery and it lasts 4 hours.

After 4 hours of floating down the river in the hot sun drinking rum and cokes I was feeling rather fantastic. (I remembered to put on sunscreen every 30 seconds because let's be honest I don't tan.)

When we finished the float we went back to Vegas's place drank another beer, went over to Juniors place to get ready to go out. I know going out on a work night. Je suis stupide! 

Junior and I were talked into going back to the Stampede grounds to watch the grand stand show. Which to be honest was entertaining. I don't think I've seen a show that had as much scale as this one. There was acrobats, a giant marionette, pirates (which I think were a little out of place at a western themed event but meh) with confetti canons and dancing horses. There were those weird choreographed strong men that hold each other up in weird and strangely non-homoerotic ways. 

Acrobats

spinning flag shit

Lots of people

More acrobats doing weirder shit

The story line made no sense, something about cowboys, a princess and pirates. 

Acrobats heading over the crowd

These acrobats are now so far into the crowd they are behind me.

Weird pirate pants on main character.

This pisses me off a little because I brought my camera but forgot to check to make sure that the memory card was empty so I didn't end up getting any of the good shots, like the flying cars with the band playing Kiss as they fly over the crowd.  The really hot acrobat in the bubble.

I think the show was mediocre on a skill based critique but as a whole show, it was well put together. It made me smile and that is good enough. Although that could have been the fact that I was still drinking. 

The fireworks were fucking fantastic, and I don't even like fireworks. I wish I could have gotten a shot of that. 

Oh well live and learn. One of these days I'll get decent enough at gathering proof of my adventures for this thing I call my blog. I have some more pictures friends took that I'll post in the next couple days.

It's going to be nice to have my city back.

Later Days,

NTH