Troupe Re-Onion 2005! (sit down, it's a long one)

There's nothing as great as seeing old friends. Especially when there are a lot of them in one place.

It's not so great when a bunch of them are snoring all in one place but if you stay up late enough and you're tired enough, the snoring ceases to matter after a while.

Anyway! Most of you probably know I was in an improv group while I was going to college. I wasn't that great at it, but I had tons of fun and definitely made some life long friends. Last year, The Troupe (or Purple T as I call it here) had their first official, off-campus reunion. I couldn't go because of some family obligations. Notice the very last sentence mentions Purple T as a sidenote (sorry guys.)

This year I didn't miss it, and it was awesome in all it's glory. There was much rejoicing and goofy antics the whole time, along with a lot of random yelling (that's to be expected). I'd love to regale everyone with an explicit detailed account of all that happened, but that'd take forever and I'd have to come up with fake names for twenty people, and I don't feel that creative right now. So I'll talk about some highlights.

I drove down to The Gathering Site with my pal C Masta J. Incidently, C Masta J is going to be the best man at Stink Pants #5's and my wedding. Hurray! The drive was long, but it was full of a lot of catching up and wrong turns (doh.)

Game playing was prevalent at the Purple T Re-Onion. For some reason, people in The Troupe love playing games. Maybe it has something to do with the Peter Pan Syndrome and the lack of responsibility for those three days. I'll see if I can list all the games we played here:

Texas Hold 'Em
Tichu
Mah jongg
Horseshoes
Settlers of Catan (and variations of)
Vampire the Masquerade
Darts (Cricket and 301 were the dart games that I tried playing)
Bombjack
Some game that people made up with Tichu decks that I didn't learn
Snap
Bullshit

and a number of other types of video and carnival games at Dave & Buster's. Not to mention all the headgames everyone played on each other (that's also to be expected). If I missed any, please let me know.

Stink Pants #5 was there! He caught a ride with his officemate, Daforsto, who is a Purple T alumnus. That's a thirteen hour ride for them, but I'm sure Stink Pants #5 slept most of the way.

One of the grand highlights for me was when we ate dinner on Saturday. There was a sushi place nearby that some of us went to because sushi is oh so delicious. The rest of the Troupe Groupe went to Dave & Buster's, a gamer's paradise where beer and video games live embraced in each other's arms. (That place is awesome).

Since there's seven people up for sushi, we decide to take my car since it has that very convenient third back seat. After a small fight I had with the mailbox, we were on our way (I decided to let the mailbox live another day.)

So we get there are order the Samurai Special, which is sixty pieces of assorted sushi and sashimi. Two must haves that come with sushi at any good sushi restaurant are pickled ginger and wasabi. The giant platter of rice-fishy goodness came with a giant mound of wasabi shaped like a little leaf (cute!). For people who don't know what wasabi is, it's that green mound of horseradish that comes with almost any sushi dinner. I'll use math to express the hotness of wasabi.

Wasabi > regular horseradish
Wasabi = regular horseradish x 5 (actually I think it's more than five times stronger, but I'm a wimp when it comes to hot stuff.)

Needless to say, we scarfed down the mounds of tuna and octopus in about an hour, which left us all feeling really full after our meal. That's when it happened.

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Daforsto: Hey Stink Pants! Wanna have a wasabi race?

Stink Pants #5: No way!

C Masta J: I'll do it!
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And it was on.

Only a tiny bit of wasabi was actually used in the sushi eating and there was still probably 85% of it left. It was decided that C Masta J and Daforsto would split the remaining wasabi. I think it was about two teaspoons each, but C Masta J will swear it was a level tablespoon.

At first, C Masta J was going to dilute the hotness of the wasabi in some cucumber that was originally a salmon egg holder, but when he saw Daforsto furiously stirring his share of wasabi in a dish of soy sauce, C Masta J decided the best way to get down the wasabi was by shooting it. The liquid of C Masta J's choice: green tea.

So while C Masta J and Daforsto are sitting there stirring their wasabi in their soy dishes, everyone coughs up $20 each to cover the dinner to give to Mchye so he can charge the whole shebang to his credit card. Jchye decided to make the wasabi race more interesting by adding a purse of ... five dollars (Oooh! Ahhh!)

After the mixing stage of the race was over, the race started at the drop of five dollars. Daforsto downed his in an instant and slammed his dish on the table. Daforsto is an avid lover of wasabi, and would probably marry it if it came in woman form.

C Masta J, however, did not fare as well. As soon as he started to drink the wasabi, you could see in his face that this was not a good idea. He downed his and slammed his dish on the table after Daforsto, but there was still some wasabi left in the bottom of the dish. I yelled, "You gotta drink it all!" and he picked it back up, licked the bottom of the dish clean and slammed it back down. It was awesome. I couldn't stop giggling.

Meanwhile, the check came back for Mchye to sign and he noticed they had charged him $100 less than he should've been charged. Being the nice guy that his mother brought up, Mchye brought the financial error to the attention of the hostess. As a reward for his honesty, we all got free ice cream! Hurray!

So we're all enjoying our ice cream. Everyone except C Masta J and Daforsto. Daforsto gave his ice cream to Stink Pants #5 and C Masta J was still burping up wasabi. I could tell C Masta J really wanted to eat his ice cream.

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Laura: Why don't you eat your ice cream. Maybe it's coolness will help soothe your stomach.

C Masta J: I don't know. My stomach's not feelin' too good right now. (C Masta J thinks a second.) Well, let me smell it first. (Everyone at the table waits while C Masta J sniffs his ice cream.) I can't smell anything. (Laura busts out laughing).
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I was doing so well at laughing quietly. Usually I have a loud and boisterous laugh that could fill a stadium, but since we were in a restaurant, I tried my hardest not to make a fool out of myself up until that point. Then I lost it. I couldn't stop laughing. It was frickin' hilarious. He can't smell anything! That one sentence kept me tittering all night.

After dinner, we went and played games with everyone. I mostly played ticket games and won myself a Hello Kitty and a Care Bear. The rest of the tickets everyone won went to a giant fifteen foot snake that we gave to the director and founder of The Troupe, The Calmest Lady of All Things Zen. Or T-CLATZ for short. (If someone has a better name for her, let me know.)

All in all, it was an awesome time. The pancakes for breakfast on Sunday gave a valiant effort to try and soothe the separation anxiety I was about to have when everyone left, especially Stink Pants #5. Even though I was sad to see everyone go their separate ways again, I still felt good that I saw them.

One thing. I do think it was too short. If it had been four days long, that would've been perfect. Maybe we should all get together for Labor Day next year! Well, actually it should be the year after next year, because next year is our 15 Year Reunion and that'll take enough planning as it is. Can't wait!

P.S. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I forgot my dumb digital camera. I even cleared the chip so I'd have enough memory for stupid pictures, and I left the camera right by the computer! I'll add links when other Troupers get their pictures up.


Addendum:
Trouper Travis tells me that there was once a Purple T Reunion in 1997. Neat. Obviously I missed it, but I'm sure people were awesome.

On an almost completely unrelated note, I was a sophomore in high school that year. Good times. Good...Times....