Long Weekend in the Lab???

WHAT???

Yeah. Unfortunately. That's what i did!

May 2-4 is supposed to be about drinking beer, camping, having illegitimate children, and all that other fun stuff. That's how its been in the past anyways. Apparently now that i'm passed the big 2-4 in age and turned the big quarter century i'm not allowed to have fun anymore.

Well...maybe all that's a bit overboard. Truth is that it was a cold and shitty long weekend and i really want to get my experimetns done with, so i stayed in kingston for the weekend so that i could get one more experiment done and under my belt so that i can stay on my target and be done and outta here by the end of August and then off to Europe!

So i spent about 5 hours here in the lab every day and went out in the evenings. Friday i worked late, then bbq'd with Oreo then headed to Clark for a summer staff party with the kids, back to work Saturday a.m. then headed out to Brent's cottage on Flint Island, one of the famous thousand islands on the St. Lawrence near Gananoque. There were about 10 of us who braved the cold and rain and headed across the river to his cottage. It was cold and shitty, but still better than being in the city. We just sat out there all night and hung out and drank a ton of beer, spent the night, and headed back in the next morning. Sunday when i got back to town i came back to the lab for a few more hours, then hung out with my summer housemates Kevin and Rob and we eventually headed down to Trav's place and played a little poker.

So as you can see, not a very exciting weekend, but at the same time, i got a ton of shit done in the lab, so i'm pretty happy.

The past couple weeks have been pretty busy with just work and stuff. I've been keeping pretty active playing soccer once or twice a week and hockey once a week and then Goodlife once or twice a week with Heather. We've been going to spin classes which are awesome. They're kinda like aerobics classes cause they have an instructor and stuff like that and its to music, but its on bikes. I really like them.

Anywyas, that's about all.

Ever here the one about the doctor, lawyer, and engineer who decide to roof a house together?

You haven't heard that joke? Well that's because its a stupid fucking idea and a doctor, lawyer and engineer should know enough to know that they can't do the job and should shell out the cash to get someone who knows what they're doing to do it.

We learnt this the hard and stupid way....by trying to do it on our own. Two Friday's ago John Evans (a guy in heather's class who wants to be a cardiac surgeon) had me (the engineer), and George Wray (Heather's friend Becky's husband), who's a lawyer, over to roof his small, 1 and a half story bungalow. It's a small enough place, with four sides to the roof. We thought, "hell yeah! bring it on! and let's get drunk while we do it! If roofers can do it, surely we'll easily do it."

So George and John ripped the shingles off the back of the roof while i was at work in the a.m. and i showed up just after noon to start shingling. The first couple rows seemed to go fine with the tarring and nailing in because we were doing them from the ladders and was quite easy. But then came time to get up on the roof. THat's where the problems started. 1. the roof is pretty steep 2. we don't really know what we're doing 3. we don't have harnasses (just 2x4's for foot support while reaching down to shingle 4. we don't really know what we're doing 5. i found out that i don't like being on a roof that's steep, with no harnass 6. it took a lot longer than we thought it would and it was starting to get dark, cold, windy and rain was on its way 7. we didn't really know what we're doing.

You get the idea.

So i spent most of the time carting shingles up to the boys on the roof (small roof and only room for 2 people at hte most at a time). At first i thought it was a better job then actually being on the roof the whole time, till i realized that it involved me going up the ladder with a bundle of shingles on my shoulder, walking up the 2x4 ladder on the top of the roof, dropping the shingles off, then making my way back down to the ladder (the trickiest part for sure), and getting down. I did this quite a few times, and every time i got back down to terra ferma, i breathed a big sigh of relief and make my legs eventually stop shaking.

We finally finished up and the girls came over and we bbq'd and we collectively decided to have a roofer finish the job off cause there's no way i want to do anymore! It took us a whole day to do 1/4 of the roof, and after its all said and done, it looks like shit.

So moral of the story...don't be a cocky asshole. Pay someone else to do it for you!

Busy, busy, and busier

Things have been crazy lately. That's not why i haven't posted any blogs though. I haven't posted any blogs cause i'm a lazy SOB at this kinda stuff, but am trying to get better. The school year is done here at Queen's now (my last year ever at university...hopefully). Classes finished off at the start of April and then exams just finished this last week. So basically the past month has been dominated with non-stop partying.

Things started hard about the time of BNO and rolled right into the last Khaki Snack Show on the Monday. That weekend started for me on Thursday night cause Allain (Charette) came to Kingston for the night with his new girlfriend (shit...can't remember her name) and their new puppy Evie (spl?), a 10 week old boston terrier. Very cute little guy. We didn't get up to much, just caught up and had some beers at my place. He was off to the Barrie area the next day to see his mom. Allain's been living in Ottawa for the past year almost managing a Boston Pizza downtown. I've know Allain since we were about 5ish? I still remember meeting him for the first time. He had just just moved in across the road from our place on Devonshire (in Iroquois Falls) and he got outta the car looking like a HUGE nerd. For anyone who doesn't know Allain or didn't know him when he was younger, he had the thickest Coke bottle glasses you've ever seen (think Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys kinda thing). But the other thing is that he's ALWAYS been built like a brick shit house. So nobody ever made too much fun of him. Anywyas, i remember him getting out of his car and walking across the road...no, scratch that....he was strutting across the road. It was the funniest walk ever. He looked scary to me at the time though....for a half a second....until our dog Magee got ahold of him and licked him to death, and that's when i realized that although tough, he's just a big softy and has been ever since (although he's still a fucking tough guy when he wants to be).

So Allain and co. took off the next morning early, which was perfect cause Friday was the last day of classes and was one of the best days (saddest too) of my life. At 10:30, me and Bryce (Howchin) headed to Clark together (after a breakie at Morrisson's) for our last shift ever. Its tradition at Clark for the outgoing staff to get fired during the last ritual of the year. So all of us getting fired get to work for the first few hours (but drink the whole time). It was amazing. We all had coffee cups and were acting like we were working, but really i don't think i did a thing all fucking day. I think the most that i did was pour a few (or a dozen pitchers of beer), but instead of selling them gave them away to friends, or people that i kinda knew, or basically just anyone at all....haha. It was awesome. So i just walked around all day giving out drinks, but slowly and surely getting wired from my little coffee cup of goodness. We had a patio downstairs too for the day (we sometimes set up patios downstairs around Clark by renting a bunch of tents, a draft car, and putting up a bunch of snowfencing....i think we can fit about 350 ppl on the patio and then 159 more upstairs.....we're not a huge bar). So i'd wander around the patio for awhile, then head upstairs and hang out. Everyone once and awhile (more and more often as the day went on) we'd head into the beer fridge behind the bar and chug beers or do shots. It was really just a great great day and a fantastic way to finish my career at Clark Hall Pub and at university. I remember at one point Phil (big guy from Trinidad) was getting pretty nostalgic and said, "Did you ever ever imagine that on your very last day of school at Queen's University you'd be in the beer fridge at Clark Hall Pub chugging beers and doing shots with some of your best friends in the world?". Very appropriate comment, because i guess now looking back at my first day of university i never ever would've imagined that university would be as good to me as it has been or that it would end in such a great great way.

So things progressed till about 3:30ish (i'm guessing at this point cuase i had no concept of time and really didn't care about it at all either). Bryce brought a bunch of posts with red velvet rope to block off the stage just for staff, so we were all hanging out up there dancing and drinking hard (i was onto Jack with a bit of coke in my coffee cup at this point). Then all of a sudden The Final Countdown came on and things got really sad all of a sudden. All of us leaving staff (Bryce, Danny, Jordon, Rob, Marissa, Ali, Rico, Lisa, Jay, Phil, Derek Burpee) looked around at each other and realized that this was it. We were about to be fired. Everyone else in the bar at this point realized what was about to happen to and all 100 some of them gathered around the stage and started cheering for us as we were dancing on chairs and giving're shit during our last few minutes as Clark Hall Pub staff ever. The song was coming to a close and then Brad Jewson, the new manager, grabbed the mike and informed us and everyone that we were outta control and were now officially fired from Clark Hall Pub. So that was it. We all took off our ruggers and then the emotional onslaught came. I thought i was going to be fine and was holding up until i looked over and Bryce was coming over for a hug with tears in his eyes. Things were sloppy after that. Here were all were, drunk, sweaty, covered in alcohol, and hugging and sobbing uncontrollably.

The rest of the day passed in kind've a blur. Russ and Matt made the trip down for the afternoon from TO to see me get fired (Russ used to work at the pub) and we spent the rest of the day and night drunk together. All the rest of the staff were sooo messed up and kind've all split up after ritual to eat or pass out (more passed out then ate). I think we ended up at Stooley's, then back to my place for a bit, then somehow made it back to Clark again! We stayed till close that night and staffed with them, although they definately shouldn't have even let us into the pub we were so drunk. The night finally finished at about 4am. Russ puked all the way home while me and Matt made fun of him, but probably weren't too far off from the same fate ourselves.

The next day Matt left early in teh AM cause he had to drive all the way to London, but me and Russ chilled all day, hungover as shit and just watched movies. At around 5, i headed back to Clark. After the madness from the night before, someone figured it would be a good time to have our last staff party of the year, the New Staff/Old Staff party. How this works is everyone from that year + the new hires for the next fall get together for a catered dinner at Clark, followed by staff awards and final goodbyes and stuff like that from the outgoing managers and staff. Then its onto the main event for the night when the new managers pair people up and they get tied together for the rest of the night. Literally. Returning staff and rookies get tied together and leaving staff get tied together. How it works is two people get tied together buy a short (short) length of string by the wrists. And then you go drink for drink and get hammered together all night. And the crazy part is that its not usually same sex partners. I remember my first year i was tied to Kris and when she went to the washroom, i had to be right next to her in the stall....makes for people getting to know each other very quickly anyways! I was lucky and got tied to Bryce which was awsome. The night was good, but is definately meant for the returning and new staff. Our big bang was definately the day before. It was good though and a great final farewell to Clark.

I'm going to miss the place alot. Clark has been one of the best parts of my university experience. EVerything from frosh week, to the pole, onto BDO, Halloween staff party, fall retreat, Xmas party, winter retreat, BNO, last ritual, and new staff old staff. For three years this went on, and then of course the weekly shift and staffing. For people who weren't apart of it, its absolutely impossible to describe. I know that i'm lucky to have been apart of it and will cherish it forever. My liver will not miss it...

The rest of the month was kind've a blur. I had alot of work to do on my thesis and then the last week of the month was diminated by people finishing exams and wanting to party hard for a last couple nights before they left Ktown for good. So i hung out with Bryce and Jordan mostly alot. Then finally the last couple days of April meant getting ready to move. Sux. I loved my old place at 242 Alfred. Me and George Prpich have lived there together for the past year. Its a great place, huge backyard, kitchen, great living room and i had a huge room. George however was more interested in his girlfriend then being around the house much, so i basically had this huge awesome place to myself which was awesome most of the time, although there were definately times when it would've been nice to have an actual housemate around to chill and talk to. It wasn't bad living with geroge at all, but had i known things were going to be like that, i would've moved in with someone else. So for the summer i'm subletting from Brad Jewson at 300 University, right across from my old place at 299 university (where i lived for 3 years in undergrad with Rob, Matt, and Mike the whole time and for the first year with Patti and Amanda and then the last two years with Aaron. It was a fantastic place. So for the summer i'm living with Kevin MacLean from Clark (also a grad student) and this guy who i just met yesterday, Rob. Took a long time to get moved in and then finally to get the place cleaned up (it was absolutely disgusting), but now that its clean looks awesome and will be a great place to live for the summer. I spent a few hours yesterday helping the landlord clean out the basement at our old place in exchange for taking all of our garbage and furniture with him. He's a really nice guy and brought a friend of his and from 9am till about 2 we moved stuff and got drunk. The two of them are in their late 50s or early 60s and are both Navy vets and decided that a job like that can't be done without beer. I think we cracked our first one not long after 9am (12 o'clock somewhere) and proceeded to have another Ex every 30 minutes or so. Was definately a good time. They even helped me move my last couple of things over to my new place and then came in for a beer....lol.

So anyways, its Sunday now and i'm at work trying to finish up some oxygen experiments with my polymers in the bioreactor. Hopefully i'll be outta here soon and then get to work on unpacking my new rooom a little bit.

Till next time....