Gordon's Graduation and BBQs

This last weekend was an action packed one. Well, at least there were a lot of events and I ate a LOT. This weekend was Gordon's convocation ceremony on Friday afternoon and then a party for him at his place on Saturday evening. In between these two events I went to 2 BBQs.

So I found Gordon right after he put on his hat at the hat station. A moment after this photo a voice announced "Everyone who is not a graduate please clear the area", so I went up above to the AQ gardens to wait for the graduate walk.

It seemed to take forever for the graduates to finally appear and Gordon was more than halfway down the line. He was the first graduate with a BSc (yellow ribbon). Once he got up by the Terry Fox statue the line stayed there for a long time. Some girl volunteered to take our photo together. That afternoon many people wondered if he cut his afro off just so the graduation cap would fit on his head.

So after the long graduation ceremony and the SIAT reception, I hopped on a bus and headed over to my bosses house near UBC. The skytrains were running slow since there was a power outage downtown so I arrived fashionably late. This is what the lamb looked like when I got there. It was already being picked apart. Walter had been cooking it all day since my boss Mark had to go to a conference.

Here's what it looked like when we were done with it. Pretty bare! It was a good BBQ with good food and company. While I was there Rob messaged me to ask where I was and when I said I was at my bosses he asked "She hot?". Uh, not a "she", Rob, and no.

That night I crashed at Rob and Q's place in Vancouver. I slept on some couch cushions on the floor of the kitchen. I didn't want to intrude on either of their rooms or sleep in the entryway, bathroom or outside hallway where I might get stepped on. I also didn't dare sleep in the mystery void behind the closet.

The next day I arrived at Kitsilano beach bright and early at 10am to save a table for the grad student's BBQ at 2pm. Unfortunately I found that around the central area there are no tables, just benches. I walked along to near the end of the beach and found a couple tables near each other. I sat down and did some work on my laptop. There was a few tables taken before I got there by a group preparing for a kid's birthday party.

Between 11:30 and noon is when lots of people started claiming tables. Some people asked about the other table where I had left my bag but I said it was taken because a big group was showing up and we needed both the tables. Despite this, an annoying guy decided his group was going to take the table anyway. He argued that I could not save 2 tables with only 1 person, since they were a limited resource. It pissed me off but he kind of had a point. Anyways, it didn't matter because by the time many people showed up for my BBQ another nearby table was free.

Around 1pm Diego, the organizer of the event, showed up with this food which he claimed was all for me to eat for lunch. I did not eat it all because it was a bit too much but I did finish the burger and tried everything else. The sun was melting the chocolate chips so the cookies were almost as if they were freshly baked.

Ben was one of the first people to show up and we threw the frisbee around for a while. At first he claimed to be terrible at throwing it but once we started he decided that my disc was simply much better quality than what he was used to and in fact he was quite good at throwing.

Eventually many people showed up and Diego created this line
of condiments and pita fillings he had brought.

The BBQ was a lot of fun. Again there was some good food and some good company. I even went swimming in the ocean. It didn't seem as cold as I expected, however it was still a couple days before summer and only Diego dared enter the water with me. We both ran in and then he ran out shortly after. I stayed in for a while and swam way out to the buoy which said that no boats should come any closer than 300m to the shore. Unfortunately I could not climb onto as it kept tipping over.

After the BBQ I took transit back to Surrey and went straight to Gordon's house for the graduation party. There was lots of food there including a couple different types of meat but I had just eaten a ton at the BBQ. I ended up eating a LOT of Mars bars squares that Gordon's aunt made using actual Mars bars. They were amazing. Mars bar is one of my favourite chocolate bars.

Greg showed up to the party later. Q, Brad and Tanya were also there.

All in all it was an awesome and fun two days in the sun. This weekend I really don't care what the weather is like since I will be at the school working like a maniac finishing up a project, but the weekend after it better be damn good weather for the Canada day lamb bbq and camping in Osoyoos with Toni.

The Shearing of the Afro

Friday, May 28th, 2010 marked the end of era. It was on this day that my friend Gordon had his head shaved to raise money to send kids to camp. It was on this day that the afro disappeared. He grew it for 6 years.

I decided to bike to the momentous occasion even though it was raining lightly and about a 2 hour ride. I biked down the hill and over the Pattullo bridge into New Westminster. Then through an industrial area by the river and up and over Coquitlam.

I went down the other side and into Port Moody. I biked through a park near the ocean and up the hill over to camp Sasamat where the shearing took place. It was their annual dinner on the patio fundraiser. Dinner consisted of burgers and salad followed by some fruit and cake for dessert.

Rob was at the camp with his crazy shoes with the toes.

Q was at the camp and went out in a canoe by himself while drinking wine. Greg, Jon, and Josef also showed up to the camp later.

They had a climbing obstacle course that I raced Q to the top of. I won by a great distance but I was on the left which had a much easier route.

Of course Gordon was there too with his afro and all. We didn't actually get to see the afro in its full glory until after dinner was done since he had to have it contained while cooking. He works in the kitchen at the camp.

I had my last photo with him before the shaving.

Then when everyone was ready, it began. His hairdresser was the camp's executive director who was not exactly skilled at it. Photos were being snapped left, right and center.

Gordon wore a garbage bag to protect him
from the massive amounts of hair that fell to the floor.

In the end he held some of his afro in his hands, no longer attached to his head. I'm not sure what was done with it but there was no going back.