62) Night Games

A perfect evening for me would involve playing games with my friends. Looks strange written out like this, but it is true. I like to play games. Over the years, the games I like to play have changed. Following is an exploration of the games that have filled the various times in my life.

Elementary School: I played Parcheesi and Connect 4 with my parents. Sometimes we played Chinese Checkers, but that game really frustrated me.

Junior High: Played Life and Monopoly. We use to extend Monopoly out by allowing credit outside the mortgages on the backs of the property cards. We just tallied up bills. At the lake house we played Scattegories and Pictionary, my two favorite games for a long time.

High School: Risk became a key game during this part of my life. Games would last all night, and oftentimes into the next day. Risk had a way of ending with a board clearing sweep by a losing player. If I remember correctly, Craig had the most board clearing endings. I remember we would find Risk pieces on his living room floor for days. We also played a lot of BS and a poker game called Challenge.

Freshman Year of College: We played Chess almost every night at Common Grounds. I remember I did not have any money and would have to accept a free Dr. Pepper or coffee from Chris, who felt bad seeing me out there for hours without something to drink. Other than that, there were not a lot of games played in the dorms.

Rest of College: Played a ridiculous amount of drinking games including P&A, Categories, Up the River, Pyramid, Circle of Death, High/Low, Egyptian Rat Screw, Quarters, Chasers and Beer Pong. L., Jill and I went through a serious Dr. Mario phase during college that was odd.

Just After College: We held onto a lot of the drinking games for several years, staying mainly with P&A. We also played a game called Settlers of Catan. We started playing Texas Hold Em as well. It was during this period that Scene It had a brief appearance in our evenings until people got frustrated with how much movie knowledge me and Katrina seemed to have. Every Christmas Eve we played Uno.

Tyler: In Tyler we played Texas Hold Em a few times, but mainly we played Pictionary and Guitar Hero. Man, we played some serious Guitar Hero. I was addicted and could play the same three songs over and over. And with Pictionary, L. gets so competitive. Her teammate is guaranteed to get yelled at, which can be intimidating to new members. However, her team always wins. She is very good.

Back in Dallas: Since being back in Dallas we mostly play Apples to Apples. The last game evening we had there were two games we played that were fun, but I cannot remember what they were. I cannot seem to find anyone to play Risk with me.