We Know Stuff When We Pay Attention To Stuff

Another glorious night of trivia at Sip This! So glorious because I put together a spectacular team (which, might I remind you, is my job--to put the team together), and this team did not come in last!

The topic: Marvel, mostly movies but some comic books

The plan: Read wikipedia daily to learn everything there is to know about Marvel. Look on YouTube to learn about Marvel (and then stop watching because it's just way too complicated). Read IMDB for everything about all Marvel movies. Look up all of Stan Lee's cameos. Go see Doctor Strange. Write as many words on the answer board as possible so that one word might be the right answer.

After a month and maybe twenty pages of notes, I was prepared! Eddie was prepared because he has the ability to watch a movie and remember a lot of stuff about it simply by watching it.

Sidenote: When I watch a movie, I don't know any of the characters' names, and I pretty much forget almost everything it was about except whether or not I enjoyed it. I need to start eating peanuts or whatever it is that makes your memory better.

Also on the team were D and F. D doesn't pay attention to pop culture anything, so this was not her forte. F said he knew some stuff. Some stuff is better than no stuff, so our team was solid!

When Eddie and I walked into Sip This, he told me we'd already lost. He saw someone wearing a Captain America jacket in the back. Maybe it's just a fashion choice. Maybe he doesn't even know it's Captain America. Plus, Captain America is on our side because that's the movie we watched on our honeymoon when the weather took a turn towards torrential downpours, so, you know, that matters.

Trivia started with a question that may as well have been in Japanese because I didn't understand anything it was asking. Then F said, It's Guardians of the Galaxy. I was like, oh, yeah, the one movie I decided not to pay attention to. And so the next two questions were also foreign because they were about the same movie.

Then it took a turn. There was a question and I knew I knew the answer. I wrote it down. We got it right. A point! We got a point!

And on it went. We got a few right in a row. Then we made up a really good answer for a bonus question: What does Jarvis stand for? I could tell you that Jarvis was in the Royal Air Force, but I couldn't tell you what it stood for, so I came up with Just for the J. And then we all added in words. Turns out, we got pretty close, as noted the trivia host. No points for close.

In an attempt to earn points on wrong answers, I took to waving my hand in front of the answers like one of Barker's Beauties. I also waved around the whole board, to which the host replied, That's not working but if you flip it around and do tricks, then maybe. I did not flip the board around for fear it would hit someone in the head.

I also tried smiling really hard and keeping the wrong answer up, which simply led to the host shaking his head "no."

Eddie completed his self-imposed task of getting one answer right. He knew the thingie the Hulk spoke to was called Blue. Then he exceeded expectations during the written portion.

Yes, there was a written portion! They gave us the super hero name and we had to fill in the real name and then the actor name. For any actor I didn't know, I wrote Zach Effron because, you know, why not. Also, I now know his name is spelled Zac Efron, so even that was wrong. There were two or three heroes we'd never even heard of. For those, I made up alliterative names like Bill Bobins and Ned Nevers because most real people names of superheros are alliterative i.e. Peter Parker and Wade Wilson (Spider-man and Deadpool).

The last round was about the comic books, and the final question was about the sinister six, and I knew I had the answer written down on one of my many pages of notes, and I knew that Doc Ock was one of them. So we wrote Doc Ock and then a bunch of other names that may or may not have been actual names of comic book characters.

When all the points were tallied, we came in fourth out of six. Actually, we tied, which according to the host meant there was no last place because no one came in sixth. Sure, I'll go with that. We got 22 points. The winning team got 77. Hooray for mediocrity!

The best part about throwing myself fully into the Marvel world was that it's going to be really helpful for my next poetry collection. The one coming out in March is Liberating The Astronauts, which leans towards sci-fi and science. The one I'm planning after is moving towards superheroes, at least in part. Geekery and poetry and trivia--it all falls into place.

Finally, whenever I start to put a team together, I get a lot of suggestions for trivia in the future, like, I'll be on the team if they have this kind of trivia. So, here are the suggestions even though I have no control over trivia topics:

1. Chinese History
2. History in general
3. War history
4. Cars, as in the automobiles, not the movie
5. Another Seinfeld
6. Another Disney
7. The Big Bang Theory
8. Music
9. Indiana Jones

My only suggestion is me winning.

What A Wedding

Getting ready for a winter wedding....

Hmm, what's this in the dress I borrowed from S?

Ooh, two bucks!

I love a dress with pockets.  I love a friend who lends.

My man, tying his tie.

My man, fixing his shirt.

My man, putting on his jacket.  Snazzy!

After getting all pretty and handsome, we winterized to face the falling snow.

Then there was dancing and drinking and eating and laughing.

We stopped at Panera for a snack before the reception.

And a hot chocolate with chocolate chip cookie marshmallows. 

Standing on the dance floor

Taking a picture of ourselves in the mirror.  Because we are children.

Pretty centerpieces

The wedding was post-collision caused by Speedy Baddriverson, so I was looped up.

Even so, it was a fun time. 

The guys

The gals

When we got home, my feet were still nice and cozy.

And my husband was still lookin all GQ:

And we also saw the rise of the Wedding Olive.

I don't quite remember why, but this olive was important enough to be featured in its own photo.  Like I said, I was looped up and it was a fun time.

Congrats to D and F.

Best Birthday This Year

It was my birthday.  It was the best.

To kick things off, Eddie and I went to Sip This for a reading to support one of the poets in the group I run.  The reading was a lot of fun.  Eddie actually took pictures.  It started late, and we were both wondering, What's Dd waiting for? (She's the host).  I was nibbling on Eddie's crescent when Dd started talking about my birthday being the next day.  Then everyone sang happy birthday.  Unexpected, but fun!  Then out from the kitchen came a guy with a waffle.  Oh my.  Really unexpected, but yum!  Later on, Dd told me she'd looked at my blog to see if I'd mentioned what kind of waffles I like, but then simply picked one she thought I'd like after not getting any info.

FFR: I like all waffles.

Open mic

Multitasking...and look at that waffle!

Oreos, vanilla ice cream, Belgian waffle, birthday candle

On the 7th, I awoke at 6 AM.  Eddie moved, which meant he was up (right?), so I pounced: It's my birthday!  He said, Yeay it's your birthday I'm asleep sleeping time now.  So I went to shower while he slept.  When I was out of the shower, I tidied up the kitchen while softly singing about how it was my birthday.   Eddie appeared at 6:57. I asked, Why are you awake so early?  He answered, It's your birthday!  Then he surprised me with these:

At 8 AM, we were in the car, on the road to the city.  I wanted to see Lightness Of Being, the Public Art Fund exhibit in City Hall Park.  The only trepidation arose from the knowledge that there might be a clown on a bench sleeping.  It's one of those out-there human art pieces, you know, like Tilda Swinton in a box or something.

FYI: Brooklyn Bridge is closed.  Take the Williamsburg.

A wide variety of aesthetic:

Now that's a pretty big banana

And then we did some experimenting with Eddie's camera functions:

Then we grew up and took some more pictures like this:

In our defense, he could be art. Maybe he was subbing for the scary clown.

This was the coolest by far:

And now, a montage:



After coming home from seeing all the art, we headed to the mall to collect two of my birthday freebies.  I got mascara from Sephora (the cashier's mom's birthday was the same as mine!) and a sample fragrance from Bath & Body, though that was a Facebook freebie that happened to fall on my birthday and not an actual birthday freebie, but it was free so who cares.

We came home and I began my MOOC on Coursera about Modern Poetry.  In my introduction, I told everyone it was my birthday because I'm a 12 year old.  The instructor wrote back, welcoming me to the course and wishing me a happy birthday.

Then it was time for dinner!  Eddie and I grabbed my brother and headed to Lumix to meet SMM, AF, AK, and J.  We were seated at a hibachi table.  I haven't had hibachi since I was in like 7th grade.  The chef was the most entertaining guy around. Fire in the hole--BAM--he set the grill on fire.  Then he made a volcano out of onions, made the onions steam and move while blowing a train whistle, had a doll of a boy squirt water at us, and then he flipped zucchini at us so we could catch it in our mouths.  Eddie was first up and missed every time, but that was good because he doesn't like anything green and would have spit it out.  I missed every time and one got caught in my hair.  My brother missed and one landed on AK's plate.  She missed every time and they were all over the floor.  J? Caught one!  AF caught one!  SMM caught one on the first try.  They had the advantage of seeing all of us go first, I'm pretty sure.

The food?  Delish.  I ate the soup and the salad and the two shrimp that come with the meal and Eddie's two shrimp that comes with his, and then my rice and my veggies and some of Eddie's veggies and one of my brother's shrimp and my chicken.  Ummm, the plate was a square foot jammed with food, and I ate almost all of it.  My brother even said, I don't think I've ever seen you eat that much.

Then some sort of odd hip hop techno music started booming through the restaurant.  I thought to myself, that doesn't go with their decor....but then I saw the train of servers heading to our table and a candle and then we all realized the odd hip hop techno music was a birthday song.  Eddie had mentioned briefly to the chef that it was my birthday, and from that came a free fried iced cream.  It was the size of a softball, had two blueberries next to it, a side of finely sliced apple, whipped cream, and then underneath, some orange something or other.  Omigod, I was in heaven and somehow made some room to eat half.

I rolled myself out of the restaurant and we headed to the house where T, N, AEF, C, D, and F met up with us.  We told them about our feast.  I offered them to try their hips at hula hooping because Eddie got me a set of three for my birthday.

FYI: Hula hoops come in different sizes.  Eddie and I were using one from the set, and I was really upset because I couldn't do it.  Then I realized that they were different sizes.  I picked up the small one and I went for a minute straight and he was crying from laughing because I kept screaming the whole time LOOOOK I'M DOING IT I'M DOING IT I CAN STILL DO IT OMIGOD LOOOK AT MEEEEEEEE!

No one tried to hula hoop.

Then my parents appeared.  They always make an appearance at a party.  Eddie brought out a cake with candles and people sang and I blew out the candles and cut the cake awkwardly because the cake cutter I have has the serrated edge on the wrong side.  The candles were crammed into the cake and some wax had spilled over but everyone said it was edible still, so I stopped picking it out.  Some of the spillage was due to the candles breaking when Eddie put them in the cake.  He admitted, I just shoved them down in it.  It was still pretty.

 

I didn't have any cake because I was still rolling around from dinner.  Everyone said it was yummy.  I'll take their word for it.

As far as birthdays go, this one was pretty much fantastic.  In fact, I feel younger.  Yup, that's right.  Younger.  Except for feeling like I weight 478 pounds from all the food I ate in the past few days.  Aside from that, I'm like, what 22, 23ish?  Sounds about right.

A big thank you to everyone who made my day wonderful.