Rave

I have realized that I did not post on the very interesting experience I had over the weekend, so I had better say something now.

I was enthusiastic, before and afterwards, about the opportunity to experience something that Matt has held so close to his heart and beliefs. What was it? A gigantic rave, in the middle of a valley in Northern Alberta (1 hour West of Edmonton, to be exact) - basically a huge party.

We arrived relatively late, but managed to find a vacant space on the grass for our small tent, relatively close to the main trance stage and directly opposite "Fort Jagermeister". Matt felt that this would be the redeeming part of the weekend for me, as I am hardly a druggie raver, but definitely a frat boy, and FJ definitely did seem to have some of the frat boy mentality (read: alcohol).

Interestingly, the initially endearing FJ became a incessant source of annoyance for us over the course of the weekend, with an English idiot camping himself atop one of the towers for most of the time screaming "Oi!" and shooting people with water guns. Fine when we were not around; not fine when we were trying to sleep during the only parts of the day when trance music was not pumping through the valley (9am - 2pm).

I had more fun dancing, meeting people, simply witnessing the bizarre microcosmic cultures that permeated the event, and, of course, diminishing entirely the stock of 72 beers that Matt and I had brought for the weekend. We also met some very cool people, with whom I know at least Matt will keep in touch. I was impressed with myself for dancing past dawn on the last night of the party - everyone else was doing it, and I did not want to admit to having less stamina.

But, of course, the ride home was brutal. We packed up at around noon, said goodbye to the people we had met, and then began the long drive back to Calgary. There have not been many times in my life when I have been as tired. After one hour we pulled over on the outskirts of Edmonton and slept in the car, in a parking lot. The we stumbled into Tim Horton's, ate, drank lots of coffee, and kept ourselves awake for the next three hours by conversationally exploring the nature of religion, morality, and sin.

Good times.