surfer girl goes global

On thursday night I learned not to consume alcohol and pot in large amounts at the same time. The short story is it really fucks me up, but I almost scored some sweet fold up beer chairs. We had discovered a secret back alley parking spot near the beach and were walking back to the car when we passed a fold up chair with the cup holder it was two attached together. I decided we should take them home, so we were trying to fold them up to carry it back to the car but it just wouldn’t go.

Aliza was just going to leave them there but I don’t give up that easily so I start dragging these chairs back to the car, and we start trying to fit them in the trunk but it’s just not happening. We were parked right behind an apartment and I saw this guy walking across the parking lot so I call over to him to help us put these chairs into our trunk, but he’s not having any luck either. So I confess that we actually just found the chairs down the street and we leave them behind with this guy as thanks for trying to help us.

Friday was really rough, I spent the morning feeling very sick and debated leaving work but at the same time I feel like if you’re out getting trashed on a work night just suck it up because you made the decision to get messed up and so you should take what comes with it. So I stayed and spent the day dreaming of going home and to sleep. Four thirty finally rolls around and I get home and end up going out for appetizers and drinks at Kits with Aliza and Richard – but I got home early.

Saturday we hit Wreck Beach, for anyone not in Vancouver it’s the clothing optional beach here in Van. At first I was being a little immature about the naked thing and kind of giggling and stuff, but I actually really like it and got into the whole topless thing. It’s a great vibe and just really chill and there’s all kinds of people and there’s guys walking around selling pizza and beer (until the cops showed up anyway) empanadas, you’ve got naked people cooking fries and the ‘fries’ tent. It was just really cool down there.

Sunday I met up with Kevin and Conrad who I might be going surfing with this weekend, that is if I can bring myself to use up my last two vacation days.. wait scratch that one vacation day and take an unpaid day off! I can’t believe I used it all already! I really want to go surfing again and they seem really cool so I might just have to take one for the team and go because I think it will be a great time.

But what about the rest of the year!!

I am so fucked this morning. Last night ended with a LOT of sake drinking and staying up way past my bedtime kissing a boy in a parking lot.

It was 35 degrees yesterday so went to the beach after work, we ended up hanging out with these guys, who party there all the time. Telling us about their BBQs and drinking on the beach and how quitting his job was the best thing he’s ever done, playing volleyball and frisbee and just chillin with some beers.

You have to keep the beers on the DL though the cops come through on these ATVs every now and again scouring the beach for any sign of alcohol. Luckily we were good at spotting them in time to hide all sign but not everyone was so lucky. There was this group of guys and they spent twenty minutes dumping out their beer and asking for ID it was so funny. If only I had my camera.

So we’re hanging out on the beach till 10 and getting pretty drunk and getting pretty hungry since we really haven’t eaten since lunch and decide to go to this Japanese restaurant. My first time having Japanese. We get there and the kitchen is closing in five minutes so they need to get our order in and so the one guy starts ordering food like crazy and getting who knows what and SAKE. Which came in this big bamboo stick pretty much, and little bamboo shot glasses.

It was suprisingly drinkable and they made sure to keep the glasses full, even after 3 or 4 of those big bamboo things, even when I decided I’d had enough but okay I’ll have another.

I was having trouble with the chopsticks and got excited about the sushi when it came – is that raw fish? and dug in. I wasn’t quite as excited about the taste in my mouth this morning and I feel like the sake is still running through my veins but you can’t complain when someone else takes care of the bill.

We ended up drinking with the manager (the guys are regulars there) until the place closed and the waitresses were leaving and were heading home, but then we saw some cops so we re-parked the car and got out until they cleared out. Then instead of going home we ended up meeting some other people and hanging out in the parking lot (again with the parking lot hang out) until almost 3 in the morning.

We’re supposed to party on the beach with them again today but I’m not so sure I can take it – that doesn’t sound like New Zealand. But the rest of it late night drinking, going to work hung over or worse still half drunk hoping you don’t reek of alcohol, making out with random boys, that was New Zealand and that was awesome.

Monday night I met surfing Paul. I thought we were doing drinks, but we were doing the dog park, for an hour. Surfing Paul wasn’t as cool as I’d hoped AND he bailed on surfing this weekend which kind of sucks but his friend is in town so what are you gonna do?

So it’s eight o’clock Monday night I’m downtown with nothing to do but I don’t want to go home, so I go to the library, then proceed to wander until I end up at Taco Del Mar where Aliza met me. She can’t stand being at home either and we go for drinks in English Bay, I think it was The Calling. We sit down at the bar and before you know it we’re chatting with the guys next to us, Jonathan and Drew. They seem pretty cool, 30s both in the production industry.

Jonathan’s kind of random in a goofy fun way, my kind of random. I go to the washroom and when I come out he’s waiting for me and we start chatting. It quickly becomes obvious he wants to kiss me, he’s at least a foot taller than me. A girl walks by and we retreat to the back hallway, hiding amongst the kegs, a secret kiss (or 2.. or ?) before heading back to my friend.

Another secret rendezvous a while later, he says it’s like being back in high school – making out in back hallways. I never did that in high school, maybe I should have been. Before I knew it it’s almost two in the morning and we have to work early. We leave the bar, but end up heading down to the beach with the guys instead of to the car.

I run down to the surf to get my feet wet, and gaze up at the stars. I love the stars. He wants one last kiss and I stealthfully plant one on his lips. We didn’t stay at the beach long, we said goodbye and that was that.

You can say what you want about your relationships but there’s something mischievious and fun about my random encounters that I love.

AND today at work this guy comes in to pick up some drawings for one of the projects and he’s rocking one of these awesome new red safety vests that everyone here almost refuse to wear. He’s talking on his cell and he’s kind of hot, I don’t know if it’s the vest he’s sporting or just the whole rugged thing he’s got going on but I was liking him. We chatted about the day, the heat, and then he left. I kind of wish he’d come back.

After being with people all weekend it feels kind of weird to be alone.

Aliza and I went up to Kelowna this weekend to experience the event known as Wakefest. For three days young people take over the city as they crowd to the lake edge half naked and drinking beer to watch wakeboarders compete. And three nights during which they flood the night-clubs and late night eateries of downtown.

It was all really last minute, our planning deciding only a day prior that we were going to go. All the tickets for our day were sold out and we weren’t sure what was going to happen. Luckily Aliza knows everybody and their brother and found us somewhere to stay with a friend of an internet friend whom she’d never actually met and who found us tickets to the event and things took off from there. So we paid 3 times the going rate for tickets but the weekend overall was a blast and I’m really glad we went.

Our original plan was to go up Friday around 8pm and we were going to stay with her friend but later found out this friend got called in to work and wouldn’t be going to Ktown until Saturday. So Aliza found the friend of her internet friend to stay with and we set off Friday at 6:30 scrambling to pack after work.

We flew up to Kelowna in about 3½ hours doing an average of 140km/h topping out around 160 at one point. There was this guy on a motorcycle on the highway who would randomly slow down to practically stopping to chat with other vehicles, this was highly annoying, but we got into Kelowna just after dark and set off to meet her friend Mark.

The boys (Mark and Anthony/Tony) ended up being pretty cool, they were trying a little too hard to impress us at first I thought but we had fun. Our original plan for the first night was to go out clubbing but we were pretty tired so we decided to just rent a movie and have some beers with the guys (both of which they paid for). Sleeping was pretty much free for all in the living room but I managed to score a spot in bed and kept cool with a fan blowing on me all night.

After falling asleep at 5:00 in the morning I was up again at 7:00 to my dismay, I tried to sleep but it just wasn’t happening. So I got up and went outside and hung out on the balcony. The really random thing is there’s a campground right in the middle of the neighbourhood, so I was hanging out reading and checking out the shirtless boys in the campground. That’s the great thing about Kelowna, EVERYONE is shirtless and hot. It was nice. Aliza was up around 8 or 9 and I made coffee, scrounging through all the cupboards, made some toast and we chilled on the balcony some more.

Just before ten we headed out to pick up our overpriced tickets, checked out the mall and chilled at Moxi’s with some lunch and drinks before heading to Wakefest. Now I had a pretty fucking awesome time up in Kelowna but Wakefest the actual event wasn’t that big of a deal, there were just a bunch of stands set up selling food or bracelets, clothing in a line along the shoreline and there was a beach area and a stage where I guess the bands played but I didn’t see them oh and there was a Motocross show which I also didn’t watch and then of course on the lake they did the Wakeboarding.

So we got in wandered around and checked out what was going on, out big thing was the beer garden, except it was everyone else’s big thing and it was an hour wait to get in, so instead of watching the competition or the Motocross or anything we stood in line in the hot sun forever. I was very cranky about waiting, but once we got in it was all good again. Everyone running around drinking, talking, chillin, there were water guns and ice cube mugs and it was a pretty good time.

The second night our plan was to go out clubbing (again) I was pretty wiped but Aliza really wanted to go so after eating with the boys we took to the town. The original plan involved Mark hooking us up in the VIP line but last minute they decided to bail on us so we were stuck trying to get our own way in which at 11:00pm was looking pretty bleak. Everywhere we went lines were huge, we drove around for a while from one place to another but everything was crowded.

The vibe on the street was awesome though, tons of people everyone drunk and super friendly everyone trading stories of the bars where the lines are, people looking for food, hanging out at the hot dog stands or the pita pit, or just being entertaining drunks. It just really awesome. People were just setting up lawn chairs in parking lots, drinking, smoking, half the people we talked to didn’t even have a place to stay or were planning on crashing on the beach or on top of their trucks.

After deciding we weren’t going to get into a bar we just got some water and some hot dogs and sat there taking everything in. This guy mentioned the casion and we thought why not so headed over that way. We pulled up into the parking lot full of people everyone just camping out and having a blast, we meant to go to the casino but just sat there completely burnt out for a while, then this guy comes up to the car and invited us over to drink with them so what the heck we did. Justin his name was, he lives in Kamloops or some weird place starting with an S but he said we should come up some time and he’d teach us to Wakeboard which after this weekend we both decided we’d be into.

Aliza’s ex Derek showed up after a while with some pot which we smoked and after that we were pretty much done and just crashed out in the car. Derek had no place to stay for the night and couldn’t get a hold of his friends so Aliza decided to hang out with him until he found them or a place to stay, I was done and went home. Where the boys had been drinking all night and were getting a little rowdy.

They needed more mixers and were going to the store so I decided to join them despite the fact that all I wanted to do was go to bed. On the way back they decided to go skinny dipping in the lake and walk home with their assess hanging out. Then Mark decided to walk around naked for the rest of the night, it was all too much for me so I went to bed. Apparently earlier in the evening he preformed the ‘Cock in a box’ skit from SNL thankfully I was in the shower at the time, but I saw way more of Mark that night than I wanted to.

We were up and out pretty early the next morning, Aliza came bringing Tim Hortons which was awesome, we sat on the balcony and chatted about the night, the trip, checked out campground boys, then went in and chatted with Anthony a bit before taking off to the mall and the beach. We ran into Derek again who had found his friends, they’d slept on the roof of their car, and they were beer bonging in the parking lot. We took some pictures at the waterfront before hopping in the car and heading home.

I pretty much crashed out and Aliza got a speeding ticket, we were both kind of sad to leave Kelowna and kind of excited about getting home. We made pretty good time again, got back around 6 or 6:30 felt weird being home and alone.

I unpacked and was just going to upload my pictures when I realized I didn’t have my camera or wallet, I went to call Aliza and discovered a text saying she missed Kelowna, we’d only been home for about half an hour but we decided we couldn’t take it anymore and went out to find a beer and some hot boys.

We ended up at Malone’s in Kits where we had beer and nachos and talked about how awesome Ktown was, how everyone is hot there, how much we miss it and need to go back, and how Van sucks. We did run into one cool drunk guy who gave us high fives and then raped our guacamole after we invited him to have some nachos; he’d just gotten back from the Calgary stampede then his girlfriend came and took him away.