Click here to see pictures from Odell Park!
So here is my Ganzalogue on CanadaGanza 1998, aka The Tame Ganza, aka The Ganza That Was, aka Reset! (written August 3, 1998)
The Prelude: for a couple of years, we Canadian Zoners had been bemoaning the expense involved in travelling to other countries for Ganzas, and had been saying, "we should have a CanadaGanza or something". And Steve had said that we (him and I) should have some sort of Zone gathering, and we could use his house.
So slightly over a year ago, Patrick and I were MUSHing together and decided to actually have a CanadaGanza. I got out a calendar and picked out the first weekend in August, which is a civic holiday in most provinces. Then we told Steve it was going to be at his place, and he was a sport about it, and CanadaGanza was a go. Plans eventually fell into place - Steve and I came up with ideas of what to do, and we also took our cues from things that Patrick and Cheryl and Brian mentioned they like to do. This was not going to be AnalRetentiveGanza. The following may sound like a carefully planned weekend, but it really went something like this:
Steve (looking at me): So what's next?
Me: Well, we could do this (fill in name of activity)
Everyone: Cool!
The Ganza: Monday is when I remembered that I was going to hand-paint Ganza t-shirts and make friendship bracelets for everyone. Rather than pull a Monica and work myself into a tizzy, I chose to make bracelets and we could paint our own t-shirts while watching 'Strange Brew'. I chose red & white, the colours of our flag, causing slight poutage on the part of Cheryl for not making one with blue. :-)
Wednesday is when I lost the fourth bracelet while it was half-finished, but I resisted the pull of Monica-ness and coped. :-)
Thursday was very exciting, because the Ganza really got going, with our first arrival: Patrick! I was so twirly that I was at the airport 30 minutes early. So I got to know my fellow waiting people as they arrived later. I got so involved with the joy of the sister who was coming to see her sister and brother-in-law and six week old nephew (who is very very cute) that I missed Patrick actually entering the gate, but I hope I compensated with much enthusiastic flag waving.
Patrick became the Third Zoner I've Ever Met, plus the First to Ride in Melinda (my car) and certainly TOW I Hugged the Most. He pouted a lot this weekend, because he got abused a lot (even though he is, as advertised, loveable), and there was some gratoututitous, um, willy-nilly pouting, because he quickly learned that I can't stand a pouty puppy-dog face, and must hug the pout away. He even pouted because if you take three balls to knock all the pins down in candlepin bowling, it is only 10 points and not a spare. So I hugged him.
Patrick is also a shameless flirt, but I think most of you know that already. ;-)
So *anyways*, I drove Patrick to Steve's house where he impressed Nick with his Elmo t-shirt and castle-building skills. And then I had to go home.
Friday, after my last day taking care of the palm tree and not doing a lot, I met the guys at the Regent Mall, where I forced Patrick to enter the Barbie aisle with me. (That's not a metaphor).
Steve and I decided to drag Patrick to Odell Park, so he could admire the ducks and geese and deer. There were no ducks, but a very pretty calico kitten appeared out of the woods and flirted with Steve and Patrick. Then we followed part of the arboretum trail and learned about trees, hugging some and shunning a lot. Balsam poplar, that's a tree to avoid. This is where I'm supposed to say that Patrick took me to places I've never been before. Then we went to the swing sets, where Patrick literally pushed me to new heights, until I got dizzy and made him stop.
Click here to see pictures from Odell Park!
I discovered a new side of Steve this weekend, where he actually encourages men to flirt with me so he can tease me, or at least get a chuckle. Huh.
Then it was time to go to the Sheraton, to wait for Brian and Cheryl in the lobby. The seafood buffet was set up in the lobby, so it was very hard to be polite and not start without them, but Steve restrained me. After we waited 15 minutes, I hit the payphone. That's when I found out they changed hotels because their non-smoking rooms smelled of cigarette smoke (Cheryl and her mother are allergic). And they weren't at the new hotel. So I called my mother and asked her to check my phone for messages, and she was babysitting Nick so I was talking on the phone with Nick when Brian and Cheryl and her parents arrived. I hope I made up for it with much enthusiastic flag waving.
The food was fabulous, the conversation even more so. Cheryl claimed the title of the First Female Zoner I've Met, as well as the Fourth Zoner I've Met, and Brian became the First Zoner I've Met Twice. Cheryl surprised me by being tall, and she is just as sweet and cute as her posts. Brian is also like his posts - he talks/posts not so much, but when he does, zing! Her folks are cool
Saturday started with the drama and excitement of miniature golf. It was a nifty little course, except that it had no windmill. Patrick played in such a way that we were forced to look at his butt a lot. Brian "Jock" Smith won the game with his cool demeanour and superior knowledge of physics. Cheryl played a version of "croquet golf", where she frequently other players' balls with her own. Then Patrick emptied out a pail of golf balls at the driving range, while we progressively stepped back and made comments that made him pout. Steve tried to interest us in a game of beach volleyball, but miniature golf had worn us out. Hey, it was hot!
Click here to see pictures of us playing miniature golf!
Lunch was spent at McDonald's. Nick was a little disappointed with the play area, which was mostly Nintendo games. I think we should shun that McDonald's in the future, for the poor message it is projecting.
Nick was supposed to have a nap, so we went to Steve's house. Nick did not nap, but we looked at Patrick's pictures from previous Ganzas, which were really cool. Then we watched 'Grease', and hand-jived the rest of the day.
Since Nick had stopped "resting" early in the movie, it was time to go back to Fredericton and pose for pictures in front of the fountain at City Hall. I used my feminine wiles and asked one unsuspecting guy to take one picture for us - and when that was done, he ended up being the unofficial photographer for CanadaGanza. :-) We walked about downtown and looked at many sights. I was encouraged to break into a locked cathedral, but felt that mug shots are a tacky addition to Ganza pictures.
Click here to see pictures from in front of the fountain, and on the riverboat!
Then we squeezed onto a riverboat and went on a cruise. Brian and Cheryl cleverly nabbed seats on the upper deck, while the rest of us sat by the bar and tried to keep Nick amused. That's when Patrick got wild and had a beer. He also pouted, for various reasons. After a second trip to the fountain, because Patrick had failed to notice the naked cherub on top of it, we went to Wal-Mart. Brian and Cheryl made a quick side trip to a shop to see if there were any Beanie Babies to "invest in" but came back empty-handed.
By then, we were getting hungry, so we went to the big bowling alley and ate first, before bowling. I won, but I admit that I've got years of candlepin bowling experience, and the other three don't. We only played one string, because it was about 10:30 and Nick was very tired, even though he said he wasn't.
At Steve's house, we watched 'Strange Brew', which Cheryl had long spotted to be a Canadian adaption of 'Hamlet'. She was able to spot nuances that we'd never noticed before. Beauty, eh? We also painted our t-shirts - I painted the outline of a maple leaf on each one, then we individualized them. Everyone forgave My Big Goof - I had bought packages of sleeveless t-shirts, which wasn't what we had in mind. My second biggest goof was forgetting my fabric paints at home, but we bought some more when we bought the t-shirts.
It was late when the movie ended, so we had to hug Patrick a lot since most of us didn't feel capable of getting up early the next morning to see him off at the airport.
Sunday - Cheryl's parents rejoined us to go to King's Landing, which is a historical village, where Steve and Patrick went on Friday. Nick was thrilled to be back, since he got to ride behind horses again. It was a fun and hot afternoon, complete with a pauper's auction, yummy ice cream, and a sleeping pig.
Click here to see pictures from our visit to King's Landing!
By the end of it, we were pretty well worn-out, so it was decided to end the Ganza with supper, considering the Smiths and the Kohls were driving to PEI tomorrow, and the Boykos were just plain tired. :-) We ate at the Jubilee restaurant, featuring a buffet of Chinese and Canadian food. While we were standing in the parking lot, reluctant to leave, we were entertained by watching some guests discover, chase, capture and release a *bat* they found in the lobby. How nice to discover that the restaurant had wildlife after you've eaten there...not!
So after much procrastination, it was time for everyone to go and get some sleep. This Ganza was much too short, a whole week wouldn't have been long enough. Cheryl had predicted a lovefest, and that's what this weekend was. We joked that it was TameGanza - no fights, no hard drinking, just a lot of getting along, complete with parents and one small noisy child. At supper on Sunday, we realized that is the Canadian-ness of CanadaGanza. After all, it was a Canadian Prime Minister, Lester B. Pearson, who suggested that the United Nations utilize armies for peacekeeping, not war. I don't think other Ganzas are just a bunch of drunken fistfights - Patrick has pictures to prove they aren't! - but there was something so relaxed and Canadian about this weekend. We got each other's Preston Manning jokes, for one thing. ;-)
As for next year, ask me when I'm a lot more rested!
Steve has also put his CanadaGanza pictures on the web, if you want to see those. Warning! Pictures of butts!