Trivia night: lime

Last Monday I was running late again for another night of trivia. I had five minutes and three quarters of a mile. I'm getting out of shape as I had to slow down a couple times to a walk and rest a bit. Surprisingly I arrived just before the trivia contest began.

Our group was: Darrel, Mona, Jeff, his wife, Dave, Marvin, Rod, and I. Al wasn't there as he is back in the hospital. A large group this time. We slid two tables together but the group was so large we couldn't hear the other end of the table and didn't want to shout out our answers so that other teams could overhear. Lots of paper passing ensued.

We did our typical. Second or third place in the first contest, and tied for second in the second contest. Fifteen correct each time. If only we had a couple more questions correct. The crowd size was decent, though not as large as the previous week. The team sizes seemed larger this week. I didn't wear my glasses so I might have missed people at the far end of the room. Without my glasses I may also have missed any women giving me a look.

No one from our team won any of the quarters trivia questions. One team was hot as their table won at least four of the questions. Two of the quarters questions went on for a long time and lots of quarters were put in the bucket that Darrel carried.

"Clara Shumann was the principal piano teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in what city?"

Answer: Frankfort. I think the guesses named all the European cities before Frankfort was named. I had been in Frankfort so that should have come to mind as a guess, but I associated Frankfort with banking, business, and airports.

The last quarters question also added many quarters to the bucket before the correct answer was named.

"In 1728, what cosmetic device was invented?"

Answer: braces. The guesses ranged all over the body before the correct answer was given. All told, the bucket had the highest worth of any night I remember: over $47.

Rod had been washing a large comforter in a nearby laundromat, and between contests ran over to move it from the washer to dryer. He stayed for a while after the trivia contests were over. He, Darrel, Mona and I had an interesting discussion on astrology (Rod doesn't believe in it). Darrel and Mona enlightened Rod and I on Native American funeral traditions which include a three day mourning period and a remembrance ceremony and gift giving one year after the person's death.

Bud Light was promoting their lime flavor and throughout the night gave samples away to drink. I don't like the taste of beer but I tried a small sample anyway. The lime masks much of the beer taste and I found I could drink it.

Later Darrel bought a round of drinks and I had a bottle. Towards the end of the evening the promoter gave our table extra bottles as we had been favorable towards it. So I had another bottle.

I had two beers! What is the world coming to? That was my limit for the night as I no longer cared for the taste by the time I finished the second bottle.

In the end it was down to Darrel, Mona, Dave and I. We stayed until after 11 pm talking about demolition derbies in which Darrel and Mona - until she retired from crashing - competed. Mona had won several derbies.

We also talked about astrology as Mona and Darrel are Sagittarius and Scorpio respectively. Fire and Water signs. Signs that should not go together well according to astrology, though Darrel and Mona says it works well for them, and even better than when they had dated people who were compatible signs. They get some balance and each other helps with the other's weaknesses.

Darrel wants me to carry the quarters bucket next week as the bucket person doesn't get much of a chance to answer the question. It is not fair when people have their hands up. To carry the bucket I just need to be on time.

Towards the end of the night our Indian Princess of the group, Mona, a psychology major and most likely feeling the effects of her beers, quizzed me about the women in Kalispell and why didn't I have a girlfriend? Mona told me that as a guy I should want to get laid all the time. ("Isn't that what guys want?") She felt that I needed a woman. The bar was half empty by now but I'm sure many of those left heard Mona's opinion that I needed to get laid and have sex. "You need sex!!!", she said.

And where does the conversation go from there?