Events of the Evening: Game Night

My mission: to retrieve the card games which I had stored at my dormitorium: Fluxx, Chrononauts, and The Works. (This last perhaps not being up to the standard of the others - but hey! It was small enough to carry in my sweatshirt-pocket.) To bring them to the Game Night which would presently begin at the place they called "Dogg House", in the shadow of the Gilman Parking Structure. And there to eat, drink, and be merry. (I had heard there was pizza.)

My first course of action, upon returning to my room, was to play the video game that I had left paused there. I dallied thus for a few minutes - first rejoicing, then staring blankly in disgust, for reasons recorded elsewhere - then fetched out the card games and set out. It would be a long walk up the hill to Gilman Parking Structure - but I had made the walk before, and was entirely confident that I could beat the others there, as I expected they very probably would take a more circuitious, scenic route. In this mood I set out.

Roughly fifteen minutes later I left the dorm room, I arrived at the top of the hill.

Roughly sixteen minutes later I left the dorm room, I began to suspect that I was in the wrong place.

Roughly twenty minutes later I left the dorm room, after a failed call to N. Konopliv (it went straight to voice-mail, suggesting the futility of further attempts), a search for signage, and several minutes of iPhone googling, I realized that I was adjacent to the wrong parking structure. More specifically, I was exactly on the wrong side of campus, the correct location being diagonally across the length of campus from me.

I hoped they would still have pizza left when I got there.

En route, I crossed the path of two Oriental girls, one slumped over the shoulder of the other. One spoke to the other: "We have to talk tomorrow." "Why?" "Because we can't talk tonight." "Why?" "Because you're drunk." "Is this going to be a big talk?" "Yes." "Why?" "You have become..."

Their conversation faded out of earshot.

With no great difficulty, I found the Dogg House, deep within the shadow of the Gilman Parking Structure, as had been fortold - though the sun had long since set, and the light upon it had a yellow-red sodium tone. Food was heaped in piles inside - candy, chips, even pizza, that last hardly touched! - music played loudly, popular music, though nothing noxious to my senses - and people sat around two tables, playing board games. I could not at first see Mr. Konopliv, but Ms. Chandler was present, and so, after fetching a slice of pizza, I went to sit near her. "Should we play Taboo?" one of the others asked.

Triumphantly, I pulled Fluxx from my sweatshirt. And the people rejoiced.

So we played Fluxx for three rounds - M. Konopliv making an appearance - while the other table played Taboo, and then passed them Fluxx while we played two rounds of Chrononauts. (I don't know how many rounds they played - but the number was not small. Chrononauts is a longer game.) It was an intimate gathering, no more than a dozen people present - two or three prospective scholars, the rest present students? - the candies and sodas flowed freely, and all were of good spirit. Only two persons present had played Fluxx before, and none of them had heard of Chrononauts, so I had to teach them the games. But they were simple games, by and large, and this was no difficulty to speak of. Certainly they were swift learners: I won not a single round of either game! At this I felt no sadness.

We played and played, and hours rolled past; but at last the time came to retire. As was the custom in these affairs, we were invited to take all the food present, for any left-over would be summarily discarded. Most of the others left without indulging in this; but Mr. Konopliv and I together made away with a true hoard. Eleven cans of soda (six coca-cola, five sprite), a vast bag of candy (kit-kats, milk duds, Hershey's), and an 'XL' pizza. Our return was greeted with unanimous delight by our suitemates, and we were deluged with gratitude. No better a conclusion to this long evening could I have hoped for; and so we end our tale here.