Pretty Sweet Night

Last night I attended Pub Trivia Night at Brillobox, a nearby establishment that had always looked appealing from the outside. A friend named Keith had mentioned trivia night and I excitedly said that I'd love to go, mentioned it to my friend and coworker, Dylan, and we met up last night after I went to yoga, put Olive to bed, and ate popcorn with Rob. Our team was comprised of seven members, five of them regulars, all of them highly gifted in the trivial knowledge department and consistently pull in third or second place in the weekly competitions. We huddled round the table as questions were asked, most of them more challenging than I had anticipated. One of the segments in the first round were television locales; a slide of an image from a show was projected onto the back wall and we had to name the city in which the series was set. For whatever reason I had thought that Happy Days took place in Kenosha, WI, not Milwaukee, so we got that one wrong. I was also really disappointed that I drew a blank when a shot from Freaks and Geeks, a favorite of Rob's and mine, was shown (Chippewa, MI - gah!). We then debated long and hard about the frequency of cicada appearances. Dylan immediately said seventeen years, which sounded right to me, but Warren, another teammate thought seven. Recalling the last time the bugs descended in 2004, I nixed that theory because they would've come last year. James thought it was more than twenty. Dylan wasn't positive, but we were right to trust his instinct. My favorite segment was the last, wherein portions of songs were played and we needed provide the title and artist. This is a game that my dad and I play on road trips all the time, so I felt like I could really pull my weight. This time, though, we also had to find the common theme for additional points. Most of the songs were easy, with Derek and the Dominos' 'Layla' playing first. We realized that all of the songs had long instrumental intros (The Stones' 'Can You Hear me Knocking', Dire Straits' 'Romeo and Juliet', Michael Jackson's 'Don't Stop Till You Get Enough', The Velvet Underground's 'All Tomorrow's Parties', The Temptations' 'Papa Was a Rolling Stone', Guns 'N Roses' 'November Rain', Van Halen's 'Right Now', and two others that I didn't know). Doing well in this section, despite missing a whole slew of the television ones, really gave us a good cushion and we listened, all of us on the edge of our seats, as the announcer gave the rankings. Once the fourth place winners had been named we were delighted to know that we had placed in the top three. Our adversaries at the table next to us who had won the first of the two rounds, got third place. The second place winners were announced, and then, the landslide victors: us! The prize, a $20 gift certificate, was used to purchase a large glass a dubious-looking concoction complete with seven straws . I used mine to slurp up the rest of my water and brought it home for Rob, who told me as I was leaving to "bring home the trophy." It really was one of the best nights I'd had in a long time. How I love being married and having a family, but sometimes it's great fun to do things that take me back to the days when I was living in Baltimore, hanging out with my college friends. That's a lot what this felt like. I pulled myself away at 12:45, said so long to my friends, and crossed the quiet street to my car, floating on the adrenaline of the evening but glad to be returning home to my dear, sleeping husband. I tickled his nose with my victory straw when I got in, then fell asleep with a feeling of great peace and satisfaction, appreciating so much the life that I have.