Where in the World is Carmen Sandiegowitz?

New York is full of New Yorkers. And New Yorkers went to yeshivas and day camps and BBYO meetings. Where they met other New Yorkers (and New Jerseyans and Miami-ites). Which means that I'd often find myself surrounded by New Yorkers playing a game of Jewish Geography while I wistfully looked on. Walk into any room full of Jews with certain friends and they can point out a sleepaway-camp-cabin's worth of people. "I went to Camp Ramah with her." "She was my BBYO leader." "He's dating my roommate's ex-girlfriend." For some reason, those 2 weeks at Camp Shalom in North Florida that one summer did not amply prepare me for this game.

So where does one most often put his Jewish Geography acumen to the test? Parties. The parties friends throw are akin to playing Texas Hold 'Em on Yahoo! Games. Totally fun and a great way to flex your JG skills, but not as exciting or impressive as the high stakes poker game that is Ubiquitous Parties Thrown by Various Jewish Organizations.

I first got to play Jewish geography last summer at Bangitout.com's White Party. It took almost 6 years living in New York, but when I arrived at the party with one friend, I ran into half a dozen others who just happened to be there. I had conversations with new people along the lines of "Oh, you had Friday night dinner by Svetlana one time? I know her through Rita." It was exhilerating.

Last night, I got to play again. I went to another party hosted by Bangitout.com. This time for Lag B'Omer. The online invite boasted free snacks and wacky "adjective stickers." I wasn't sure what wacky adjective stickers were, or what the Kabbalah says about them, but I was sure I wanted to find out.

It turns out that the "adjective stickers" were meant to be a matchmaking scheme--You find the person with your adjective and that gives you an excuse to talk to them, instead of pretending to need to know the time or if that cookie tastes okay. I actually did not realize beforehand that this was a singles' thing, but I thought that was cute. And small enough to ignore if you wanted. (For the record, that night I was "Outrageous." As in, "Truly, Truly, Truly Outrageous.")

For the first few hours, the dance floor remained relatively empty . One drawback of Jewish Geography is that you probably don't want your link in 6 Degrees of Keven Soy Bacon to be "Oh, I think I met her...She was doing the running man at the Lag B'Omer party, right?" Then out of nowhere (or maybe after enough time had passed for people's vodka tonics to kick in), the floor became jam-packed. And what song blared as these Upper West Siders shook their tuchuses on the dance floor? Beyonce's "If You Like It, Then You Should Have Put a Ring On It." It was magically appropriate given the theme of the affair.