Entry #32 - Mystery Solving for Lush Spinsters

Signs of Spinsterhood #2 - because looking back, it was kind of obvious we'd end up alone.
　
Back in our university days, the first time Kim and I were room mates, we discovered that one of our great pleasures in life was to open a bottle (or two) of wine, bake enough frozen store-bought appetizers to supply a family reunion, and solve a mystery. That’s right, solve a mystery. Perhaps you thought Nancy Drew was limited strictly to books, and that those books were only of interest to nerdy girls aged 12 and under. You thought wrong. To those spinsters and tween girls who are interested, Nancy Drew games for the PC are available for only $19.99 a mystery.
Back in the day, Kim and I used to gather in the den (which was actually a closet with the door taken off), glass of wine in hand, plate of appetizers overflowing, and settle in for some good mystery solving. Kim would be in charge of the mouse and I would sit cross-legged in the “Co-Captain” chair. There are two levels of difficulty available to choose from on this particular game, "junior detective" or "senior detective". One hundred percent of the time, we chose "junior detective", aka child level, because let's be honest, two drunk spinsters need not add any more frustration their lives. In addition, sometimes "junior detective" is so challenging that we are often forced to cheat.  Cheating and child level aside, we would play for hours; often until we were drunk and the thought of eating another sausage roll, mushroom puff, or mini spanikopita made us want to vomit. Good times.

At the time, we knew it was a little odd that we enjoyed this activity so much, but didn’t think much of what it might mean - we just chalked it up to “redheaded quirkiness” . We certainly did not peg it as a “Sign of Spinsterhood”, which in hindsight it most certainly WAS...in that glaringly obvious toupée kind of way.

Back to present day. In honour of days gone by, we recently downloaded and solved “Nancy Drew - Shadow at the Water’s Edge”. It was not exactly the same as playing in the den at the “Captain’s Walk” (that was the name of our old apartment building). In Spinster Mansion there is no den, so we played at Kim’s computer in the living room. Kim was still in charge of the mouse and I still had my co-captain chair. We traded the wine for tea and the pastry-rich appetizers for pickles and an entire tray of corn bread. I wore my pink “business suit” almost every night, and Gus even came to help us out at one point. Long story short, we took what was already a very spinsterly activity, and really took it to the next level.

Just as a warning, "Shadow at the Water's Edge" was a pretty scary one, we had  to close our eyes on a few different occasions. Also, we killed Nancy at least three times.

Well, Diary, now that this mystery is solved I guess it's back to the age old mystery -and I'm not talking about how they get the caramel in the Caramilk bar, no no. That was rather unmysterious and lacklustre. I'm talking about why it is that men have been more commited to finding the remote than to me . You know, that old chestnut.