World's Largest Live "Where's Waldo?" Search Mission Report!

Want to know how the "Where's Waldo?" mission went on April 25th? Well, here's a mission report...FROM WALDO HIMSELF: This time around, FMA did a giant "Where's Waldo?" game at Eeyore's Birthday, with me as Waldo.

Here's how it worked: I came there dressed as Waldo. We had about fifty other people dressed *almost* like Waldo. Maybe one of them didn't have jeans, or one of them didn't have a cane, or one of them didn't have the correct glasses. Then we also had people wander the crowd with flyers with a description of 'their missing friend'. (It was obviously Waldo, but nobody ever used the name 'Waldo'.) People were told to find this guy and tell him to 'get in touch with Martin'.

Then I just wandered around Eeyore's Birthday for an hour or so. People occasionally accosted me with the secret phrase, and they got prizes^[1] -- mostly tickets to Hideout shows, tickets to the Alamo, and free tea. Oh, and they got stickers that said "I found him!" and had an image of Waldo. About a dozen times, somebody saw me, pointed, and shouted "I FOUND YOU!" (Those people received no prizes.) Generally, I found that walking around dressed as Waldo generated lots of spontaneous goodwill.

Anyway, that was pleasant. It mostly went off without a hitch. There should be photos Real Soon Now. This was actually my first time at Eeyore's Birthday party. It was pretty much what I expected. Drum circles. Hacky-sack circles.^[2] Large clouds of pot. I admit, there were fewer costumes than I expected, and more commerce -- lots of tents for people selling food, and drink, and henna tattoos, and so on.

Still, I'd felt bad about skipping Eeyore's Birthday every year I've lived here. Now I can put a checkmark next to that particualr Austin tradition. And hopefully there are a ton of random photos from Eeyore's Birthday with me barely visible somewhere in the distant crowd. :) Anyway, kudos to Indiana & friends for organizing this, and I'm very happy I got to be Waldo for them.

__________
[1] I swear one guy cheated -- he just happened to be around while somebody else said the phrase and got a prize, and was unaware of the whole setup. But what could I do? *sigh*

[2] ... which I would have totally joined in on if I weren't wearing hiking boots -- I used to pwn at hacky-sack. (Come to think of it, my right foot was bruised, too -- which made having the walking stick very convenient.)