Of getting older (pt. 28)

Birthday pub crawl on Friday was an overwhelming success! Thanks to all who participated. It was meant to be a dive crawl, but only one place truly fit the bill. I'll give my impressions of the destinations:

1. Turner's Tavern -- seemed a little hipper than I anticipated. Some accounts said that it smelled terrible, so I'll give it a dive rating of 3/5. 1 drink had.
2. Windsock -- Went in, no music on, and a bunch of hens seemingly having a potluck. Seems like we caught them off guard. Drinks were affordable. But no place with a grand piano and a cleverly executed airplane theme can be a dive. 1/5. 2 drinks.
3. Rose and Thistle -- The Rose is the Rose. I had no pretentions of it being a dive, but it was along the way. N/A. 2 drinks, including God-awful Jagrmeister
4. Nautical Nellies -- As above, but I've never been there in a truly pub capacity. Received a mysterious free drink - I suspect J&L. N/A 2 drinks had.
5. Stetson -- $4 cover. Fuck that. But I'll judge it to be 4/5 on the dive scale anyways, just because I'm petty.
6. Fiddlers -- Oh man. Within one minute of being there, I was labelled a hippy and told to get a job by some drunk, waste-o'-space denizen. Many of our numbers went to Mustang's during this time, but the rest of us had a grand ol' chat, and surprisingly intelligent at this point of the evening. Later got asked to dance by said denizen. Thankfully Lynette fell on that grenade for me. 3 drinks had ($2.75 each, can't lose!) 7/5 dive rating!
7. Sports Bar -- Alas, closed when we got there. But the broken toilet outside, and pretty well everything else about it spelled dive. N/A.
8. Peter Easton -- This was a fucking blast. Looks like a real shithole on the outside, but opening the door reveals a bar that is improbably massive on the inside. Best part: karaoke! I was told I should be on Canadian Idol, which I took with a grain shaker of salt. I was loving singing Free Bird. And lots of dancing flailing to be had. Can't remember how many drinks were had. I suspect 2. 3/5 dive rating.

There we have it. My actual birthday was on the 7th, and not nearly as rosy. Mudder hurt herself, so I was late for J&J's shindig. I was also forced to drive (i.e., not drink). They totally surprised me with a kick-ass cheesecake, so that was awesome. But then my team got knocked out of the playoffs after blowing a 2 goal lead (thankfully the aggressors later got what was coming to them). Thus drained, and not wanting to afflict people with my mopish mood, I called it an early night.

Oh, and long weekends are a good thing. Especially good after a vast, depressing expanse of the year that does not have them. Looking forward to May 2-4 now. Actually, the last week of April will be write-off as it includes a two-day first-aid course and two days of going to Stephenville for Paul's wedding. It'll be like a micro-vacation.

Right, work...