Wanna Duck?

Ah, the perfect Friday night at home. Books and beer. What could possibly make this better?


Wait, this could!

After a couple of drinks at Sarah and Sonja's place, we headed to Ram in the Rye for an industrial engineering cowboy-themed fundraiser. (Yeehaw! The Albertan in me came out to play, and Sonja and I started the celebration early by singing along to some classic Nitty Gritty Dirt Band).


To my delight, it turned out Chris was the organizer of the event, complete with the largest belt buckle he could possible find.


Chris lasooing Katie in.


Beer, ah, my dear friend. I've been neglecting you so long in favour of my new acquaintance, wine. I'm really sorry about that. I'll never betray you again. (At least, not until you leave me laying in bed alone again, with a tummyache and morning-after sorrows.)


Sarah's boyfriend, Darren, was visiting from out of town.


Sonja's assymetrical haircut though, is here to stay.


This is hands-down my favourite picture of the night.


Josh is a fellow Albertan (he's from Calgary) but missed the memo that it was a cowboy-themed night. He left his spurs and his pride at home.


I somehow managed to provoke a series of arm-wrestling fights. Sarah kicked Sonja's ass. Sonja kicked my ass. By association, this means that I am never going to mess with Sarah.


Since the cowboy themed night wasn't very busy, we headed uptown (Does Toronto even have an uptown? Or is that phraseology relegated to New York? The streets do slope upwards from the lake, which indicates to me that the U of T campus is uptown. There, that's settled then.) to. . .you guessed it, Dance Cave. It was frigid out, and even the power of Sonja and Charles' matching jackets couldn't keep them warm.

At Dance Cave, we danced. Only one person was apt enough to realize that we were all wearing cowboy shirts. Maybe Sonja's assymetrical haircut managed to confuse all the hipsters into thinking we were being ironic.


Either way, Sonja and I ended up trekking all way back downtown to our respective neighbourhoods. I was in the middle of a rant, when Sonja stopped in the middle of the sidewalk on Church Street, and pointed out this sign to me.

"Wanna Duck?" Uh. . .how is this sexual? Can someone please explain this to us?*

After sleeping in all day, I once again attempted to conquer my final dreaded term paper for psychology class. I was in my pajamas, all tuckered out from the previous evening, when Mat convinced me to come out with him and Court.

(And when I say "convinced me" here is the dialogue of the conversation:

"Jess, why aren't you comign out? C'mon!"

"Well, I dunno. . ."

"Oh, c'mon!"

"I can be ready in 2 and a half minutes."

It took a lot of tricky maneuvring, but Mat certainly conned me into coming out. I didn't even see it coming.)


What weekend isn't complete without the cab shot? However, it must be noted that for once I'm the most sober person in the cab.


Especially when compared to Kevin, who kept beating me at "rock paper scissors" despite his intoxication.


Courtney and Mat tried out their Sears Model poses in front of the wall.


Wait a second. The wall? Again? I live in a massive city. How is it that I ended up here, again? Only this time, I was with Court, who has never been to Dance Cave.

However, last night didn't change that, because by 1 a.m., they were at capacity, so we didn't get in.


Instead, we headed a block away to Pauper's Pub, where Court promptly proceeded to drop her entire purse in the toliet. I pointed and laughed, while some girl in the washroom handed Courtney paper towel and assured her it was okay (as a responsible friend would do).

I continued to point and laugh.

I was, however, nice enough to tell Court she also had toliet paper stuck to her shoe when we left the bathroom. (She's a classy lady.)


Oh, beer. I love you. You never let me down.


Court feels the same affinity for beer that I do, but she'll never love it like I do.


Best picture of the night.


I knew the night was wearing on when Kevin and Court started discussing the grain of the wood.


As much as I love ridiculous conversations, the wood conversation really wasn't doing it for me. Besides, it was taking away from my quality time thumb-wrestling Court.


Kevin's facial expressions run definite competition with mine. Shortly after this photo was taken, Court interrupted the waiter asking for my phone number to announce that it was time to leave. After examining the photographic evidence, it's obvious that that point in the night had truly come.

This morning, I somehow hauled my ass out of bed to join Sarah, Sonja and Darren at the Santa Claus Parade.


Despite my earlier assertations (circa Sylvan Lake this past June) that parades aren't hangover conducive, I knew I couldn't pass up seeing Santa Claus.


Darren and Sarah.


There were balloons everywhere!


I really wanted one, until Sarah thought it would be funny to start rubbing my hair with the balloons. I debated stopping her, but then I remembered the outcome of our arm-wrestling competition on Friday, and decided it was in my best interests to not challenge her superiority.


Next, she attacked Sonja.


Barbie!

"Wouldn't it be awesome to be in fourth grade and go to school on Monday and be like, 'I was on the Barbie float' to all your friends?"


Sarah is the only person I've ever known who waves back at people in the parade. Now, keep in mind that this parade was a good 45 minutes long. And Sarah waved back at each and every person in the parade. I'm not going to lie- this made the layer of ice around my heart thaw, just a little. Thanks, Sarah.


The big man himself!

*Wait, wait, wait! I was just typing the title for this post, "Wanna Duck?" and I got it! Hahaha! It's a good thing I didn't make the title of this post "Wanna Duck, Santa?" which is what I was originally going to put.

Oi. I'm a clever girl.