Eating it. Face first, safety second.

What, no rebellion? No revolution? I don't blog for weeks and no one gives a fuck? I'll show you fuckless givers. . .

Much has happened since that fateful trip to NY. . .I can't remember any of it.

Well Pieper won the election. HORRAY FOR PIPES! That means another year with this guy. Look at him (yes that's him). Pieper for CSA, that's what I think every time I look at this picture. God it's glorius. We'll get to where this is from in a minute. . .

So I've done a couple of brewery tours since the last time we talked. Sleeman and Wellington. Sleeman was fun. There were a few folks I went to highschool with washed up running the brewery tours there. . .strangely satisfying to see. At the end of that same week was a wellington brewery tour, which was a blast. There was a good crew there, most of which we brought back to our place for a St. Paddy's day bash. That was a hell of a party. . . from what I remember. But that's not even everything! This presentation I keep thinking I have keeps getting moved. Fuckfaces bumped me out because of that snowstorm. If someone gets bumped into your timeslot from a previous week, shouldn't that mean you get bumped into the next one? So far it seems I was deleted, but ask me if I care that I am not doing a presentaion on a topic I won't be reasearching for a program I'm switching out of. Nope!

Today was the last day of seminars in the undergrad class I TA, which is nice. Now it's smooth sailing marking papers until. . . until what? Well I'll get to that.

So the week went by, with some hot weather which I thoroughly enjoyed and then came the day of reckoning. I accompanied D-Rock on an adventure to a hot tub party for the ski team, which I have to say was the wildest time I've had outside of a camp party . . . Part way into the night (after a few rounds of keg beer and the shotski (shot-ski), we realised how drunk we were, so we thought "better get our PFD's on!" Safety first right? Well not exactly. As you can tell from the image above, it was safety second. That became the motto of the evening actually, people are still saying it. I was a little hung over the next day. . .I'm not really sure why. I think it might have been limbo at 3:15 AM. Not sure though. The PFD's were a hit though, so was us blowing our whistles and telling people to quit horsing around. It was touch and go for a minute when Derek did that and then jumped face first into the opponents' hot tub. . . he left his face in there for 10 unconmfortable seconds before Alasdair (lifeguard) pulled him out by the back of his PFD. . . that's why they're load bearing, so you can do that shit to people. Pieper was on fire in case you can't tell. Also you can't beat a party with tiki torches, hot tubs, kegs, stogies, and twister. Yeah that's right, twister in your

bathing suit. Believe that. You know what keeps happening? I keep going out and drinking beer. I think it's the change in weather and the lack of bullshit lab work .. . yeah that's definitely what it is. I think that's also drivng my overuse of the ellipsis.. . . . . . .. . . . . .. . .

Yep for sure.

Two nights ago I was convinced to go out for trivia at the Keg. It's always a good sign when you show up somewhere and you're welcomed with open arms by the students you spend your days marking. PS they're all drunk, PPS they want you to do shots with them because "hey, you're part of the toxicology team." I'd be lying if I said I didn't think that was fun. Also they won $10 cause their trivia team kicked ass, god love the little whipper snappers.

The fun never ends. So my birthday is coming up, as is the birthday of SO many other people I could name. Lots of april babies around these days. . . To commemorate this, and the close of another successful year It's THAT TIME AGAIN! April porchclimber motherfucker. This time my supervisor is NOT invited, although we're great friends now. Last time was a bit of an awkward manoeuvre on my part. Saturday, Apr 14. If you can read this, you are invited. If you did not get a personal invitation, complain and I will send you one. It's going to be a big ass blowout up in this humpty bumpty that day. I cannot wait.

Before I forget I also have to share the crowning achievement of the backstreet boys shirt that Colin stole from me. . .

This is colin (or should I say glamour shots) sporting the shirt in front of the infamous Machu Picchu. He hiked the Inca trail with Sarah, and I like to think he put that shirt on that morning just for this photo op. Modern pop meets ancient high altitude Incan city. Juxtaposition? Point Colin.

Now what is this a segue into? Well the porchclimber is not later, because 2 days later I am flying in the direction of Colin, though not so far south. I was lying in bed one night, rolling over probably around 3 AM, and in a brief moment of serendipitous consciousness it hit me: There is a gap between the end of my responsibilities here as a TA, and the beginning as a student this summer. I researched it, yep: story checked out. The gap was a good 3 weeks or so. So I emailed Yank - yep: story shecked out, he had time to entertain me. Then I booked my flight, and now it's settled. I am going to Costa Rica April 18-May 2 to visit my old pal. It will be my third time in that country, but everything tells me this experience will be like no other I've had there, or anywhere. What exchanges I have had with Rob have given me enough info to get excited:

-He lives in the province of Limon, also known to him as "the place where dreams go go die" I've been to Limon, I hear that. Limon holds the component of Costa Ricans of carribean descent, that is Jamaica, Barbados, etc. They were brought over to build railroads, etc. when the country was expanding. There is a cool creole that is spoken there, and it's found on the atlantic side of the country. Despite all this cool background, it's what I remember to have some of the sketchier situations you might get into. . . after all I think that's where Rob got mugged during Carnival, did I get that right Yank? Let me know if I'm way off base.

-For those of you unfamilliar with the location of Costa Rica, it's a small country on just about the narrowest part of the isthmus that is central america. To the north lies Nicaragua, and to the south Panama, the last country in central america. After that is South America. Interestingly, however, Costa Rica is further south than a portion of South America. . .Case in point: Margarita Island (see February 2006 entries) where I was in Venezuela, was about 11 degrees north of the Equator, and CR is apparently 10. . . it's because central america does that funky little bend north before it connects to the southern continent. That's enough about that. Costa Rica is a spanish speaking country, which is known for it's biodiversity, jungles, coffee, and beautiful scenery. It's also a shining beacon of political stability in the central and south americans, having been war free for some 90 years (or 150, depending who you talk to). They abolished their army after their last civil war, which is pretty kick ass, and it seems to be working for them. Moving on ->

-There's going to be some pimped hiking. . . the highest peak is 12,500 ft high and we plan to make the ascent. . .

-Rob's parents are going to be there for the first part of my visit, which is very exciting, since it's been awhile! I think his dad and I are going fishing with him for some big ass fish. . .seriously, these fuckers are huge, I looked it up, but I won't get anyone's hopes up or spoil too many surprises. That will be saved for the pictures and blog entries upon my return.

-Rob says I'm going to get to meet the Natives he works with in CR. They speak a language only 10,000 people speak, and they're excited for us to come up. We're going to bring them food and they're going to teach us to make masks out of wood. I couldn't think of a better deal really. . . I want to bring some trinket from my corner of the world, any suggestions? Anybody?

So on that note, I'll close it off by saying that tomorrow night I'll be joining Britton at a boxed wine party, because I felt a little tired and run down lately, and I think it's because I haven't been drinking enough alcohol. You have to do your best impression of a Chicken to get in, and the best decorated box wins a prize. I know what you're thinking, "Decorate your box like a BOX!" yeah - that's taken. I have to think of something else.

So to Colin and Sarah I say "Mas Vino por favor!", if I could pull off the upside down exclamation mark at the beginning of that I would.

To you I say Adios!

to Yank I say: How do you say "I like my wine to come from a box." En Espanol?

Pieper for CSA