It's True. I don't get out alot.

Yesterday, I ran out after Ward got home from work to go to the bank. I was running close on time but I had to stop at the gas station or I wouldn't be making it to the bank anyways. So I stopped by the Sheetz near our home and pumped more than $72 in my non-energy friendly vehicle. While I was waiting for my gas guzzler to be refueled I decided I would like a drink. I never get to go into gas stations, it is just too much to take the twins in for a 20oz. But I didn't have any money other than my check card and I am always embarrassed to use my check card for $1.37 (though I did use it Monday at the Post Office for one stamp just because they really annoy(ed) me, but that's another story). After scrounging around in my car I was able to come up with $1.50 so I went in to get a drink. I was surprised at all the changes to Sheetz since the last time I went in one.



First, they no longer sell 20oz drinks, just 16oz, but for the same price as before. I just love inflation. So I head over to the new and quite fancy fountain machines where you can get vanilla, cherry or lemon mixed in whatever soda you choose, and I don't mean one of those manual pumps, I mean it mixes in with your soda so you will have the perfect soda to additional flavoring to satisfy your taste buds. Since they don't have Cherry Coke on fountain, it will have to do. They also have gourmet coffee, like Starbucks, only different. And make you own milkshake machines. OK, so I knew about the milkshake machines, I just wanted to share that with you.



But what really caught my eye was this:

You may not be able to tell what this is so I will enlighten you. It is a set of 40-16oz plastic cups, 4 ping pong balls and 4 'wash' cups, all you and your drunken friends need to play beer pong.

You don't know about Beer Pong? Well, let me further enlighten you.

"Beer Pong is a drinking game which is especially popular among college students, but can be enjoyed by any group looking for anything from a good buzz to a drunken stupor. It is generally played in pairs of two, with the teams standing at opposing ends of a flat, rectangular surface (preferably a ping pong table, but anything accepted by both teams can be used). Six or ten cups are formed in a pyramid at either end of the table, with the base of the pyramid centered at the edge of the table. The players attempt to toss or bounce ping pong balls into the cups, each of which is filled with 1/3 of a beer (or other intoxicating spirit). When a player makes a shot into a cup of the opposing team, a player from the opposing team drinks the contents of the cup and removes it from the table. The game continues in this way, with both players from one team taking a shot, followed by both players from the other team. The team that is able to clear all of the opposing team’s cups first is the winner, with the losing team splitting the contents of the winning team’s remaining cups. To begin, a player from each team takes a shot simultaneously without looking at the cups. This is repeated until one team makes, and one team misses. This decides who gets the first possession. After the first game, the winning team gets the first shot. The elbow rule is also applied for EVERY shot. A players elbow may not cross the plane of the playing table or it does not count."

I went to college, two of them, almost three. I spent five and a half wonderful years there. I never played beer pong. I used to drink, not to heavily but not so lightly either, I never played beer pong. I have four cousins. They all went to college. They have played QUITE A BIT of beer pong. When my youngest cousin turned 19 I went to his birthday party which was thrown at his mother's house. In her garage were two sawhorses with a piece of wood roughly 30 inches wide and 9 feet long. Not as wide as a normal ping pong table, but would suffice for their needs for the evening. Another one of my cousins, Sean, who is my age and who I haven't been close to in years (and might have gotten worse when we both were trying to get into UVA, fortunately we both got in and neither of us went for more than a year) asked me if I wanted to play. I didn't know what it was, so I said yes.

Folks, this is one of, if not the, grossest games I have ever played. You are throwing a ball that several people are touching into cups that you will than have to drink. If the person you are playing is better than you (and they were) you will be forced to drink quite a bit. And I was. This past May we attended that same cousin's graduation (the youngest cousin, Ian). Before the commencement ceremony at Tech for History Majors we met at his house to eat on the back deck. My aunts prepared a fine meal on what else, a very, very fancy homemade beer pong table. My cousin had a good four years?

Anyways, for only $4.99 you too can have a simple Beer Pong set up in you own house (minus the beer and table obviously). Something to think about perhaps as you all plan your Holiday gatherings?

I couldn't buy a kit, all I had was enough money to buy a fountain soda, but I got a kick out of my convenient store experience, that's for sure.

-june