Walk-O-Rama Special Edition: A Song of Cheese & Wine

After a long hiatus, the old Walk-O-Rama family was all united again, and that’s worth chronicling.

Winter was here, at least in Australia, and that meant the long-lost bastard who had not been seen for several seasons, John, had made a surprise return. You remember him. We last saw him as he was sneaking off to a faraway land to save his skin from the doom that is Permanent Appointment with the State. What became of him? No one knew until tonight.

Reenactment of John rowing for his life

We assembled to all be part of a great game – THE game, and as it is well known, when you’re in the great game, you either win or you die. Or you win a lovely gift certificate to C’est Cheese, the establishment that hosted our reunion on this trivia night.

Some drink and know things. We supposed we were this sort before the wine was ordered and the questions began. Kristen, who had been studying with the Maesters all day in the library, had been brushing up on the history of our founding fathers and had gotten to 24, so when the announcer asked for number 25, she swore to all of the 7 gods and ate some poutine in disgust.

Kristen eats an unfortunate meal while discussing GOT and preparing for her library shift

Some drink and know things, but those people were not on our team

The three-eyed raven had joined team “The Velveeta Underground” for the evening, which made Kristen and Celeste happy because they figured his gift of foresight might come in handy on such an occasion. Midway through round 1, however, he ripped his mask off to reveal that it was, in fact, our dear friend Raquel. This was fortunate because 1) Raquel is quite good at trivia and knows many fictional characters’ addresses and 2) because Diane possesses a Lannister-callibre loathing of Bran.

Diane was happy to see Raquel, or at least happy to no longer see Bran

Team “Ed Sheeran is the Prince Who Was Promised” was lagging to start with and no one took them very seriously as dangerous players, but they knew that all they had to do was bide their time while the competition slowly killed themselves off. This was done by means of a bag of weird tasting but oddly addicting – and likely poisoned – potato chips. You can’t eat just one, you must eat them all!

The source of our undoing. We quickly became too ill to think.

With the competition all but annihilated, team “Ed Sheeran is the Prince Who Was Promised” had only to keep their heads on their shoulders and answer questions with a certain degree of competency. This was done most of the time…

…with some exceptions

At the end of a grueling night, there were winners, and there were losers – those of which fully expect to be knocked off by the end of the week. However, should we survive, we expect to reunite again for another epic game of cheese and wine and trivia. We hope to see you there!

Team “Ed Sheeran is The Prince Who Was Promised”

They will not sit on the throne of victory long

Raquel is already plotting their demise

 

Full cast of characters: Team Walk-O-Rama

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Walk-O-Special Edition: Kristen Out (mic drop)

Dear friends, I know that several words come to mind when you hear Walk-O-Rama and when you recall the many adventures chronicled on this site. Heroic, fearless, fun-loving. All true. Lazy is another. There, I said it. Adventures were often thwarted by heat, cold, humidity, precipitation, and the promise of delicious food. Even now, I sit here writing to you not of a walk in the physical sense, because that sounds exhausting, but of a mental stroll just taken down memory lane where I recalled my many great years with the wonderful staff at Stony Brook University Libraries.

I began after earning my Master’s degree in 2005 and was happy to have my first full-time job. My search committee assured me that I was not hired because I currently worked selling chocolate in a retail store and could potentially double as their supplier – or perhaps they indicated that that was the sole reason, I forget. To be on the safe side, I brought in a generous assortment when I started to try and win favor with my new friends.

Definitely hired for the chocolate.

My first weeks were a little rough. I recall catching a student employee error in the Stacks, which angered her and caused her to leave. I felt guilty and thought for sure the other workers in Circulation would all hate me. Fortunately, I was quickly adopted by The Library Club, a group started and led by the very talented and creative Victor Santiago. This club really helped me develop as a person and a professional in so many ways, and it is my hope that I helped others do the same as one of the advisors. We did our best to share our love of libraries and information literacy by creating tutorials, educational events, blogs, web reviews, etc. and began a fundraising effort to send books to Africa. We took library students on field trips, including two ventures to Salem, MA where we held some pretty exciting scavenger hunts. They were good times.

LC road trip to Salem

Human Resources nightmare: losing a student employee on a field trip to find seals. It’s ok, we left an arrow so they could find us

LC takes on NYPL

LC takes on SPL

 

Packing some books for Africa!

When I think of my time in Circulation, I remember the wonderful, wonderful people, and the terrific Halloween parties! I don’t mean to group these two together because they are equivalents – the people were definitely better –  but both are such vivid symbols in my mind of my days in the Main Stacks. It was great having a close-knit family environment to help me as I eased into my profession.  I don’t recall all of what I did those first few years, but all timesheets and paperwork seem to indicate that I was in fact present and actively doing something or other.

This Bigfoot quality photo is a rare shot of me doing something very important in my work environment

Arrrrrrren’t you feeling sentimental about these days? I know I am!

Long hours spent on our epic haunted maze! I can still hear the screams of horror. It was perfect.

Gradually I began to learn more and take on additional responsibilities. I became a volunteer member of the virtual chat team and a selector for the Cinema Studies Department. I made Reader’s Advisory signs to try and get people to read our dusty books. I worked closely with our students, checking their accuracy, creating assignments, and introducing them to some pretty high-brow American experiences during our free time. When I felt I could do no more, I moved to a new role in the Central Reading Room.

Teaching students how to do proper American things

During these next years, I worked more actively with the public and saw ways that I could create events to simultaneously entertain and educate our patrons. I created a few scavenger hunt with the help of some awesome colleagues, worked with the incredibly talented Arielle Hessler (and others) to create some library-themed board games that I think someone once played, and introduced other activities such as button making, Pi-Day, Banned Book Month contests, e-games, and more.

 

Rebel volunteers who made Spy Hunt happen!

It is also during this time that I became active in Walk-O-Rama, thanks to Richie Feinberg (who began the group) and Celeste Hessler, who asked me to continue the activity after his retirement. These walks, as you may or may not have read in past entries, helped us all regain a small sense of childlike wonder as we left the comforts of our desks and began to bravely explore the campus grounds each week, searching for humor and meaning in all we saw. We found the remnants of an ancient feline civilization, tried our best (unsuccessfully) to make sense of the hospital floor plan, learned Ken is secretly an all-star baseball player, photobombed the President, and even buried our own time capsule somewhere we’ve long forgotten. And we ate. Mostly we ate. But it’s all good, because walking, talking, and breaking bread together is what creates bonds and keeps people happy as a team! I will always have a special place in my heart for Team Walk-O-Rama!

 

It was only fitting that WOR founder, Richie, should transport the time capsule to its burial spot, wherever the heck that is

Ken assures me this card will be worth big bucks someday

President Stanley happy to be out with Walk-O-Rama one day

I did other things I never dreamed I would do as a professional, or in any other capacity for that matter. I helped make several boats out of carboard and duct tape for the annual Roth Regatta and helped row two. To our surprise, none of them sank, and we even earned a trophy for coming in second place in the Speedster division during our first attempt. Go us! Staff all came out and cheered us on, and for days following I received small gifts and cards like a real hero who had done something wonderful. As someone who does not usually do things, I can tell you that it meant a lot in my little world to feel this way.

 

 

Mentally preparing ourselves to sink upon contact with water

I have learned so much in my time here, both about myself and about my profession, and I have had the pleasure of meeting so many kind, creative, talented people who have made such a difference in my life, whether they realize it or not. Walk-O-Rama may be ended in some sense, but the energy that started it still remains. I hope you all will not forget to devote parts of your day, or even just your week to doing something that is brave –  even if only brave for you at your level, something silly, something adventurous, but mostly something fun. And take a friend – or several friends. Or drag someone you don’t particularly care for and force them to be your friend, because being adventurous together is awesome, and I have enjoyed my awesome adventure with you.

 

 

A picture has no caption.

 

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Walk-O-Rama: Independence Day

Though holiday purists tend to celebrate July 4th – Independence Day – on, well, July 4th, we here at Walk-O-Rama felt that July 2nd, the official date of the legal separation between the US and Britain, was more appropriate for our celebratory parade around campus.  Though we could be doing so because we are just super patriotic, the reasoning most likely has more to do with the fact that 1) the actual holiday falls on a Saturday and 2) the group felt the need to walk off our big bagel brunch.

“The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance…” – John Adams

Years later, Walk-O-Rama was out making John Adams look all prophetic.  In the spirit of obtaining independence, we determined that we would seek out our deliverance from the workplace by fleeing our offices and setting out into this great land of ours.  Songs of patriotism filled the air, and as we approached the brand new, now totally open to the public Computer Science Building, the tune “This Land is Your Land” seemed of particular relevance.  We had determined that this building belonged to us too, and are hoping the summer months will give us enough time for our squatter’s rights to fully kick in.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

John Adams gave us permission to celebrate early today. Thanks, John! Adams. John Adams. Sir.

We decided the best course of action would be to sneak in the back way where no one would see us, and also because the first several doors were not nearly up to our standards.  Boy were we glad we held out. Though we were spotted sneaking in by several passersby (one of which we asked to photograph our entry), we did have the opportunity to enter through the grandest entrance of them all.

This building is your building This building is my building. This building was made for you and me. But mostly me.

This was not an approved Walk-O-Rama entrance

The interior of the building, much to our surprise, was much nicer than it had been months ago when we trespassed in the facility before its completion.  Go figure. Beautiful lights illuminated the open spaces, “Stony Brook Red” furniture made every nook and cranny look inviting, and even the toilets (though not accented with comfy toilet paper) sparkled with a green tint of water that symbolized clean. Wow. It was amazing. The building of the future even included a pantry and an Area of Refuge.  Truly, this place was built with us in mind. Tears nearly came to our eyes, but then we remembered that it was a holiday. Our Founding Father’s had surely decreed that there would be no crying allowed on July 2nd, even out of excessive joy.

We will try dangling our light bulbs from the ceiling in this dazzling, artsy manner later in the afternoon. (This is your official heads up about that, building manager John)

Clean.

Finally, a building that gets us! An Area of Refuge in close range to the Pantry!

We approve of our new red furniture that seemed to inspire intelligent, thoughtful conversation

Staff Retreat 2016?

Prime Roth Regatta spectator seating

Peggy had no difficulty locating her new office and pulling decor from her bag like Mary Poppins. Really, that rug was tucked nicely in there

Child actors portray Kristen and Raquel as they watched Peggy unpack her office furnishings

This walk of liberation inspired Peggy to shed the confines of the workforce as she determined to break free from the grind and pursue a more stress-free life filled with happiness, relaxation, yoga, paddle boarding, and ice cream sandwiches.  For real.  Sadly, this is to be her last Walk-O-Rama adventure.

As we wandered back to work, we swear we heard the remaining lyrics of “This Land is Your Land” coming from her direction, though she will surely deny all knowledge of it.

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.

We will miss our friend and occasional Walk-O-Rama member, Peggy.  Go get your freedom and always remember to celebrate July 2, even if only as your final Walk-O-Rama adventure!

Peggy comes to the realization that this place is nice, but not for her

Farewell, Peggy! You will be missed.

 

 

 

 

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Walk-O-Rama: This Just In…Friend Dissed for Chance to See Chimps

Sometimes, as we all know by now, emails can be taken out of context.  What may sound like a promised plan to the receiver might well have been intended as a mere potential suggestion by the sender. This is what happened when Kristen by no means promised that Walk-O-Rama would visit Ken in HSL today, the branch where he was stationed.  It would have been lovely for all, to be sure, but not nearly as awesome as the opportunity to locate and quickly befriend the local celebrity chimps that are rumored to be on our campus.  Sorry, Ken.  We love you but you cannot compete with chimps. Especially if they’re in adorable clothes, as we are picturing them in our highly active imaginations.

We love Ken and his delicious cookies, but we love chimps in cute clothes more. Sorry, Ken!

A professional reenactment of Ken being neglected at his desk by his colleagues

Sensing that a walk without Ken as the leader would end in yet another disastrous outing similar to our previous attempt, Bob’s collegial spirit kicked in and he rushed from his very important work to put his awesome wilderness survival skillz to the test.  We went to the only possible place we could imagine a pair of primates being fairly housed on campus, the local wooded preserve.  There were vines for climbing and swinging and even a small shack for moments of quiet emotional reflection, but alas, no chimps could be found in the near vicinity.  We wondered if perhaps this news story was a hoax.  What on earth would a chimp be doing indoors when there was so much wilderness all around us?

Bob’s spidey sense alerts him to come to the aid of two walkers who might otherwise have wandered around aimlessly and then grabbed some coffee

Indoor Chimps in the workplace? Truly an equal opportunity institution!

Feeling cheated that we got neither the privilege to see Ken nor chimps with or without clothes, we looped around in the woods and headed back to the Library.  With Bob’s superior leadership skills, we all felt like wilderness experts upon exiting the preserve. We deserve badges!

Walks without getting lost: 1. Expert status achieved!

Walk-O-Rama hopes to soon learn more of the whereabouts of these celebrity chimps so we can combine forces and go on an epic walking adventure together.  We can dream, can’t we?

We certainly hope you’ll join us next week, whether this becomes a reality or not.

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Walk-O-Rama: Into the Wild

Having learned that former dedicated Walk-O-Rama member Donna had been relocated to the secluded, often thought to be imaginary library branch known to us as MASIC (Mythical Area Serving Imaginary Customers), we determined that we should set off on an adventure to visit her. And that’s just what we did.  Many in our party had never been there before, so we thought this would make for a great working lunch. Regrettably, Ken (AKA the guy who knows where everything is) could not join us today, so the rest of us pieced together all of our fragmented memories and suspicions about where we thought we recalled seeing the trail that would take us there. Today’s walk included a guest observer, so we all felt added pressure to show off our professionalism on this very serious, totally physical fitness related walk. As we shuffled along to find the entrance to this “short cut” through the Ashley Schiff Preserve, we saw signs of spring reminding us to chill out and to stop and smell the…whatever these were.

Everyone knows to stop and smell the roses, but what of these little guys? Unsure, we just stopped and stared awkwardly

After some difficulty, we decided to disregard this suggestion and went back to walking using both legs

Ann, one of the newest members of the group who had never been on the trail in which we would take, properly pointed out its location before anyone else had seen it.  We considered this to be WOR beginner’s luck.  Surely she too will slowly lose all sense of focus and direction as her time with the state progresses. We have determined that this condition, of which we all suffer, is properly called Stateemployeeitus. We will leave it to Ann, the Head of our Health Science Library, to verify the accuracy of this definitely not made up medical diagnosis.

Like us!

Team WOR staggers through the woods without Ken or Maria to guide them

The path was long and winding, with at least one hill that had to be inconveniently scaled in an upward direction.  If WOR members approach a hill in the woods and no one is there to hear them swear, do they still do it?  YES!

At long last we were nearing the end of the great woods and the threat of a TOUS (ticks of unusual size) attack was quickly fading into the distance.  We had survived. We had reached South Campus!  This revealed challenges of its own, symbolically represented by the lack of the name of the building we sought on the signs – Challenger! We wandered through at least one building that seemed to have all the defining features of the one that houses the library – an overabundance of fridges and freezers lining the halls.  After spotting a Wildling frolicking through the halls (Wildling being the name I have just designated to those who study beyond Main Campus in the south), we decided to cautiously approach her for directions.  She kindly directed us to the building to the right.  Tricky Wildings should not be trusted – that turned out to be the Police Station.

This is nothing – you should see the TOUSs!

Typical Wildling attire

Those less experienced than we might have abandoned the mission and gone back to the office, but we are experts and began to survey our surroundings to find this challenging Challenger building.  To the left we saw the last possible building that could house the library, and as luck would have it, it was there! We walked in and saw our friend Donna smiling happily, likely because she had not had to look at our faces for several days since her move.

The MASIC gate count rose exponentially on the day of our visit. Statisticians will be studying the reason for the spike in activity for years to come.

Like fashion trends, technology seems to cycle around and repeat itself.  MASIC is the Paris of our campus, apparently, with all the old styles coming back in vogue.  The typewriter is all the rage this spring, as is the HP 5m printer. We all hope to get ours before the season is out.

Electronic typewriters are all the rage, I hear.

And everyone who’s anyone has this status symbol in their office.

I just really liked this lunch box in a building full of refrigerators

Peggy revealed that she was actually still working by delivering mail to Donna in her interoffice mail tray.  I hope she puts that in her Annual Addendum!

Three cheers for delicious mail calls!

…and beautiful roses from Raquel!

We took a quick tour of the branch before rushing back to work, to thoroughly dispel the myth that this was not an actual library branch.  Not only was it real, it was beautiful, which made us all envy Donna’s good fortune!

Soon to become the most overcrowded place on campus, thanks to our publicity. You’re welcome, Donna 😉

Don’t take our state issued blocks! They serve very important functions, clearly

On the way back, we had difficulty finding our way back into the woods, so Kristen decided to forge ahead and create a trail of her own.  This was quite possibly the worst idea of the day, which made everyone miss Ken even more.

Everyone hates when Kristen leads

But eventually it worked out.  The trail was found and successfully followed, and we all made it out alive, except for Celeste and her friend who have not been heard from since.  If anyone finds her, please tell her to report back to work immediately.

Darn it – we left Celeste! Our bad.

Join us next time as we show more new people new places. Hopefully Ken will be there to make sure things are found properly.

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Walk-O-Rama: Back by popular demand!

We know many of you out there had begun to suspect that Walk-O-Rama had been disbanded.  Even we as members had wondered from time to time over the course of these long winter months if we were still officially a thing.  Fear not, faithful readers.  Wednesday marked the premature celebration of the mathematical constant Pi, which we observed by eating lots and lots of pie at work. So naturally we felt the urge to get some physical activity on the following day, to burn off a few calories and prove that we were at least as constant (to say nothing of irrational) as the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter.

Not everyone knew quite how to express their enthusiasm when we gathered at our traditional meeting spot at high noon on Thursday.  Even our new members were excited to set off on their first walk with legendary Walk-O-Rama explorers.  Some smiled to express their happiness, while those in the front row spontaneously broke out into dance by performing the Charleston.  It was weird.  We blame this ridiculous winter that has kept us cooped up at our desks.

The Charleston: a time honored way to express joy and excitement

Exhibit A. I prove my case!

Though the wind prevented the day from being quite as nice for walking as the previous “stuff a bunch of pie in your face” day had been, we were determined to explore a new building on campus, the new Computer Science Building, guaranteed to be open by 2014. The posters told us so.

As we approached the building, we  began to wonder if perhaps we had missed the grand opening in 2014.  Perhaps that was the only year it was open to the public and it was now being disassembled?  It seemed the only logical explanation. given its state of total not-readiness.  When they said Computer Science 2014, we had no clue they meant, really, just for 2014.  Luckily the old junky Computer Science building still stands, so employees can retreat to the more comfortable atmosphere that they’ve been growing to love for decades.  As the new furniture had been packed up for storage, being no longer needed in this expired building, we opted to re-purpose it for the library.

Apparently they were not open long enough to justify paying for official door signage.

This had totally been finished on time. It’s getting all Detroit on this campus. Who stole it?? (we’re looking at you, Chemistry building!)

2015, three months after the heyday of this now out-of-date campus structure. Tear it down!

Sweet! Scoring some nice chairs for the library!

Feeling sorry to have missed the glitz and glamor of this building during the year of what surely must have been its prompt, as-scheduled unveiling, we decided to head to the Roth Pond to show the newbies where we would be forcing them to row in this year’s regatta.  The pond, once spacious and grand, seemed to have shrunk considerably.  We tried to get the new members to walk closer to take a better picture, but they were onto us and wisely pointed out the signs that warned to stay off the ice.  Too bad. We would have enjoyed that close up picture.

Rowing in the regatta will be a little easier this year…

This brief exploration was short to keep us from getting too exhausted as we get back into the program.  It also contained a limited amount of lawlessness, when we only briefly considered stealing the Anthropology bus skin and claiming it as our own.  Gotta love those adorable lemurs! Anticipate chronicles of longer, edgier, more Walk-O-Rama-esque adventures as the season progresses.

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Walk-O-Rama Special Edition: Walk-O-Whaaa? No Thank You!

This year, for our 3rd annual Harvest Feast, Walk-O-Rama learned that evites that mention the verb ‘walk’ actually deter most people from considering coming to your feast, or even acknowledging the receipt of the email entirely. This is understandable. It’s November.  Our bodies are now instinctively telling us to preserve energy to bulk up for the oncoming winter. Walking is in direct conflict with this goal.  Luckily, having caught this error in advance, we were still able send a follow-up email (or three) to attract the attention of just enough people to make this winter bulk up initiative successful, as many guests in attendance came bearing pots and platters full of delicious home-baked (or store-bought, it’s all good) edible delights.

Don’t be alarmed, we won’t actually be walking

This should help us make it through the long winter months

Those who were unsure (most of us) hit up the next table as well

There is, as we found, a fine balance between filling yourself to a comfortable capacity and overloading your cheeks like a chipmunk who is uncertain if he will pass another acorn ever again.  I, for one, am quite sure I became the latter. Sherry’s delicious noodles were an early morning experiment.  When is that likely to happen again?? Probably never, so down the hatch it went. This seemed good at the time, but hibernation mode is surely setting in as I type. We ran into the usual pitfalls at this event – a traffic jam at the oven, clear spoons that were camouflaged into the table, and accusations of certain delicious entrees being seemingly downgraded to the second table where no one would eat them due to already overflowing plates.  All of these dilemmas were overcome, thank goodness, and a happy ending was in store for everyone!

It is unclear whether this happy diner finished her plate. What’s under that napkin?!!

Ken nervously allows his food to be photographed. Don’t worry, we’re too full to steal it – for now.

Luckily, Walk-O-Rama seems to attract many artistic types. In the time it took Kristen to locate a microwave to reheat her food, members had assembled to turn the Javits Room into one heck of a festively cheerful venue.

They were not edible, but we were content to have them on the table anyway

Those without yards had fun spreading these faux leaves for others to rake up

Kathy can’t believe anything on Bob’s phone is more interesting than our decorations

Diane looking for more places to spread her festive leaves

Ken taught us all the importance of simple food identification. We’ll get it by the fourth year!

As is now the tradition, we were joined today by many old friends who have since left the Library. We were so happy to have more friendly people to mingle with, and happier still that they ate their share of food so we could not.

Two wallflowers hiding behind some table flowers

We’re grateful for people like Stephanie! Don’t be a stranger! We see you David!

A future seawolf!

We also continued the tradition of raising goods to donate to the Campus Food Pantry! Those who wish to bring in non-perishables can bring them to the Central Reading Room until 4pm on Wednesday.

Someone is going to be very happy!!

As if this grand feast was not already enough to make our day better, David later shared the good news that Sherry had given everyone permission to go home for the day. Fortunately for the Library, we were all too full by this time to walk out to our cars, and had to scuffle back to our offices to recover from the large meal anyway.

David exclaims that we all have Sherry’s permission to go home!

Riley secretly wishes that we all will be responsible and stay at work anyway. Granted!

Which was fine, because we just love being together!

The rain prevented anyone from having to do some post-feasting walking for Walk-O-Rama today, except poor Maria and all those from HSL who had a great distance to walk to get back to their home base.

We would like to thank everyone who made today possible. Whether you baked or purchased food (or just ate it), helped decorate or clean up, or just came to socialize and engage in nice conversation, you made today great and we are grateful for YOU! Have a great Thanksgiving holiday, and eat just enough that you feel motivated to join us the following week for some Walk-O-Rama adventures!!

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Walk-O-Rama Special Edition – Yeah, we’d eat that

Over the weekend, Walk-O-Rama members ventured back to NYC to embark on yet another scavenger hunt. Having failed the last hunt we attempted in fantastic fashion, we thought we would build our confidence back up by registering for the kind of hunt we knew we could win – one that involved eating.  And so we set out to conquer Chinatown and Little Italy, by racing through their streets and eating as much food as we could find.  It was delicious.

Ice cream for lunch? Sure, why not!

At first, the riddles were a bit of a challenge, as we were still groggy from the long commute and some were famished from skipping breakfast.  But soon our competitive spirits kicked in (or perhaps it was the newly acquired sugar and calories) and after a few quickly found answers to clever clues, we were off and running.  And munching.  At the first stop, we marveled at the cheap prices of some scrumptious pastries, and Kristen kicked herself for not bringing a larger bag to fill with super cheap sesame buns that were scored for under a buck. But there was more great food to be tasted and we could not be bogged down at the first stop with too many bags of leftovers.

Chris joined our group this time around as our new John, and we were happy with this arrangement because he knew Chinatown like the back of his hand, which was soon dripping with Zen Butter ice cream that none of us seemed able to eat fast enough.  To cut the sweetness from our first two dessert shops, we stopped in and got some pastries with eggs – you know, for some protein.

The ice cream that was soon all over our faces, hands, and clue sheets.

This would be categorized as dessert, were it not for the protein packed egg. Thanks, egg!

Some clues that did not involve eating were particularly tedious.  We looked all over to find some dude eating a bitter apple.  As we threw our hands up in the air in defeat, the answer revealed itself to us in the form of a serpent, who tempted us to leave this destination to go eat more food to obtain all-knowing scavenger hunt knowledge.  And so we did.

Finally, it seemed we were given a “real food” option, so soup and noodles were eagerly ordered by members of our group.  After receiving their heaping bucket-o-goodness, we realized that no, those were not recommended options after all.  Curses.

Nice try, guys. Soup was not a point-earning option. But those dumplings were!

Ken quickly tries to hide the evidence of this falsely purchased container of soup. Chug! Chug!

As a dessert to follow up our dessert-fest, we made a few more stops to get some additional items on our list: cannolis and some funky candy.

…and the cannoli queen

Taken moments before members of our team literally exploded into heaps of processed sugar from eating an excess of it

A lack of time left us literally sprinting to the finish line, where our team awaited our fate.  We stopped to enjoy some fine Chinese karaoke in the park while waiting for our competition to complete the event.

Microphones – don’t leave home without them!

Soon, the man in the nice red hat invited us all to converge so he could declare the winner.  He boosted the competition’s egos by complimenting their witty name choices and whatnot, but let’s face it, we all knew who the winners would be.  We may lose thinking hunts 100% of the time, by very embarrassing margins, but we are unstoppable when it comes to races to find and consume delicious food! Needless to say, our confidence returned and is now overly inflated and all ready to be crushed next time we try a thinking hunt, which could be in November.  Join us then!

Woohoo…there will be more hunting in our future!

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Walk-O-Rama: Our Pre-Siesta Fiesta

Today we welcomed Ken back to Walk-O-Rama on his first day back on the job since returning from Paradise. We don’t know why he chose to return from such an aptly named place, but we sure are glad he did.  It was nice being grounded by a sensible decision maker or a change, after weeks of walks so filled with chaos and lawlessness that they could not be safely chronicled in this blog.  His return warranted a Welcome Back fiesta, which could mean only one thing.  Burritos.

We welcomed Ken back in the office today in traditional Walk-O-Rama fashion

Despite the fact that it was National Cheesecake Day, we were all good and avoided sweets, sticking to more nutritious lunch choices such as salad, some other kind of salad, and dishes doused in cheesy sauce.  Go us.  Eventually, as must always be the case, we had to up-heave our now sleepy selves from our seats and make the long trek back to work.

Our now lazy, unfocused minds touched on many subjects while trying to avoid abandoning our goal of returning to the library and just lying down in the grass for a quick nap instead. Perhaps an hour or two would hit the spot.  NYC scavenger hunts were planned, as were future trips to the zoo. A story of questionable veracity was told about a leaf bag that many moths mistook for a large lady moth who demanded their affection. Apparently this event was confirmed by two eye witnesses in our party.

At this point in our chatter, it was proposed the the structure of our lunch breaks be forever changed as we know it.  Instead, time allotted for eating would be granted for siesta purposes, which Ken concurred would be in our legal right as state workers. In his sleepiness he expanded on this opinion with a falsehood, claiming we were allowed to do anything we wanted during our lunch hour.  The following is a brief, non-exhaustive list of things we would likely not be permitted to do during our lunch hour:

• Feed Skittles to penquins
• Host a llama beauty pageant
• Play soccer with our cars in the South P lot
• Attempt scaling the Simon Center wall using office supplies we believe will provide suction
• Burn down our workplace to provide fertile grounds for a better workplace
• Provide a zero credit course to teach the Canada Geese to speak Canadian English

With that being said, I will now join the rest in my party by embracing the right bestowed upon me by Ken to siesta on state time. We hope you will join us next week when we continue testing the limits of what the university will and will not allow us to do on our lunch breaks.

Walk-O-Rama, 3pm

 

 

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Walk-O-Rama Special Edition: Bike-O-Rama!!!

The triumph of this week’s adventure nearly trumped the legendary conquest achieved by Arielle last week when she successfully ate a Green Cactus burrito and was not forced to abandon her meal due to any ridiculously spicy hot sauce or spices.  Go Arielle!  Since Ken and Kristen were the only two up for escaping the office today (which is just weird people – I mean come on!), they decided their odds at finding enough bikes to ride in the campus bike share stalls would be slightly better than last week’s failed attempt.  And they were right! Ken even had a route in mind! For over a  year now he has been talking about some mysterious clearing that he once stumbled upon, and he was set on finding it and showing it to all who were dumb enough to follow (Kristen).  It was bound to be an adventure unlike any other! Or at least a good way to burn a few calories, which is a good thing.

Go Arielle! What a delicious achievement!

Having swiped their cards at the pay station, they were forced to pretend to read many rules, instructions, terms and agreements, and other such nonsense that they simply agreed to so the machine would release its death grip on the bicycles and allow them to begin having some major fun.  This major fun was found in the form of Kristen nearly crashing because she wanted to take pictures in motion and Ken narrowly avoiding wiping out when he could not figure out how to switch gears.  All initial difficulties being soon after overcome, the two headed out to find this legendary clearing in the nearby forest.

Yay! We finally scored some bikes!

Kristen quickly learns that she is not as skilled as that boy she saw texting while riding last week

Ken grows tired of waiting for the green light to give him permission to take the bike and attempts brute strength

Moments into the ride, both bikers were quickly realizing that biking is BS, with the exception of those downhill slopes that proved to be few and far between.  Cursing happened.  Before too long, a barely visible trail was in view, and all signs of civilization were quickly left in their dust.

This is when Kristen learned for sure that Ken did not know where this clearing was located.  In fact she’s pretty sure he dreamt it. While intoxicated. Turns left, right, and in a u shape were made at every opportunity, until the rugged trail that they were following was little more than a mere parting of a few shrubs where some deer had likely once passed.  A few familiar signs were spotted along the way that helped guide them on their journey, which were particularly helpful for the return trip when they were racing back to try and beat the clock to avoid paying another four bucks.

 

Dead end #1

Proof that others have been lost here as well

Adding our mark

We still fit in some walking on this exhausting outing

A Lite to help guide our way

Backtracking at dead end #2

We briefly considered abandoning our bikes and taking a cab back

The ultimate dead end that made us quit

The pair could not contain their excitement when they were soon close enough to the forest perimeter to hear traffic. Though the rain clouds above gave Kristen hope that a downpour might give her a legitimate excuse to be wet so she would not have to admit to just being super sweaty, precipitation held back for the remainder of this rigorous adventure.  The cooler breeze felt while gliding downhill did do its part to refresh the riders, in much the same way the intense air blowing cycle works to dry cars in a car wash, so they could not complain.

They made it back with mere minutes to spare, but to their dismay they could not figure out how to properly return the bikes that they now never wanted to set eyes on again.  A kind stranger shared the secret method of making them lock, bringing an official end to this week’s adventure.  Never had refueling been more of an emergency than it was after this particular calorie burn, so operation carb fest was initiated to recoup all losses.

Carb Fest 2014

Join us next week when we will not do this again.

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