The Terrible Tues

My Tuesday night was unusually busy. I often try to go out on Tuesdays because television on those nights are atrociously boring. I use the word "atrociously," not because of the American obsession with adverbs, but because it really is an atrocity. There is nothing that I can think of off the top of my head worth watching that night.

Monday has Chuck, The Cape, Pawn Stars, and How I Met Your Mother. Wednesday has The Middle. Thursday has The Big Bang Theory, Community, and Jersey Shore (Don't judge me.) Friday has Ghost Adventures for the nights when I am too exhausted to go out. Saturday is beer night. Sunday has The Simpsons. My schedule is further complicated by other shows that have already ended their seasons Human Target, Burn Notice, that USA Network show about the CIA with the hot blonde and title I can't remember.

This past Tuesday, however, I went to Richmond, accompanied by the veritable brain trust of Craig, Brandon, Bobby, and Patrick. Our original intent was to meet at the Village Grill before the VCU basketball game, but it was too crowded, as is often the case before a game. Instead, we opted for Strange Matter, but neglected to tell Craig until shortly before his arrival.

Strange Matter is a good, video game-themed bar. I had a solid burger for dinner. It was not an amazing burger, but I enjoyed it. The reason to go is for the beer. Dollar PBR during happy hour (I think that was what happened). Another reason to go is the atmosphere. The walls are covered in murals of classic video game characters. Donkey Kong, the princess, Mario, Luigi, a goomba, and one of the carnivorous plants are drinking on one wall with Ryu and Chun-Li. Another wall has a variant of Da Vinci's The Last Supper. The far end of the bar has a television with a Sega Genesis hooked up to it. The back of the bar has at least ten arcade games, including Paperboy, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (Which I should have played), and the classically titled Bad Dudes vs. Dragon Ninja.

One of the items on the menu is called Bobby's Dream Burger. Being present with a Bobby, this caused much laughter. You could add some extra toppings for "the full Bobby experience." We found out later that it was named for the owner of the bar, another man named Bobby. Another man named Bobby who just happened to be sitting on the stool next to our Bobby. That was weird.

The game was fun. Bobby and I were for George Mason because I once attended Old Dominion University and could never root for VCU and Bobby bet on the game. Brandon and Patrick were for VCU because they were/are VCU students. Craig was for VCU because he has bad taste. He likes black and yellow teams. Gross.

One of the highlights of the game was Patrick's amusing taunts of GMU fans. Whenever a female GMU fan would stand up, Patrick would start yelling "Sit down, hag!" He would throw in a good "Shut up, slut" every once and a while. Another highlight was how awful VCU played. GMU won by about 20 points. The only reason to stick around was to see whether VCU could break 50, which they finally did with about ten seconds left in the game. I took a picture of the scoreboard at one point to show how bad the score was. A trick of the light made it look like there was no score on the board for VCU. GMU 61 to VCU nothing, as in, "not good enough for 0," was about how the game went. ODU beat VCU a few days earlier, too, so it was wonderful.

After the game, we finally made it to Village Grill. Patrick was not able to drink immediately because he forgot his ID. Fifteen minutes later, his roommate came by and handed Patrick his passport. The waiter made fun of him for using his passport instead of his license, as did I. I can't make fun of Patrick too much, though. I often forget he's an adult. An adult that could kick my ass. When he finished his high school wrestling career, he was ranked number 2 in the state. When he finished his high school wrestling career, I was celebrating an intramural softball loss by getting hammered.

We had a good waiter. He eventually earned the nickname Captain Magician because of his efficiency. He was also pretty funny, making fun of my choice to drink PBR with a slice of chocolate cake and a bowl of broccoli.

It was a fun Tuesday because I didn't have to watch awful television.