Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The AMV Editor, The Dormouse and Batman

On Saturday, The White Rabbit threw a party to celebrate the return of our friend, Batman, from South Korea, where he's been teaching English for two years.

The Gryphon couldn't come, because the Philadelphia Area Gaming Enthusiasts (PAGE) were having their annual big event, Game Day. He was running a couple activities there involving war gaming miniatures, Seekrieg.

A good group did arrive, including The Warrior Princess, The Martial Artist and The Book Lover, The Cheshire Cat and The Paper, The Dormouse, Agent Smith and The Costume, The Cousin and her two daughters, and a friend of the White Rabbit's I'll call the AMV Editor because of his prominence in the anime music video world.

The event was a potluck, and I wasn't sure what people were bringing, so I went a little overboard. I brought a cheese tray and a fruit salad as well as a millet casserole The Gryphon helped me make the night before. The cheese tray and the fruit were popular, but the millet casserole didn't attract as much interest. Perhaps I shouldn't have spent as much time bragging that it was vegetarian and low fat, and might have emphasized "cheesy goodness" instead.

The White Rabbit set up a TV downstairs, where people could play videogames or watch DVDs. A few of them got wrapped up in watching funny shorts called Red Versus Blue, which are humorous stories constructed from using stills from a video game, Halo.

I hung out upstairs, noshed on food and chatted with people. A bunch of us got talking about politics and agreed that, regardless of party affiliation, we were all disappointed with how George W. Bush is running the country. We started joking around about starting our own campaign. Batman said he wanted to run for president, but since he's not old enough, I offered to do so in his stead. I promised to adopt his platform and also change my last name to "Puppet."

We decided The Warrior Princess would be my running mate, and she would dress as a pirate and call herself Vice President Arrrrgh. Then people started coming up with ideas for our platform, all of which were ridiculous or blatant power grabbing stunts.

The Cheshire Cat announced that he would be our Karl Rove, except less evil and less stupid. He thought about this: "Well, less stupid." He thought awhile longer. "OK, I'll be Karl Rove."

I'm not sure exactly how the conversation turned, but I think it was I asked how we'd beat Hillary and somebody claimed they had a pictures of Hillary in bondage gear, which we could use to our advantage. Our course, this led to random free association, such as when I said, "It gives a whole new meaning to gaining control of the Senate." I got laughs.

This progressed to me suggesting the image of Bill Frist wearing a ball gag. More laughter.

And then I went too far. Without the words going through any sort of filter, or perhaps even the Broca's Area of my brain, I said, "Time for your morning (naughty word) whacking."

Everybody stopped dead and stared at me. They couldn't believe I would say such a thing. I mean, the innuendo was one thing, but to be so blatant about it was a shocker. They might have accepted such terminology from Vice President Arrrgh, but they certainly didn't expect it from me. I stood still while they lambasted me for my verbal gaffe.

Pause. "Does this mean I can't be president?" I asked. More laughter, and equilibrium was restored.

Really, I suppose I can understand why it shocked them so. It definitely crossed the line more than the previous jokes. If I had been on-stage at ComedySportz, it would have been a brown bag foul. That occurs when an improviser or an audience member makes a lewd remark. They then have to wear a paper bag over their head for the rest of the game.

I was having a good time, but I found myself hovering around the table too much. While most of the food options were healthy, too much of anything could undo all the work I've done to lose my holiday weight. So I drifted into the living room and talked to The Book Lover for awhile, who was working on some lace. We looked through photos of the New Year's Eve party which The Paper still has on her camera. There's a lot of great shots on there, and she promised to e-mail them to me once she finally downloads them.

Then I helped the AMV Editor gather a group of people to play a game he'd brought, Apples to Apples. It's a word association game that I knew would be a hit with this group of people, all of whom are creative and many of whom love word games. We got a good group together: myself, Agent Smith, the AMV Editor, The Dormouse, Batman, The Cheshire Cat, and The Cousin. Her two daughters joined in later when they realized how fun the game is.

To play this game, everyone gets five to seven red apple cards, which are all nouns. You take turns serving as the judge. The judge flips over a green apple card, which is an adjective. Everyone has to put down the red apple card they feel is closest to matching the adjective. You place them face down so the judge doesn't know who placed them. Then the judge looks through them all and chooses a winner. The person who put the winning card in receives the green card.

Normally, you would play until somebody earns a given number of cards, but the AMV Editor suggested we just play until we felt like quitting.

Of course, it helps to know who your audience is. Some people did exceptionally well with this, such as Agent Smith. He had a whole bunch of green apple cards in front of him. Either he knows us extremely well or he kept getting lucky. When I suggested this aloud, he joked that he was reading all of our minds.

This game was tons of fun, as we often argued for the cards that we (or even someone else) had placed down, trying to convince the judge. Most of the time, however, the judges had already made their decisions.

Sometimes people just went for comedic value. For example, when the adjective was "cuddly" and I was judging, somebody tried "Tyrannosaurus Rex." Strangely, I chose "Tree Huggers" instead. The Dormouse correctly judged that my hippie nature would find them the cuddliest.

As the AMV Editor told us, he and his friends when they played the game previously decided that the green cards that you win describe you. So The Dormouse was Cuddly and Crazed, amongst other adjectives. The Cheshire Cat was Violent, Sharp and Useless, among others. I was Senseless, Overwhelming and Harmful.

I'm particularly proud of winning the "harmful" card. This was when Agent Smith was judging. I won by putting in "The Backstreet Boys."

In the middle of the game, my sister called. I told her that I was in the middle of a game at a party. I was just about to say, "I'll take it in the kitchen where I can hear better" when she said, "OK. I'll talk to you later" and hung up.

I didn't think about it again until I was leaving the party, when I called her back. She told me it was a bad time because she was out to dinner with her husband and a friend. Then I started over thinking it. I thought that maybe she was mad because I cut her off earlier without even asking her why she was calling first. I know that I'm one of the first people she calls when she has big news, and I felt bad that I hadn't even found out what she wanted.

So I called her back and left a message to apologize. She called me back later in the day and assured me that she hadn't taken offense. In fact, she thinks it's rude when you're spending time with someone and then take a long cell phone call, so she considered it completely acceptable cell phone etiquette. That's good to know for future reference.

Back to the party. I would have liked to stay longer. I was having a great time playing Apples to Apples. Surprisingly, The Cousin's daughter did exceptionally well. They seemed really hip to pop culture and also tended to make unusual choices which people found appealing. For example, for the adjective "lovable" one of them put "The Rolling Stones." Since I was judging, she won.

Another one by placing "The Beatles" when the adjective was "classic" and The Dormouse was judging.

Unfortunately, I had to leave, because I was driving back to Central Pennsylvania that night. I had an eye appointment the next morning (I'd never changed eye doctors, since I only have to go there once a year), and it was a long drive.

I judged one last hand, said my good-byes and loaded up the casserole and my things to drive home. There, I put away the food, and grabbed my luggage and my dog, Una. Since The Gryphon had returned from Game Day, we talked briefly about our days before he helped me load the car and I took off.

The drive to Central Pennsylvania was uneventful. When I arrived, my Dad greeted me cheerfully. I fell asleep on the couch as he talked to me and as we watched Extreme Homes on HGTV. In my dreams, I toured strangely abstract buildings while my Dad chatted about the latest hometown news.

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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