God, this is sad. I got a call from a friend a few hours ago—she wanted me to jump in a car and drive down to Chicago tonight. Mind you, her suggestion was justifiable. Here’s the background:
Over Halloween weekend, Mensa has a gathering in Chicago cleverly deemed “HalloweeM.” It’s one of the biggest draws for Gen-X members, which was one reason why I attended the event last year. It was a lot of fun, I met a lot of new people and I seriously considered heading back there this year. However, I opted to practice some fiscal responsibility (which is also the reason why I didn’t cough up $750 plus travel costs to spend a couple hours of my birthday inside the Playboy Mansion).
So this year, I’ve got other plans here at home: work on Friday and going out that night with my girlfriend, heading to a friend’s Halloween party on Saturday and playing soccer on Sunday morning. That’s a pretty heavy agenda to just drop for the sake of spending a weekend with friends whom I haven’t seen in a year. In this case, however, there was an additional incentive. On the HalloweeM website, it has a schedule you can download and included a short list of addenda (i.e., additions to the schedule). Here’s one of the paragraphs:
“The producers of the television show Beauty and the Geek will be scouting for contestants at HalloweeM. The casting director will be doing a “meet and greet” program at 12:45 pm on Sunday. If you are interested in being a contestant, or just have questions about the making of a reality show, check this out. They will also have a booth open to talk to prospective contestants during the day on Sunday. FYI – the demographic they are seeking is males aged 21-30.”
My friend was calling because of a panel the producers are setting up on Sunday and she thought I’d make a good surprise addition to said panel. After all, I’m a member of Mensa, I don’t live that far away (eight hours on the road or less than an hour-long flight), I’ve been there before, people know me and know I was on the show… sadly, this was the first I’d heard about it. I hope the weekend goes well and everyone has fun at the panel discussion, of course, but I seriously wonder how many people will ask why I’m not there.
