The activities themselves were OK, but it was the company that really excelled. (as mentioned before: my SimCompany boss VA, her b/f Chris, Hunt's boss Destry, his g/f Suzie, and Ray & Laura.)

Cosmic Bowling was exactly as expected - too much blacklight, intelligent spots and disco lights, but a good time nonetheless. We rented out 2 lanes for an hour and a half, and went through something like 4 pitchers of low-carb beer.

I sported my stylish typing wrist brace and was the envy of everyone in the bowling alley. Except for all the cool people.

The music was actually pretty good. Laura and I are clearly the "sing along to anything with recognizable lyrics" types, and we were bopping along to nearly every song, even if it was "He Loves You Not" from Dream circa 1998.

Performance-wise, my first game was patently Terrible(TM). A number of open frames in there - and when I say a number, I mean All. I scored something like a 51. Yeah. Way to go me. (Hunter got a 54, or something.) For a long time during that game, Hunter and I had the same score, or scores differing by one point. Everyone thought that was cute.

The second game, our "team" - Hunt, myself, Destry, and Suzie - had a "regrouping" meeting where Destry informed us we should break the other team's fingers so we could win.

We didn't need to do that, but we did win. I guess the regrouping toast helped, because I went from getting a 51 to getting 2 strikes in a row for my first two frames of the second game.

The difference? I kept consciously thinking "throw to the middle." Yeah, I know. Ground-breaking, that.

For most of the game, I was beating everyone except Destry. In the last 2 frames, Ray on the other lane made a comeback - and then Hunter, from out of nowhere, got a turkey (three strikes in a row) and jumped out to even beat Destry by 1 point, taking the top spot for the round.

In the end, our "team" won by a couple points. Go us. Rolling Thunder would be proud.

Oh, and I only broke 1 nail. [Broke my thumbnail on the first ball. Slick.]

Afterwards it was off to Benihana's, where I had never eaten before last night. We got in to see that there wasa full-blown karaoke bar set up in there - unfortunately, despite big talk, we did not end up Karaoke'ing the night away after dinner.

Benihana's was pretty straightforward except fot the knife-wielding chef at the table and the flying shrimp tails and all. We consumed a fair bit of alcohol at our table - Hunter and VA both chose foofy girly drinks that came in take-home ceramic Buddhas.

At one point, we [Hunt, myself, Chris, and VA]were talking about Studio K when VA started going off about how Dan (from Studio K) and I had some sort of "bizarre connection." This did not help anything considering that Dan was the one with his arm around me in the group picture that Hunter half-jokingly took offense with. Eventually the whole conversation ended with Hunt and Chris forming vast conspiracy theories about what VA and I do on our "business" trips to Seattle in the expensive hotel with the almost all-guy team.

Sheesh. Talk about insecure. ;)

Since Laura's birthday was Tuesday, we informed the staff and she got the full treatment with samurai birthday candle, bongo drum and some sort of Japanese birthday song. She also got a pineapple for dessert which was shared with the rest of the table (really good!) The bongo man apparently didn't know how to work a Polaroid, however, because it took him 4 tries to get a shot of Laura and Ray. The first three times? No film in the camera.

Anyway, it was just a very enjoyable night out with some good friends. After driving Laura and Ray home, Hunter and I crawled into bed and cuddled.

We are thinking of throwing another party, but VA and Chris won't be able to come this month since they're going to be in London. And of course, one has to be careful, since Destry will probably come this time and that means the beer funnel won't be far behind.

Of course, we have to be careful of that slippery slope, because having people over is half the reason we wanted our giant TV in the first place.

Last night was also the first night I used my now-defunct PA driver's license with the holes in it. The woman at the bowling alley must have stared at it for 10 minutes before finally relenting and getting me my Bailey's.

In general, it's just a fun ride right now. Great job, great boyfriend, good friends, not being flat broke. It's also no small thing that I've been off the Prozac for a year. It's good to know that my happiness is on my own terms, and it's not some drug-induced illusion anymore.

It flies in the face of a good ending to the post, but I just had this exchange with Hunter, who is at work right now:

Hunt: woo
Athena: ?
Hunt: tim and I just saved a dying diabetic on the street
Athena: what????
Hunt: he was slumped over next to a public phone
Hunt: how did you save him? you don't have insulin
Hunt: and after figuring out he wasn't just a beggar, he told us he needed to get to kaiser
Hunt: naw, we just called 911 and stayed with him
Hunt: nothing too heroic
Athena: well, it was still astute of you to notice the guy
Hunt: but i got my subway
Athena: he missed a dose or something?
Hunt: he has never used insulin before
Athena: you mean the low-carb atkins wrap?
Hunt: he just checks his sugar every once and a while
Hunt: naw, i got a club
Hunt: these events are unrelated except for the fact that we were going to subway when we noticed him
Athena: ah. good to know.
Athena: so the dude is ok now?
Hunt: yeah
Hunt: he got ambulanced
Athena: is that a verb, like "arrowed!"
Hunt: :-D

So there you have it, folks. Saved lives and a healthy lunch from Subway. Tune in next time for more from Tales from Our Video Games.