Anyone who saw the pictures in the "Screw You Punxsutawney Phil" thread may have noticed I'm looking a bit scruffy of late. As you're about to see, there is a reason (beyond just laziness), because it has once again come time for...
CINCO de MUSTACHE
It's a (fake) holiday celebrating mustaches. There's a party. There are mustaches. It is entertaining.
A bit of history: Back in 2002, when I was still in college, stuck there for spring break(! WOOO!!!!COLLEGE!!!!!) with a group of other broke miscreants, we all decided that the best way to pass the week would be to make up a holiday for every day to add a theme to our drinking. Not surprisingly, I forget what most of them were. The two that stuck out were Marchtoberfest and Cinco de Mustache, both of which were celebrated again the next year. Marchtoberfest died after that second celebration, but Cinco de Mustache kept on going, probably because it involves a few weeks of beard growing prior to the glorious night when all of the excess facial hair disappears, leaving magnificent mustaches in its wake.
Apparently we ripped off the idea from some people in California, who celebrate on June 5th. There are also May 5th celebrations. Ours still centers around March 5th though, because that's when "spring" break was. Plus, it sucks to grow a beard when it's hot out.
Whatever. Fuck it. It's a fun party. In the years since, it has evolved into a celebration of mustaches, mullets, hair metal, ripped t-shirts, PBR, and a lot of the other more-enjoyable aspects of white trash culture.
Here are some pictures of yours truly from years past:
(work is usually fun on Cinco de Mustache day)
(I had an uncool office job that year)
An old flyer:
And this year's:
There are too many stories from this party to ever reasonably tell, so I won't even try, other than to say that it did cause me to get punched in the face hard enough to put teeth through my lip one year and drunk enough to not know it for two more days. It's started and ended more relationships than I can reasonably count, and it's the only time I've ever seen people fight for sleeping space on a floor. Also, the year with fried chicken... genius.
Anyway, as I said, given the interest in mustaches around here, I just thought I'd share. It's happening in Richmond this year on March 7th (since the 5th isn't a Saturday), and you're all more than welcome to come (PM for directions, per request of the people hosting it), though god only knows what it'll look like. Last year, I was busy, so it didn't happen, but it had been getting bigger every year up to then, and I feel that Richmond may be its spiritual home.
More pictures will follow once the damn thing actually happens. You have been warned.
Split ends.
