Marshmallow Tag

Back in our old BYU 73rd ward, (Moon Apartments, Single life) one Spring the activities committee of the ward set up a game of Marshmallow tag. (This is something I remembered because I just found a Ward picture directory Tara had stored away in her chest with some other stuff.)

The object of the game was to not get hit by an opposing player's marshmallow. Church, bathrooms, and bedrooms were off limits. Each person in the ward got a name of someone else in the ward. That was their target. If they successfully tagged someone, they got that person's name, the tagee was out, and the tagger moved on. There were prizes for the end of the game.

Well, this gave me something to do. Something I could dig my teeth into. I started being up on campus more often. I kept a little notebook. If I saw anyone from our ward, I wrote down where I saw them, when I saw them, and what they were doing. I figured it could come in handy if I got that person's name, and it would help if I found out who had me.

I started putting feelers out to figure out who had me. I wanted to avoid that person at all costs. It took me several days work to figure out who had me (including a near miss ambush), but after that, it was easier to avoid them. I kept tabs on the person to see when they were out of the game, then hit them up to find out who knocked them out.

I started climbing out the bathroom window to get out of my apartment. One girl whose name I had worked at the store. I went to the store "to pick up some groceries". I convienently ended up in her lane, kept my hat low on my head, and kept my nose in a magazine. I got up to the checkout, lowered the magazine, and showed her the marshmallow that was in my hand. She had actively been playing the game, the look of disappointment was priceless. I didn't have the same problem at my work, the Data Center was a secured environment, if they walked in the foyer, a bell dinged.

Anyway, having devoted much of my time, efforts, and paranoia to the game, I did fairly well. My roommate Dan eventually got the name of the girl that had my name. I had been very into the game, Dan didn't want to ruin it for me, so he sat on her name. (We agreed to eventually share the prize, he wasn't into the game that much.)

Anyhow, I eventually got Dan's name. By that time, there was only a couple of people in the game. I figured speed was of the essence by that time because there were little pockets of people helping their favorite players. (Mostly roommates.) I figured I needed to get the rest of the players all in the same day. I somehow got a crockpot for the girl whose name I had. (I don't remember how.) I went over and took her out. The next name was an easy target. By the end of the night, I ended up with Dan's name, he let me take the final player besides me, and I went and got her.

Having won the game, it was time for prizes. The prize for winning was an Olive Garden gift certificate. The prize for having the most 'kills' (I had gotten something like 1/3 of all people in the ward) was an Olive Garden gift certificate. Dan and I took 2 girls from the ward to dinner on them.