Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Escapism

Wow, I totally did not intend to be controversial with yesterday's post. It's amazing to me how much judgment there is in the world of wedding planning. Ultimately, I think the reason why a lot of people feel the need to qualify their explanations of their wedding is because they're afraid that it will sound like their guests did not enjoy themselves.

And you know? It is a lot of pressure. Even if you only spend $5,000 on your wedding, you're still organizing what is essentially the biggest party you've ever thrown, with all the people you care about most in the world as the guests. You're spending a lot of money to do it and the guests are spending time and money to be there with you.

So yeah, it's your day in that you are the reason that everyone is there, and you called all the shots about the type of party it would be, but it's not your day in that the big worry is that everyone who made an effort to be with there should enjoy themselves. I think that's the common worry of every person planning a wedding, even Bridezilla types. And I think that yesterday's comments said it best: As long as the bride and groom enjoy themselves, the guests will as well.

In other news, some college friends and I are planning a weekend in the country as a mini-reunion, and I am so, so excited about it. Yesterday I was talking to one of the friends, and we got to discussing board games and how fun it's going to be to play them together, and that made me realize something a little bit tragic: Torsten and I hardly ever play board games. I grew up playing board games, and I still love them. Monopoly is one of my favorites, and I collect different editions, like my French Toulouse edition from when I lived there, and Millennium Monopoly, and Retro Monopoly. But Torsten doesn't like Monopoly, so we never play it.

The real problem is that we have very different taste in games. Even though I grew up on mostly Ravensburger games, like Snail's Pace Race, Amazing Labyrinth, and Enchanted Forest, and Ravensburger is German, Torsten isn't a fan of most of their games. A year or so ago we went to a nearby toy store and bought a few games to play together, but some of them are still unopened, and the ones we have opened we've barely played.

I get very competitive; I like to win. Even now that we have a Wii, I get frustrated not because I suck but because I suck more than Torsten, even though the games are new to both of us. Never mind that he has years of gaming experience and I've only ever played Tetris. I hate striking out against him in baseball and causing us to lose by dying five times in a row when we play collaborative Geometry Wars. It drives me NUTS and then I get all grumpy and don't want to play anymore.

And the games I'm good at, he isn't. Word games give me an unfair advantage because I know all sorts of obscure words that he, as a non-native English speaker, couldn't be expected to know. Boggle is like a joke, and he gets frustrated playing against me (although at least we share a common trait in how competitive we are). We both like Trivial Pursuit, but it's very biased toward the country it's sold in, although Torsten does know the odd piece of European history that I would never get.

Also, I LOVE card games and Torsten totally does not. He finds them tedious and pointless, and so we never play them, which is another HUGE tragedy. Solitaire just doesn't pack the same punch, you know?

But I MISS games. I miss canasta and rummy and Monopoly and Stock Market and all the other games that I played growing up. I was raised on those games, and my family still plays them at holidays and when we all get together. It's WEIRD not playing board games regularly, and the Wii does not exactly fill that void for me.

What about you? What games did you play as a kid? Do you still play games now?

37 comments:

  1. Hi, um? Where's the picture of your hair?

    Also, I LOVE BOARD GAMES. I have a billion of them in my basement and have no one to play with (woe is me) so maybe we should play some on our weekend NYC rendezvouz? Is that spelled wrong? Why does that look like it's spelled wrong?

    Anyhoo. Heart you. The end.

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  2. As a kid we played board games like Monopoly, Life, and checkers while the adults played card games. I love card games but don't get to play nearly enough!

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  3. I loved Monopoly, Payday and Life.

    Now we play Scrabble, Cribbage and Euchre. And of course Candyland, Uno, Chutes & Ladders...

    I love games!

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  4. We are a big board game couple and devote too much of our tiny apartment to storing what we have! Here are some that suggestions that might fit the bill for you and T a little better:

    Jenga
    Rummikub
    Clue

    And Cranium is always awesome for groups.

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  5. We played lots of board games when I was a kid: Monopoly, Chutes & Ladders, Husker Du, Scrabble. My favorite was the one with all the marbles; I think it was called Aggravation. I don't know what the aim of the game was; I just liked playing with the marbles!

    Now we play Catch Phrase, Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, Peanuts (double Solitaire; also known as Dammit), Cribbage, Euchre, 7 Up/7 Down, Pfeffer, Phase 10, Manacala.

    Man, we love to play games! Luckily, both our families play too, so family gatherings are a blast.

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  6. Drinking + Cranium= hilarious times. My boyfriend and I brought the game out for a vacation with his family and I got highly inappropriate in front of his mom trying to act out "Porky Pig."

    Cribbage is good too.

    My friend recently brought a game called Ballsak or something. It's kind of like Jenga, but instead of taking pieces out of a structure, you are given odd shaped pieces and have to build up. Highly recommended, but I can't think that of the correct name for it.

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  7. We love games and play Scrabble every day ... occasionally we'll play Golf (a card game), Scattergories, and Mah Jongg.

    I think you just hit upon a sensitive topic yesterday ... people get defensive about their choices and have to try to justify them!

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  8. I like any kind of games; card games, board games, Ps2 games, PC games....I could go on and on. My favourites are Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit (any kind of trivia game really). Although, I have ADD so sitting down and playing a full version of Risk or Monopoly gets boring really fast. I usually just give in and lose when that happens ;)

    Btw, thanks for commenting!! :) I fixed my site feed, I think. Let me know if I actually did. :P

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  9. Oh how I love a good board game. In college when we'd pull all nighters we'd study until 5am and then play Life or Trivial Pursuit until it was time for class :) Oh memories.

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  10. i was never much into board games or cards. even now- when my friends and i have our mini reunions, they all want to play some cards and i'm like- uhhh i dont know how to play. lol. idk. i'm slowly learning but my family was never a board/card game playing family. however- my brother and i had a Super Nintendo and we rocked Super Mario Bros!

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  11. I so relate to your talk of competitiveness. I am a lousy loser, although I'm working on it.

    And I LOVE games, particularly card games and Ticket to Ride Europe.

    Also, I haven't heard anyone speak of Enchanted Forest since I was a kid. Our library had a copy when I was a kid and we checked it out ALL the time.

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  12. Oh my God, I love boardgames! My family has game nights when we are all together, and it's so much fun. We play Pictionary, Taboo, Cranium, Mad Gab, Trivial Pursuit and Scene It. We love games!

    The not liking Monopoly is totally a German thing. My mom is not a fan of that game; she thinks it's boring.

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  13. I LOVE Scrabble. My Gramma loved it, and my mom and one of my aunts play constantly. You can bet Scrabble is packed for our vacation!

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  14. I used to love board games, until I met Lord of the Manor. He and his father play cutthroat board games, and to be honest with you, I hate that. I want to play games for the opportunity to spend some fun times with family and friends, relaxing and laughing.

    Those two? Do not play that way at all. And? They rub your face in it if you lose, and they pout if you win.

    Takes all the fun out of playing, for me anyway.

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  15. I adore board games, too. It seemed there was a period when they weren't cool, like in my late teens, but that everyone adores them again. I love Boggle and Balderdash.

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  16. Dave and I are BIG Scrabble nerds. We play faily often, but I can understand it being hard to play with someone not from the US. Occasionally we'll play Trivia Pusuit too, but I'm not as smart as Dave, so I dont like it haha.

    He also plays GTA4, but I can't drive the car for the life of me, so I just enjoy watching. :)

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  17. We are both super super competitive so the Board Game thingy is tricky but fun. We had a week long game of Monopoly that told us never to do that again. We have had good success playing scrabble - with some ground rules of course!

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  18. My husband and I got together with friends this weekend and played a game called Loaded Questions. Best. Game. Ever.
    Of course, copious amounts of wine didn't hurt either.

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  19. ooh we were a BIIIG board game family, too. our new tradition is that we play cranium every christmas day (my sister and i vs my parents) ever since that was the "family game" we gave ourselves one xmas. super fun.

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  20. I miss twister. Not a board game. More fun I think. Also, Clue. Fun times.

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  21. my mom taught me how to play canasta at an early age. we were big monopoly and sorry people as well.

    now that i am older, i love spades, dominoes, and a kids game called ticket to ride.

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  22. I LOVE Ravensburger. All time favourite game is Taboo, though. (Also, Catch Phrase)

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  23. I like Catch Phrase and Cranium... I have a game that's really cool called Masterpiece where you bid on pieces of art. My sister and I play Phase 10 a lot.

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  24. Ug. I am the complete opposite. I hate hate hate games. Board games, card games, video games. Blech!

    (Shrug) Now I sound boring and contrary! :)

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  25. Monopoly, Poker, Twister, Jenga! I love board games, but I get really competitive and then get upset when I lose. Yeah, I'm a sore loser. And the Wii? I started a fight with C on Saturday night because he was beating me at baseball.

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  26. That IS sad! I'm glad that TB and I really like to play games together, but he way better at the Wii than I am. And I totally have Amazing Labyrinth! And my favorite game as a kid was The Magnificent Race, with Dastardly Dan. Do you know it?

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  27. I totally have Monopoly Nantes! I'll play with you! :)

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  28. I'm big on board games and aaron hates them. I guess I need to have a kid afterall.

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  29. I hate board games Jess. They make me feel claustrophobic and like I am chained to the table. Hub and I almost ended things when he heard that I actaully hate Monopoly. Seriously, I would rather scrub toilets. And when the kids want to play Candylan or Chutes and Ladders or some crap....it kills me. Makes me want to scream.

    The one exception is Scrabble though....in fact, I play it on my phone before bed almost every night.

    I can also tolerate interactive stuff, like Trivial Pursuit or Scene It etc.

    I love to play cards! Rummy is my absolute favorite.

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  30. I also love board games, but I can't play them with anyone because I'm a bad sport and like to throw the board if I lose lol. Seriously, I am HORRIBLE.

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  31. Yeah, Matthew doesn't like board games either, and that really depresses me sometimes. We've recently acquired a few, but like yours, they remain unopened. Just the other day, I was shuffling cards with some friends, and he was like, "I didn't know you could do that." (Obviously referring to the fact that I could bridge the cards.)

    But I'm not ashamed of the kiddie games I played and loved. LIFE was probably my favorite, followed closely behind by Hungry, Hungry Hippos and Guess Who. Oh, and PayDay. And Mouse Trap. Oh, oh and Hands Down. And Uno. . .

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  32. I'm going on a family trip this weekend and bought The Last Word to play with my family. I'll play Trivial Pursuit and Cranium. But Guess Who and Yahtzee are favorites, too.

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  33. Have you tried Cranium? It is the one board game that we can play as a family now that we "kids" are all grown up, because my dad is so super competitive about things that it isn't fun to play most games with him for very long. By the time I was a senior in high school I refused to play Trivial Pursuit with the family any more because by the time we got about half-way through the game my dad was acting like a total jerk. So endearing! Oops, did I just over-share?

    ANYWAY, back to Cranium...It is also the one board game that I can have fun playing without feeling like I'm at work (I ran after-school programs for years, so Monopoly, Life, Scrabble, Mancala, Jenga, etc. eventually all became associated with work. Tough day at the office, I know!).

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  34. I LOVE board games. There is a bar in Chicago that has a WALL of them for guests to play. I really love Chutes & Ladders and Trivial Pursuit. I'm bad at Yahtzee though.

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  35. on my mom's side of the family, folks have not spoken for days after a heated scrabble match. i LOVE games.

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  36. Scrabble is one of my favorites. The husband jokes that I am the queen of 3-letter words. And I LOVE to play Spades even though I'm a terrible bidder. I didn't really enjoy board games until I was an adult and I still despise the charade games like Pictionary. Emily likes Sorry! and there's a child's version of Scrabble that we play.

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  37. I used to stay up half the night with a friend of mine playing Masterpiece. I still love that game but it's hard to find. My favourites right now are Apples-to-Apples and In a Pickle, both of which are hilarious because they are so open to interpretation and the game always seems different depending on who you play with. We love playing games here, but just don't have enough opportunity to get together with other game-playing friends. Too bad the LG can't read yet!

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