It started off simply enough. Take a trip out to burnaby to visit a friend and check out the movie he was shooting with some friends. Little did i know what was in store for me when i set out on this trek, after i got off work on friday at midnight.
My first bus/sky train trip to burnaby went flawlessly. That was unfortunately marred by me getting completely fucking lost and walking up and down hills until 3am until i finally found Jesse's house. When i got there, Jesse informed me that everyone had already went to sleep and i should do the same as we were getting up at 8am. One thing he failed to mention was the complete lack of any sleeping friendly space in his entire house. So i spent the night on a hardwood floor. That mixed with being still a little wound up from work and the trip, made it completely impossible to fall asleep. So I spent the night listening to Pigface, Pantera, Arch Enemy and Nine Inch Nails while staring at a dimly lit and very boring ceiling.
Saturday morning everyone starts getting up, and it turns out we aren't shooting anywhere near Jesse's place, but actually headed out into the woods in a secluded park way up in North Vancouver. While in my uneducated opinion, most of the actors were complete weiners and total wannabes, they were all decently cool people. Though there was one actor named Adam who was just awesome all the way around, and an amazing though somewhat neurotic cinematographer, Tanner. Anyways, we start shooting at about 10 o clock and i'm dead tired to begin with. At around 2pm the sleep dep kicked in and i was blessed by crazy color effects, tracers and random peripheral illusions. So while at that point i had no interest in moving, it was a very cheap high.
So the plan at this point is to stop shooting at around 6 and head home. At which point i was going to grab my bag from Jesse's and head back to richmond. Instead of that, Jesse decides it would be a good idea to go party at someone's house in West Van. So we hung out there for a few hours talking about unbelievably boring film shit, which i obviously wasn't interested in. Then when we are about to head home, somebody in a drunken haze remembers the finale of the fireworks was on. After MUCH dicking around and being stupid, we leave the house at 10 o clock, walk for 45 minutes down to horseshoe bay, to arrive at our viewing spot 5 minutes after the fireworks ended. So i'm thinking ok now we go? Nope, we sit on a log and get destroyed off the largest blunt i've ever smoked. After that, we FINALLY decide to go. The group parts leaving Jesse, myself and another old friend, neither of the 3 of us having any idea where the fuck we are or where to get where we're going. So we walk 5-6 block along the main drag until we see a bus that says Vancouver on we hop on. Little did we know we would have made it to Van a lot faster if we would have walked. Although if we had walked, we would have missed the 4 drunk guys trying to get kicked off the bus, but couldn't because we were stuck in traffic in the centre lane. Queue up 15 minutes of yelling profanities, perverted phrases, hitting on every girl and even at one point on guy whipping his dick out for all to see. When we finally get downtown i decide fuck all this bull shit, i'm gonna cut my losses and get to the bus stop early so i can finally get some sleep.
So i get to the bus stop at 11:30pm, and wait.. and wait.. and wait.. and smoke over a pack a cigarettes, and wait some more. Finally, a bus comes, YES! And it drives right by, to full to fit anyone else on. So i wait some more.. and more.. and more.. finally at around 1:20, i realize i ain't catchin any buses out of Vancouver. After a few unsuccessful ideas to try to catch a ride out, i prepare to spend the night downtown in Vancouver. To keep myself awake, i decide then was a good a time as any to familiarize myself with the area. So i walk from the sea bus up seymour to the bridge, then down granville to the seabus, then up howe to the bridge. Then at about the time i passed out and stumbled into a hooker, i decide no more walking for a bit. So i apologize to her, and hang out and have a smoke and shoot the breeze. After she got boring i decided to try to find a place to relax so i sit down in a little alcove and try to bundle up a little, when all of a sudden a bus pulls up in front of me. I had no idea there were night buses! This one was going to UBC, i thought shit what the hell i might as well go for a ride to look at stuff because this walking shit sucks. So i head to UBC, and then when we get there, explain to the bus driver that i'm an idiot and i need to go back to the other end of the line. This killed an hour or so and gave me some very valuable rest time to build up my 5th wind. So i get back downtown, get up at the bus stop and then with agility coming out of nowhere, dodge the guy that stumbles and pukes right in front of the door. As i am standing there trying to figure out what the fuck just happened, the paddy wagon pulls up. I bolt, figuring even though by this time my weed had worn off, the sleep dep and red eyes could be mistaken for drug use. So i stop and catch my breath and end up talking to some crazy 60 year old homeless guy for a while. About 5 minutes of this and i'm thoroughly creeped out, so i leave to go find something else to do. That's when i realized i hadn't eaten in about 10 hours so i wander around looking for some food. That's when i run in to the same 4 dinks from the bus!! Luckily they were too drunk to recognize me and i slipped right by. As luck would have it, there was a 24 hour McDonald's just down the street. A really nice one actually, with comfy leather chairs and 4 TV's. So i much a few msg burgers while watching The Beastmaster.. thinkin to myself, this looks a lot like the movie we were just shooting! Cheesy b rated low budget crap, yay! I could only put up with that for about 5 minutes, so i strike up a conversation about the news with the cracked out old dude sitting next to me. That also.. lasted about 5 minutes. At this point i only have to wait a half hour or so for the first B-line to richmond, so i decide to go chill out at burrard station and wait. I sat there for about 5 minutes until someone came begging for money. I'm sure about 30 people had asked me for money over the course of the night, but this one was really weird. It was middle aged man wearing a suit, claiming he lost his wallet and was trying to get enough money for a cab ride home. I tell the guy, as a rule i never give something for nothing. So he sells me a lighter that's 1/6th full for a buck. After he leaves, another guy comes up, this one an obvious dirty creepy old guy. I prepare to tell him he ain't getting my money, but he only asks for a light for his smoke. So as my rule breaking good deed for the day, i give him the crappy lighter. Then i meet to kids from Richmond who were also catching the bus back, because they spent the night in the paddy wagon! The same one that i thought was gonna bust me. So we all hopped on the b line and i listened to their stupid drunken stories all the way back home.
So now i'm home, safe and sound, which is weird. I've always been really uncomfortable downtown, but i actually kinda got to like the place. It's really nice at 5 am when there's no people around. While i am sure i never want to do something like that again, i actually look back on it as a fun adventure. It's the first time i've been left to fend for myself in an unfriendly unfamiliar area, and i think i handled it quite well.
I have now been awake for 42 hours straight, and at this point, have no interest in going to sleep. In any case, i plan to spend the next long while in the safety of my own home, in front of my dear old friend Mr. Computer. I hope you enjoyed my incredibly long story, and please forgive the spelling and grammar mistakes :P Good adventures to all of you!
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