Lunar Bingo

Some friends discovered and then invited us to attend Lunar Bingo on Saturday night. If you're having a hard time imagining what Lunar Bingo would be, just picture cosmic bowling, then add bingo cards. Darkness, black lights, bass-heavy music blaring in your ears and groups of people screaming in delight.

It started at midnight (which was a little late for us old-timers, we needed a preemptive nap at 9 to prepare) so we didn't even get home until 3 am! It was located at Fort McDowell Casino, and we didn't know what to expect. Old ladies? College students looking to get drunk? Truth is, there was a little of everything there, but the (how can I say this in the least offensive way possible?) less classy grouping was in high attendance. A lot of people with poor hygiene. A lot of strange tee-shirts with pictures of wolves on them. A lot of chain smoking.

Being in Arizona, where we have laws against smoking in public places, I've really gotten spoiled with the non-smoking environment. It's been so long since I've been in a public place with smoke that it's horribly surprising when you're suddenly stuck in a place from which there's no escape. Now, that's not fair, we could have escaped. But miss out on the chance to win the Black-Out Grand Prize Bingo Game? Never!

Point is, I find smoking to be the most abhorrent habit and a very rude form of public behavior. Period. I said it. I know it's judgey of me, but what is a blog if not a venue for posting my opinions? Off tangent.

If you're interested in trying Lunar Bingo, I'd advise you not to show up with only 5 minutes 'til go time. We missed the first game and were scrambling through the second to try to figure out what was going on. It didn't help that we only had two dobber-marker-things between five people. ("I need a dobber over here! Dobber STAT! I have three I-22's and she just called N-34!!")

The cluster that was that second game can really be captured in the following picture:

Some of us lost all composure, some found their groove, while others simply gave up:

You might be wondering why our surroundings don't look very Lunary. Well, I mentioned us getting there at 11:55. The HUGE room where the Bingo took place was filled to capacity, so we found spots in this strange little diner area off the main zone. It was obviously the home of novices and amateurs (like us) where no one really knew what they were doing. We kept calling it the Deli and really wanted a Deli-ite to win a game, but alas, it wasn't meant to be. We in the Deli were sort of the red headed stepchildren of the Bingo world, if you will. We could barely hear what numbers were being called, but the guy next to us could see the big master board through a break in the frosted glass. He would shout out the last number called, then we would shout it out to the Deli in general.

Anyway, it was a good time, but I don't know if I'd go again. Maybe if we got there earlier and got to sit in a non-smoking section (we heard that this was possible). It was a price preformer, though - only $8 for the whole night!