I’ve had a really weird 24 hours. Yesterday was 100% perfect, something I didn’t know was possible. Something I had only heard spoken of before in an Ice Cube song. It involved Brand New pins, Snoop Dogg, 6God’ing with Neck Deep, splatter vinyl, and good friends. The summary cannot do this justice, and normally I wouldn’t do a whole post about just a ~random day in my life~, but yesterday was so wild…I need to document it so I don’t doubt its existence down the line.
So how do I even begin this? I went to work in the morning, knowing I’d be leaving around noon to make it downtown for JYD’s charity basketball game. Got home from work, there’s an envelope for me. It’s the handful of Brand New “The Devil & God Are Raging Inside Me” pins I ordered from Heartificial. It’s perfect timing because I’m meeting up with my friend Ananda later and one of the pins is for her. They had some rare pepes glitter variant pins. All of mine were the glitter variant. I took this as a good sign.
Then we went over to the basketball game. I knew nearly everyone in the room for the first time in my life. I wasn’t just being introduced as my parents’ kid; they actually knew me. It’s a weird feeling, suddenly being accepted as an adult. So I caught up with old friends and discussed how badly I wanted to meet Snoop Dogg.
This is the origin story for where the story gets wild.
I go with my parents to meet Snoop. He’s doing a couple interviews and taking a couple photos. I go for my photo and – as pictured above – show up in a SICK Snoop Dogg shirt. Snoop is excited about the shirt, and also about my weave (note: it’s just my weak thin hair, no weave). I understand about half of what he’s saying, but gather that he’s glad I’m repping him with my shirt and that he likes the colour purple. I blabber a couple of random words in an unknown order and get out of there. I did not expect any more from myself than that. I have met expectations.
I leave just after tip-off to Uber over to Neck Deep at HMV. I show up just before it begins – perfect timing – and am brought over to the staff side of the room (perks of being an ex-label worker bee). Ananda finds me and I all but THROW her Brand New pin at her because I’m so excited. Neck Deep comes out to play 3 acoustic songs and ends up playing 4 after an enthusiastic audience request. They sound great, everyone is rushing with adrenaline. Ananda & I take on the prestigious role of “girls who cut off wristbands and direct fans toward the signing table”. We do a fantastic job. We ask if we are allowed to continue our 6God’ing tradition here and now. We are approved.
[I don’t have the photo yet, but it will be here and it will be glorious. I promise.]
We walk up to say hello and I attempt to do a better job at speaking than I did with Snoop Dogg. I do not. However, they ask about my Snoop Dogg shirt and I summon up “I JUST MET HIM AN HOUR AGO! ALL-STAR WEEKEND! CRAZY! TORONTO!” and then not much else that made a lot of sense. They are too hung up on the Snoop thing to realize I haven’t spoken a full sentence yet. I drop to my 6God knee and start to pray. The squad follows suit and I am no longer expected to speak and no longer able to embarrass myself. Things have gone better than expected.
We head upstairs and go to scan the vinyl section. I see a copy of All Time Low’s “Nothing Personal”. I wonder what the chances are that a $20 pressing is the splatter variant. I buy it. It is the splatter pressing and I make a scene in the Eaton Centre food court.
Ananda & I go for dinner and have a nice few hours just chatting (or in my case ranting because I don’t know how not to get amped up over everything) and wandering around the Eaton Centre. I leave to meet up with my parents and head home.
This is when the story actually gets wild.
I get home. I am going to sleep. My mom phones me.
“Hey, have you looked at Snoop Dogg’s Instagram account tonight? Maybe you should…”
I look. There, in all its glory, is my dumb circle crop photo of me, JYD, and Snoop Doggy Dog himself. I spend the next hour and a half laughing hysterically and scream-whispering “WHY, WHY HAS HE DONE THIS, WHY DID HE POST THIS WITH NO EXPLANATION, @ ME NEXT TIME”.
I start to see people I used to know tagging each other in the comments going “is this…?” and like, yeah I know, I’m just as confused as you are. I receive screenshots from 4 different friends letting me know that someone called me out in the comment as an old Down With Webster fan. I laugh myself to sleep.
I figured this is where the story would end. It is not.
Guess who ended up on etalk today?
That’s where the story ends for now.
For now.