Homecoming & GREEN Fu*$#@ DAY!!!1!!1!!!!!At 3:15 AMby: Tony

Good Riddance....

It was an awesome weekend which in a sense, culminated with the Green Day concert. So lets recap how events came about. It's kinda' long, but what can you do....but read it.

Saturday

I got in Saturday morning, tired, disoriented, and disillusioned, also on top of that I was a little sad that summer was winding down. So anyways, after being repatriated back into the apartment, Nana and I went out on a little excursion to some random places and then to the beer store, the most important stop. This wasn't any ordinary stop to the beer store, because when I showed the guy behind the counter my ID, he said "Belleville! Home of the Belleville Bulls...And the Intelligencer", It was a little unexpected, but it was awesome that he knew where I was from...Made me feel good for about a few seconds or so, until I ordered my beer (A twelver of Red Cap), they were all sold out...Saddest moment ever. It took me a good several minutes to compensate with a twelver of Bohemian (13.50, Cheap Beer is the best beer). The guy was cool though, when he was talking to Nana, he asked if he went to Nicholson, upon saying yes, the guy immediately asked if he knew Mr. Burchat, and that he spoke in his economics and computer classes a while back. It was awesome.
Later that night we ended up going to Arjun and Mark's place which is about a 25-35ish minute walk. It was good seeing the ol' gang again, after a highly uneventful, and isolated summer, and to celebrate, there was some good drinking and poker. Good thing I haven't played Texas hold'em for the longest time, because I ended up losing first, and even with some strong hands, I didn't win ONE pot. Terrible.
After the evening ended, while Nana and I were walking back down Chapel St. to get home, we were about half way, when Nana needed to tie up his shoes, so I sat down on the curb and checked out the night sky, it was awesome because the clouds were low, and the light pollution lit them up, and beyond them was an awesome starry night sky(I was still a little drunk...Give me a break). Suddenly we were both distracted by this car screeching around the corner onto the street, I got up from sitting, because I wasn't ready to get hit by a car and die just yet. Nana was still tying his shoes and I was standing up looking right at the car, when they drove really close to this white escort parked at the side of the street, on the other side from where we were standing, a little bit further up the street. I thought they were drunk driving, when they got really close, and all we heard was a loud "CRASH". They quickly drove off while I was still watching, and when they drove by, the driver causally says: "Hey Bud". Then they sped through a stop sign and out of sight. When we went by the car the back window was smashed out. It was a weird evening.
It was a white car BTW, but I didn't catch the make or plates...It was a little blurry.

Sunday.

It was a momentous occasion, a good friend of from Belleville, Mike (or as Mark called him: Metallica Mike) was coming up to Ottawa for the concert, so I headed to Arjun's around noon to catch the bus to the train station so that we could meet him. On my way to Mark and Arjun's, I went by that car again, and it's window was still smashed. Arjun and I went to get Mike from the train station.
After we got back, we all eventually went out with Mark to Wall-Mart at South Keys, and ate at a very unsanitary McDonald's, the food wasn't as good as it should have been, just because it was just do damned dirty.
Later we all got together and went to Phil's place (AKA the Portuguese Man of War from Canada Day), and had an awesome BBQ. Later Mark, Nana, and Phil eventually went to Kate's to pre-drink and go out to the club (they went to 10 clubs that night). Arjun, Mike and I went back to Arjun's place, and had a Green Day jam secession to prepare for the big day.

Monday

It was the big day we've been waiting for all summer, I had to go into school to pay some fees for the DDR club, ran into Nana, Mark and Phil while I was there, it was kinda random.
Anyways later on I met up with Mike and Arjun at the Mall, and we enjoyed a feast of Burger King. We then went back to Arjun's to drink, and we watched some older live Green Day concerts (Woodstock 94 was one)to get us prepped for the awesome to come.
We were the basically the first ones on the bus to head to the Corel Center, and it was somewhat of a quiet ride for us, with the occasional joke, but we noticed that a lot of people getting on the bus were francophones, and only a few anglophones.
When we got there it was crazy, it didn't take us long to get in, nor did it take long to see some familiar faces. Mike went to buy some beer, and he didn't bring his Drivers license, but he had his health card, so it should have been sufficient enough to get a drink, but the guy at the counter told him off, and said to get some "Real ID" then come back. Mike came back slightly shocked, and we stood for a little bit, all a little puzzled and angry, talking about why he wouldn't take a REAL provincial photo ID. But then the guy let him have it anyways. Let me tell you, beer at the Corel Center is damn expensive, 6 bucks for one bottle.
We got on the floor and made our way to the front, and Jimmy Eat World came on and played a quick, but great set. I'm somewhat of a fan, but the scales tipped towards Green Day.
When they came on stage, it was just beyond amazing. There were the guys that I saw at the MTV Video Awards! We got to get pretty close to the front, close enough to get a good view of the entire band. They started with some songs from their latest album like "American Idiot", and "Jesus of Suburbia", but as they progressed, they pulled out some amazing songs off their older albums, such as "King for a Day", "Chump", but when they played "She", the three of us were euphoric. They even played "Shout" by the Isley Brothers, and in between they played "Stand By Me" by Ben E. King, I was really impressed when they played it, cause it showed their versatility, and appreciation for the older hits. For some reason I also knew right off the bat when they played the songs. It made me one happy person. They had amazing rapport with the crowd, and they also kept the crowd amped from start to finish. One memorable part was when they asked three random people from the crowd to come on to the stage and play the instruments, one drummer was kicked off for not having the right beat, but they eventually found a replacement. The kids played a song off their first album (1039/Smoothed out Slappy Hours). The guitarist got to keep the guitar, and I think the bassist did as well, the drummer got some drum sticks, and Billy Joe got him to do a stage dive. It was one of the highlights of the evening. They eventually ended the show with "Time of your Life" which was awesome.
I was sad when the show ended, but I guess it was good that we left, because I was pretty close to being a Deaf-Mute, and my legs were about to fall off.
On the bus ride home, we sat at the back of the bus with the exact same people that were sitting across from us on the ride there, and there was this...I'm sorry to say, dumb blonde chick yapping away, and this guy making random comments, and pulling lines from "The Dave Chappell Show", and "Anchorman".
When we got back to Arjun's place, we continued the festivities by playing some of their songs that they didn't play, we also continued drinking. When Nana, Mark, and Kate came back (They went to the frosh week concert and saw "Metric", "The Stills" and a bunch of other bands.) They had an awesome time at their concert, where they actually hung out with the band, I am secretly jealous, because Metric and The Stills are awesome, and it would have been amazing if we got to actually hang out with Green Day....sigh.

Tuesday

So we ended up staying over at Mark and Arjun's that night, and in the morning we sat around for a bit and talked. At around quarter to noon, we decided to go out for breakfast, but ended up going to Tim Hortons because Mike's train left at 12:25. So when we ordered at Timmy Ho's the lady actually skipped making Mike's BLT, and gave it to him 10 minutes later. We were pretty pissed. Anyways, we rushed to the bus stop, jumped on the bus that took us to the station.
It was pretty intense, and it felt like something out of "The Amazing Race", when we got out of the bus we ran up the stairs and right into the station, the man at the gate opened it up, he rushed through and barely made it on. It was an awesome send off though; its too bad he couldn't stick around though. We ended up eating our food at the station, and then we left for the home.

I wish I had a digital camera, I could have had pictures for you all, but I don't, unless your willing to donate some money for me, you know, so that I can document my activities for your viewing pleasure, because with me its all about the pleasure...you know it.

I am proud that I kept cussing to a nil on this entry...Its quite a feat considering the magnitude of the situation.