Nancy Day

Remember? Remember before Nancy? I can’t.

Sometime way back when I was still homeschooled, I got my very first Nancy Drew computer game: Treasure in the Royal Tower (which is still my favorite. Don’t you just crave some couscous?) I loved it. I played and played and played…until the part where I had to go to the garden. I couldn’t find the place where I was supposed to turn, so I just kept freezing to death. I gave up.

Then, at least a year later, Jesse (my middlest sister) was out of school for the Summer and somehow found the game on a shelf. Suddenly Jesse was in the room with me, demanding to know: 1. Why she didn’t know the game existed, 2. Why she didn’t know we owned the game, and 3. Why we weren’t playing it right then at that second. When I told her about my untimely deaths, she was determined to beat it. Ever since, we’ve played every Nancy Drew that Her Interactive has put out. She and I take a day or two out, dub it “Nancy Day” and get down to business. We open every door, even if “it’s locked", can always tell if “something’s missing here”, and never fail to wear out the 2^nd chances.

Jesse pondering the mystery of the locked door.

This weekend was “Nancy Day.” I packed up the cutest outfits I have and headed up to Wheaton. As I walked up to Jesse’s apartment, I did my best to get to the door before her so that I can make a joke about its being locked. I thought I was being clever and original, but I was comparatively unprepared...

It scared both of us everytime we passed.

Once we mastered the mystery of the door,  I clicked my way up the stairs and set out to get settled in. Was that allowed? NO! I walked in to the scare of my life!!! I was fairly terrified. I thought I’d left this ghost behind in Japan! But no! She turned up in my sister’s apartment. I don’t scream very often, I do a silent panic/gasp party. That’s what happened. My gosh. My freakout was only matched by the sheer joy on Jesse’s face.

Jesse's adorable livingroom, complete with
Nancy Day gear...and Schoko Kringles.

Eventually I regained my composure and walked into the next room, where I found that once again I’d just missed out on meeting the famed Sonny Joon! Luckily, there were KoKo Kringles to console me, along with my beloved Mountain Dew and a Magnifying Glass, which always comes in handy.

Jesse and Nancy.

Just when I’d thought the surprises were over, I was spooked by another image in the mirror. Different mirror, significantly less frightening image.  (That’s Jesse in the mirror too. She set up all this good stuff.)

Professor B. Hotchiss' Offices.

I loved it. It was all fun and happy and perfect for Nancy Day. Thinking I’d seen it all, I grabbed my suitcase and headed into Jesse’s room to drop it off. Or at least I thought I was taking it into her room. Turned out there’d been some remodeling, and one Professor B. Hotchkiss had moved her offices to the North Side of Chicago. Who would have known that she had business to do here? I wonder if Sonny was there working as her assistant. It’d make sense.

Once the surprises were seemingly done and we were settled, we set in. The next morning started bright and anything but early. Caffeine and muffins in hand, we ventured into Germany via The Captive Curse. All of the games are good, but I will tell you that this one had the best dialogue of any of them. Jesse and I laughed the whole time. We called Markus to hear all about his mystery house that he’s never been to, and Castle Cast just to ask about their Wizard Discount, (Ned, though, we just called if we wanted to hear a whiny boyfriend.)

Bento is lovely. You should have some.

Then came the final Nancy Day related surprise: Bento.  Oh my gosh. So excited. It was lovely and brought me right back to Japan, where we (as Nancy Drew) vacationed last winter. Suki, tate!

Remember what I said earlier about how I don’t scream? I was mildly lying. I screamed twice: once when we were trapped in the gate, and again when we got knocked out. How do we always end up knocked out in a dungeon?!

This is Raid. Not as great as Scopa!, but still a lot of fun.

Ah well, at least I’m a boss at Raid. Or I was until we were determined to buy everything in the gift shop and ran out of money, so I played over and over.

These were everywhere. Something big's going
to happen as soon as the music gets scary.

Oh! I forgot to tell you, we took a brake from Nancy and took a walk around town, where we found lots and lots of clues. There was something really cool looking off to the right that I was sure was relevant to the case, but I couldn’t click that way, so I must have been wrong. Also, we saw Nancy's car parked in front of a hardware store (figures).

Nancy's sporty blue convertible.

The weekend was also broken up with Harry Potter fanaticizing and Dr. Who discussions (are you my mummy?) I probably should have warned you that this post would reveal my mass amounts of nerdiness, but if you know me, I’m sure you expected it.  It was a lovely weekend full of tons of food and lots of happiness. Oh yes, and if you’d like to read about Nancy Day from the perspective of Jesse, (or other fun things) check out Staircase Wit, which is her "neat" blog. (Her Nancy Day post is still on it's way, but there's lot's there to read while you wait.)