Familia 2 and stuff.

Another fun weekend. I'm going three for three now with these Reno trips.

My mom came up for Sierra Nevada College's parent's weekend and was planning on staying at my place until Sunday. On Saturday there was a whole slew of activities at the Freight House District in Reno and I convinced my mom that she had to come with me to see what snowboard life is like.

The set up. Photo By Boreal

The first event at the Freight House was Boreal's rail jam. I thought I'd be able to do a bunch of tricks and get some gear but I was wrong. They didn't have enough snow so they had to take the box out. This left the flat bar rail. It would have been fun and I could have still done some cool tricks but I just couldn't get enough speed. Even a lot of the guys were having trouble making it to the end. The funnest thing I did was stall on the rail, rock back down the lip, ride up the drop in ramp and 180. I didn't make it across the whole rail once. Not like it mattered because they didn't have any girl prizes anyways. It was fun to ride with my friends though. And how can I complain about riding a rail in Reno on October 15?

After the jam were the festivities inside the Freight House. The guy at the door knew me and let me and my mom in without the $15 tickets, making this the first premier I haven't had to pay for this year (I have no idea who the guy was and even after a ten minute conversation with him I was still bluffing my way through our relationship). The only thing going on inside was the autograph signing. I don't usually participate in those but since there wasn't anything else to do I got some magazines signed. I talked with Sean for a couple minutes and he was like "I need a picture with Dylan Thompson and a bunch of girls" so we got a group of girls together, took a couple pictures and then we went to the bar and Sean bought each of us a couple of drinks. I had a good time talking to him. He was super nice and I was stoked to meet someone new. I love meeting people.

Screen on the field. (Photo: Josh Parker)

The first movie started and I honestly can't even tell you what it was. I went to the back of the Freight House and sat in the seats facing the screen above the baseball field with Sean. We ended up talking most of the movie and I was under the influence enough that I could watch the movie screen and not be able to process a single shot. Finally I was like "Oh shoot my mom is sitting alone. I'm gonna tell her to come back here." I brought her back to where I had been sitting and watched the rest of the movie with her.

Then came the product toss. Having two people doubles your chances of catching stuff so that was awesome. Ended up with a couple of things. None of which I would ever wear, but my giveaway collection is growing so I should be able to have another one of those soon.

Finally Familia started. I'm not writing a review of the movie here, so all I'm going to say is that is was good and you should watch it. I tried narrating what all the tricks were to my mom. Before I brought her to the event I was like "I want you to see what snowboarding is about" and she replied "I know about snowboarding. I watch the Olympics." I attempted to help her understand the video the best I could so that she could see that people snowboard outside the Olympics.

After Familia 2 was the raffle, for which I had no tickets. Then was the win a date with Brewer auction. I was ready to put $10 down for a date, but some older blonde lady put down $75 and I was beat. I didn't think anyone would pay more than $15 for that guy but I was wrong. Ha

"White boy wasted" (Photo: Josh Parker)

Then the music started and my mom went back to our hotel room at the Circus Circus to sleep. She had no desire to see Kreayshawn. Shame. The show started with a bunch of random DJ rap group things. I was maybe a bit tipsy and didn't know who was playing at all. I was on stage for most of the sets until too many people ended up on stage and security kicked everyone off. I stayed up there and finally security was like "You need to get off." And I was like "No way. I'm PR for Technine. This is my job to be up here. Do you know who I am? I've been here all night. Do you know who I am??" It didn't work. I had to get off the stage. Haha. I thought it was funny to try though. Then before Kreayshawn started I went back onto the stage and was standing by the back with Jay, Eric, and Brewer. Security once again came to kick us off, Jay did some sweet talking, something about being a photographer, and the rest of us just stayed up there.

The DJ was playing tracks. Everyone was just moving around pretending to do stuff.

Kreayshawn started and while I don't know any of her songs besides Gucci Gucci (come on, can anyone name ONE other Kreayshawn song? Didn't think so), her music was actually pretty catchy. She started with no shoes on and threw her socks into the crowd while she was singing and did the rest of her set barefoot. Security came up a few more times to kick randoms off the stage, and while I could probably win the random-person-of-the-year award, I managed to not get kicked off by just staying at the back of the stage. By the end of the show Eric, Brewer, Johnny, and I were all dancing towards the front of the stage, just having a good time. When they finished performing I hugged Kreayshawn's sister, high fived Kreayshawn, and then they were gone. And so were we. (Later friends of mine questioned how I was on stage the whole time. I have no idea how it worked out, really, but cool things seem to happen to me when I'm drunk.)

Paul in the zone. (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

First stop after the show was Lincoln Lounge. Which was the best place ever. They played a bunch of classic rock songs and I danced my little heart out. Who did I dance with?? I'm pretty sure I had a few different dance partners, but I don't remember all too well. I know Skeetiter showed up and I danced with him. And then Keeks came out of nowhere too. Oh and Seanderson, Sierra, Marina, Alana, Woj, and Stickupthebutt were with us as well (Looking at photos I realize there were a lot more people than I remembered, so I'm not even going to try listing everyone). At some point a food truck showed up outside the Lounge and I thought it was the delicious Taco Truck so I grabbed Sierra and we ran out to get tacos. Turns out it was the Italian Truck so she bought us some chicken parm, spaghetti, and lasagna. We went back inside to eat and I couldn't finish my stuff so Johnny, Woj, Skeetiter and some others were able to feast as well.

America. Fuck Yeah. (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

Next stop was Wurk. It took us pretty long to get there. I think we went the wrong way. At some point we ran into a singing cowboy who wasn't very good. We hung out with him for a little while. Finally our ragtag pack made it to Wurk. We found out it was a $10 cover and not many of us wanted to pay that. So there we are, standing in front of the building, figuring out how we're going to sneak in. A couple kids tried to just rush the side door but security was on top of it and checked them for stamps. I had two stamps on top of my hands from the earlier events so I thought about trying to pretend one of those was the Wurk stamp until I realized the security guards were checking underneath the wrists for a stamp. I remembered I had eyeliner in my purse so I did a quick sketch of a stamp on my wrist and went to the side door. I walked in with Johnny who had just walked out so it would look like I had been with him. They still checked my wrist, but somehow my scheme worked and I made it in.

Some good Old Fashioned Reno Planking. (Photo: Alana Vaccaro)

Wurk was Wurk. Not much to say about it. More drinks, I think Brewer bought me a couple, I don't remember really. Lots of standing around talking. Kinda dancing. Trancing out in front of the speakers. All that. Finally around 4:30 I called it. I wanted to stay and I was down to party until the sun's out, which has been my Reno tradition I've kept up the past couple of weekends, but I had a hotel room and plans for the morning. The first time I tried leaving Jay grabbed me and was like "No. You aren't leaving." And brought me back in. I stayed for a couple more minutes, said my goodbyes to everyone, and then dipped out before anybody could stop me.

Finding Circus Circus was no problem, but finding the Hotel Tower was. I wandered around the casino for a while before I could find the actual hotel. I finally made it to my room and got in bed. Jay noticed I was gone at this point and started doing the "Where did you go? Come back!" drunk texts, which I found amusing. But it wasn't happening.

I woke back up at 8 and sent it back to Incline with my mom. I had to do some work at Diamond Peak at ten, and was thankfully done with it in like an hour. I came back home just as my mom was leaving. I hugged her good-bye and then passed the fuck out. I slept for the entire day, in my typical day-after-Reno tradition. I had such a good time last night and it was awesome to have my mom there with me for it. I think she enjoyed it too.

Can't wait for Sacramento sending next weekend!
Thanks for taking so many photos Josh & Alana! Many lost memories have been pieced together through these gems.