Bingo!

I have this friend in Chicago (actually, I think I have two, a whopping two friends in Chicago, but this is about the other one) named Alyssa. She actually used to be my roommate back when this house was a total pit. Her room didn't have electricity, for instance, and we ran an extension cord into the hallway so she could have an alarm clock and a lamp. The gigantic front window leaked cold air into the room, and instead of what we would do now:

a) fix it
b) replace it
c) put up indoor storm windows made of plexiglass and magnets,

we chose
d)hang up a flannel blanket and duct tape it at the edges.

Sadness. I'm not sure if we owned a vacuum back then, either. Can't recall. It was really quite pathetic here. We had a long set of growing pains going from dorm living, where all this is essentially acceptable, to home ownership, where none of it is. Pictures from back then make our living room look like Greek ruins--old frescos, crumbling facades, broken things. Sometimes it's good to look back, though, and realize what a Virginia Slims Ad we live in: we've come a long way, Baby.

Anyway, she lives in Chicago and works for a medical publishing company. She has coworkers. Like most every single workplace imaginable, it is dysfunctional on many levels. They have taken to playing Meeting Bingo, where a card of predetermined actions and phrases are written, and you X them off as they occur, trying to get 5 in a row or a 6 pack or 4 corners or what have you. Oh, Gen-xers, aren't we cynical and cool.

So one of her coworkers has started a blog called Situational Bingo. These aren't all about work--my favorite is probably the Trader Joe's Edition. I want to do this, but I really need to cut down my computer time and do a little living at some point. But "Camping Edition" and "Cleaning Sophia's Room Edition" and "Home for the Holidays Special Edition" really should happen. Bingo.