Samoas = environmental responsibility

If anyone at work actually talked to me then somebody might say "Hey Elizabeth! How was your weekend?" and I'd say "OMG it was great! I went to a party I still don't understand and got a free Nintendo DS, I ate Girl Scout cookies and recycled my old TV!"

But they don't talk to me so I'm going to share the fun and excitement with you, Internet:

1. My friend Sarah invited Carrie and me to a party in a sexy event space in the Dogpatch where we were promised food and drinks and free Nintendo DS video game things. So we show up, they hand us each a Nintendo charm bracelet (seriously...I'll betcha didn't even know such things existed!) and tell us that the goal is to play the game at each station, collect each of the charms for our bracelets and then we'd get a prize. So, okay...we can do that. We got ourselves some wine and sat down at the first station to play Mario Kart.

By the end of the party we'd played Mario Kart (it's more fun on my brother's Wii, but even then, I have a limited attention span), Guitar Hero (I *suck* at the real Guitar Hero, but I was able to actually finish a couple of songs on the Nintendo DS version of it...thank you, Bon Jovi!), a game with word puzzles that was REALLY FREAKING HARD -- especially after a few glasses of wine, and the game about testing your brain age (my brain age, by the way, is a youthful 54).

The prize:

On the drive home Carrie and I were talking about how that party was a guy gamer's fantasy: A room full of attractive women playing video games. ManicPopSteve, I'm looking at you.

Fun Facts:

• The four or five chicks who ran the party don't even live in SF, which was a surprise to me. I thought this was a bay area thing but no -- they live all over the country and they travel to different cities all the time.

• I'd totally want that job except that really, how exciting is it to stand around and watch other people play video games? Not very. Plus, the uniform wouldn't fit me.

• They were all wearing the same black wrap dress and the same black sling back heels and the same black Gucchi fanny packs.

Anyway, there's lots of stuff I still don't understand about that party but at the end of the day, I had a good time and my brother is getting my free NintendoDS. Winners all around!

Thanks to Sarah for inviting me!!

2. Other than the gaming, the only thing on my agenda for the weekend was to stalk the Girl Scouts in San Francisco and find me some Samoas. I was successful, but I had to leave my multi-cultural neighborhood and go to where the rich white folks live, but daaaaaaamn those Samoas were totally worth the effort. $4 for 15 Nilla Wafer sized cookies? No problem.

3. On my way out of my neighborhood I passed by a big truck with a big sign that said "FREE ELECTRONICS RECYCLING." I've had my big, giant, broken TV sitting in my entry way for a few weeks because getting rid of these things is a PAIN. The plan was for me to work from home some day soon so that Carrie could help me haul it to the recycling center during its LAME business hours (something like 915-1130AM and 200-345PM Monday through Friday) but SHOOT! If I could figure out how to get the TV into my car, I could cross the whole thing off my list!

So after I scored my Samoas I went home to see if I could even lift the TV by myself. It turned out that yes, I could...but would I be able to get it into the elevator, down the garage stairs and into my car all by myself?

YES!

The TV has now been recycled, it didn't cost me a penny and I owe it all to the Girl Scouts because without the draw of the lovely Samoas, I never would have left the house and I would still have a GIANT TV sitting in my entry way.

Samoas = environmental responsibility.