Dave's girlfriend knows what Yo La Tengo means.

So I saw YO LA TENGO, right?

Here are the point form details (edited down from an e-mail sent to someone who will also read this and wonder why I wasted her time making her read both... sorry, m.)

Friday September 30

5:30 pm: Road gets hit. Travellers: Driver: James Kerr. Shotgun: James MacGregor. (we are proud to feature a Jamesian front line) Center-seaters: Mike Nason and Muhammad AD Rock. Back row (bad kids): Marc Bragdon, Eric Hill. Bad kids have a half-pint of Crown Royal.

8:00 pm: We stop at gas station in Grand Falls to food up. My footlong oversauced Meatball sub turns into a two pound bag of marinara. Marc B. compares it to a full diaper. I shove it under the seat.

11:00 pm: Another gas station after Quebec City. I buy two Heineken tall boys to celebrate... whatever. Turns out my bladder doesn't need the work. The first half hour in Montreal is a tense one.

1:30 am (ish... or 12:30 am Quebec time...) We drop off Marc B. and start the chain of MapQuest fueled destination searches. We immediately get turned around, heading the wrong way on Decarie and I have to wind over to a parked Police Car and chat up an attractive Police Lady to get re-oriented. She didn't seemed taken with my obvious charms, perhaps it was my beer breath or the bullet proof jacket around her heart. The directions start to take effect, after Mo deciphers that the distances between turns are on the wrong lines. Thee drop offs continue. Finally the Jameses and I end up at James' M's buddy Dave's place. We scarf some Pabst Blue Ribbon and lay our heads down for a few hours.

Saturday September 31st

9:30 am: Is that the phone? I don't live here, so it's not for me. There's that phone again... still don't live here. Again. (Dave and James M. are staying across the street at Dave's girlfriend's apartment). Is that the doorbell? I don't live here. It's probably a Jehovah's Witness anyway. Is that Mike Nason talking on his cell phone below the window on the street? I better put some pants on and see. Yes it's Mike... he's talking to Cristal, Dave's girlfriend, on his cellphone. I wave. Cristal waves. He goes to Cristal. Who can blame him.

11:00 am: Breakfast at John's. From the Grill means two eggs, toast, homefries and every type of breakfast meat you could imagine, incl. Cretons!! So greasy. So good.

2:00 pm: Science of Sleep at Forum AMC. Quirky fun... maybe not as good as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind... I'll think on it. Charlotte Gainsbourg has that unkempt Parisian hotness nailed, plus her mom's (Jane Birkin) British accent... double whammy.

7:00 pm: Dinner at Abiata... Ethiopian restaurant. There are 13 of us. Jameses, Dave, Cristal, Jess (her roommate), Mike w/ Steve and Scott, Mo with Sean (i think, right?), and James M's sister Margo who happens to be in MTL. coincidentally, and here boyfriend. The food is served atop soft bread on platters: spiced meats of all types, grains, lentils, vegetables... all eaten with bread and hands and nothing else. My taste buds thanked me.

9:00 pm: The National (venue) Why? and Yo La Tengo. Reminds you how good indie rock can get when professional and unpretentious balance out. We run into Mireille about 78 seconds after getting there. World? Not big. Afterwards there are beers and cabs and kitties and sleep.

Sunday October 1:

10:00 am. Wake up, shower. No one around yet. Weren't we supposed to meet to go to breakfast around 10:00?? 10:15 am Mike and Steve show up. 10:30 James shows up, tells us that Mo can't make it 'til 11am. 10:35 Mireille calls asks for directions, she is 15 minutes away. Dave, Cristal and Jess show up. 10:45 am Mo calls and won't be joining us, we'll pick him up after breakfast. We wait for Mireille. 11:30 am... no Mireille, we follow our stomachs to Greene's on Greene. We have huge breakfasts, made even more impressive by one half of the group splitting an enormous smoked meat poutine.

1:30 pm. We pick up Mo, find our way out of MTL.

5:00 pm. Stop for gas, somewhere. Pick up 12 Labatt's 50 for Howard, James M. buys two quarts of near lethally alcoholized beer, stores them in the hatch of the van, and we're off.

7:00 pm. Stop in Edmunston for food... they've taken the Subway around the corner to beat it up. Mo. opens the hatch to get something from his bag... James' quarts attack him, he defends himself, he wins, James loses. Mo buys James a sub. And we're off.

10:30 pm. Fredericton. I watch Basquiat. I go to sleep.

Monday October 2

7:30 am I get up and start to gather documentation for grants... and the cycle continues.