What a wicked game to play, to make me feel this way. What a wicked thing to do, to let me dream of you.

Tonight was game night....i am BAD at games, and i'm quite sure that most of the people at game night would give a strong and sturdy "ooooooooooooooooooookkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayy" to that assessment.

C.S. Lewis writes in his book Surprised By Joy (not about his wifee, ps)

On every half-holiday i went dutifully to the B6 notice board to see whether my name was down to play that afternoon or not. And it never was. This was pure joy, for of course I hated games. My native clumsiness, combined with the lack of early training for which Belsen was reponsible, had ruled out all possibility of my ever playing well enough to amuse myself, let alone to satisfy other players. I accepted games (quite a number of boys do) as one of the necessary evils of life, comparable to Income Tax or the Dentist.

i am quite unable to satisfy others when i play games...though i will always make time to amuse myself during the big ordeal. i am right there with Jack, i accept games when i have to as one of the necessary evils of life.

i am not naive enough to believe that Mr. Lewis and i are talking about the same games tonight, however, but i will still claim affinity with him and his comment.

we had several choices of games tonight.

(a) bridge--don't know how to do it
(b) dominoes--it's not 2003
(c) andy griffith trivia--never have i ever watched not one episode
(d) who wants to be a millionare--i'm bad at trivia
(e) uno--i played that towards the end of the night...and lost
(f) scrabble--flashbacks (see below)
back in 2002, i lived in dc with a bunch of smarties, we all were interning somewhere around dc, some of us for congressmen, others for law firms, pr firms, money people, etc. well, one night down in the lobby there was a good game of scrabble going down. there was a big tv downstairs in the lobby too, where a permanent box of tide and rolls of toilet paper sat atop the tv as decorations...ROLL TIDE...we played scrabble one night...i played with some folks from Columbia, Yale, UPenn, and me...ALABAMA...and while they took 20 minutes per turn, i didn't hesitate and spelled "MOM" (your mom says Roll Tide)...and then got looked at funny...to which i commented, "i'm from alabama"
(g) taboo--oh, i'll play some taboo...and play it BADLY!

Here's the problem with me and games...it truly, really is just a game to me...i used to get in trouble during spades for cheating...i don't cheat in life...just in games...why? because i don't have to win...usually i am cheating not for me, even...i like to help people out...or form an alliance to use a big reality/soap opera word...

i am BAD at competition because i am not competitive...and i tend to get loud and obnoxious...the more competitive someone is, the more obnoxious i get...

if you're not paying attention, we'll start anyways....my team could have guessed 12 words correctly in 60 seconds...you don't know...it's my game night and i'll yell if i want to...when the time is up for your team, i will quite boldly and loudly scream "TIME!"...i might make the buzzer noise (and take note of it, i rarely do sound effects)...i might get up out my chair and go over to the other team who is calling and guessing words and create a diversion (ca-caw)...i might yell out words for your team to distract you...it's okay, because remember, it's taboo, just a game...not the world series, ain't no one gettin paid for this win, folks...ain't no pride being gained nor lost...let's keep it fun ladies and gentlemen....

(and pretty much a warning that you do not want me on your team, your opposition's team, or any team in general...just let me take the pictures, take notes, keep score, observe what's going on, and badly whisper about it to someone beside me, or text someone about it...that's the best way for me to participate in games....except solitaire, i'm really good at solitaire, sudoku, crossword puzzles (only on merriamwebster.com) and the merriamwebster.com word game of the day....that's all i got for ya)