Scavenger Hunting

I enjoy scavenger hunts. Give me a clue that requires me to use off-the-wall random knowledge I've acquired to take me to the prize and I’m all thrills. I like scavenger hunts when there is a foreseeable end; in two hours tops, it’s over.

My brother and I (him in the middle and I on the right) used to craft scavenger hunts around the house; one of many of our made-up games that we created to amuse ourselves. This along with stair ball and slither-on-the-carpet-around-the-living-room-and-not-get-caught-by-the-light-on-the-alarm (okay this one didn’t have an “official” title), were a few of my favorites.

For our house-hunts (not to be confused with HDTV’s popular hit ‘House Hunters’), we would make the other sit in their room until all the clues we had thought up were spread out amongst the house. We’d get real creative with clues like, “Mom says we can’t have these til after dinner,” that led us to the teddy bear cookie jar. Whoever completed their scavenger hunt in less time, won. And usually at the final destination, there was some type of prize. Maybe a lego piece or something else that would bring relative joy to a 10 year old.

These were what I considered to be good times. You figure it out in minutes, go to the next destination and before you know it, success! You win.

Suck it scavenger hunt.

The house suddenly became the world and I realized that these clues could take me anywhere. That in itself is incredibly overwhelming. What if I misread these clues? If the “hint” was to take a left at the fork and I took a right and ended up in Norway but was supposed to be in Nepal* (yeah, right)...will another path form? It’s not as easy as backtracking from mom and dad’s room to the living room. And if I do misstep, are there two possible right answers or can we increase the odds and say there are infinite directions that lead to awesomeness?

I realize I am overanalyzing. I do this often. This time my excuse is that a new year of my life looms just days before me. I am about to hop on the slide that will take me into the latter years of my twenties and that in a sense is terrifying. Not because I feel “old” (okay maybe a little) but because I haven’t figured it out. Unlike my brother’s clues, they are very well hidden.

"All you have to do is pay attention; lessons always arrive when you are ready, and if you can read the signs, you will learn everything you need to know in order to take the next step." -Paolo Coelho

Sweet. I'm all ears.

*Devoted blog readers (all two of you), please remind me I wrote this when I send you a postcard from Nepal.

I hope this doesn't make me Unamerican.

“Tonight is about Krystal and Lee.” – R. Seacrest

Actually, it was more about Simon’s send off. And Ms. Abdul returning to Idol to send him off. She looked great, by the way.

The fact that every time Krystal and Lee began a song they were instructed to introduce a real artist, makes me think they really weren’t the focus of the evening. Also, since you’re making this statement to remind us who it is supposed to be about, leads me to believe that you knew the audience had been made to focus on other things that were not named Krystal and Lee.

Somewhere during my hiatus from Idol, it turned into a glorified karaoke contest. I didn’t tune in for the season in its entirety, but had to see what the co-hosts of ‘The View,’ I mean my real-life friends, were gabbing about. And all I can say is…

ReaLee?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Bowersux. And her hair would enjoy the attention from a comb. Sorry, that was a low-blow. But so was her rendition of 'Ironic.' More on that later.

Karaoke is defined as “singing along with music where the vocals have been eliminated.” Maybe I should change my original statement, as these idol contestants were lucky to have the support of the actual artists. Sorry Alanis that you had to go through that. Krystal almost ruined one of your timeless songs. And Janet…thank God you came out to cut them off in their unharmonious version of ‘Again.’ PS-I like you without your weave. We can see that authentic Jackson plastic-surgeon bone structure. Why let all that money go to waste under the Cousin-It madness of fake Indian hair?! I digress.

What happened to the J. Huds winnin Oscars?

Or the Carrie’s cleaning up at the Grammys?

Neither of you, mark my words, will ever hold the weight of an award statue. Unless we are including ‘Kid’s Choice Awards’ or ‘MTV Music Awards’ which are not really considered awards. Well, it depends on whom you ask I suppose. So maybe talk to Kanye. He’s hella surrrious about the MTV recognition.

Exhibit A:

The cast of ‘Glee’ should all audition for American Idol. Or is there some clause that forbids anyone with actual talent to enter the contest?

Seems to always come back to the fantastic-ness of 'Glee.' What an episode last night by the way, props to Kurt's dad, Burt. Hatin on the Hate.

And I’ll leave you with my favorite quote of the evening:

“What would you do if I sang out of tune?” – Lee.

Hmm..I would say turn off the TV set, but clearly this is not happening (see previous blog where I discussed how “easy” it is to do this).

Instead, I guess we’ll just make you the next American Idol.

The Reality of Glee.

Glee. What a smart fresh new show.

Something that celebrates talent of young people instead of their consecutive idiotic decisions, harming both their liver and increasing their chances for melanoma. At least they have clean laundry. Yes, I’m not-so-subtly waving my finger at you Guidos and Guidettes of the ‘Jersey Shore.’

I know there are a lot of good shows out there too; I’ve seen my fair share:

Meet the family of 2010.

B. Stinson showing his friends and all of us how to be AWESOME.

'Deal breaker' if you don't watch this.

This just makes me tingle with joy. That's what she said.

I also know there are more than a few not so great shows out there, and I admit, I’ve seen my share of those. And watched more than just one episode. I understand the whole appeal to these subpar TV listings that pollute our Comcast guides. It’s the whole ‘train wreck’ phenomenon where we cry, “I just can’t look away!" Weird thing about this is that you can. It’s called the power button and with a slight lift followed by descent of your thumb, it can all fade to black. Or to Glee.

So why tune into Fox at 9pm every Tuesday?

Glee takes us back to the harsh walls of the four year institution known as high school, or better known to some as hell. The time where you were judged for the superficiality of things such as the clothes you wore because that’s what your parents could afford (Mervyn's survivor here-upgraded to Old Navy in high school) to the location of your locker.

The kids of Glee find themselves facing these same challenges, and some worse (I don't know about you but I never took a slushie to the face), but confront them with the majestic sound of song. We've taken song to the stage to tell stories and to the big screen...and finally to our flat screens. And why not?

Through a diddy, can't we find ourselves back at the scene of our first kiss, best night of our lives or the moment we fell in love for the first time? Then appropriate follow-up songs for when that person we thought we loved betrayed us? Sidenote: REM-'Everybody Hurts' is one of my favorite sulking songs. Feel free to use it. And, I don't think I'm alone on this, sometimes don't we wish it would be appropriate to break into song at the most inopportune of moments? Sometimes we are without words (even me) so we must borrow from the best.

Glee reminds us what it's like to have dreams that never seemed impossible thanks to Rachel Barry. We all knew "that girl" in high school and we probably hated them...probably because we were envious of that talent and the self-confidence that came with that talent...we wondered where does that come from? I have trouble finding it now. Our Rachel Barry went on to become Miss America, point made.

Summed Up: A collection of misfits finding their purpose through musical verses. And it sounds amazing. (Okay..that was cheesy)

And thanks to the latest episode with the fantastic vocal assistance of my beloved Neil Patrick Harris, I will continue to Dream On.

Strangers.

I was comfy cozy on my couch watching my Tuesday night line-up when a loud crash interrupted the oh-so-intense dialogue of "90210." Annie was upset; she had just caught her parents fighting. How will she ever get through this disaster?

I didn't really move as sometimes I dilute my perceptions and don't think it's a big deal until someone else acknowledges that something has occurred, when A-town yelled from the other room. Oh, I guess she heard it to, maybe we should investigate?? Pause on Annie's face of turmoil.

We both rushed out onto our deck to investigate the cause of the sound. It had been raining, (surprise surprise Oregon) and dusk had fallen. Beautiful trees surround our abode so it was difficult to see through those, the darkness and the wetness to see what had occurred. We saw a car had pulled over to the barely there shoulder; only one car. Hmmmm. Our attention diverted from said car when we heard another loud noise come from another car about 100 yards behind the initial one. Something metal was now in the road and drivers were unable to see it due to the aforementioned conditions. On a main highway of commuters this could be cause for disaster.

I got on the phone to share this information so someone could come and take care of this as the last thing we'd care to witness that night is a car crash in front of our condo. Mission: Save Lives. During my phone call, Adelle and I stayed on our deck to watch the car that had pulled over. Finally, the driver attempted to move his car and a sound accompanied this effort that can only be compared to screeching nails-on-the-chalkboard as he was clearly driving on the rim of his wheel.

"Should I go down there?" Adelle asked as I was on hold with the authorities.

"Yeah, I think so."

In the meantime, a man who was walking his dog had seen the commotion we had heard minutes before. He had hurried back to his house to put the dog away, jumped in his car, and drove over to our condo where the wrecked car had moved to. His name was Jim.

Adelle met Jim in the parking lot who had already offered his cell phone and assistance to the elderly gentleman, Dick, who was behind the wheel. Dick claimed that the median had 'jumped up in front of me.' In Dick's defense, the median is hard to see when you are unfamiliar with the road and when it is dark out, but we came to find that Dick was born in 1914 as well. So a lot of things are hard to see when you were born two years after the Titanic sunk. He probably knew Rose Dawson...if only informally.

I joined Jim, Adelle and Dick after making sure someone was coming out to remove the hazard from the highway. The cops came and went and handed Jim what we now found out to be the hubcap to Dick's car. Dick seemed pretty together, he was a bit shaken up at first, but began to partake in our awkward discussion. Here we were: Two 25 year old women, a 65 year old man and a 96 year old man. We don't too often witness a crowd like this hanging out in their spare time. But there was something special about it.

Being that AAA likes to take their sweet time, we had about an hour and a half of time to waste in the parking lot while we waited with Dick and found out a lot about him. He was a vet of WWII in the Navy, a 1936 graduate of U Dub, he'd been married 71 years to his wife whom he'd had 4 girls with and they'd traveled the world together. They lived in Greece for 3 years which immediately connected us. Imagine that, a 96 year old caucasian man and I have something in common.

Toward the end of our conversation, I thought about how I was missing 'Glee' (in REAL time...it was being DVR'd) and wondered why the universe found it necessary for our paths to cross that night. I'm still not really sure why, but there is something to say for the beauty in meeting strangers. If I'd just seen Dick on the street, there is a slim chance that I'd stop and carry on a conversation with this elderly man.

Before we parted, Dick trembled as he put his hand in his pocket in search of a piece of paper.

"Can I get both of your girls' addresses so I can formally thank you?"

Adelle reluctantly took the paper as this wasn't necessary, but what a kind and traditional gesture this man had made. One which we tend to forget.

The beauty in a thank you.

The beauty in helping out a complete stranger.

"There are no strangers here. Only friends who haven't met yet." -Irish proverb spotted in a bar in Philadelphia.

It was a pleasure to meet you, Dick.