i keep a diary

April 05, 2008

Andrew's Scavenger Hunt Birthday

In 2007, my buddy Andrew organized a big scavenger hunt for his birthday. I didn't get to attend it, but the stories I heard about it were so legendary that I spent the early months of the winter of 2008 counting down the days to....ANDREW'S 2ND ANNUAL SCAVENGER HUNT BIRTHDAY!

I took the subway out to Williamsburg and met up with Amanda and Scott. We met up with everyone else at McCarren park. After teams were formed and the rules explained, each team received two-sided sheets of paper detailing the list of things to be scavenged! The list was divided into 3 categories: Mandatory Things, Things to Collect, and Things to Take Photos of.

Then, within each category was a tiered-points system. In order to get the most points, each team would have to formulate a strategy for how to best maximize your points over the allotted FOUR HOURS! For your enjoyment, here's a transcription:

MANDATORIES
  • Before 5pm - photo of team member doing a "patriot" at Clem's
  • 5pm - McCarren Park Event - at least one team member meet to compete for points.
  • 6:30pm - all team members must meet for judging at Clem's NO LATER THAN 6:30 or disqualified!
THINGS TO COLLECT
5 points
  • one plantain
  • one pierogi
  • something gay
  • something boasting brooklyn's greatness
  • something free
  • coke baggie
  • apt ad for over $2000
  • PBR can
  • something that says Andrew or Chunks
  • something polish
  • something italian
  • something jewish
  • something hipster

10 points
  • tanning salon price list
  • ticket number (for service)
  • something that says "save domino"
  • something john travolta or saturday night fever related
  • horoscope from april 4
  • 15 metrocards
  • fabric swatch
  • something in hebrew

15 points
  • any suicide girl type porn
  • apt ad for under $1000 (not roomate / not room for rent)
  • employment applicatoin for a polish-run restaurant business
  • item from peter lugar's
  • white castle wrapper
  • an electroclash CD
  • photo of Ryan Reynolds
  • photobooth photo of ALL team members (+5 for each extra random person in photo)

25 points
  • bring someone you don't know with you to clem's at 6:30
scavenger hunt
THINGS TO TAKE PHOTOS OF
5 points (aka Things that are easy to find in Williamsburg)
  • fancy new loft building
  • pinball machine
  • masonic temple
  • view of Manhattan skyline
  • someone with fulltattoo sleeve
  • Domino sugar factory
  • a diner
  • someone who was clearly at Studio B last night
  • someone who was clearly at Hug's last night
  • someone dressed head to toe in American Apparel

10 points
  • team member doing tequila shot at taco chulo (+5 for each additional TM. +5 for body shots)
  • team member doing cartwheel on the bridge
  • team member groping a statue
  • a non-asian, non-french, non polish restaurant
  • the original kokie's location
  • someone drinking beer out of a styrofoam cup
  • patch of green grass (not mccarren park)
  • team member w/ refrigerator
  • team member holding balls
  • team member walking someone else's dog
  • hasidic kids playing in gated window

15 points(aka Things that are damn hard to find in Williamsburg)
  • bootcut jeans
  • old people
  • movie theater (be creative)
  • someone in a suit
  • price tag on single clothing item over $200
  • price tag on single clothing item under $20 (non-vintage)
  • someone working in a coffee shop on a PC (non-mac)
  • someone carrying a GAP, old navy or banana republic bag

25 points
  • hasidic jew actually interacting with you (+10 for high five)
  • 2 or more team members drinking out of a scorpion bowl @ Sweetups
  • team member doing something dirty to the owner of Urban Rustic (Luis)
scavenger hunt
This girl (whose name I don't remember - sorry!) joined our team and we immediately started racking up points: "Team member walking someone else's dog" 10 POINTS!
dogs ˆ scavenger hunt
As our team discussed our strategy and plan of action, we all kept a watchful eye for more passerby-opportunities to check more things off our list. For instance: "Picture of an old person!" BLAMO! FIFTEEN POINTS!
brooklyn ˆ old man
Shebang! Two minutes later, ANOTHER OLD PERSON! And, as a bonus, this particular old person also happened to be "Someone in a suit." 15 POINTS! We hadn't even officially started and things were already looking up!
old man
ralph
On our way out of the park, I ran into Ryan and Ralph, two former co-workers of mine! We explained that we were on a scavenger hunt and showed them the awesome list of stuff we had to do for it. They agreed it was awesome, but also had some suggestions about things they thought should be in consideration as "things to take a photo of" for future scavenger hunts. Like: "Photo of shirtless man forcing himself onto someone from behind."
gay ˆ ralph
ralph
Or this collaborative effort, "Get a group of strangers to flash you."
ralph
ralph
Sensing that the yucks would be hard to top, Ralph decided to "go big" and suggest, uh, whatever this is a photo of. Hahahah. Soooo fucking awesome. (PS - whose dog is that???)
dogs ˆ nsfw ˆ ralph
Ok, the rest of the pics I have from this day are pretty much just a record of all the points I was able to personally capture for my team. "Someone drinking beer out of a styrofoam cup!" 1O POINTS!
strangers
"View of Manhattan skyline!" 5 POINTS!
nyc ˆ skyline
amanda, scott ward
"Team member doing something dirty to the owner of Urban Rustic (Luis)." 25 POINTS! Hahah. I love how the "something dirty" we came up with was to have Amanda and Scott "peek" up his apron while he's on a slider ladder. (PS - is that the lead singer of Soul Asylum in the background?)
apron ˆ ladder ˆ peep ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward
"A non-asian, non-french, non polish restaurant." 10 POINTS!
restaurant
"Price tag on single clothing item under $20 (non-vintage)." 15 POINTS!
price tag
"Price tag on single clothing item over $200." 15 POINTS!
price tag
"Someone dressed head to toe in American Apparel." 5 POINTS! (Ok, so this was taken at the American Apparel store. Still counts!).
american apparel
We went to Hug's and after asking the two bartenders on duty if they had also been on duty the previous evening, nailed "Someone who was clearly at Hug's last night." 5 POINTS! (BTW, I love the picture of these two guys so much. They seem really funny and nice - they are exactly the two bartenders I both want and expect to see pouring the drinks when I go to a bar named "Hug's.")
bartender ˆ strangers ˆ thumbs up
On the way out, we also picked off another: "Movie theater (be creative)." 15 POINTS! (If we didn't get bonus points for the fact that the movie playing was Sixteen Candles, we should've.)
movie
Per one of the hunt's three MANDATORY items, I volunteered to be the one member of my team that went to McCarren park to compete for POINTS! I arrived a little before 5pm and was directed to the track and field section of the park. Eeeeeenteresting.
mccarren park ˆ track
With the competitors assembled...
mccarren park ˆ track
jacquie
...Jacquie (who helped organize the whole jam!) announced that each of the team's representatives would be competing in a foot race! But in order to make things more interested, each racer would be required to shoot a full shot of hot sauce seconds prior to the beginning of the race!
hot sauce ˆ mccarren park ˆ jacquie
Sizing up the competition, I thought for sure I had the race on lockdown, but I was absolutely blown out of the water by whoever this HUMAN GAZELLE of a man was.
mccarren park
Kid blew the doors off the place.
mccarren park
Nicely done, sir! We took home the grand prize of 50 points for his team. (I did manage to get 2nd place, though. Soooo....25 POINTS!)
jump ˆ mccarren park
me
With my ego-smarting, I set back out upon the streets of Williamsburg with a vengeance; hellbent on redeeming myself for the 25 points I lost at the feet of MANZELLE. "Team member groping a statue." 10 POINTS!
grope ˆ statue ˆ me
melissa burns
"An electroclash CD!" 15 POINTS! (Super mega bonus points for the fact that the girl featured on the cover is SOMEONE WE ALL KNOW! Hahaha.)
cd ˆ scavenger hunt ˆ melissa burns
"Apt ad for over $2000." 5 POINTS!
A little before 5pm, our team that had split up into groups in order to maximize the number of things we could collect, reconvened at Taco Chulo in order to rack up some big points! The item in question? "10 Points for a team member doing tequila shot at taco chulo (+5 for each additional TM. +5 for body shots)" We, of course, all opted to go for the extra 30 points and do body shots! I requested 6 shots of the absolute shittiest and cheapest tequila they had and the bartender proudly held up this bottle of LOS GENERALES! Hahah. Perfect!
bartender ˆ best ˆ gross ˆ tequila
Mmmmmmmm! Well tequila makes my gums go numb.
shots ˆ tequila
amanda, scott ward
At first we didn't think doing body shots would be that big of a deal. Everyone's done them before right? But what you forget to realize is that usually when anyone does a body shot - it's usually in the back of some dark, shitty crowded bar and you're wasted and everyone is cheering you on. Doing body shots in the middle of a TACO JOINT that people are having lunch at, in the middle of the afternoon, while being STONE-COLD SOBER brings a whole new level of ass-cringing embarrassment to an already embarrassing endeavor!
body shots ˆ tequila ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward
amanda, scott ward
Scott and Amanda were dating at the time, so they went first.
body shots ˆ tequila ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward
amanda, scott ward
WOOOO! BODY SHOTS!
body shots ˆ lick ˆ tequila ˆ tongue ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward
me
Amanda and Scott were the only people I knew on our team of six people! That meant that someone had to let this random dude do a body shot off them. The two girls on our team politely giggled and excused themselves, so that meant it came down to me or Scott. Since we all figured my bellybutton was probably cleaner than Scott's, I volunteered to take one for the team. After daintily slurping a bellybutton-full of tequila right from my navel...
body shots ˆ coy ˆ tequila ˆ me
...our teammate pounded the rest of the shot.
shots ˆ tequila
amanda, scott ward
Then it was Amanda's turn!
body shots ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward
amanda, scott ward
BODY SHOTS! WOOOO!
body shots ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward
amanda, scott ward
Awww, they did the lime chaser in the proper, classy fashion.
body shots ˆ kiss ˆ amanda ˆ scott ward
amanda
Here's Amanda shooting the rest of the tequila that didn't fit into Scott's bellybutton.
shots ˆ tequila ˆ amanda
Hahaha. These two girls were the other people on our team of six that we'd just met. They had never done body shots and couldn't stop giggling at the prospect. The girl in green went first and opted to try the "cleavage pour" method of receiving a body shot! Hahaha. Soooo good!
best ˆ body shots ˆ tequila
Hahaha.
body shots ˆ laugh
SHOOT THE REST!
shots ˆ tequila
Her friend, however, was less shy and decided to subject her buddy to the "dirty dog bellybutton pour."
body shots ˆ embarrassed ˆ laugh ˆ tequila
Hahahaha.
laugh ˆ shots ˆ tequila
Oh man, these pics make me laugh so much.
body shots ˆ laugh
SHOOT THE REST!
shots ˆ tequila
scott ward
At this point, the entire restaurant was watching our group with a mix of both interest in horror. So when it was finally my turn to go, Scott decided to "give 'em something to talk about" and...
scott ward
scott ward
...decided to whip off his shirt completely....
scott ward
me, scott ward
...so that he could better hold the shot glass between his bulging pecs for me.
body shots ˆ gay ˆ me ˆ scott ward
me, scott ward
Hahaha. Definitely less-awkward than drinking from his navel. WIN!
best ˆ body shots ˆ gay ˆ laugh ˆ me ˆ scott ward
me
SHOOT THE REST!
shots ˆ tequila ˆ me
After racking up 60 POINTS at Taco Chulo, we headed over to the photo booth at Union Pool so that we could get points for "Photobooth photo of ALL team members (+5 for each extra random person in photo)."
photobooth
We were hoping to rope some strangers in, but it turned out it was quite a feat to get just the six of us on the team in the photo. 15 POINTS!
photobooth
After getting our photobooth pics, we raced over to Clem's to make sure we all arrived before the 6:30pm disqualification time!
high five ˆ scavenger hunt
We even managed to convince these four strangers to come to Clem's with us so that we could get credit for one last item on the list: "Bring someone you don't know with you to clem's at 6:30." 25 POINTS!
scavenger hunt ˆ strangers
andrew b, robbie
And here's the birthday boy, hisself! After wishing Andrew a happy birthday...
andrew b ˆ robbie
...we handed in all the stuff that we had collected to the judges!
beer ˆ scavenger hunt
While we waited for the judges to tally eveyone's scores, we decided it would be a good time to partake in a couple of Patriots!
beer ˆ shots ˆ whiskey
When the judges were finished tallying, our team (formally named BABY-FIST BALLS, btw) racked up an impressive 590 points! But alas, we didn't even place in the top 3. Competition was STEEP!
scavenger hunt
andrew b
Here's Andrew getting ready to announce the winning team.
andrew b
I don't remember who won, but I do remember that everyone screamed a lot. WOOOOO!
crowd
After handing out prizes to the winning teams, it was time for ice cream cake!
birthday ˆ cake
andrew b
Make a wish, Chunks!
birthday ˆ cake ˆ andrew b
andrew b
Now blow!
birthday ˆ cake ˆ andrew b
robbie, scott ward
Pseudo-brothers Scott & Robbie
robbie ˆ scott ward
marisa, me
I ran into Marisa (who I hadn't seen in YEARS) and I think this is a picture of us recreating the MisShapes flyer we appeared on way back in 2004. (Fuck, that was a long time ago. Remember MisShapes? Remember when people used to actually hand out hand-made flyers to promote parties instead of sending FB invites? We are so living in the future.)
marisa ˆ me
Ice cream cake!
cake
andrew b
Happy birthday, Andrew! Thanks for inviting me toone of the most-awesomest birthday events I've ever had the pleasure of attending! (PS - Wait until you see how epic 2009's 3rd Annual Scavenger Hunt was!)
birthday ˆ yell ˆ andrew b