Um er ah…

Happy gnu year! It’s 2004. Two Thousand and Four years Anno Domini. Year of our Lord. Not After Death. I wish it was After Death though. Then there would be like a 30 year period between BC and AD that was essentially “null time”. Maybe it would be called DJ – “During Jesus”.

The best part of 2004 (so far) was walking to the bus stop with Yvonne and Rebecca. Not to say that I didn’t have fun at Ursula’s game party – but (a) the conversation wasn’t as good and (b) I didn’t find a ten dollar bill on the ground when I was inside. And also (c) walking in the snow with my boots is fun. And also also (d) the smaller the group, the more comfortable I am. Did anybody see that absolutely terrifying New Years Countdown on FOX that was basically a T&A-rife ad for “American Wedding?” Tasteless.

At the party we played Cranium, Settlers of Catan and Hoopla. I don’t recommend Hoopla, but Cranium was pretty fun. I’m sure everyone who is reading this has played Settlers a million times (I know Mr. Chris has Starfarers of Catan) but it was my first time playing it last night. I am not terribly fond of strategy games. I never really liked Risk or any of those “building an empire” video games. Probably because I’m not very good at them. And I’m impatient. Yeah, Cranium was definitely the most fun game of the night.

Being in group activities like that is interesting because I am fascinated (sometimes) with human interaction (Other times I am dreadfully bored with it): gauging personalities as they come to the fore under different situations; watching how different people react when they’re winning or losing the game; noticing how some people (unconsciously) tuned other people out. I noticed a couple times when Rebecca said something relevant to her team’s game but the only person who seemed to notice was me, and I was on the opposing team. I empathized – that happens to me a lot depending on the group I’m with. Basically I guess I most observed how difficult it is for people to pay attention to one another (myself included of course) but I will be the first one to admit that it is hard to do in a room with more than three people. Apart from all the observing, I had a good time and I found all the new people I met to be genuinely nice and friendly and decent.

Playing these competitive games made me realize how much I like roleplaying games because everybody is working together rather than against one another. But there are times when you want to lay the smackdown on your friends just to show them how awesome you are. Try to take my Scrabble away and I will poke my finger in the general area of your eyes.