It's My Life

10 REASONS WHY I LOVE WEDDINGS

1. It's another reason to drink, party and have a good time.
2. It brings together relatives and friends from out of town.
3. The food.
4. It's a chance to meet new in-laws, and make new friends.
5. Because it's a special occasion, you get the reception party at a hall or center (not someone's house, and not the bar, which has become all too familiar for me)
6. The photos.
7. The fact wedding receptions are by invite only - who wants some drunk nobody knows walking in off the streets to join in?
8. The music and the open mic.
9. The extra-curricular wedding activities.
10. For the time being, it gives people hope and promise that two individuals can spend the rest of their lives together.

Well contrary to last Saturday, this past Saturday was upbeat, fun and enjoyable. Just last week I relived the horror of my uncle's death at his one year memorial at the CN train derailment site near the railroad in McBride. Art McKay was the closest uncle I ever had, and reliving such tragedy is never easy. But on the bright side I traveled on a train for the first time in my life, and the weather was nice. I also got to travel on the Prince George Cougar's bus. However, another downside - for the movie on the way back they played Air Bud. Yeah, that's right Air Bud - the worst sports movie EVER. A dog soccer player - who came up with that idea? At the end the dog made a big save for the female team USA team to win the World Cup, or something absurd like that.

My cousin Amy O'Brien married Nathom Heise on Saturday, reason for celebration in my case. I'd seen more funerals than weddings the last few years so this was good. I also did a lot of fun activities in the process, like drinking, dancing, playing Rummoli and Taboo at my sister's condo, playing tennis and darts against my cousin Neil Friedenberg from Edmonton, and playing pool. Amy is the daughter of my mom's sister, so everybody hanging out was on her side of the family, which is great because one thing you could not say about my Loveng (my mom's maiden name) relatives is that they're boring.

Me: Roberto, Brad scored more goals in soccer than your entire team that year.
Blair: I scored more than his entire team in one game.

Well, it's been a crazy last week. Not even a week ago I was still working at the AV Times and staying in Port Alberni, and now I've got one shift at the Prince George Citizen under my belt. Things are running smoothly and for the first day I'm fitting in quite nicely. It doesn't hurt that I know the city well having lived here the majority of my life. It is still quite different than what I'm used to in some ways. A bigger paper means a bigger editorial department (Enough reporters, editors and photographers to add to about 15). The overall staff is also much bigger than the AV Times and it will take me a while before I know each person's name. Also the filing system is much different. Rather than saving my completed stories under a reporter story folder under the editorial file, I'm sending my stories to a city file where the news editor edits the copy before they go to print. It'll also be an adjustment doing strickly reporting with, for the most part, a limited amount of photo-taking (The Citizen has two photographers who take care of most photos).

Wednesday night I spent with some of the AV Times staff at the Westwind Pub for dinner and a couple drinks before it was off back to my motel room to pack up for the next days move - from Port Alberni to Kamloops.

After a long day of travelling Thursday, I went to All You Can Eat Wings at Sgt. O'Flahertys. I had 30 wings, as did Dale. Carlos had about 26, but nobody could eat as many as Auren, who had 38. Tara didn't keep track because she figures it's just as good to say she had about 26 or whatever when she didn't know the actual number After Wings it was time to prepare for 20 for 20 at Magnum's.

After staying in Kamloops one more day, it was off to Prince George, and boy what a trip. The weather was horrible, with rain coming down the whole way, but not as bad as the next morning. It actually snowed a bit the next morning before it turned into rain. On Saturday night I went to Earl's where I noticed some guy passed out with the menu on his lap and half filled glass of wine on the table. It was a crazy scene.

Rick Methot (AV Times General Manager): Al, you're fired after the day's over.

Oh man. How many times did I hear that line today? Oh, about five times or so. It was all for fun though. I managed to pull off a little slacking off today for my last day, but still filed two stories.

It was four weeks ago tomorrow that l wrote my last test for Advanced Writing and Editing, and the journliasm drinking festivities began. I arrived in Port Alberni the night of April 12, and now, 24 days later, I'm done. In that time, I've:

- covered two city council meetings
- went to one men's night at the Alberni Golf Club (yeah, only one! am I disappointed? you could say that)
- played three sets of tennis
- made six posts
- contemplated staying in a trailer in an auto-wrecking yard for free
- spent way too much money staying in a motel
- celebrated by 22nd birthday
- contributed to 18 issues of the AV Times

Anyways, you get the picture. It's off to Kamloops for a night or two tomorrow en route to Prince George, my eventual destination.