Qwe-Beck-Wah

I'm BAAAAAAACK!

What a weekend! Where to start?

How about the beginning? We had an awful time leaving Boston on Friday. We woke up early (6:00 am) with the intention of leaving Boston by 8am. We got to the rental place close to 8:30 only to find out that they wouldn't rent to us because we had CA licenses and no "return trip" itinerary. So we had to shuttle it back to the airport and find another place to rent from. We ended up at Budget but the line was out the door so it took forever! The nice part was that the guy gave us a Ford Escape for the price of an economy car (ya, i know, gas guzzler - not ideal for a 10 hour drive... BUT it was nice inside, comfy - and had a cd player unlike the enterprise car we were planning to rent - assholes. don't rent from enterprise).

Anyway, so we finally hit the road around 11. Mike was landing in Buffalo around noon. Buffalo is a 6-7 hour drive. We managed to get to buffalo around 5:30. Mike had taken a day trip to Niagara while waiting for us so we waited for him to get back and return his rental then we all hopped in the car and headed across the border.

We stopped for food and gas - and went in the wrong direction for awhile - so it was 9:30 by the time we got to our hotel (still light outside! yay!). Andy took the stage just as we were walking to our room - needless to say I was quite bummed about that. We all changed and started boozing before heading downstairs. In the elevator we bumped into the "philly boys" (the guys I met/partied with while I was in DC) and an old friend from HS. It was so random to bump into them in the elevator. Especially someone from GHS! So we made a detour to their room then back down to Andy... just in time to catch his last song (he did a duo with Armenchik). So, Levon now owes me an Andy concert.... (haha, he is dreading that one for sure). Armenchik was great. We danced... danced.... kept dancing. Let me tell you - jumping around in that heat can be exhausting. I was drenched. And hot. But thats just the price you pay at an Armo fest. Def. worth it.

Saturday we slept in then headed to downtown Toronto for lunch. After lunch we took a little trip to the lake where the boys spent half the afternoon skipping stones and killing ladybugs. I mean, the didn't intentionally kill them but I blame them for the ladybugs' suicide flight into the water....

Next we headed to the CN Tower - had more lunch (okay - maybe early dinner?) and dessert. After a nice meal we went to the glass floor level where i had a hell of a time convincing Mike and Levon to stand on the glass floor and look down. Mike had finally managed to step onto the glass when someone started jumpnig up and down right next to him. Mike's reaction was truly priceless (I'll post a picture - promise)... Levon had to be coaxed and coerced onto the glass... and thanks to Mike, we have it all on video... muahahahaha!

Anyway, that was great fun. Afterwards we headed back to the room to get ready for Armenchik and Paul. (We had a drink for the ladybug that lost his/her life in the lake). Saturday night we were a little more determined to drink and put quite a dent in the alcohol... and we all know what that means - Drunk Alina! Yay. I don't remember much - except that I kept having to run upstairs to pee. Shortly after Paul came on, I headed upstairs (again) and apparently this time I passed out. So sad. Its okay though - I'm not the hugest Paul fan.

Sunday - I was hungover all day so I went to eat with the boys then went back to the room to "nap" while they went to the Hockey hall of fame. Um... I didn't quite get to nap because I felt like my heart was going to stop. We later took a trip to the icky indoor pool and then came upstairs and relaxed in the room for a while. After getting ready we listened out the window and figured Tata wasn't on yet so we lagged it some more and had some more drinks... of course, Tata WAS on so we were about an hour late to see him. (Tear).

Tata was... GREAT. First off, it had rained that day so the ground was wet and the air was humid. I don't mean humid like "sticky" humid. It was sticky - but it was also just WET. It was like being in a damn sauna. The tent didn't help. Neither did the several hundred people dancing. Being the groupie wannabes that we are - we squeezed towards the front so we could scream and shout and sing along. Tata was great - and the crowd loved him - as Mike said, "Tata was a rockstar, he could have peed on the audience and they would have gone crazy" - okay, so maybe not pee - but he was squirting water at the crowd and giving out waterbottles and people were just going crazy. He sang all the best songs. (Does Tata have un-great songs?) We went upstairs for intermission and ended up in the elevator with Tata and his bandmates. I had left my camera with Mike so I looked at Lev and said something along the lines of "gr, my camera" and lev said to tata, "she wanted to take a picture with you" and he said something like, "haskatsa" (I understood) which seemed very RUDE to me. It broke my heart. This guy is supposed to be my wedding singer. He can't be rude. And he's so fun on stage. I really was bummed. Anyway, we found out that part of his band was in the room next to us and the rest of them were mostly somewhere in our hall. We were going to try to hunt them down but by the time the concert was over I was so tired (and my poor feet were hating me) so we sorta gave up. (Actually, thats a lie - I did sit in the hallway by the elevator for awhile but I only saw the band go up - Tata either took a back door and went up before/after the band did and I didn't catch him. damn!) YES! I am a loser. But its Tata. Dude. Shabadabadashdash. Must I say anymore?

On the way back down we bumped into a Tufenkjian from SD who became best buds with Mike (Tufenkjians are famous for those who don't know). She told us all about her wealth. I did not really want to hear about her homes in the bahamas. After a while, we went back to our spot near the stage but about 30 min later we gave up and started dancing on the sides... towards the end we just started dancing by the bar. Sunday ended around 1 (the other two nights ended around 2/2:30). But I was tired so ya, that was the end of the night for us.

On the way back, I drove for a bit. I got to drive in Boston for the first time. It was as bad as I thought. But I was happy to finally find my way around... it was nice to figure out where things are in relation to each other (its difficult when you're always on the T). The strangest thing about this state though is those damn "Lane Shifts" - for a few hundred feet they post these bright orange signs that say "Lane Shift" "Stay in Lane" - then suddenly the white dotted lines become solid (for some odd reason, theyre worried that you won't be able to change your lane during a lane shift) and then the road sorta curves... very softly... like honestly just a few degrees. Nothing that you'd even slow down for. (Seriously, its like a 5 degree shift!) Yet for some reason, the speed limit is 45 in these zones. I just don't get it.

As for Qwe-beck-wah. Well, we were trying to figure out what the Q.E.W. highway in Toronto stands for. Mike called it the Qwe-Beck-Wah and it just stuck.... At one point we asked a police officer for directions and when he told us to get back on the QEW I was momentarily confused and almost asked, "Do you mean the Qwe-Beck-Wah" - thank god I controlled that blond moment.

Thats it for my loooong post. Cheers.