Bingo For the Ages

Patlick is in town for Easter :) (Stink Pants #5 is coming to town too, but this post is about Patlick and Patlick's mom and bingo shenanigans.)

I was sitting around earlier today, looking at the addresses I need to get for the invitations for the wedding extravaganza scheduled for August, when the phone rang. Usually I don't answer the phone during the day, since it's normally calls for Dad the doctor or telemarketer-type people. Good thing I answered it this time though, because it was my good friend Patlick, back from the wilds of Pennsylvania.

So we talked about, you know... stuff. How's the planning coming, anything new, what am I doing tonight?

Me?

Then I think about the last week where I played around on the computer and watched TV with my mom.

Nothing.

So Patlick asks me if I want to go to bingo at the American Legion with her mom and her.

Sure.... Not like I have anything else to do.

So we make a date for Patlick and Patlick's Mom to pick me up at 6:00 (in one hour). I have never been to a bingo night in my life. These people take it seriously. There is real money on the line here folks! Dreams can be made and broken in a night! All right, maybe not that seriously, but still, you can win enough for gas money or a college textbook.

I make sure to have some cash in my pocket when I climb into Patlick's old cloth-topped car (which has been around since we were in high school I might add) and we drive to the American Legion building place. (I've forgotten it's proper name already.)

I figure, I know how to play bingo, right? It can't be that hard. We walk up to the window and Patlick, Patlick's Mom and I pay for our bingo cards. I remembered bingo from grade school as a 5 x 5 matrix of random numbers from 1 to 75. Well, the bingo cards have the same matrices, but they can come six to a sheet (2 x 3), nine to a sheet(3 x 3), or twelve to a sheet (4 x 3). Since we weren't exactly sure how everything worked at the time, Patlick and I each bought a packet of 2 x 3 sheets. Patlick's Mom bought two 3 x 3 sheets.

The first part of the night was exciting! We each had our own dauber (mine was orange, Patlick's was pink of course) and every time we had a number that was called, a small, "yay" would escape our bodies, much to the annoyance of everyone around us. Patlick's Mom asked us not to embarrass her :).

As the first half of the night wore on and bingoes were called left and right, I found myself wondering what I'd do with the $30 or $70 if I won. Two hours flew by with Patlick, Patlick's Mom and me bingoless. Still, after the fifteen minute break, I still thought one of us might get a bingo. After all, Patlick and I had beginner's luck on our side. Patlick's uncle was there to call numbers for part of the night, and while he was off he helped Patlick and I watch out for numbers that were called that we may have missed (*cough* backseat bingo dauber *cough cough*)

By the end of the night, the newness had worn off and even though I may have dabbed a card three times for one number, I switched from saying, "yay" to "boo." Sitting for four hours in an uncomfortable folding chair will do that to a person. We hoped with the last card one of us might get a bingo. No such luck. We all came home bingo losers.

Then evening was not a loss by any means though. It did give Patlick, Patlick's Mom and I a chance to talk and catch up on each other's lives. I spoke paragraphs of my wedding plans and Patlick of her nursing school exploits. It was a night well spent by far, and Patlick almost didn't go because she didn't want to go with only her and her mom.

Ahhh bingo... it brings people together.