By the time March 6th rolled around, everybody had heard of the famous outing. It was the talk of the town and everyone wanted to experience one. Little did one little lady know tonight would be her first.

Mr. McCrady had given us an assignment. We were to act out a section of the horrendous novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" and he was going to evaluate us on it. A group of Melinda, Scott, Evan, & Nichole was formed and we had opted for the choice of creating a masterful film. Now the only decision was which part? There were so many to choose from. The destruction of Mrs. Dubose's flowers and when Scout threw a potato were all suggested, but we decided upon the family feud between Scout & Francis. For further information on our Mockingbird creation, please click here.

Melinda, Evan, & Nichole all came to my house off the bus one afternoon to film the video, and needless to say it was a great success. Afterwards I treate them with a glimpse of my wonderful webpage, which they noticed The Outing Journal. I bragged about my great literature and thesarus-using ways, when suddenly an idea was spawned. What if we were to engage in an outing this very night? I thought 'surely you jest', but no, they were being quite serious. Once all of my doubts were diluted, I too rejoiced in their brilliant idea. It was Nichole, however, who was still in the dark on the topic.

After a rather swift phone call with the parents, it as confirmed that Nichole's presence would not be allowed on this outing. The remaining three of us, much saddened by the loss of one of our members were still psyched for this spur of the moment outing. It was then revealed that Evan was needed at home, but that Melinda & I should contact him later and perhaps he could attend. And then there were two. It took a bit of persuading for me to get Kevin allow me to go, but with the deadline of 11:00 it was still better than nothing.

The first destination was the green behemoth, Sobeys ("It's a Thursday night. There is no school Friday. Melinda & Scott are going on an outing. The first of an era", quote Scott). We ventured into the sliding doors, stopping momentarily to harrass the metaphorically chained cashiers Courtney, Caroyln, & Trish, and headed toward the dairy aisle. Months after the first, there was yet another sighting of....the reduce cart!! Rummaging through that beast, we found valuables of immense proportions. Things such as ginger bread mix ("It's reduced to clear!" quote Melinda, "It's now or never folks!", quote Scott"). Although the dairy and frozen products were definately tempting, it was another product which was the apple of our eye.

Swerving into the next aisle, we were hit with an alarming amount of joy after we saw at least six shelves full of kool aid. I trusted Melinda's judgement with this one, for I was not exactly an expert with the kool aid business, and if 574 g of Magic Grape Fantasy tickled her fancy, then I knew it had to be good. It was pre-sugared as well ("How convenient can you get?!" quote Scott).The plan of action was then to walk all over town eating kool aid, but of course, what good is kool aid when not in hydrous form? So this is when MY expertise stepped in. Melinda trusted me with choosing the right kind of water, and with brand names such as Evian and Big 8 surrounding me, I felt as if I was in a twister of liquidized expenses. Then God created a miracle. In bottle form. 1 L of Dasani remineralized water. Ohhhh yaaaaa. The excitement was overwhelming.

We headed toward the checkout area, being served by the ever delightful Courtney, where we had conversed a wide topic of tings ranging from Burger King to lizards. But, as the night pressed on, it was time to explore different areas of Charlottetown. We said our good byes ("Goodbye Courtney, goodbye Carolyn, goodbye Kraft Dinner" quote Melinda), yet was once again detoured. This time by everyone's favorite slacker, Janet Lightfoot!!! We showed Janet & Amy our purchases ("Did ya get a coupon" quote Janet) and quickly pressed on with our outing. But what we didn't know was that now our outing was going to be rocked. Rocked like a grandmother on an automatatic rocking chair. Who just happens to be chanting the words "paging paige paige". And no I don't know where that came from.

We hadn't forgotten about our final potential outing member of the evening, Sir Evan Carruthers, and we felt it was time to give him a lil' dingle and see just what was up. It was a failed hope, however, as he would not be able to join in the festivities. We had decided to head into the local McDonald's to get a cup of water for kool-aid making purposes. The snow was falling, and the air was chilled, but we managed to make it to the destination by engaging in fun 'n' games. The sight of the big "M" had alerted us in knowing that w&w were near...water & warmth ("Think up all of the words that you could could Mc in front of...like, have a mcshitty day!" quote Melinda).

We entered the doors of McDonalds and were right away greeted by the irksome voice of Laura informing us that the manager wanted us to shut the camera off. Needless to say, we were not impressed. But being the good wholesome teens that we are (ha) we decided that at least tonight we would not cause a scene, at least not on outing #1 for Melinda. We got our cup of water and preceded in creating a cup of kool aid. Magic style ("the powder's yellow..and it turns red...but it tastes like grape!" quote Melinda). Laura was the first tester of our creation ("What are your feelings?" quote Scott "It needs sugar" quote laura). Sugar inclusive my ass! Melinda poured another two gallons of powder into the cup and eventually we managed to get an "it's good". What happened next came totally out of the blue. The manager of McDonalds had come to our table and told us that he was sorry that he told us to turn our video camera off, and gave us a pie for our troubles. Yes, that's right, a baked apple pie! Imagine getting rewarded for not making a fuss! McDonald's had definately repented itself in our books. Now if the pie had actually been WARM, then they definately would have gotten a few extra bonus points, but beggars can't be choosers...

Tim Hortons was the next stop. Donut was on the agenda. I ran into Vanessa from A&W and we reminissed about the first time we met *cue wavy lines, see Adventure at A&W. * When I decided it was time to order, I was dumbstruck with what I saw! In one of the sections there were two donuts, one being solid maple and the other being maple with a whole in the middle. One of the tags said "Canadia Maple" the other said "Maple Dip"! There was a conspiracy at Tim Hortons and I was hell bent on figuring this one out. The cashier seemed rather tentative when I approached him, sending out my demands and reqests for further knowledge on this situation. I half expected him to retreat to the back and ask somebody else, but this guy definately knew his donuts. He informed me that the "canadian maple" was similiar to the "boston cream" and that the "maple dip" was just a spawn of the "chocolate dip". The mystery had been solved, and my beloved maples had turned out to be nothing but half-assed clones of pre-popular donuts! I was definately distraught. Purchases were in need, as Melinda got a "honey dip" and I stooped so low as to get a "maple dip"...they were just so tempting!

- Harrassing Vanessa's friends (everything comes with a price *flashed the finger at me*) - The 2nd tim hortons mystery...the names tags!