Pin curls and puzzles

OK, so maybe what I'm writing about isn't officially a selfish joy. And by that I mean that maybe when you have a really really fun time at someone else's bachelorette party, it's isn't all about you. But damn, it was fun. Phoebe and her friends do a lot of intricate experiential period games. OK, I don't know what these games are really called, but Phoebe and her friends choose a time period, dress in the period costumes, make up intricate scavenger hunts with puzzles that take them throughout a city, sometimes for the purpose of discovering the city, and sometimes for the purpose of, say, getting engaged or having a bachelorette party. Which was a 1940's kidnapping mystery, in which the fiancé disappeared and she had to figure out, first that he was gone, and second, what happened to him. And along the way, she met a cast of characters to give her clues, confuse her, and play along. I was an astrologer. I met her at the bar in the Campbell Apartment in Grand Central, where we solved a couple challenging puzzles that led us to the Flatiron Building, and then to Bar 6, for some dinner, at which point I had to bail on the game, having just flown in from Chicago, and having an early morning the next day.

But it was super fun, and I think maybe the moment of purest and most selfish joy was the moment that Phoebe walked in and discovered that I was part of the party. But the whole thing was a blast, and made me want to do something like this with my friends. Or spend more time with Phoebe and hers.