In which I work my ass off for, well, for fun. Apparently.

Last night I went to Elisabeth’s bachelorette party, which did not involve male strippers and booze.

It was a scavenger hunt.

It started at the Farmer’s Market at six PM sharp, wended its way through Oby Nelson park, the graveyard, Chatauqua Park, and all of the open businesses on the town square, and it ended at Chloe’s house at about ten-thirty for pizza and beer.

We had to ask the Farmer’s Market vendors embarassing questions to get clues to give to Farmer Doug to get additional clues. We had to kiss Adam Perkins on the lips, throw watermelon at each other…

…pour water out of cups attached to our heads into cups attached to our teammate’s head, break water balloons with a Bic pen while blindfolded…

…collect flora in the dark, take headstone tracings in the dark, collect things like BBQ sauce and pickled ginger from various vendors on the square, buy produce and light bulbs and matches, go to the fire station, record various sounds, take various pictures, and in general accost strangers for weird things.

It was actually kinda stressful. It felt more like working than relaxing, what with the hurrying and the talking to strangers and the running around feeling stupid, but it was my first scavenger hunt so I may not have had exactly the right attitude.

I can’t express my admiration for the amount of work Chloe did setting it up, though. She’d gotten all of the Farmer’s Market vendors in on the game, she’d gotten four or five people to go to the various locations and run our little tasks (she’d even collected Pabst Blue Ribbon racing jackets for them to wear, so we could find them at each place), she’d made up the lists and made copies and devised a point system. She’d set it up so that each team ended up with bags of produce from the market, which she and her boyfriend then used to make pizzas and salad. She’d gone, in a nutshell, totally overboard designing this scavenger hunt and it rocked.

If you like that sort of thing.

I really didn’t enjoy knocking on a stranger’s door at 10:21 pm to ask them to come out on the porch for the “photo of the team with an unfamiliar family on their porch” picture, worth 100 points. I didn’t mind kissing Adam (50 points), nor did kissing the blue room bother me (100 points), but interacting with strangers at their door weirds me out. (It was too much like canvassing for OSPIRG, which I only did for a month one summer but I truly hated it.) It was just our luck we got some International MIU students who didn’t really seem to know what a scavenger hunt was, but they were nice enough to pose for a picture with us.

I did like visiting the fire house, though. Who doesn’t adore firemen! My favorite part of that was watching Ali jump six inches when the guy started the siren up. She’s so cute.

Oh, yeah – I was on a team with Ali and Rachel Black. Those chicks rock. And Elisabeth apparently loved the scavenger hunt, and that was the whole point. Best wishes, e!

In which I prepare to hang out in a room full of women.

I’m going to Chloe’s to celebrate Elisabeth’s bridal shower. Yay! I do not have a camera with me to record this event, not even my cell phone (I don’t know where it is; I hope it’s at home on the laundry table).

Good thing Chloe’s a photographer.

I just saw Penny and Enzo in the parking lot. Enzo’s getting big.

In other news, I got a brand-new computer at work! It rawks. I’m so happy.

In which a superior woman serves me superior pizza.

I went to Christina’s for lunch today. She made awesome pizzas and salad. Her kids are aweome. Prasada was in a mood because she was starving and I was late, and she totally cracked me up about five times.

Christina and I talked about going to visit the nuns in Atchison with Tahmi the last weekend in September. I’m really stoked about the trip.

After a too-leisurely meal, I started making noises about having to go back to work. Christina said, “No, no, no! That clock’s slow!”

I told her I was leaving right then, even as she handed me a paper cup full of strawberry/raspberry smoothie she’d just whipped up in her Vitamix, “because otherwise I’ll get trapped here in your vortex of fun and I’ll never be able to leave! Now stop being more fun that work right now!”

They even followed me out to the car, trying to trap me in their vortex of fun. Those Wadsworths, they’re dangerous.

I waited ’til well past two, and woke Brett up again. He didn’t want to do anything. I said, “Would you like to do something fun, or are you too tired?” He grumbled, “I’m pretty happy where I am.”

So I went to Ottumwa by myself.

I went to Taco Bell, Target, and The Brothers Grimm.

Allow me to explain my behavior:

• My mom used to sneak me to Taco Bell when I was little. My dad hated the place, but she and I loved their enchiritoes, and we’d go there as a secret treat. Due to this, I’ve always loved Taco Bell in spite of itself.
• I’ve been dressing in a certain quasi-hippie/urban style since I was 17. Suddenly, it’s in. I am loathe to announce that I wanted 80% of the clothes on the racks at Target today. This makes me feel both vindicated and a little queasy. I was too freaked out to buy anything.
• I loved the movie. Loved it. But then, I’m a Gilliam fan and Brazil is one of my all-time favorite movies ever. Jonathan Pryce was in it, and I adore him.

I sat next to Rosie at the movie, because she was there and invited me to.

After the movie, I drove to Fairfield and spent three hours at the bar with Hattie and Corby. This is a phone pic I snapped of me and AmmZon:

Aren’t we so cute?

Corby and I discussed drunkard’s remorse; the PC-ification of language and how much it sucks; the implications of nano; fairly recent developments in A.I.; and a bunch of other important stuff. Corby said “Orwellian” several times. Let it be known that Corby rawks.

I got home at a quarter after ten, and Brett was asleep on the couch in front of the television.