So let's see what I can remember from Montreal.
Skippy came over Thursday night and slept over so that we could get a real early start Friday morning. I am sure we hacked and did stuff like that.
We were a liiiiittle slow getting out the door but we had picked up Jorden at the train station by 7 AM ish and off we went to Markham to get Pengpeng.
We loaded her up and hit the highway 401 due East to Montreal. Whee!
The drive was smooth and fast, I averaged just shy of 140 KPH the whole way.
We got lucky when Pengpeng stumbled across some David Cross standup routines on some scratched CD's in the car door. Those wound up being fucking retardedly funny and the main source of entertainment on the ride both ways. I think that my insults were a little more on point this weekend because of listening to them!
At first I didn't know why Jorden kept saying that he required that we get there super early then I found out it's because the montrealers paid his way to the event and so they deserved to get him earlier. oooh..
I'm sure glad I woke up at 5:45 AM and stressed out.
Anyways, we got to montreal in great time at like 1:30 ish and we were totally the first ones there. We went to James McCollough's house, where Peng and I would stay for the weekend, and got set for the evening of shred/fun.
We made out way by metro to the Place Des Arts, the first person to greet us upon arrival was Mats Soucy (Mats121) who was very nice and so we started hacking and warming up and stuff.
People trickled in all afternoon/evening, it's always fun as footbag events build up as more people show up and things get more and more alive. I am adicted to the energy of footbag events and the people that come to them!
Pengpeng and I brought 14 32's to sell and only sold 5! As if! I think that was one of the first times we havn't sold nearly all the stuff we brought. For most people it was an issue of wanting some but just not having spare funds. The people that did buy bags seemed really stoked and I am sure they will love their bags. On that note, Drew Martin had alot (ALOT) of trouble picking which bag he wanted to buy. I eventually told him that I could guarantee that every bag would be choice. To further seal the guarantee I wrote him a note that read "This footbag will be choice." and I signed it. He wound up picking the loosest stitched bag, a red hex green pent amaretta bag. I think it will be really nice for him. He actually competed with it that same day!
The first night we wound up chilling in matt cross/FAT's room in the UQAM, they had a pimp multi place with two floors and tons of space. It was a real nice hangout spot for us both nights actually.
Lots of fun and joking went on, you know, usual stuff. We took some pictures too, so there should be lots to share.
I was so happy that so many people came! It was a real nice variety of people, it really reminded me how awesome this area scene is! All the events wing up being so fun!
The competitions on Saturday went well. I was asked to do the MC-ing because I have experience and I can speak english. I think I did an Okay job of it, I always feel sorta wierd in that position but I know that Ianek really really really appreciates it so I like to help him out. I was glad to do it for him at world's and so I was glad to help out again here.
Oh man, super embarassing, so a few changes to the rules of circle comp were tried out. One of them is that instead of it being timed it was number of turns. I was, as the referee, supposed to be on top of counting how many times the bag went around and to let the players know when their last turn would be. I kept fucking it up!!! I know it sounds like.. impossible, but I seriously messed it up like.. four times and I think people were getting really annoyed. But I am cute so I can get away with it.
Most of the mistakes were because i had to be running around doing a million things and I would just lose track. Hey, it was a volunteer job and you get what you pay for.
I think I did pretty good in competition. I tend to be able to perform under pressure, at least in circle. In the middle round of circle, the big tricks/links round, I hit blurry whirl>blurry whirl>blurriest>string>osis>spinning whirl>hand.
Other than that I think I just did pretty nice strings, but def. not enough to place first in my heat.
The best tricks/links competition was strange and certainly unlike any other event we've tried! It was like aerial ski jumping where you submit your tricks ahead of time and they get a point value or ranking or whatever.
It was hard being put on the spot having to list 3 hard tricks and 3 hard links that you were going to try. And you get to try each thing 3 times, meaning a possible 18 attempts on stage. I believe I hit like.. one thing. Paradon Gyro Toe.
I think the things I picked were waaay too hard (paradon gyro toe, cripwalk, whirling inf//torque>jani (footed), pdx torque>blurry whirl, pdx blender>spinning pdx whirl)
As I listened for the next trick I was supposed to try from my list I finally had useful ideas for tricks I could hit instead but it was too late. (Had I been smart I would have remembered that I can do flying things that most can't and that I have lots of other goofy shit I can actually hit)
Saturday night was much like friday night, except that Peng and I joined the partiers at Foufouns for a little bit. I guess both nights I was already kinda pooped and not exactly crazy stoked to get all wasted and barf everywhere.
Oh man, sunday morning I heard basically the craziest story Ive ever heard.
James' roomate comes into his room at 10:45 AM while we were playing some games of magic (which was a big plus for pengpeng! I was SO happy she got to geek out with some nice geeks, she's been missing that in her life) and tells us that he had just had probably the worst night of his life. I will tell his story in point form because it is pretty long and progresses like crazy.
- he comes with us on the metro to foufs
- he had his backpack, with james' juggling stuff and his cell and he was riding his new skate that he had just finished this epic painting on
- i scratched the painting a little bit with a dumb move i was trying on is board and I felt really bad... though I feel less bad now, and you will see why as this progresses
- at the bar we all part ways, he runs into this chick he'd seen there before and they wind up boozing hard and grinding and dancing and eventually he winds up on the floor all dazed and messed up
- this point is sorta confusing but somehow when he was supposed to go back to the girls place he wound up back at some gay guys house who was hitting on him and trying to give him massages
- he eventually makes it back into the transit system, still totally wasted and fell asleep in the metro station
- when his train came he jerked awake and bolted onto it, leaving behind his bag and skateboard....
- after getting on the train he passes out and misses his stop and finally gets onto a wrong bus and winds up down at some beaches and eventually he just walked miles and miles to get back home.... at which point he told us that whole story.
haha and he thought it'd be like.. 7 AM, not nearly 11, he was really really distraught and kinda upset..I gave him a hug.
Sunday was nice, we played at Place Des Arts again, I bet I hit some tricks and stuff.
I played lots of foursquare this weekend too, possibly some of my best yet. The french canadians are truely world class 4 square competitors. I would love to see Chicago VS Montreal in a 4 square battle!
I was really proud of myself at one point over the weekend. Marc Giard had purchased a bag from me at KICKASS2, it had broken in nicely and I was glad to see it was in such nice condition... except for the GIANT patch it had!!
He has really weak english and I hadn't made much use of my french in a long time so we had alot of trouble communicating what the reason for the big patch was. I didn't know if the panel or the stitching had broken or what... eventually I realised what the situation may be... and it was a silly one... I asked him "es ce que le patch et sur le sac quand tu acheter??" (or however you spell it all) (and that basically translates to "was the tape on the bag when you bought it??")
And he emphatically said yes!! hahahahah so I figured it out. When he bought the bag there was a piece of patching tape in the plastic bag with the footbag and somehow it came off it's backing and attached itself to the bag. I guess he just assumed I sold him some dud with a huge blowout in need of a giant patch.
I managed to pull the patch off safely and the bag was virgin and pristine clean underneath. Hilarious!
We eventually headed out, I sold one last bag to Mathieu before leaving and we were off!
It was a really successful event that ran very smoothly. The french canadians know how to throw an event and we all got to benefit as a result.
Thanks to all who helped organize it and put in the hard work!
I can't wait to go to my next event!
Hopefully the shoes she's got on the way from China will fit her and she will be able to shred with one less restriction. It's SO cute when she plays!!!! 
