Scav: A Summary?

It's over. My last Scav at the U of C is over, and I don't know if it's really hit me yet. Knowing myself, I probably won't come back next year, and even if I did it would be different and probably not as much fun.

Hah. I am done being a Scavenger, and all I have to show for it is this awesome half-pony half-monkey monster. So that's the first story, which is that I got to do the Jonathan Coulton Item, number 164: I made this ____ to please you. But I get the feeling that you don't like it; what's with all the screaming? ... Maybe I used too many monkeys. Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?


Yes, he is holding a Jonathan Coulton ticket stub, and yes he is wearing an NIH tee-shirt. I'm going to ask JoCo to sign the ticket stub the next time I see him in concert. Any suggestions on names would be appreciated, though, since I am not good at naming things that aren't Armadillos.

More pictures to come later, as I upload them from my camera and/or am sent them by friends. I had a hell of a time tracking down the page captain for this item, because after I heard it my eyes pretty much bugged out of their sockets and I thought "Oh man, I MUST do this item". But once I found him, told him that I really really really wanted to do the item, and also told him I would dress as a mad scientist and sing the song (if he wanted me to) at Judgement, well, he seemed pretty pumped. And when he saw the finished product, his eyes bugged out of their sockets in much the same way mine had when I heard the item read.

It is a very cute, and very cuddly, abomination, and I will display it with pride in my apartment at Stanford. I can't wait for someone to notice it and ask "What's that?" to which the only possible response is "It's a half-pony half-monkey monster."

I would wait for them to ask "Why, exactly, do you have a half-pony half-monkey monster?" before I explained that it was a Scav item, and what Scav is, and how awesome this year was.

Because this year was, in my opinion, the awesomest of my four years doing Scav. The half-pony half-monkey monster was probably my favorite item, and I absolutely loved how it turned out. The Monowheel was so very much fun. (And all of our showcase items worked -- Gir (cartoon dog balloon, item 18) was stupendous, the Zeusaphone could play recognizable tunes, and the potato gun that shot fire as well was, an exercise in hilarity). The dance at Daly Plaza (Blues Brothers item, number 136) was incredible fun, although I must admit (sadly) that as an item I liked Stick to the Status Quo a bit better from last year. I actually enjoyed the party more since (most) people weren't getting raucously drunk, and ours was, I must admit, absolutely amazing (in fact, everything that Anna McGeachy did in Scav this year was amazing, from what I heard). The Doll House was gorgeous, and I am so proud that I was able to do a tiny bit to be a part of that mammoth effort. Of course, there were parts I definitely didn't like (the Thursday Quads item comes to mind), but there weren't many (read: that was basically it). Even judgment was better this year than in years past, probably because I didn't have to stress and fret until the very end at which point a judge would ask me to do something totally ridiculous and absolutely absurd, and I would feel obliged to do it and possibly get hurt. Possibly because I had gotten at least a little bit more food and sleep than I had in years past. Possibly all of these things.

In the end, I hung out in Ross' room and pretended to be Ross with Emblies and Alex (yes, we were all pretending to be Ross; it was classy) between the judging of items and the final judgment. It was nostalgic in the extreme, and goofy and wonderful. THAT is my college experience (or at least the good parts): Hanging out in a dorm room, absolutely exhausted, chatting with good friends about life and the crazy stuff we just did, and getting ready for more wackiness. I worry a bit that I won't find that again, or that I won't find friends good enough, or something. It's hard to put a finger on it. But sitting in that room with those people I couldn't help forgetting that they had graduated and I had moved out and soon I would be in California, and just remember my second year -- only better, in a way, because this year has been so much better than my second year.

At final judgment, I was tackled and held in place while William Dix drew a mustache on me in sharpie, which was a combination of shame that I am small enough to be tackled so easily and pride that they thought I was enough a part of the team to force me into a victory mustache. Alex got away without one, and I don't know if that's because he's a black belt or he didn't really Scav this year or both. The chanting was hilarious (at the beginning, at least, although it did get old by the end), GASH rick-rolled everyone universally and went on to beat the FIST, Burton Judson came out incredibly strongly for third place (hooray!), and we won by a whopping seven hundred points!

The party afterwards made up in raucousness and insanity for the lack of booze at the Friday night party. We took over the third floor of section five, the RAs didn't care (neither did anyone else I don't think), there was dancing and cavorting, shouting and whooping and reveling that you could hear from the street, bad champagne and bad beer and bad mixed drinks (I had maybe two sips of champagne). And Dominos Pizza never tasted so good. The Burton Judson captains came over and William Dix gave them victory mustaches. It was, in short, everything that Scav was supposed to be, everything that Scav is, and everything that I wanted from Scav.

Next weekend, though, I am turning my sonic screwdriver into a screwdriver. Why? Because even if it isn't Scav, I still can.