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# CHAPTER FOUR: THE NEXT MORNING (& FINDING OUT ABOUT THE STD) #

## Part IX: Kiss on the forehead, get dressed to leave ##

[THE BEGINNING OF THE END]

We awoke, strangely sweaty and mildly hungover. I remember Rig's face dawning at the edge of the bed and being surprised by it. The TV came on again, and this time we watched a lot of infomercials for various knives and cynically critiqued them and infomercials as a whole. It was fun. There was also a kid's show about like, "supernatural" things. And every "host" had this strange tendency to shift their eyebrows around to accentuate whatever they were saying. Now, part of me thinks that this actually happened the night before, and part of me thinks it was in the morning. But I remember criticizing it from the table, and I was on the floor criticizing in the morning. So this is probably a little out of place, SO SUE ME.

Them came time to clean up the small disaster area that was Afro's room. The biggest issue was the plethora of stickers that were hidden like Easter eggs all around, but we got most of them off without a hitch. When it was all finished, we assumed it was time for the ultimate goodbye and prepared to leave for FBI's to pack, but EyeLovePoozy and the folks in Luis' room suggested we go out for one last meal.

As we left, Luis' came down with a quart of Jagermeister, saying that it had been left in his room and he didn't want to leave it there. It was Evark's, who was long gone at that point, so I naturally assumed Evark had left it for me to take with me. I relieved Luis of the burden and stowed the bottle away. <3

[EYELOVEPOOZY BECOMES DEMIGOD]

Close to the hotel and to the metro was a lunch buffet that we had seen earlier. No one had any objections, so we piled in, again in a group of 9 or 10. It was a cheap buffet, and the pickings were slim in variety but sufficient in taste. There we like 8 trays of things and a salad bar. To my delight: chicken wings! I had 10, bringing me up to a final count of 58. There was also pizza, potato wedges, spaghetti and fettuccini, lasagna, that sort of stuff.

We ate, we got up and went to pay. But "no", says the waitress, "your friend already paid." Turns out Poozy up and paid for all of us. Totally unexpected! Everyone was quite thrilled and grateful. Don't forget he also bought everyone shots in Brutopia and I believe he paid for the pool time at SHARKX. Poozy: You rock, thank you very much, the poor student I am is in your debt.

The waitress took a few group pictures, and we walked out. It was time.

[BEAUTIFUL GOODBYES]

Outside, we shook hands and traded hugs. The group was about to split again, and permanently. It was funny, however, because a lot of us said goodbye earnestly then we realized that 80% of us were actually heading to the same metro together. So we did the awkward walk-together-after-saying-goodbye thing to the station. A musician played music down the long hallway to the booths, it would have been perfect if the music had been sad.

Turns out Lauren, FBI and I were to get on one side of the tracks while Afro, Rig, NegativeONE and Poozy were to get on the other. Their subway came first and whisked them off. Then we went to FBI's. Once there I packed up after showering as Lauren desperately finished some homework she had put off. Then I got some groceries to make sandwiches with, as we were soon facing a 22 hour + train ride.

All prepared, we walked out to a bus stop with FBI. We thanked him heartily for his hospitality, said goodbye, and he went home... it was over. It was just Lauren and I. The rest of this blog is about our journey home; the meetup story is finished, so if that's what you came for you can stop reading, I guess.

## Part X: Mysterious cough, strange sensation when urinating. ##

[THE JOURNEY HOME]

So yes, the coughing. Before we left FBI's Lauren noted she felt a strange tickling in her throat. As she mentioned it, I realized I was feeling it too. Uh oh. So I bought some Buckley's cough syrup from the drugstore before catching the bus: it turned out to be a wise move.

We caught the 99 and successfully bussed to the metro station, and successfully took the metro to Grand Central Station. Both of us are now confident we could use the Montreal metro with ease now; we got tons of practise over the four days. At GCS, we poked into McDonalds and waited to board our train. It was delayed, but we made it on. Our coughs were getting worse. Out throats were getting sore. It was official: we were SICK.

It wasn't too surprising, in retrospect. The whole time we'd been eating badly (lotsa chicken wings, potato products), consuming alcohol, and getting poor sleep, all things that suppress immune system function. On top of that we were constantly touching and rolling around with a bunch of people, a germophobe's nightmare. I don't think liljim will be able to fix this NG bug.

The train was alright. Our seats were accommodating, though the attendant wished to convert them into the bed-form ASAP. While she did we went further up the train and watched the movie August Rush: it was good. The bed was tiny but wide enough for us both. Unfortunately our sleep was troubled: we were sick, the train was noisy and there was a bawling baby a seat or two down. Next time: earplugs. The rocking motion of the train was actually helping me get to sleep until all the other shit came around.

The next day was "blarg." Lauren was fairly miserable, being trapped on the train with no internet and being sick and tired. I had a book to read and I don't mind the long train ride so I'd say my spirits were a bit higher, though the sickness was irritating. Thank goodness for the Buckley's. We arrived in Halifax over 2 hours late (which means a travel voucher worth 50% of our Montreal-Halifax ride towards the next train ride we take, yay) and bussed back to Lauren's apartment, where we got clean and started enjoying what pictures had made it to the internet.

= = = = = =

###### EPILOGUE ######

## Part XI: "Meh, I'd do it again." ##

[FINAL THOUGHTS]

In a nutshell: Fucking awesome.

It was so cool to meet you guys. I mean, for one who has never done it before it would seem odd: a bunch of internet people... but once we all got together it was just like we were all friends who knew each other in spite of the fact that it was the first time we'd ever met. We acted like any "normal" group: a baseball team, high school friends, what have you.

The fun we had was brilliant. So many good memories, many of which I likely missed here but will be reminded of later, like Warrickneff telling us how Jonas thought he'd be a girl when he picked him up... hehhehe.

I will be sure to try my damnedest to make the next meetup. If it's around the same time next year hopefully I'll have some more flexible funds. A warmer meetup would be sweet but if it's cold Montreal again I'm all for it. I'd also love to host a Halifax meet but I dunno if it would have the same pull, since Montreal is sort of a running tradition; this year just happened to attract a lot of participants for some reason. We'll talk, we'll talk.

I hope whoever you are, you enjoyed reading this blog as much as I enjoyed writing it. Feel free to comment and point out mistakes, especially if you were at the meet and I got details wrong.

Love, Zerok.

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PICTURE LINKS

AS TOLD BY POXPOWER
AS TOLD BY AFRO-NINJA

AS TOLD BY LUIS... SORT OF. HE HASN'T UPDATED IT FROM SPAIN-ESE, OR ADDED ANYTHING... LOTS OF PICTURES OF POX, SORT OF ANDY WARHOL STYLE... IF YOU'RE INTO THAT... THIS LINK IS GETTING LONG, I'LL STOP NOW.