My birthday managed to fall on the last day of classes for the second year in a row, which is convenient, because this usually means that there’s free beer involved. (Last year it was an open bar luncheon, at which one guy actually got CUT OFF.) This year, because I had to give up student journalism to, uh, finish school, we had the Trin quad party.
Party
Guy: “Are you on the guest list?”
Alex: “There’s a guest list? We were supposed to sign up in advance?”
Guy: “Yeah, it was announced at lunches and dinners.”
Alex: “Uh, I’m non-res. How was I supposed to know?”
Guy gives us the sheet and lets Alex write in my name. Then he checks my ID to make sure it matches the given name and gives us some wristbands. Then, crosses my name off with the same pen, so it was clear that I had arrived.
The Quad party was full of the usual strangeness that engenders the Trin party for me. Nonetheless, the beer was free and there were also lots of small baked goods. (For some reason, aside from the usual assortment of chips and Cheetos, there was also both mini-croissants and mini-bagels. Why, I do not know.)
Afterwards, we headed over to Gabby’s for my official celebrations. It’s such a busy time of year and I didn’t send out invites until earlier in the week, so I was pretty much glad that anyone showed up. I definitely had a good time, which is all that really counts.
I wrote you 365 letters. I wrote you every day for a year.
Yesterday was a day Alex and I had set aside for quality time. Friday was, besides my last day or undergrad classes and my 22nd birthday, also, our anniversary, but that was just too much stuff to celebrate in one day. We didn’t really do anything romantic (unless watching The Notebook counts, but I don’t think it does, because of the egregious badness of the first half hour, the less egregious slowness of the rest of the movie, the way Rachel McAdams would NOT STOP LAUGHING, and the depressingness of the ending), but we did have a really nice, really relaxing day, which we wrapped up with big fun.
Big Fun
Big fun was the Constantines/Weakerthans show, which definitely represented a high fun quotient. We missed the openers, but got there just in time for the Constantines’ sound check.
The first half of the bill really surprised me: I’d listened to the Constantines’ album a couple of times based on their local popularity, but I really never got into it. Their live show is a whole other story. I don’t know if it was just because they’re really fun performers or because they used less distortion, but damn. Also, the lead singer managed to break his mic stand and have his guitar come unstrapped over the course of the first song, which is very rock n’ roll. Also, the part where everyone raised their hands during “Shine a Light” was really special.
The Weakerthans were, unsurprisingly, awesome. I didn’t really start listening to them until first year, but they’ve probably been one my most listened-to bands of university, so it’s sort of fitting that I’d go to see them the day after classes ended. The thing about the Weakerthans is, all their songs are good. Every song they start playing, I find myself saying “Hey, I love this song.”
I probably could have done without the girls behind me who sang along loudly to basically EVERY SONG, including “Left and Leaving,” which is really not a singalong tune. It’s not like “One Great City!” where it’s basically expected that everyone sings along with the “I hate Winnipeg” part. However, on the whole, the fun levels were high. The Weakerthans (and the Constantines, for that matter) obviously really enjoy playing together and the fact that that one superenthusiastic guy in the front row clapped along to EVERY song.
The best part was that, for the encore, the Weakerthans had the Constantines come out for one last song, and then they covered “End of the Line,” by the Travelling Wilburys. Heh.
