Saturday, February 7, 2009

the best/most mormon night of my life

It began with a MARTA trip to downtown Atlanta. We didn’t really know which stop to get off at and after we picked one we ended up wandering around for a while, each one following the others like a small pack of lemmings. Eventually we stumbled upon the elusive & surprisingly large Phillips Area. The woman at the ticket booth said our tickets would be $147 for the section our comrades were already in. As we discussed our options, the scalpers who were about 20 feet from the ticket booth kept yelling “Ladies, I’ll give them to you for $10. Or free. You can have them for free!” despite the sign right next to them saying something about fines for scalpers. The ticket lady sensed the competition so she just printed out the tickets, slide them under the glass, and said “Have fun!” After staring at her for a moment of confused disbelief, I grabbed the tickets & we took off. That ticket lady is my hero.

We got to our seats just in time. A lull in the action had led to one of those silly “guess the price” games they play at pro sporting events. When the lady choose to trade in her gifts, she got a diamond ring & a proposal from her boyfriend on the Mega-tron in front of 18,000 hockey fans. I have ALWAYS wanted to see someone propose at a sporting event. Then, a member of our party caught one of those t-shirts shot out of the guns by cheerleaders. I missed that action because I was busy chatting with a couple from Rotterdam. I thought they might know a friend of the family. They didn’t, but I still got to feel cultured.

After the game we ended up setting up a croquet game in Centennial Olympic Park. Some of us were scared they would get a ticket for being in the park after dark, but they stuck it out anyway. The game was surprisingly entertaining & not only because I got to talk about SWPL and mock people. We had to leave when the police indeed showed up & told us we’d probably get shot if we stayed much later. It was okay though, because my team had already basically won.

By now we were getting hungry. Luckily, we happened upon Krispy Kreme where we ran into more policemen. This encounter passed without incident, a bit to my disappointment. Eventually we all reconvened at this guy’s house & played Wii Mario Kart on a projector. I discovered that I may be the world’s worst Mario Kart player in the world. One of the guys there only helped me feel better about myself when he assumed that the person driving straight at the wall for 5 minutes was me (it was not. shocking, i know). I only semi-redeemed myself on Wii Play.

So, marriage proposals, night games, desserts, & games at someone's house...it doesn't get more Mormon than that. And I loved it.

4 comments:

Carrie said...

If you're the world's worst Mario Kart player, where does that leave me? I really wanted to break out of 10th place. I would have preferred to move up, but I guess you have to be careful what you wish for.

Sara said...

Eeks! I think I'm the worst Mario Kart player . . . It was that stupid steering wheel. I hated it.

ANYWAY, yeah -- fun times for all. I'll get the pictures off my camera soon. :)

A Frost said...

Sounds like fun I wish I could have been there.

IzeOfLight said...

I do love your Mario-ing skills. That night we played Super Mario 2 on the old-school NES? One of the highlights of my life.

I hung out with a group of Mormon folks last weekend. The plan was to meet at karaoke bar and crappily sing the night away. We trickled in there probably about an hour after we were supposed to meet, but the place was too full for us to fit our group. So after debating for 30 minutes, we went to a bowling alley 15 minutes away. An hour-and-a-half wait. After debating another 30 minutes, some of us went to a gal's house and did karaoke on her TV. With all the waiting around, full places, driving around, and not really *doing* much, one person said, "This is just like high school." Another girl said, "This is SO Utah." I'm thinking, Really, it's just so Mormon, and so unorganized.