On Wednesday, I had what is likely to be my last official Connections outings with the guys. Connections is CVCA’s program of matching eight to twelve students with an adult, and we met once a week for the last two years. I like to do things with the guys outside of school as well, and so I organized one last outing. I met three of the eight guys up in western Cleveland to go for supper and games at Dave and Buster’s. Dave and Buster’s is a restaurant and huge arcade that caters to adults, although minors are allowed until 9:00 p.m.

The guys said it was okay that Mer could come along, so I had her company as well. So there was a party of five of us – me, Mer, Jon, Alec, and Nate. We met at 6:30, and had a very good and leisurely meal that lasted a little over an hour. We then headed into the game room.

The nice thing about Wednesdays at Dave and Buster’s is that it is half-price game night, and we got a $20 game card with each of our meals, so we were pretty well set for the evening. The guys jumped to the various first-person shooting games, and Mer and I tried a racing game before she gravitated to a six-player trivia game where you could win tickets that can be redeemed for prizes. Mer did pretty well at the trivia game, although she said she did better at answering the questions when she was not officially playing. I suspect that is typical of many players, including myself.

I played various games, although I never did find one that really grabbed me. The last time I was at a Dave and Buster’s (about ten years ago), there were several unusual games that appealed to me, like a skiing game and a whitewater rafting game. I still had a good time, but did not really get hooked on any game. I did find an old copy of Donkey Kong, and discovered how badly out of practice I am on old-school games.

Mer and I “banked” our tickets for a later date (about 750 tickets, which is fairly trivial so far), and we found the guys and said our farewells. It was about 10:00, so it had been a full evening, especially with our still having school on Thursday (well, Mer and I did – the seniors had already finished). I’m hoping to stay in touch with the guys over the years, and maybe even plan some reunion get-togethers. I’ll certainly get to see them at least one more time – for graduation this upcoming Sunday.