This past weekend was perfect.

It started off on Friday night, having a few beers with an old friend with whom I hadn’t spent time in a long while.

Saturday morning I was up, bright and early, to volunteer as part of the setup crew for the 2012 Canada Cup of Beer. Two hours spent setting up tents and carrying chairs and tables, while joking around with friends, was good fun.

I then rushed home, assembled a bunch of tools and other handyman materials, bought a few things from the hardware store, and went to my friend Matt’s house to drop them off.

Back at my house by the afternoon, my dad kindly agreed to drive me to Swangard Stadium to participate in the Canada Cup of Beer, where I got to drink very small samples of quite a few beers with friends, many of which were unique and quite tasty (the brews, not the people).

I also got to try a paintball gun for the first time. However, the company running the promo was using rubber balls instead of paintballs, to avoid a mess. I was happy to shoot at the NHL goalies but the guy running the booth suggested I shoot a friend and, for some unknown reason, Tyler immediately volunteered to don the protective facemask and kneel down only a few feet away.

Needless to say, I managed to hit him with almost every shot, and left quite a few welts:

Once the event started winding down, I caught a bus downtown for my 10 year high school reunion, where I got to catch up with a number of people I hadn’t seen in ages. It was great to see how mature everyone has become – what a friendly group! [photo credit: Margarita Banting]

By 11pm Jenn, with whom I went to elementary and high school, and I said our goodbyes to the group and headed to a show at the Astoria with two of her friends and my friend Maria joining us.

Once the show ended around 2am, we all headed to Jericho Beach to enjoy the warm Vancouver summer evening. When we got there, we found a few people and joined them, and soon other strangers showed up and we had ourselves a little beach fire with guitars, singing, and fire juggling!

…not to mention great conversation with interesting people, a few glimpses of aurora borealis, and a beautiful sunrise.

The most impressive musical talent present was this guy, Donny Childs. You can find some of his music online at http://donnychildsband.bandcamp.com/

Donny Childs – “Yeah, You Know” from Chris Anderson on Vimeo.

I managed to get about 7 hrs of sleep despite only arriving home at 6am, and on Sunday went to hang out with my friend Gen. We decided to go for a walk and ended up eating tasty burgers for lunch, before I headed over to Matt’s house and spent a few hours with him and John making precise cuts through steel tubing with the equipment I’d dropped off the day before.

In a few weeks I expect to post some photos of what we’re making with this steel tubing, and I think we’ll all be pleasantly surprised…

And so ended a perfect weekend. Just the right mix of partying, catching up with old friends, making new friends, listening to music, making music, helping others with their workload, working on our own project, and appreciating all sorts of amazing things around me.