KEEPING THIS SHORT, I swear, I'd like to get some writing done at least before I conk out tonight.

Today was the Paper Factory trip to Dave & Buster's, which was freaking amazing. Ann and Bruce decided to treat the entire Halloween crew, which was absolutely incredible of them. So after the store closed up at 4 today, we all gathered in the parking lot, and piled into the balloon delivery van and A&B's SUV. Those of us that had worked today were struggling to stay awake on the drive up, but I managed to get some work done on a rush crochet project.

Most of us had never been to Dave & Buster's, but, it was pretty darn awesome. Even more awesome, because Bruce was ridiculously generous. We had a whole little party room for just us, they gave us surprisingly yummy food (chips and dip, chicken fingers, these amazing mini-pizzas, that sort of thing). Bruce specifically told us that anyone legal could have whatever drink they wanted - poor Sam, who's newly 21, begged me and Ashley (the only other two "kids" who are legal) to sit with her at the young'ins table so she wouldn't feel so awkward. I had no idea what to ask for, since I'm not big on beer, but Sam saved me with the suggestion of a rum and coke, which Tom and I have found we really like.

Through most of dinner, the grown-ups involved in the costume-theft bust told a very dramatic (and hysterical) version of the story, which was awesome. As one of the other girls pointed out to me, Halloween stories are so much better outside of the store, and after the fact. (Not quite so kosher to be THAT blunt about your customers when you're in the store. ;)

And theeeen, there were the games. HOLY CRAP. I haven't been in a place with that many games...probably since Chuck E. Cheese. Sam and I were totally psyched to go find DDR... but it was awhile before we spotted it. And then! It wasn't DDR, but... crap I've forgotten already. I have a hunch it was a version of "Pump it Up" (the thing looked pretty much like this), because the arrows? WERE ALL ON THE CORNERS. Diagonal arrows. I was confused as hell, I've neeever played one of those before! The first few tries were pretty atrocious - but I was still better than poor Sam. ;) I played a few more solo rounds, determined to get my head wrapped around it, and after a few songs, I had it down fairly well. Managed an A on a 5. :) 6s were iffy, and one 7 that I really liked the song to, I think I managed to pass. Played again later with one of the new boys, and he actually did pretty well.

But Mac took pictures of me playing. I am freaking terrified. I had a whole little crowd of onlookers, the grown-ups were all totally bewildered by my ability to play this thing.

I did have one of the Guitar Hero obsessed kids run me through a game of that - and once I got the hang of hitting the strum-button at the same time as the fret-buttons, it was actually pretty fun. The way the sound in the game is manipulated, getting *so* much louder and fuller when you're playing correctly, is absurdly rewarding and goes a long way toward making it addictive I think. (The theory, though, is DDR, only without flailing like an idiot. I understand why it's as big as it is.)

Lots of Skee-ball, some other random games... lots of the silly "stop the light at the number to win buttloads of tickets!1!!" games, which I always fail at. Ashley and I played a round of an alien-shooting game - and were glad that a) we could tell our gamer boyfriends we played something they would find fun, and b) that said boys were NOT there to witness the atrocity of us playing. It was freaking bad.

BUT, while everybody else was playing those silly games where you drop a coin in, and hope the moving metal shelves push coins down into the basin to get you tickets (which they were MASSIVELY addicted to, though watching, I couldn't quite see why)... I found the retro games. ^_______^ Sadly, not the original arcade boxes, but a re-release of them, bundling 2-3 games in each case. But! I GOT TO PLAY SPACE INVADERS. On an arcade machine. It was AWESOME. (And seriously freaking difficult!!! I tried like six times, and the closest I got to beating the FIRST level was like, four aliens left on the screen.) Also played some Pac-Man, which I was totally rocking.

When I mentioned to the grown-ups later that I'd found these, they all flipped out and were upset that they hadn't seen them (we'd all cashed in our tickets and were on the way out at this point). Chad used to play Centipede obsessively, and Ann was addicted to PacMan. Ann! I would never have guessed.

...so, end of the evening, everyone was piling up their tickets. They give out these oversized paper cups to carry your tickets in, and everybody's was overflowing. One girl had two cups, both overflowing. (Bruce... had been more than generous in buying all of us game cards with a looot of credits on them. And then gave out second ones! Absolutely amazing of him.)

Everyone else had totals in the thousands (each ticket was 2 points) to spend. I think the evening's record was 18,000, by Eric, who was massively determined to amass tickets. Me? I had 102. lmfao. It was ridiculous. But the DDR game and retro games didn't give out tickets! And the games where you have this iiiitty bitty chance of scoring big just don't interest me, I so rarely win. What I did win, for the first time in yeeeears, was the crane game. So while all I could afford in the ticket redemption area were two tiny pieces of candy, I have myself the most adorable little frog plush. (It's definitely supposed to be a baby toy, but I refuse to care. He has overalls and he's adorable.)

We all played the name game the whole way home (me giving "Micky Dolenz" was followed by a grown-up giving "Davy Jones", which so made my night). And then a few of us girls swung by Burger King, where they currently have BIRTHDAY CAKE SUNDAE MILKSHAKES which are freaking amazing. On the drive from there to my apartment, Sam cranked up "Mmmbop", and we both sang along at the top of our lungs, which was totally the perfect end to the evening. (The one bizarre part though.. also in the car was one of the new girls. The song started playing, and she wasn't sure she knew it. "Oh, you've definitely heard it before... though you might have only been like four," I told her. Once we reached the chorus, she answered, "Oh yeah, I've heard this... but I really do think I was about four." OH GOD feeling so old.)


So, it was a veeeeery good day, but I am tired as hell. I don't think I'll write much today - my whole getting-ahead of schedule was intended to cover me yesterday (when I had to go to sleep early) and today. But I might try to write a little bit of my scene with the semi-crazy psychic. :)

Labels: being social, ddr, life in general, product whoring, silliness, travel, work