Good times

I had an amazing weekend up north. We left Saturday morning on our 3 1/2 hour drive. I helped one of my friends grade math exams that her 6th graders had taken on Friday. Grading exams is actually kind of fun. I'm sure it was just the novelty of the situation. Doing it all the time has to get tiresome.

The hockey game was a lot of fun even though we had standing room only tickets. The $25 tickets were free to us though so we didn't complain too much. We eventually found a couple of seats that had been abandoned by their occupants at the end of the second period. Even though the game was excellent and went into overtime, my friends' alma mater came out on the losing side. Celebration was inevitable though as we were back in the city where they had collectively spent 14 years of their lives. Yes, two of them were super seniors. 4 bars and multiple drinks later we found our way back to our room in the Radisson. Amazingly none of us were the least bit drunk.

My friends are hilarious. I really didn't stop laughing the entire weekend. You know those people who honk their cars horns and yell random things at the people walking along the street? Yeah, those are my friends. This weekend was the beginning of deer hunting here. On the way home we decided to count deer. Alive, dead on road, and dead on cars. Six of them were dead on cars. We actually saw one deer that was strapped onto the roof of a trailblazer, complete with blood running down the rear window. This of course was the "white trash" way to transport a dead deer according to one of my friends. So, not only did we count, but we would honk and give the thumbs up sign to everyone we passed with a deer in tow. This is just a taste of what makes my friends hilarious. They are not always quite this crazy, but most of the rest is stuff that isn't all that funny unless you are in the moment or have a fairly lengthy history together.

One thing I did notice that I hadn't previously is how negative one of my friends is towards gays. She consistently used the word gay negatively and also used faggot quite a bit. Of course it was always derogatory. She does have a couple gay friends which she seems to be okay with, but I sort of wonder if she just tolerates them and if her true feelings come out when she isn't around them. None of them know that I am gay so she would have no reason to temper her comments in my presence. What I witnessed this weekend combined with a little of what else I know now kind of has me worried about her reaction when I tell her I am gay. She is married to my best friend from high school and we are all very close. I had always thought that coming out to them would not be that big of a deal, but now I'm not quite so sure. I know that my friend will have no problem at all, but I don't want to cause problems if she does. I know that I shouldn't worry, and that my true friends will accept me no matter what. I have a hard time though as I just don't like to stir the pot all that much in situations like these.

So, even though I now have some concerns about coming out to this particular group of friends based upon observations over the weekend, overall it was a great time. I did spend all together too much money though. Between eating out, the hotel, going out and buying a few random things today I dropped over $200. Probably not the best thing to do when I am a student and have no earned income. What could I do though, I have to take a break and have some fun once in awhile.

Here is the view we had from our hotel room.