2011-10-16 37 -122

Location

The hash is, amazingly, across the street from a 7-11 (they sell squishies! They're open 24 hours!) at the corner of Toyon and Rollins Rd in Burlingame.

It's a business, the worker will be there, so we're virtually guaranteed a meeting with people, not to mention that convenience stores are often full of people at this time.

Participants

Anniepoo

Plans

Plan is to bake muffins, get picnic stuff, dress in formalwear, and appear in my RV saturday midnight, to pick up 'first midnite' of midnite hash. If I can get it into the parking lot, I'm in like flint. I offer pie to a stranger and invite them into RV to consume it. I'll try to hang out long enough to see a police car (They're constantly coming in and out of this spot).

Achievements I'm expecting -

Land Geohash (this will be my first successful hash if I make it)
Radio Yerevan on Couch Potato - I live in an RV, it's the vehicle I'll be using to get there. Distant

RY because I'm only driving to that spot because I'm hashing.

Geosquishy - the 7-11 sells them! 5 pts (within 1km) + 1 pt (10-midnite) + 1 pt (rolling advert??)
Formal Attire - I'm wearing a blue velvet dress and high heels.
No Batteries - I don't own a GPS
Open Streetmap - mailbox at the hash point
Pie - I'll probably do muffins
Picnic - I'm picking up the plastic utensils. My plan is to serve the pie and lure them into my RV home with

it.

Abduction - Getting person into home.
Police - I'll hang out long enough to see the cops.
Multihash - depending on how I feel, I might try to pick up a hash on Sunday
Earliest Geohasher - I'm gonna be there at the moment the interval starts
Midnite - definitely doing this.
Meetup - definitely will meet people

Which will make this a land squishy formal no batteries open streetmap picnic abduction police multihash earliest midnite meetup hash, if I make everything.

Stuff I considered, but won't work -

Speed Racer - can't get up to speed limit because the hash is at a corner (and it's actually on the sidewalk,

anyway, if Google is to be believed)

Maker - while I did a huge amount of work on the RV, it's still not something I made.
Hobbit - the formal requires shoes, so I gotta choose.
Twister - doubt I can get drunks to play it
Couch Potato - realistically, it's outta the spirit of the thing unless the hash lands on the spot I'm parked BEFORE I see the day's hash.
Sadly, while I was once a cab driver in the area and have been in this 7-11 many times, I don't have proof.
Sunrise - I'm not quite insane enough for this.

Things I might get, but are pretty iffy -

hashcat - if I see one I'll try it
Last man standing
drag-along - tried to get some friends to go, no luck

Gratuitous ribbons -

Celebrity - the criteria is 'has a wikipedia entry' and I do, so there's a 'celebrity' (I'm a pretty minor celebrity, folks) at any hash point I go to
Hitchhiker - I'll get this certainly, since I have towels in the RV

Given my luck so far, this is almost certain

Train wreck consolation

Expedition

During the day I went to a thrift store in Fremont and bought some 'nice' shoes - I live in tennies, and those don't count for 'formal' (hey, let's calibrate this - I live in an RV, the US Guvvamint classifies me as homeless). Stopped at Walgreens for panty hose and makeup.

I'd called Raji earlier and left message inviting her on 'craziness', but she didn't respond, I thought. About 7pm I finally noticed she'd responded an hour later. We text back and forth, she's helping out with a concert - amazing, she's probably all dressed up already! Finally get her on phone, she's indeed dressed up, thinks going to a 7-11 in Burlingame sounds like a blast, but isn't sure the concert will be over in time and has to be up early tomorrow anyway... no drag along.

I drove up to the Burlingame/Millbrae area and drove past the hash point, after considerable driving around. (I don't own a GPS, and, hey, it's my first hash, I was naive -- oops, might have been a good idea to print out the map).

Had dinner (liver & onions) at Peter's Cafe, about 9pm.

I'm already feeling silly and self conscious at this point. Go into Lucky's and buy cornbread muffin mix. Go out to the RV and bake muffins and hang out a bit, change into my Sunday clothes, and get ready.

I get bored and end up showing up at the hash a bit early. I have to park a half block away. I'm thinking I'll 'reconnoiter' the spot and then come back and do all the 'sillyness at hash point', so off I go.

As I walk up, I walk through the actual hash point, which is on the sidewalk across the street. But my attention is drawn away from the momentous occasion of having reached my first hash by, gasp, a Burlingame police car across the street, cop standing in the 7-11 talking to owner.

I walk in and walk around a bit, trying very hard to look like somebody who's picking up something on the way home. Being self conscious, I'm sure I just seem a little odd hovering around - probably not the best thing to do at midnight in a 7-11 as a policeman asks a store owner questions about a robbery!

Even worse, I look up and realize it's a few minutes short of midnight. I'm going to have to find a way to burn enough time to still be able to be standing on the corner, at the actual hash, at midnight.

I take as much time as I can getting a Mtn Dew slushy and shopping.

In a last ditch effort, I decide to check out.

Fortunately I manage to get the store owner to talk to me about the robbery. I offer both of them muffins, and both decline. It's not exactly a friendly, warm, huggy atmosphere, and I don't get any pictures inside. I chat for a minute, it's clear they want to get back to business and it's not a cool atmosphere, I leave. I think I walked through the hash point at about 11:59, close enough.

I was disappointed to discover this morning that the quality of the images was terrible. The camera was set on 'macro' mode and the one photo of the police car in front of the 7-11, taken on the way in, is reaaaaaally blurry. I didn't feel like standing there and looking at photo after taking it, it was kind of a stealth operation the whole way through.

Achievements related stories -

Land Geohash (this was my first successful hash)
Geosquishy - the 7-11 sells them! 5 pts (within 1km) + 1 pt (10-midnite)
Formal Attire - I'm wearing a blue velvet dress and good shoes.
No Batteries - I don't own a GPS, and it was glaringly obvious where the hash point was.
Open Streetmap - I added the mailbox across the street from the hash point
Pie - Did muffins, offer declined, but that still counts (see discussion on Pie page)
Picnic - Nope.
Abduction - I suppose different behavior might have gotten the cop into my home, but it didn't seem like a good idea.
Police - yup!
Multihash - Naw, got too many other things to do today
Earliest Geohasher - somebody else go, so I can get the achievement! 8cP
Midnite - Yup! Well, 11:59 is close enough in my book.
Meetup - talked to cop and store owner

Gratuitious ribbon -

Hitchhiker - I took a towel (wrapped up the muffins in it) to get this.

Amazingly, no car problems on the way. This is my third hash attempt. The first two ended in 'train wreck' when my (actually reasonably reliable) old RV spectacularly died on the way to the hash point.