I know I already wrote about bananas today but...

...I just found the game 'bananagrams' underneath a pile of laundry I was meaning to wash for some time.It's a sign. Bananas...bananagrams...I need to play bananagrams!

 image via...

It's a word game...sort of Scrabble-esque in nature. Why haven't I played it yet? WHY? Ryan and I have the day off together tomorrow. It's like the first time in a hundred years where he doesn't work tonight, tomorrow night, or have to go pick up his kids across the island half-way through the day. I'm going to maybe put in a request to play this game with him tomorrow. We'll see...there's quite a lot of rum and diet cola* going around this evening...maybe my brain not work so good tomorrow.

*Coke or Pepsi, I'll never tell! 

Image via...

We went out on Saturday. The end of the night got kinda weird.

Ryan and I went to a dubstep show on Saturday. Yeah, you heard right. At least I think it was dubstep. I get totally lost every time someone starts talking musical subgenres. And I'll be honest, I went into the show with a super negative attitude; if there's not guitars, punching and yelling I'm usually not anywhere near live music. But Ryan really likes these guys, and he promised to buy me drinks so we went together.

I was pleasantly surprised. It's still not really my cup'o'tea but it wasn't terrible, and there were way less hippies than I was expecting. Here's some examples of the music...PK Sound did the sound, and if you don't know who they are then never mind, but they're like, the best sound guys in Canada. So imagine this music louder than any music you've ever heard live. It's kind of heavy and evil sounding.

This is Mark Instinct (who I actually thought was kind of cool):

 

This is Subvert (who I didn't care for, we left halfway through his set...just too dance-music-y):

Here's a picture of us watching Mark Instinct. We're way up on the balcony. There's a bar up there and a phenomenal view. But uh, it looks like I was more interested in talking to Ryan, haha. We stayed up there most of the night because everywhere else was completely packed with people dancing way too hard and/or slutty. I was scared. :)

We were offered MDMA like a thousand times at that show. I guess that's the cool thing to do these days? And I was all like "Hugs, not drugs." A local graffiti guy, PESTO, designed the stage, it's hard to tell from this photo but it's built out of a bunch of tree branches and in the back there were dancers?

Photo stolen from Charlotte Dobre's facebook pics. 

She is a fantastic photographer by the way! Check out her website HERE. 

She has the best job. Ever.

 

Here are some random conversations I overheard/was part of that night:

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(Standing in line to go into the show, there were 20 year old boys behind us who kept somehow butting in front of us, one by one, and were talking over our heads.)

Boy 1: Remember that party at Jeff's house? And you had that Garbage Pail Kids jacket on? That was hilarious.

Boy 2: Garbage Pa...no, that wasn't me.

Boy 1: No, yeah. I'm pretty sure it was.

Boy 2: Listen, I'm pretty sure I'd remember having a Garbage Pail kids jacket.

Boy 1: Oh wait, no, it wasn't you. That was Ian (insert last name of guy I know here)

Me: LOL (Because of course he has a Garbage Pail Kids jacket, why wouldn't he?)

Boy 1: (To Ryan and I) Hey do you girls have a pen in your purse?

Me: (Glaring at him, because um, Ryan's a man and I didn't even have a damn purse.)

Ryan: Oh yeah, I think I saw one at the back of the line!

Boy 1: (Oblivious) Huh. Well thanks anyway.

---

(Outside, 2AM-ish, Ryan and I were just about to leave when we ran into our hilarious friend who was just on his way back in to find somebody. He wants to smoke a cigarette and we decide to stand with him and wait for a taxi to drive by. A kid in a t-shirt walks up to us.)

Kid: Why are you outside? Don't you like the music?

Ryan: Yeah man, but I don't like the direction Subvert is taking the music (technical words I don't understand).

Me: Not really.(I'm tired and kind of grouchy because 50 taxis are pulling up, looking at us and leaving.)

Kid: (Turns to me.) WHAT? YOU DON'T LIKE DUBSTEP? What do you like? Hakuna Matata?

Me: Hahaha. Yep. That's what I like. 

Kid: You guys have a light? 

Me: (Picking up a matchbook off the sidewalk with one match left in it.) Here ya go.

Kid: Thanks. 

Ryan: You only have ONE CHANCE!

Friend of ours: Yeah! Light it or you have to suck our dicks.

Me: (WTF look on my face)

Ryan: (Laughing) (He had a lot more to drink than I did)

Kid: Well....how about just his? (Gestures to Ryan.)

Me: You're considering it?

Kid: My girlfriend just had an abortion and we broke up.

Us all: (Tugging on our collars, Simpsons style, because suddenly he's not so funny.)

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(In the taxi home)

Taxi driver: I'm just glad you guys are like, normal people for once.

Ryan: Yeah I bet you get drunk assholes all the time.

Taxi driver: Don't even get me started.

(We sit in silence for a minute.)

Taxi Driver: You wouldn't believe the week I've had.

Me: Oh, really?

Taxi driver: Yeah. Fucking crazy.

Me: Mmhm?

Taxi driver: Like, the worst week of my life.

Ryan: What happened?

Taxi driver: You don't even want to know.

(We sit in silence for a minute.)

Taxi driver: I really need to get this off my chest. Can I tell you guys something?

Ryan: Sure, man.

Me: Yeah, totally. What's up?

Taxi driver: My friend, well no, not my friend. This guy I know from a long time back...you know when it was snowing a few weeks ago? 

Me: Yeah.

Taxi driver: Well I found out he had nowhere to stay, he was on the streets, so I told him he could come stay with me. You know, do something nice for the guy.

Ryan: Mhm.

Taxi driver: So anyway he was just like, staying on my couch and then one day he was gone and the cops come to my door at like eight in the morning and it turns out he fucking murdered somebody and they had him in custody and they want me to come in for questioning. 

Me: Wait, what?

Taxi driver: And I mean, like he woke up one morning in my house, went out, fucking murdered somebody, came back and then I took him shopping at Walmart.

Ryan: Uh...

Taxi driver: It was like, he walked in just as I was leaving and I said "Hey I'm going to the store" and he was like "Can I come with you? I need to pick up a few things." And then we went shopping together just like everything was normal. How can I ever trust anybody ever again?

Me: Uh...holy shit.

Taxi driver: And now they want me to go to court at eight in the morning as like, a witness. I never get out of bed until like two in the afternoon, I'm gonna be all tired in court. Well, here we are, you guys have a good night. 

Me: Yeah. Good luck with that...murder...investigation...

---

Also? That murder happened in my neighborhood. Sweet.

Cuba Chronicles #2 - Snorkeling

(unless otherwise credited, all photos were stolen from my sister, dad and step-mom)

One day in Cuba, we met a man on the beach who we paid to take us away from the resort.

The weather was supposed to be kind of chilly-ish and this guy told us he knew somewhere nicer he could take us where we could go snorkeling. We agreed to meet him on a street corner the next morning and go across the island.

The next day him and his son showed up at our meeting place at the agreed upon time in two rental cars, we got in, and went to Cardenas, their home town.

We were there to pick up snorkel gear from their house...and then they started making phone calls and doing something under the hood of one of the cars, and then both of them got underneath the jeep we were riding in.

Were we having car trouble? Getting set up for something? No. They were disconnecting the odometers so the rental place wouldn't charge them 35 cents per kilometer to drive us around. Smart/illegal!

We drove for around an hour and a half across the island, stopping midway for a beer and pee break.

Then we were at the Bay of Pigs. And we swam there.The son came in the water with us, and the dad stayed behind and watched our stuff, because there was another group of scuba divers nearby.


Beautiful, right?

I have to tell you guys, I am terrified of swimming in the ocean, especially deep water. You just don't know what's around you, and there's just too much space. I don't know...anyway I was kind of nervous. Even with these really super cool life jackets and everything.

We started swimming around and just as I was calming down, what did I practically run face first into? An entire cloud of jelly fish! NOOOO.

Image from here.

They were little white ones like this, maybe palm-sized or a bit larger, and there were a lot of them. I put my head out of the water, my step mom was nearby and this was our exact conversation:

"I think I see jellyfish"
"Me too!"
"Let's get outta here!"

We swam hard and fast until we couldn't see them anymore. Once in a while one would suddenly appear in front of me and I'd just yell into my snorkel tube and flail around until I got away from it, but they were few and far between after the initial cloud. Later we found out they were harmless; it's only the ones with the hangy tentacle things that can sting you, but we didn't know!

My sister brought an underwater camera...best thing ever. We swam around and saw pretty much any type of coral we had ever heard of, and beautiful fish, and clear clear water everywhere. Oh, and a sunken ship.  Serious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After like half an hour or forty five minutes everybody started running into too many jellyfish and panicking, so one by one we got out of the water. The guides packed us all up into the cars and we drove around ten minutes to our next destination. A cenote at Playa Giron, I think.

A cenote is an underwater cave. From above, it looks like a tiny little pond with some little fishies in it.

But get this: it's 80 fucking meters deep. Okay now swim in it about a black hole full of who knows what because it connects to the ocean somewhere down there. TERRIFYING. I was so scared that my teeth were chattering, but I played it as cool as I could and just swam around looking at the dark murky depths through my mask and sticking close to the edges where I could see some stuff, and thinking of the tv show Surface and trying not to totally panic. Here are a few photos taken in and around the cenote.

After the cenote we went back into the ocean and looked at more pretty coral and were surrounded by a school of really pretty striped fish in water barely deeper than our waists.

 

 

 

Then, our lovely guides drove us to their friend's house. She cooked us a crazy delicious dinner. She made lobster and ceviche for the meat eaters and I had all kinds of rice, salad and plantains. It was so good! There was even fresh-squeezed pineapple juice. 

 

Here's their Christmas tree!

And the scenery around their house.

It was an amazing day. By the time our guides got us back to the hotel it was night time. We paid them for our day and made plans for them to pick us up the next morning at the same spot, so they could take us to Havana! More on that later.

For now, here's a picture of me rocking out underwater. WOO!

TODAY is the day.

Okay I was wrong...I'm on Tattoo Tuesday today, not last week. Woops!! Thanks again Danielle!

If you've never seen her blog before, go check it out. It's one of the few I can't wait to read every day...it leaves you with a happy feeling in your guts. :)

I'm getting drunk on rum from a black market deal in Cuba gone very right. Gosh I have a lot of stories to share. Here's a couple more photos for now.

P.S. I used a film camera so all of these were stolen from my sister, dad and step-mom, so as much as I'd like to take credit I can not. Mine will be ready in like...three days.

BEERFEST

Wow. Who knew coconut beer would be so delicious? And jalapeno beer would ... be spicy? And they would set up what became known as a 'cocktagon'; a semi-octagon trough for all the men to pee in? And you can pay beavers to play the bagpipes for you? What a great corporate retreat for the tattoo gang. Here's (some of) our crew. Photo by Sarah.


My favorite beers of the day were:

-Pepper Lime Lager by Dead Frog Brewery from Aldergrove, B.C. -I recall somebody saying it reminded them of 'those Doritos' which was a good thing. Anyway I loved it.

-Pumpkin Ale by Granville Island Brewing, Vancouver B.C. - reminded me of pumpkin pie

-Pumpkineater Ale by Howe Sound Brewing, Squamish, B.C. -even better than the Granville island one in my opinion.

-Tangerine Wheat Ale by Lost Coast Brewery from Eureka California -wow, it was like juice. Beer juice. But in a refreshingly good way.

-McHugh's Oatmeal Stout by Plan B Brewing in Smithers, B.C. I was actually quite pleasantly surprised by this one. Very nice!

-Pretty much everything from Rogue Brewery was good.

-Coconut Porter by Swans Buckerfield's Brewery in Victoria B.C.

I wouldn't recommend these to my worst enemy unless maybe they were cooking with it:

-Vaporizer by Double Mountain Brewery out of Hood River, Oregon. I don't know what I expected with a name like that.

-Trainwrecked IPA by Peaks Brew Pub in Port Angeles, Washington. Again...what was I thinking?

-Swan's Brewcifer IPA from Swans Buckerfield's Brewery in Victoria B.C. Okay I knew I was taking a risk with a beer described as "Intensely Piquant Ale brewed with jalapeno, black pepper and lime. Intensely hopped IPA, cask conditioned with some serious heat." but... ew. Really really bad.

Unfortunately, three of the beers we really wanted to try (and heard were delicious) were already sold out by the time we worked our way down the line-ups:

-Lindeman's Frambroise by Beverage Concepts from Burnaby BC

-Espresso Vodka Infused Imperial Stout by Lighthouse Brewing in Victoria B.C.

-Lemon Ale from Russel Brewing in Surrey, B.C.

All in all it was a really fun day, the weather held out for us and we all got a little drunk-ish. Win/win/win in my opinion.

the last day of the german, plus some whining!

One of the worst things I've found about getting tattooed on the back of your thigh is that for, oh, three days now, sitting down is a pain in the (almost) ass. Walking too. And don't even get me started on using the bathroom. (Hint: it's a real balancing act up in there lately.)

And the clothing sticking was out of control for a while too. If you've ever gotten a fair-sized tattoo, I'd say anything with solid coloring that's palm-sized or larger, you'll be able to relate. For those who haven't, I'll explain.
As your body heals, your giant fresh wound secretes a bunch of plasma (white blood cells). And it's all ... moist ... for a day or two. Also? It's healing and trying to form scabs and new skin. And during this phase, if you, say, wear pants...they'll kind of partially heal into your body.

Okay, not really. I'm being overly dramatic, but they stick to the drying plasma.

And then you have to peel your clothing off of your very sore new tattoo.

Thursday, the day after I was tattooed with something fairly large, I wore a nice breezy skirt for maximum airflow and the minimal touching of my leg that it does. It was awesome until I sat down on the bus. I tried to casually skooch my butt forward on the seat so none of my thigh touched...anything, but being that I have such short legs, it kind of left me so hunkered down in my seat that my neck was bent at a right angle and my back curved in a big C.

So I thought "Hey, just sit kind of normally, and cross the sore leg over the other leg. It's cool."

Yeah, all good until my stop came up half an hour later and I stood up and my skirt was fused into my leg.

Every time something like that happens I panic for a moment. What if my skirt is stuck there forever? What if I pull it off and my tattoo comes off with it? I hope nobody can tell what's going on here, because it's really gross.

I peeled it off (painfully) and limped my way off the bus and to work.

Multiple stick and peels later, I noticed my skirt was feeling kind of stiff.

I'll let that sink in for a moment.


...


My skirt was feeling stiff. From my leg goo getting on it and drying.

I felt like slimer from the Ghostbusters.

Anyway, I actually started writing this post to complain about something completely different, something about going to The Reef for dinner with all the tat bros and our friend Becca finding a mothereffing BOLT in her salad*, but then I sat down and my stupid leg hurt a bunch. So this is what you got instead.


*Yeah, a gigantic olde tyme bolt that looked like it was from the industrial revolution era. Check it out. Later, the chef came by and Cody jokingly told him there was a reciprocating saw in his hot sauce. I laughed for hours. Still laughing in fact.

Needless to say, after the terrible service we got, all the attitude I got in booking the reservation for twelve people, all the attitude when we arrived (because we were fifteen minutes early?), the super slow service, the gross drinks, the flat beer, the 'free shooters' we got after the bolt incident that were really just juice I swear, the lack of apology from anyone except our really nice poor server, and the gratuity still included in the bill and all of us still paying full price, none of us are ever going back there.

That's The Reef, a Jamaican restaurant on Yates street, Victoria B.C.

Other than that though, we had a really interesting day yesterday.

First Roberto was tattooed by Gerry.
Then Gerry was tattooed by Roberto.
Then Sarah was tattooed by Roberto.
Then Becca was tattooed by Roberto.
Then Savannah was tattooed by Cody.
Then Colin was tattooed by Gerry.

Then we went for food and got 'screwed'. Get it?


Then...get this...karaoke.

In the weirdest place ever. Pics to come. I did not sing. Here's a few I stole from Sarah for now. Also, the photo above is stolen from her.


p.s. you don't see those alcohol containers. There's NO BOOZE allowed in there. The sign on the door said no, but the way they gave us a locking room for an hour in the back with no supervision on a Saturday night said yes.

two weeks in photos