I friend of mine has been in town over the weekend on a work related golf tournament. I met him at a hockey camp in Tahoe last year but he lives in Calgary, so needless to say, I haven't seen him since. By "in town" I mean that he's been in Orange County. When he first asked me if I wanted to come out and see him while he was here, he thought he'd be staying in Newport Beach, so I said no problem. Newport Beach turned into Dana Point turned into, "Hey, can you meet me in San Clemente?" This is how I ended up putting 150 miles on my car last night. I don't often cross through to the other side of the Orange Curtain because when I think of the OC, I think of lots and lots of traffic. (I went to a Ducks game after work one night and it took me 2 hours to get there). Thankfully, it was a Sunday, so I didn't encounter any traffic getting down there. Since it's such a rare occasion that I find myself in that coastal part of Orange County, I had forgotten how beautiful it is. I'd also forgotten how much nicer the freeways are, wider and cleaner, without graffiti tagged on every offramp.

So I drove down to San Clemente where they were having a banquet/party for the golf tournament at a place called Casa Romantica which was a really nice historical estate. It was fun to see John again and to get to catch up. When you meet someone at a hockey camp, most of your conversations take place between drills on the ice when you're both out of breath, or at a bar after ice time when you're sore and everyone is drunk. So, it was nice to be able to sit down and get to know him better. Not to say there weren't a lot of drunks there. Out of maybe 100 people there, I would say 95% of them were Canadians. If there's one definite thing you can say about the Canucks is that those people can DRINK. I don't mean regular person drunk. I mean they can put away copious amounts of alcohol and just keep drinking and drinking. By the end of the night, everyone was pretty hammered. I followed them back to their hotel once the party ended at 10 and we all sat around in the bar there until they stopped serving at midnight. When I left, a decent sized group of them were still down there finishing up their night. And after about 6 hours with a bunch of them, I came away saying "eh" and "aboot" and all those other things they say that make them so endearing.

In honor of the Canadians, the song of the day is "Limelight" by Rush off their 1981 album Moving Pictures. I guess I lied earlier when I said "Tom Sawyer" is the only song I like by them. I can stomach this one, too. Truly, every Rush song reminds me of my friend, Jason, who spent much of his adolescence wearing a Rush t-shirt everywhere. I'm sure Jason would be more impressed if I picked "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" but I don't see it ever happening. (I'm sure if Jason ever decides to procreate, his child will be named Geddy, Neil, or By-Tor (regardless of sex). What can I say? I only like commercially-successful-Rush, not 10-minute-long-songs Rush.