It doesn’t take much to make me happy nowadays.
Last night, my wife and I went to a local tavern for trivia
night. With my radiation/holiday depression, going anywhere at all for some
recreation was a blessed relief. As they say in the credit card TV ad world,
spending time with good friends was priceless.
The food at this bar is pretty good. We had a decent dinner
of sandwiches and fries. I enjoyed a patty melt, which is a treat I haven’t had
in a long time. My wife liked her fish sandwich. The fries were good. I had unsweetened iced tea. Regardless
of the food and drink, the company was excellent.
Our trivia team consisted of my wife and I; a dear
friend from my old teaching gig and her bright and entertaining retired teacher
husband; and a retired math teacher from our same school who was currently
pursuing a degree in electrical engineering. What a diverse group!
The questions played to our skill sets. Everyone contributed
to our success last night. It was pure trivia magic!
How successful were we? Well, not to brag or anything, but WE WON! Hamster Riot was the trivia champ at the bar
last night, the best and brightest out of 16+ teams. Some trivia teams had a
dozen players. Some teams were in all reality just drinking teams with a trivia
problem. Regardless, when the smoke cleared, Hamster Riot was the last team
standing. We beat out teams that competed EVERY Thursday night. This was a real
accomplishment.
You might ask yourself - why were we called Hamster Riot? What’s
in a name? Compared to some of the suggestive or even downright obscene team
names, Hamster Riot was definitely one of the few names that were G-rated.
Before I went to sleep the night before our trivia night, I thought about what
two words would make absolutely no sense, and might just sound like a cool name
for a pop/rock band. Hamster Riot just jumped out at me like a startled…
hamster!
I once bowled for a team called Five Yards West. Most of the
teams we bowled against asked about the origins of that name. Five yards west
of what? Are you guys a country band? Sometimes the real significance is that
the name has absolutely no significance at all.
Anyway, back to the bar. Our prize for winning trivia night
at this tavern was a $15 gift certificate. We will use it the next time we go
to trivia night. Maybe we can buy appetizers with it, or perhaps a pitcher of
beer. Regardless, we earned it and we will enjoy it. Boo-yah!
For me, the real reward was going out and having fun. It
seems like it has been forever since that last happened. My wife and I sequestered
ourselves over Christmas. It was a good time for both of us to catch up on
rest.
But last night, we enjoyed the pleasant distraction from our
regular routines that time spent with friends at a trivia contest at a little
bar and grill in a tiny Northwest Ohio town
offered.
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