Calgary. Hotel Arts. Driven Car Show. Flames Central

The day of the trip, I went out and bought a sd card from Best Buy, Thank God I did cause well the 16 Gig I did have would corrupt it's own files. So no more using that sd card. I thought I would buy some clothes but didn't end up buying any. I get a call from Ry as I'm at the mall to let me know where we should meet up and head out to Calgary. I head home after the mall and get there, get my gear and after a little bit of food, I head out once more this time making it to Sapperton station and meeting up with Ry and his best friend. With a truck and trailer hitch with her ( the honda prelude ) all strapped in ready to head out. Our road trip didn't officially start till later in the day. I had met up with the boys around 3:00pm, there was a detour to be made to Maple Ridge to pick up some gold foil. We left and when we left and as we headed past Langley we had another detour to make to pick up some signage. By the time we actually got out and made some lead way it was barely a scratch on our trip it was already 7pm. I don't remember where we stopped next but we went to this restaurant that was right by the mountain side. I note to Ry that it would be so awesome to have gone to school there and to look outside the window of your classroom to see the mountain top covered with snow. WOW. The restaurant was called Skinny's Grille. Great food, unique atmosphere.


The drive was long with crazy memories... oh man...I know this is embarrassing to say but I'll blog this memory just cause it's so funny! The drive to Calgary is long and well when you hit specific towns and it's late late into the night and it gets a little dangerous as well. When it's pitch black and raining and some pit stops are closed. Things happen and when you need to go, you need to go. We hit the little towns on the Canada number one highway. Long story short. I had to go pee really bad. We hit gas station and everything is closed. I don't remember if this was an Esso, or Shell, or Cheveron. But it was raining really hard, and it was really dark and we didn't know where we were because we had turned off to go pit stop and being unsuccessful and reaching this gas station that was closed with washroom locked. And us on a tight schedule the guys convinced me to just go somewhere in the bushes >_< I was smart enough to have some tissues in my makeup pouch and grabbed that. Ry said if it made me feel better he would come with and hold the umbrella for me to keep me dry while he was turned around and that's what he did. Oh man, my first road trip peeing in the bushes experience. Hilarious right. yeah. *sarcastic* awesome time peeing in arms length of the guy your dating behind some gas station in the bushes. Any ways if that wasn't funny enough, as we headed back and down the road we ended up at a Husky gas station that was open! and we asked for directions. WTF right... WTF. hahaha well it's a funny road trip story. We go on our way. We hit a certain point between the mountains where the guys were just too exhausted to drive. Me only having a learners and little experience driving couldn't take over the wheel if I wanted to. I actually wanted to, but they said it was way to dangerous since they themselves were a bit scared driving with the trailer. The guys drove as I slept, and slept as I watched the sun rise.
There's something about the drive to and from Calgary. The mountains make everything feel so spiritual. Those who have never been on this drive, I tried to film some of what you can expect to see. The beautiful mountains of BC and if you're lucky, the wild life. We got there and it was 9:33am Vancouver time. Which means we were on the road for 13-14 hours. Hotel Arts is were we stayed. One of the reasons why Ry asked me to accompany him in the first place cause of the name of the Hotel. Sweet right?!. I think so if I was the first person that popped up in his head. When we got there we pulled into the parking lot and got stuck. One of their valet guys named Tim came out to help after seeing the guys a bit frustrated and tired. He hopped in the truck after noting that he had experience driving a trailer / hitches before. LOL, after hopping in and finding me trapped in the back seat because ( I'm in one of those trucks where - I can't get out unless someone lets me out. ) I've become one of those super positive people as I encouraged Tim that he could do it :). I did ask him if he was really experienced driving it with trailers and he confesses that he wasn't, he thought he would just take over noticing the guys are tired and frustrated. With little trailer / hitch driving experience. Tim did an awesome job! He pulled it off like a pro! in his words ... "I'm so golden." Yes... yes you were. LOL. When we unloaded and walked into the lobby it was gorgeous. ♥ the artwork.
We get up to our room 909 and all we want to do is crash there's a picture of Phill. Ry's best friend just fallen onto the bed. We all change and close the curtains and hit the sack at 9:40am to try to sleep. I get a couple texts that Frankie is also in town for the show too. He tells me to hurry up when I'm already at the hotel before he was! LOL. While he was actually still stuck at the airport. We slept for a couple hours and some time later Phill wasn't able to sleep anymore and decides to go for a walk. Me and Ry fall back to sleep for a bit and sometime later we awake and end up talking till Phill came back and caught us chatting a bit in the dark. Phill walks to the interrogating lamp and turns it on and shines it to Ry's face who was sitting on the small sofa seat across from the bed from me. Our conversation was a bit emotional and personal, a bit too much to blog. All I really have to say is, people have to remember I'm not like a lot of other people / girls. But not one person is the same either. But as for girls. I'm pretty unique as it goes. As to dating me... I'm as real as it gets. A girl who's already done more than the average Jane, yet striving to be more. I may express emotions and thoughts and record my life. Well because... I live once and every day and every week and month and so on is different. I love a lot and express a lot of love - most of the time without ever realizing I'm doing it because that's just how kind and caring of a person I am. Some people get overwhelmed with this, and I felt Ry was feeling the front of it now and his brain went into "what if" mode. ** Here's a tip. One of the first steps of failure people don't realize that falls upon a growing / any relationship is doubt. If there ever is any kind of doubt in a relationship and it's dwelt upon, your relationship is already failing. And if it does it's partly because so much energy may have been placed upon that reason of doubt. ** I'm not going to lie that - that has happened to me. But this time - no more. The things I've learned in the last couple months is... think of what you want, and believe you already have it, believe it's going to happen. And you know what the craziest thing is about that train of thought and that kind of thinking led this trip to be that much more crazy and magical. Ry - promised me he would with his might try to push doubt from his mind. I was happy to hear that. I promised him the same. We both know that's a difficult thing to do. When your brain gets into the bad habits way of thinking, sometimes it's hard to change. It's not impossible just difficult. *anyways* Phil informs us that he had booked his own room which allowed me and Ry to have more alone time together ( during this time I felt so much love coming from Phil for Ry... it was unbelievable ) Later on we showered and got ready to unload the car. I went down and got to catch some of that action.
After the unloading I grabbed some of the food and went back into the hotel. I bump into Frankie in the lobby and met some guys from Vancouver as well. They pressed more buttons than needed on the way up to my room as they got off on the 2nd floor. I went up to my room to eat an chill and thought the guys would be back in a couple of hours and to be honest I got upset with Ry for leaving me up in the room longer than expected. I don't know why I got so emotional too. It was a bit ridiculous but I did feel like I wanted to help with the car I was there to visit Calgary and most of all the spend time with him regardless what he was doing, and that one extra hand was better than none. Ry did come back however after getting my text and calling me and I really didn't have to say anything to him for him to know that it did upset me. We headed out to home depot and got some stuff needed for the car show to prep the car, hoping we would go back to the car show area to work more on the car, the guys soon showed fatigue from it all and we ended up going back to the hotel after grabbing some food and Phil brought down his laptop and we watched a bit of shutter island before getting to sleepy to go on. Phil left and we hit the sack. Early the next morning was Car Show Day! we got ready for the day, me and Ry went to go to drop off the trailer. We get lost. Calgary avenue and streets are numbers like Surrey and when they are like that, it's easy to get lost especially if there is NW SE and all that directionality to go with it. We end up finding the place and dropping off the trailer. Go back and pick up Phil and head on to do the last finishing touches on the car, getting her ready for the show at 10am. The original plan was that I clean the interior of the dash but Ry placed me with sticking they Gold foil on the underside of his hood. I was only able to reach and help stick on, tuck in and cut out the top two big pieces, the rest was a bit too far for my reach. The show was from 1pm - 10pm and the day seemed to never end. I stuck it out with Ry at the show as he waited for the judges and talked to the admirers of his car.
To see more pics of his Ry's car. *Click here* At the show he was so paranoid with what people maybe saying about his car, wondering which car was better than his. In my heart I was believing and knowing his was the best. All around. Right before the awards I ran to the washroom and in there I was just praying, wanting, believing he will win an award. Little did we know. The very last award. One to rule them all was to be his. I stopped filming when they were calling out who won because it didn't click in my mind that it could be him. But it was! It was super amazing. This is what made me feel like believing in something so much can make things happen.

I want to thank Timothy DeLaGhetto, Victor Kim, and JRA for taking the time to take a pic with me. They were super sweet. The after party was crazy. It was my first time clubbing. On the way to the club we spent so much time looking for parking, we were lucky and thankful to find one just outside in this parkade area where you simply pay for how many hours you wanna leave the car there for and slip the pass on the dash. We walk on over to the club and don't know where it is and were lined up at this place and looked up at the rules of the club. Some boys were denied entry because they weren't 25years or older. The bouncers there smiled at us as we asked if it was Flames Central, they pointed across the street where it was so obvious and the sign was so big, we have no idea how we missed it. We lined up, asked if we needed to be on some special guest list. Paid the door entry fee. got checked and entered a domain at Calgary Central that I can only describe like a miniature rave. Except I felt strange, the atmosphere was not as party hardy as I'd liked it to be. There were lots of people just standing about and I felt... I wanna dance but the vibe I'm getting is not one that's more on the just dance side, maybe I needed to be closer the the speakers. Ry met up with his friends who got us VIP arm bands that got us back to where all the superstars were *giggles* it just seems funny to me that's all. The performers from the Driven car show were there. Driven car show crew was there. Organizers were there and seemed to party behind where the DJ was. The setup of the club was pretty amazing and I wondered if Canucks would ever have a club in ode to them. We should. That would be awesome. Sometime during the night I approached Victor Kim, I was so unsure of where I had seen him before, perhaps from one of Tim's vids. I was subscribed only to him. I take a picture with him. I got to watch JRA perform and took a picture with him as well. It was funny though when I asked to take a picture with him, I said "Thank you" to him and he said thank you to me. What a sweetie. Ry was filming the club scene with his phone and a host guy was pointing at him which made me giggle. You can hear it in my youtube video if you pay close enough attention. Ry was trying to get me buzzed that night since I don't know my liquor limit. He failed because after my second drink and when we returned from the washroom and atm the bars had already stopped taking any liquor orders. LOL. He tried. We decide to get going because it's getting late and tiring. We get back to the hotel and as we settle down for bed Ry asks me to be his girl *blushes* ... I say yes ... because honestly he's the first to make me feel the shivers on my neck when we kiss and my heart melt when we hug. The next morning we get up and already are making plans to see what needs to be done to get home. Ry calls to the front desk and asks what time the malls open, if I can get my charm for my charm bracelet. We get informed that the malls open at 12pm and we already know that they close at 4pm. Ry lets me know that we may not have time to go get my charm. I have to break up tradition. We wake up Phil and pack our stuff and load the truck. We roam around and found an all day breakfast place. We eat the first real meal since our road trip over to Calgary. I have to be honest it was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that I had to break my tradition. I could have simply been dropped off at the mall as Ry and Phil picked up the trailer. But, two navigators are better than one. We make our way to the U-haul and picked up the trailer. This time in record breaking time got the trailer and headed back towards the hotel to load the car up. ( OK one strange thing I found out about Calgary is the people that just stand around waiting to be picked up for available work. ) This man walks up and tries to help us load the car. Personally... I'm very protective of my friends and property. This man crossed a little bit of my comfort zone, not only mine but Phil's as well and I felt it. We tried to talk the man from stepping way and back from us. Me, Phil, and Ry want to load the car with it being mint. I felt a bit uncomfortable with the man simply just touching the car and the wooden pieces Phil had nicely set up for the drive onto the ramp of the trailer. He kept pulling pieces off here and there, touching this and that. Calling Ry "China Man". Ry's a little more nicer than me and Phil. I got a little irritated with the man and wanted to yell at him to back off or be forced to be removed. I was a steps away from Crouching Tiger Hidden Sze up on him. Really... I was. Ry's simply said, "Thank you sir for your insight... but at this point there are just too many cooks in the kitchen." The man just couldn't understand and we just didn't have enough time to deal with this man to let him know. "LOOK, this isn't just any import car. It's a very nicely well loved and blood sweat and tears car that has a lot of money and time placed underneath her hood. Back off... don't touch her. You can't just load her not caring about if she grinds or scrapes. You sir may not care if she does or not... BUT WE DO!!!!! SO BACK OFF!!! FUCK OFF !!! cause I don't give a shit ... just LEAVE!" Yeah I would have said something close to that. He crossed into my comfort zone and super bitchy protective-Sze was about to be unleashed. But I held my tongue and packed and organized the truck as the guys did the loading. The man eventually left after a while and we got the car up on to the trailer. Locked her in and rolled out. After all was said and done we stopped by a Starbucks and the guys washed up and we headed out of town. By the time we left it was 2pm. On our way out of town. It was amusing to make myself feel a little bit more at ease. I waved to strangers. Two to be exact. One was a man on a bus as he looked into our truck as we were beside them at a light. He waved back :) The another was a couple riding their bike as we passed by them at a corner, who smiled back. After a few hours of driving we pit stop and we got into town where it was very windy. I had to record the moment because I thought it was pretty cool how when I step into the wind my hair simply lifts up in a whirl wind. As I was filming Ry was in search of a hug and that's what I caught on tape. As I was caught between a windstorm and a hug. We get on our way and bust it through with Phil driving so much of the way. Somewhere during the night along the way just before entering Hope there's a long stretch that has no pit stops. I was made to go pee in the bushes again. How embarrassing. Once again Ry accompanies me to block me from being visually seen from any oncoming traffic / cars. How do you know your guy's a keeper... when he does something so hilariously ridiculous for you as to be a blocker for you as you pee. Lots of Love for him. Not only once, but twice! We get back home super late. There isn't any way to drop me off with the car being being on the trailer so we ended up dropping Phil home and me staying the night at Ry's before he dropped me off later that day. I accompany Ry to go drop off the trailer, as I requested if we could stop by a Michael's to pick up some canvases. I come home and Dad's home. I introduce Ry to Dad and one thing that caught me off guard was when Ry offered to shake my dad's hand. No one's done that before. After dropping off everything in my room I give Ry a tour of the house and walk him to the door since he had to get ready for his Europe trip, I give him a kiss and hug goodbye ... &hearts This trip has been one with lots of weird and unforgettable moments and stories. This took forever to blog.