On Friday, I arrived at a Branch All-Staff meeting. This was my first one in this particular branch and I was surprised to see so many people! Probably close to 600 people were in the room! I don’t usually talk about work stuff on this website, but this particular event had Benoit and I pose as the Mac vs. PC guys from the commercial in a variety of skits that poked fun at the trials and tribulations that we go through in our line of work. I thought it went over well although there were technical difficulties throughout the day. I was the PC guy and I dressed up for the part in a suit as well as pulling out an old pair of eyeglasses I had. Wow, I never thought I would be wearing those ever again!
After the all-staff meeting, it was such a beautiful day that Krista, Alvaro and I headed out to the Royal Oak near the University. I was glad Alvaro came out as he had helped me out a lot with my Spanish homework and I felt he deserved a few beers. Dave, Maude, Jacob, Alvaro, Vince, Naomi and Krista and I hung around the Oak for a few hours in the amazing heat and I started to realize that I was finally done school as I downed a few suds across from the University. I even saw my Spanish professor at the Oak as well which I take as a good sign!
Luckily for me, Mike was still at work so I managed to get a hold of him and convince him to pick me up instead of me taking the bus home. I bid adieu to the fine folks at the table and headed off for the main event…the night out with the ladies from Toronto; Katie and Sabrina. They were coming up for a visit at Carrie’s so Mike and I decided to pack some sleeping bags and head there for the night as well.
We got home, went to The Works for an excellent burger and a Mill Street Tankhouse Ale (which always tastes soapy for some reason), packed the truck up with the necessary items, headed over to Mike’s friend Andre’s place for a beer, then we headed over to where Vero and her friends were doing a walk for cancer throughout the night. It was quite the rambunctious crowd…bagpipes, music blaring, people running around a track…this event was going from 7PM – 7AM. I’m not going to lie…I’m relieved that I didn’t have to partake in this overnight event. I think I would have been more than willing to take part in it if it was during the day. Vero told me that around midnight she felt the urge to run and she didn’t stop running until 2AM. That is what I like to call Forrest Gump Insane. They had a great time though.
Mike and I then headed out to the gas station where we picked up some ice (and gave the attendant a beer as he was drooling over them) and headed to Carrie’s. When we got there, Alex was putting down some new patio stones for a step so we helped him out and chatted for awhile. Katie and Sabrina arrived during that time so we spent time meandering from Carrie’s apartment to the front of the house chatting with Alex and Holly. They had some exciting news but I’m not sure if it’s public knowledge so I guess I’ll just leave you in suspense or you can just ask them yourselves.
Carrie, Katie, Sabrina, Mike and I then headed out to Amanda’s house for a post-Woodies (baseball team) party. I know quite a few of the Woodies from living with Carrie years ago so it was fun times all around visiting them. The party was in full swing when we arrived. I did have a good chuckle when Amanda announced last call and I mentioned that I had never heard ‘last call’ yelled during a house party. Turns out that she ended up leaving her own place so she could go to her boyfriends house because he had a dog they had to feed. In the end, it was the crew I showed up with, but we were alone in Amanda’s house at the end of the night so what better thing to do with our time but to play Twister?
Lord, my legs are not made to play Twister anymore. I think we were also playing it wrong…we were taking a turn instead of all moving our limbs at the same time. After the hilarity which is Twister, we realized it was time to hit the road and we arrived at Carrie’s in the wee hours and found some Kraft Dinner. KD by Katie is somehow made into something extra-special through the use of salt and pepper and we enjoyed a bowl of it out in the back deck while we realized that the sun was starting to come up in the distance. Around 4:30AM we both realized it was time to hit the sack. This was a good start to my post-graduation party.
On a random note, Mike had bought a breathalyzer the week before so we were excited to give it a try. With the new laws surrounding a 0.05% blood alcohol limit while driving, he figured it would be a good idea to pick one of these things up. 
We must admit that it was quite lackluster on the Friday night as I had picked up the cheapest batteries known to man at Giant Tiger. I looked at two Energizer batteries for $4.97 or 18 no-name batteries for $1.97. You all know which ones I picked up. In the end, they sucked as the breathalyzer only worked for a few tries. However, we did manage to get some Energizer batteries the next day and while it held up for a while longer, I wasn’t overly impressed with the length of time it did last. Granted, we were using it quite a lot so maybe it’s only meant to be used sparingly? Mike did end up registering at 0.15% at the end of the night which I felt I could have beat but we’ll never know because the thing died on us.