Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Surprisingly, I got up bright and early New Year's Day. Having made sure to drink plenty of water, I was feeling fine. A little tired, a bit partied out, but good.

Figuring it was still too early, I was just going to try to get back to sleep when The Warrior Princess got up and went upstairs to the kitchen to start getting things ready for the breakfast crepes she was making. I got up, as well, and The Gryphon got up so he could help her.

The Warrior Princess had promised to start making crepes at about 8:30, and she stayed to that schedule. The first crepes were ready at about 9. Since not everybody got up at the same time, the process was spread out. She would make crepes for whoever was available and then pause for awhile, sit down, relax.

The Gryphon had promised to serve as her sous chef, and I'd offered to help him out. But there wasn't much required of me in the way of food preparation. Instead, I helped with things like cleaning off the table and being his gopher.

The crepes were delicious, with several possible toppings: chocolate, apples and caramel, sour cherries, and raspberries. I think there might have been another berry topping, too. I tried the chocolate and then the sour cherries. You'd put a spoonful of the topping on the crepe along with a dollop of plain yogurt, roll it up and enjoy the taste sensation.

The Gryphon's breakfast strata turned out really well. I had a serving for breakfast and at lunch time had another for lunch.

Everyone who wanted crepes had more or less drifted through by about noon, which was about when The Court Wizard and The Cheshire Cat came by with The Paper, who'd been released from the hospital. The Warrior Princess made another round of crepes.

It was good to see The Paper out and about, and this time I could get a picture of her. She was cheerful and chipper. You'd never know she'd spent New Year's Eve in the hospital.

I joined a card game with The Devil's Advocate, Pimp Daddy, the Video Editor, The Gryphon and The White Rabbit. The game was called Citadels, and it's a card game where you choose a different character each round from eight potential characters, Assassin, Thief, Magician, King, Bishop, Merchant, Architect, or Warlord, all of which have special abilities. You don't know what the other people will be that round, so part of the strategy involves figuring that out.

You use money to build buildings, and you can use special abilities to foil your opponents, by assassinating them, stealing from them, or knocking down their building, for example. The game ends when anyone has eight buildings. Then you count points based on the size of the building, and the one with the most wins.

Pimp Daddy explains something.
I'm too busy taking this picture to listen.

This game turned out to be a lot of fun. There was a random factor but also a lot of strategy, and the nice thing about this group is that they will give you strategy tips as they go along. So it's actually a collegial atmosphere, rather than a cutthroat competition.

Of course, some obvious jokes got thrown out, such as when the Assassin had killed the Bishop and I threw out the Monty Python line, "There's a dead bishop on the landing, Dad." The Video Editor kicked himself for not getting to that one first.

For some reason, everyone was picking on The White Rabbit, possibly because he's so mild-mannered that he seldom does more than make a funny face back. I kept jumping to his defense. He won, despite it all.

I made the observation that The Gryphon could never win at poker because you can read his emotions in his face. When things are going well, he's gleeful and smug. When they're going badly, he seems really disappointed. Of course, that's also one of the things I like about him: what you see is what you get.

As the game was finishing up, a friend of ours from college stopped by. I'll call her The Paralegal. For many years, she shared a house with a rotating group of fellow Penn Staters, including, I believe, The White Rabbit, The March Hare, Agent Smith, The Costumer, The Paper and The Cheshire Cat, as well as possibly others. They all took turns renting out rooms in a house together in the Philadelphia suburbs for many years.

I gave her a hug and caught up with her. She's now studying for the bar in the D.C. area and is optimistic about passing it this time around. She explained she has updated study materials, which should help. I suppose having outdated legal books is like having outdated medical books; you have to keep up with what's current.

That led to a very interesting conversation between The Paralegal, The Court Wizard and I about learning methods, and how people learn differently. Some are good at memorizing and synthesizing facts, while others prefer to apply the information or visualize it in some way. Turns out all three of us learn better by applying knowledge. In fact, The Court Wizard told me that certain mathematics courses would frustrate him because he wanted to understand the purpose of the math equations he was learning. Now that he's a video game designer and uses many of these math techniques, he can understand how it's applied and it makes more sense to him.

The Paper put together an early dinner for those who wanted to participate. We headed out at about 3:30 so that The Court Wizard could return in time for his flight, at about 7:30.

As I remember, it was me, The Gryphon, The Court Wizard, The Paper, The Cheshire Cat, The Martial Artist, The Book Lover, The Dormouse, The March Hare, The Warrior Princess, Agent Smith, and The Costumer. We went to Applebee's, which actually has some very nice Weight Watchers entrees that are not only tasty but light in calories and fat. The White Rabbit and I each ordered one, the Confetti Chicken. Not made with actual confetti.

The Dormouse ordered a meal he said came with two many vegetables, so The Court Wizard and I happily divvied them up. I remarked that The Court Wizard has been looking healthier lately, ironically, since he donated a kidney to his sister. I suggested that maybe the stress of that situation had been getting to him, and he agreed that might have been a factor.

Then it was back to The White Rabbit's house, where many of us bustled about, putting things away and loading up our cars while The Martial Artist gave The Court Wizard a ride to the airport.

The Martial Artist and The Book Lover were having a rough day, which started off with a phone problem. The way we found out about it was sort of amusing. The phone had rung during the game of Citadels, and The White Rabbit returned to say that they would be late because their phone hadn't been working.

This made no sense to us initially, but The Video Editor suggested that perhaps the problem with the phone was that it was jammed in their ignition. Ironically, as soon as they arrived, The Martial Artist's car gave up the ghost. But kindly, The Paper offered to loan him her car until they could get it fixed. That's the cool thing about this group; we have each other's backs.

A bit later, when things had settled, The Devil's Advocate started a game of Puerto Rico, which is based on the history of that U.S. commonwealth. Also joining in were The Gryphon, The White Rabbit and The Martial Artist.

There were some aspects about it that were similar to Citadels. Every round, you picked a character to play. In this case, you get certain privileges for choosing the character but everyone else gets to take actions after you. If you pick the Builder, you are allowed to build an extra building if you can afford it, and everyone else just builds one.

The main goal is to hire workers, create goods (corn, indigo, coffee, sugar and tobacco), and then ship the goods, which converts them into victory points. The only way to win is to have the most victory points at the end.

The Martial Artist used the strategy of accumulating as much money as possible early on, using it to buy the buildings that would give him the most advantages and producing high end goods (coffee and tobacco), which turn into the most victory points.

I accumulated a number for quarries, which allows you to buy buildings cheaply, but unfortunately, I was slow in converting goods into victory points, so I think I came in third. I forget who won this time around, but I believe it was The Devil's Advocate.

Again, everyone was helpful to those of us who hadn't played it before, and while the game was pure strategy, I had a lot of fun. Generally speaking, I don't like pure strategy games, but this one entertained me. Maybe it was the company.

Afterwards, we all hung out a bit longer. The March Hare was still there, and he joined in with the socializing, as did The Dormouse. The conversation turned to various things, such as places we've lived and the difficulties associated with them. Turns out The Martial Artist and The Book Lover are having water troubles in their basement, which I promised to relay to my brother, who's learning to be a building inspector and is also fixing up his own house. I'll probably get a chance to sound him out this coming weekend.

The Gryphon, who'd had less sleep than I and who had not, like me, been chowing down on chocolate covered espresso beans, suggested we get going at about 7. The White Rabbit thanked us profusely for all the work we put into organizing the party. I, in turn, thanked him for agreeing to have it at his place, since it was the best place for it. I was really happy with how things had gone. Everybody seemed to have a good time.

Peace Out from the March Hare

We exchanged hugs all around and headed home, where The Gryphon and I watched the end of season seven of Buffy. All I can say is, "Wow."

It was funny to only have our kitty, Luke, in the house. He was glad to see us. My dog, Una, was still being boarded at the vets until the next morning. I picked her up the next day and gave her a much needed bath. Despite the bath, she was equally glad to see us.

The Gryphon stayed home from work and caught up on his sleep. We had a very peaceful beginning to 2006.

More from New Year's 2006:

January 3, 2006 - Shiny, Happy New Year

January 6, 2006 - Collective Weirdness

New Year's 2005:

January 3, 2005 - In the Pink

New Year's 2004:

January 5, 2004 - Shiny, Happy People

Copyright 2005 by Alyce Wilson

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