Tacos Tacos Tacos

It was a busy past two weekends. I've been trying to explore Columbus a bit more and also continue building relationships within my cohort. To this end I managed to find a taco truck tour, go outlet shopping, attend our cohort formal, and play a ton of games, and even do a bar hop. Needless to say, I have done very little WORK on the weekends.

Let's talk about the games first. Powder Climber, Cardmaster Cider, Tall Bear and intermittently Hopeful Introspective have played a variety of board games with me. As I've mentioned many times before, we are the "nerds" who enjoy the more elaborate board games, not just Monopoly and whatnot. In the past few weeks we've played Forbidden Island, Small World, Fluxx, Civilization, Settlers of Catan, Blockus, and Citadel, among others. So if you are looking for new games, these are some good choices to consider. It's been fascinating watching how we play various games, and seeing where our talents come out. I, for example, do very well in games that are reactive. I'm very good at countering moves, but not terribly skilled at planning ahead or coming up with a strategy per say. Now some people may disagree with this assessment, but this is also the level of competition that I'm playing against (I also employ psychological warfare...or do I?) Tall Bear, very analytical and strategic in his approaches, has a highly guarded and fleshed out plan that he tweaks as he goes, usually centered around maximizing the best possible outcomes. He calculates what is most likely going to be beneficial and strategizes toward that. CC is really adept at keeping track of whats going on everyones cards and who has done what in various moves. She identifies the threat then does her best to beat them to the punch. Powder Climber picks a strategy and sticks with it rain or shine. Sometimes he finds that it wasn't the best, but he perseveres and adjusts slightly. Often this results in him scoring a lot of points for a streak of time and then earning nothing, but he has already such a lead that we have trouble catching him. Hopeful Introspective does his own thing, almost disappearing from the game, ruffling noones feathers and suddenly winning because we have spent so much energy destroying each other. You can gauge how many games we play if I can identify consistent play styles at this point. I could go on, but then people might suspect I'm studying them for weaknesses... unless I am...

Taco trucking involved again CC, Powder Climber, Tall Bear, Dandy Woo and her fiance. I was glad to get a chance for good Mexican food. Chorizo tacos, horchata, gorditas, tlayudas (from Oaxaca, Mexico), and several other wonderful treats made it a great trip. CC found us a deal and coordinated the booking and it was totally worth it. At one place, we found some salsa that was really just onions soaked in habernero juice. So good. So hot. I was in my happy place. The trip ended at a Mercado, so naturally I bought fresh tortillas, avocados, cilantro, onions and Mexican candies and I hosted a fresh guac and chorizo taco party again a few days later. The happy place continued :)

We also had our cohort formal, which was a lot of fun drinking, dancing, shooting pool, and just taking pictures. The usual crew was present as well a Frenchie's Choice and La Femme Critique alongside many others. Funniest part was watching La Femme Critique keep changing the music to songs noone knew, continually proving herself a hipster, magically winning pool not once but twice, and just spending time with people I don't always hang out with too.

Before the party I had spent the day at the Outlet Mall about 45 minutes away alongside Powder Climber and two other cohort members I'd be attending China with: Mr. Bigpants and Brazen Talker. The four of us were on a mission for clothes for China, which will be very hot. $300 painful dollars later I had a few new pairs of pants, some nice and casual shirts, and even new board shorts, all DryFit type of materials so if I washed them, they would air dry quickly and feel nice and cool in the hot air. It hurt my wallet but I remembered that I NEVER shop, so these are good investments.

Next blog post (sometime early this week) will let me discuss non-cohort matters, like Red Button and her exciting news and how Spam Boa and I are incrementally changing the word through G-Chatting. Also, I may feel up to talking about my very... interesting... bar hop with TS Eloquent, my University friend who lives out here and often shows me around Columbus, but apparently only knows gay bars... Yes we'll see how much I want to commit of that to writing. It makes for a better story told aloud...

And with those teasers, happy solar eclipse view day West Coast! Special shoutout to my bro, Drew Jules York, for his birthday this past week and Happy belated Mothers Day!

-JTY

Listening to: Silversun Pickups. I have a playlist with all three of their albums but Royal We is my favorite I think.

Reading: Youth in Revolt- my Histories class book on student riots in the very early 1800s. Students haven't changed much FYI.

Playing: League of Legends and Brain Age in my free time, or lack thereof.