November 12, 2017 by Amy
Game Play
I had a whole lazy Sunday to come up with something to write, and then to write it, and I did bupkis. Well, I wasn’t totally lazy. I did laundry and picked up the kitchen, but that was about it. I definitely did not do my writing homework. So I went back to the writing prompts.
Today’s question asks what is my favorite game. Do crossword puzzles count? I’m going to count them. Because doing a crossword puzzle is my most favorite game to play. I’m only competing against myself, which is a good thing for my competitiveness. I can set it down and go back to it later. I can carry it with me virtually anywhere. It challenges my brain. It evokes fond memories of learning to solve crossword puzzles with my father when I was growing up. I still adhere to his rules, too: must use a pen (no pencils! Commit to your answers!), use all caps (I think mostly because Daddy writes everything in all caps, always), and you can’t cross off the clues in the list as you solve them (I have no idea why, but I don’t to this day cross off the clues in the list as I solve them). I love nothing more than the feeling of leisure that solving a crossword puzzle brings. And the feeling of triumph when it’s solved.
Now, this is not to say I don’t enjoy our family’s games of Uno, Farkle, and War. Those are fun, too, in a different sort of way. Especially when War goes way too long because people keep coming back from holding only a few cards to win, turning it into an epic battle with plenty of trash talking. We do have fun with Uno, too, mostly because we spend a lot of time laughing at M’s attempt to use strategy to win. Like the time he was down to one card (Uno!) after throwing a wild card, and the color he chose was not the color he held. He gambled that we’d change the color before it made it back to him. He lost the gamble, and if I remember correctly, the game. Farkle takes more of a commitment, as that’s a game that can last awhile. Zoe and I play that a lot together, and I instituted a rule I learned from a friend that when you Farkle, and you have to say Farkle, you must say it in a funny voice. This is also the friend who has a t-shirt that says, “I sparkle when I Farkle,” which cracks me up.
We played Monopoly as a family once, and I dominated so badly that no one has suggested we play it since. I owned Park Place and Boardwalk and had a hotel on both, but they were mortgaged to the hilt before they even landed there, so I pretty much owned them, too.
I do not like playing Scrabble with my husband, mainly because he always beats me. I pride myself on my vocabulary and feel that a man who once spelled the second half of sea urchin with an “e” in the front, an “a” in the middle, and a “t” at the end should not beat a journalism major who makes a living with words. But he does. He wallops my ass every. damn. time. I go years without playing him, and then I get a wild hair and challenge him again, and then three months go by while I wheedle him to please please please play one Scrabble game with me, and then we start playing and I have letter combinations like U U I I L L M and he spells SYNAPSE on a triple word score.
It’s been a few years since we’ve played Scrabble. I might have to challenge him again. Let me warm up on my kid, though. I think I might be able to take a 6th grader.
*competitive hackles raise*
Or maybe I’ll stick to crossword puzzles.
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