Once upon a Thursday night in October.

I tend to write about the past more than I write about the present. It might have something to do with the fact that no one wants to hear how I made dinner, played with my kittens and danced around in my underwear to Glee songs at full blast a couple nights ago. Or it might have to do with the fact that having been in a serious relationship for 2.5 years means that I don’t go on dates with incredibly sketchy-but-hilarious-to-write-about guys anymore. 

It’s a good thing my poor memory only applies to things that are actually important. [Tongue sticky-outty face emoticon.]

So in the spirit of forgetting temporarily and then remembering months from now and writing a completely irrelevant post, I figure why not write about what I did on Thursday night. Because, at least for the first 2 hours, it was kind of cool.

Last Thursday, Team Business Casual, Team Black or Team Orphans or whatever you want to call us [don’t ask, it’s a long story and it won’t be as funny to you as it was to us on Thursday night] - myself and 3 of my girl friends who’s names all start with M - participated in the Chevrolet City Challenge. 

We were given [get ready for the shameless plug] a BRAND NEW 2012 Chevrolet Sonic to drive, an iPad and were sent on our way into Toronto’s downtown core to complete a series of challenges and collect accompanying photos. I assure you, that’s where the “ooohs” and “ahhh”s end.

It was probably one of the most dangerous things I’ve done in a while and I know I speaking for my entire foursome when I say that there were a few moments when there was the very real fear of getting into a car accident and/or raped. 

I can imagine it went something like: “hey, let’s send 4 twenty-something girls out into the night to approach strangers on the street and in abandoned parking lots. That’s a great idea for a contest.”

Except no, no it’s not.

We were assured it wasn’t a race [ #NotARace ] but when given 44 slides of [if we’re being honest - and I think that we are - incredibly vague and confusingly-worded] tasks to read and complete, and an approximate 3 hours to complete them, you can see why, at times, I was driving like a bit of a tool.

I definitely don’t claim to be a Professional Scavenger Hunt Planner by any stretch of the imagination but as one of the M’s so eloquently put it, the entire thing was a glorified test drive. There was no reward - unless you count holding hands with some 17 year-old orphans, driving around the same block 4 times, having to pee at Subway [and subsequently reeking of Subway for the short thereafter], petting a stranger’s dog on a darkened pier, almost having to pay actual money for a latte none of us even really wanted [PS. Thank you to Starbucks for being so incredibly cheap], or yelling at strangers on the street trying to get them to take a photo with us as rewarding. Which, for the record, I do not.

Oh, I suppose we also got toques - so I guess I can’t technically say there was no reward. Let me revise to say there was no immediate reward worth putting off dinner til 11pm and paying for a $20 cab ride home. 

It was fun, yes. It was actually a barrel of laughs monkies being stuck in a car for 3 hours with girls I actually quite enjoy. I just wonder if there couldn’t have been some bigger incentive to get people to want to spend a random Thursday night this way.

So now we just wait and see if any of the 4 of us win the ONE trip for TWO to I have no idea where… And hope to Buddha that wasn’t actually a mini camera on the dashboard of the car because we said the word cunt…. a lot.

Love youuuuuuuuu!