Kings: One Night Only

John William Blakeley and Jess LaBerge — whose last name I do indeed know how to spell — are two lovely Maritimers who moved to Toronto to attend York University. It’s easy to understand why, as Toronto is a vibrant metropolis full of smog and girls wearing fuzzy boots and York is known worldwide for its mid-level academics and bizarre geographic placement. I used to resent Jess a lot for stealing John William, my first-year roommate, but now I only resent her a little, mostly because she won me over as being perhaps the first person I’ve ever known to use the internet-phrase ‘w00t’ in audible conversation. Also she played Mario Kart with me and that’s always so endearing.

Anyway, JW and Jess visited Halifax the week before we left for Cuba. It was a week filled with about seventy mid-terms and nine hundred due assignments, so we were not able to spend as much time with the two of them as we would have liked. But the time we DID spend with them involved a lot of videogames and South Park reruns, so it was like reliving first year. Which was awesome.

We did, of course, go outside occasionally. The following pictures depict my favourite night of that week, wherein — having finished most mid-terms and assignments — everyone set out to Halifax’s Old Triangle which is a bar/restaurant renowned for its middle-aged people who sing and play instruments in a fine Irish style. We were joined by Ari Najarian who is now in the army for some reason.

• Okay, there are 44 pictures in this set, and I swear at least 40 of them are nothing more than us sitting around a table. It’s like the opening credits to Roseanne except we’re not playing Poker and then laughing maniacally. Instead we’re… doing this?. I don’t know what kind of face that is.
• Here are JW and Jess. Her eyes are not naturally red, though I think JW might enjoy it if they were. He’s got some weird kinks.
• Oh, there’s the maniacal laughter.
• I’m starting to think my hair looks better when it’s poofy
• Here is Danielle continuing the red-eye trend that seems to dominate these pictures. Is it my crappy camera? Or is it that we were drinking atop an ancient Indian burial ground? I’ll let you, the viewer, decide.
• Bryan hates fun!
• Mike loves fun!
• John William loves… gesturing wildly?
• I seriously do not know how to caption most of these. It’s the same nine people sitting around a table again and again and again!/li>
• I sort of like this one. For a couple of reasons: 1) You can totally tell that Roger does not find whatever Ari is laughing at funny, and 2) The perspective makes that pitcher of beer look like it’s the size of my torso. That’s HUGE.
• Okay, Bryan really does love fun.False alarm.
• And now it is like he is pretending to be one of those actors in a 3D Film. It’s like he’s coming out of my monitor!
• I don’t know what it is, but I always end up with pictures of Kristine that make her look way drunker than she was. That’s unfortunate. I’m glad that doesn’t happen to me!
• Okay, this one is good too. I love pictures that tell stories! In this picture-story, Kristine has just given Mike and I a brain teaser and we are working it out together! You can FEEL the thinking!
• Mike loves pretending to be a magician!
• Okay, so maybe we did get a little drunk. After we left, Kristine and I ran — and this is how I know I was drunk, because I would never run anywhere while sober — down to the harbour. There, she posed in front of a boat. I like how she is pointing at her hip, as if to say “Hey, check out my hip!” Shortly after this picture was taken, we saw a man walking across a parking lot. We decided he was scary and ran back to the group.
• We then returned home, where JW continued making odd gestures. The night was capped off with us sitting on the kitchen floor, drinking iced tea. We discussed our innermost hopes and fears well into the night.
• And finally, a picture that would be great if it wasn’t blurry and off-centre. It reminds me of my life in a lot of ways

Full gallery of pictures can be browsed by clicking here. I am now officially out of old pictures so I’ll probably have to go out and socialize again. That’s disappointing. I really like being anti-social.

Crazy hand gestures,
Matt