A PRIZE

Saturday, May 9, 1998

In case you didn't notice, my year anniversary for Anita's BOD was yesterday!

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I slept deliciously late this morning. What luxury to be able to roll over and doze, listening to "Morning Edition" on NPR. I was a bit sore from dancing last night, so it was great to take it easy today.

This afternoon we had a fun Cacophony event: Newsboxing, a game devised by Nick. This was a variation on an English sport called Letterboxing. In the original, people hide rubberstamps and clues in boxes, left at various cairns on the moors or wild areas of Great Britain. In an orienteering kind of deal, the players use compass and clues to find the boxes and mark a notebook they carry with them. Nick devised a variation on this, suitable for the Seattle downtown area.

I took the bus downtown and treated myself to a tall raspberry mocha at the SBC at Westlake, which was our appointed meeting place. I was early, so I enjoyed sitting at the small counter at the narrow end of the building and watching the people walking by. I next took the opportunity to visit the accessories store in the lower level of the mall and bought a hair thing: a rubber gadget that makes it easier to put my hair up in a chignon. I like that word better than "bun". I had one of these already, but it was in a light color and I wanted a dark one that blends better with my hair. I went back outside, and Tom Lawrence showed up before too long, then Nick, then new father Jayson.

Nick explained the game to us, and the proper use of the compass. He distributed the little booklets he'd created for us to stamp in at each goal, and gave each of us a different location to start from. Even this was part of the game, since he didn't explicitly tell us where to go. He just handed us slips of paper with different clues, so we wouldn't be stepping on each other during the game.

This would have been a fun game to play with teams, if we'd had more people. My first goal was Hing Hay Park. I knew that this was in the International District, so I went down into the bus tunnel and grabbed the first southbound bus. Nick was with me, since he was headed to our final destination and meeting place to wait for us. He got off at the Pioneer Square stop, and I continued on one more stop.

I got off and walked to the park, then took my compass (worn on a cord around my neck) and did the sightings on Harborview Hospital and the tower at King St. Station that lead me to the place where the rubberstamp and next clue were hidden. Nick had put these things in plastic bags, inside newsboxes for free newspapers, at various locations around town. I figured out where my next goal was, so I headed back to the bus tunnel to head to the other end of downtown. On the way I stopped at "A Piece of Cake" bakery and got some Chinese baked goods for lunch: a bbq pork bun and a bacon - cheddar bun, both baked.

My next goal was close to the Paramount theater. From there I went to the Meridian movie theater (Boo! They use non-union projectionists there!), the downtown library, a map store on First Avenue, the Federal building on Second, the Hammering Man at the Seattle Art Gallery, and a newsbox at the foot of the Harbor Steps. I'll confess, that rather than always doing the compass instructions, when I could figure out where the location was via Nick's word clues I went directly there.

When I saw that the clue at the Harbor Steps would lead me back up the hill to Pike Place Market, I decided to go to our final meeting place instead. I walked towards the waterfront, and took the waterfront Trolley to Pioneer Square. I don't think I've taken the trolley before. It's cool! They imported old trolley cars from Australia to run on a track along the waterfront. It isn't connected very well with other parts of the Metro transit system, but if you happen to want to go where it goes, it works very well! And Elliot Bay Books and Cafe, where I wanted to go, was right by the Pioneer Square Stop.

I wonder if it's my Internet Explorer team fleece jacket that makes me look like I'm local. I think two sets of tourists were asking me about the trolley, and they presumably knew as much about it as I did.

I met up again with Nick, Jayson, and Tom in the cafe in the basement of Elliot Bay Books. It turned out that I won the game! My prize was a ten dollar gift certificate at Paper Cat, a card store and rubber stamp store that was just across the street, so we adjourned to there so I could spend it. Nick wanted to make some purchases too (once you start down the road to rubber addiction, there is no turning back!) and Jayson wanted to buy a Mother's Day card.

I felt free to spend this found money on something entirely frivolous, so I bought two votive candles in glass holders. Great scents and beautiful glass!

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I took it easy this evening, but I did catch up on some TV. How long has MTV been running Celebrity Deathmatch? This animated series featured Marilyn Manson wrestling Charles Manson to the death, in clay animation. Funny!