"Omg so much drama at bingo"

Tuesday, January 6, 2008
10:22 pm Soaking my butchered toes in the kitchen


Hell hath no fury like an old lady when you tell her she can't play bingo.

I thought I was going to see a granny fight tonight. I hadn't been to bingo since the summer, so I was a little excited to go tonight with Ang. There were rumors that bingo might be cancelled because of the weather, so I spent much of the day clicking the refresher button on weather.com. I am also nursing a cold, but I wasn't going to let freezing rain or a running nose stop me: I really wanted to win.

So, it's about 7 p.m. at St. Paul's Bingo Hall when an old guy makes the announcement: there aren't enough people; they have to cancel bingo.

People FREAKED OUT.

I kid you not! I thought people were going to start having heart attacks. There was yelling and cursing and throwing of bingo dabbers! I was more than a little scared. That's when I texted my mom, "Omg so much drama at bingo," just so she wouldn't wonder when I ended up hospitalized after breaking up a geriatric wrestling match.

People start to go up to get their money back (I was trying not to cry), when someone came up with the idea to see if they could get enough people to pay to make up the difference. I guess they need 40+ people to play the game, so people offered to buy extra cards to make up the difference. It worked! Enough people volunteered to do it, so bingo was back on.

But it still wasn't all hunky-dory. People had already left the hall, so they had to find them in the parking lot. One old woman who had cried "This is stupid!" when they cancelled bingo was already completely gone. Some of the old men who ran the bingo just wanted to go home, so they weren't happy when bingo was back on. It was quite the emotional rollercoaster.

Needless to say, I didn't win, and now I'm home, soaking my feet in salt water and feeling quite ill. But I will be back to bingo in March, I'm sure, because I've recently discovered that I will not be able to afford to go on spring break. Maybe when I go to bingo then, I'll win they money I would have needed.

Wouldn't that be ironic.

Tara