You Know What's Dumb???  

Posted by cokelady

Sitting down at midnight to write up a post for your blog. You know what's even more dumb than that? The reason for being up at midnight is Monopoly. You know what's even more dumb than that??? Playing Monopoly with James Horne. Good grief. I had forgotten. When we first got married and I was actually able to coax him into an occasional game (it's a major rarity anymore) I declared that I would never again play Monopoly with him. I hate playing Monopoly with him because he won't play the game. All of the property gets bought up and it's time to start making deals so everybody can get some monopolies going and put up houses and all that, but James refuses to deal. So unless you just get mad and quit, you end up spending the next 18 hours swapping petty cash back and forth and back and forth and back and forth, and then quitting. It's better to just quit right off the bad. Better yet, just don't start the dumb game! I kept wondering tonight why I used to love Monopoly so much. Played it all the time--even by myself (with myself?), if necessary. Crazy. I suppose it might be mildly fun if you were with the right crowd, but they didn't show up tonight. Sam and Tammy were here, but they aren't good Monopoly company either. Tammy hates Monopoly, so no matter what happens you feel somewhat guilty that you're even making her take part in the first place. And Sam is the absolute opposite of James--he'll give you anything for anything. "Hey, Sam--would you sell me your Pacific Avenue for $200 and this Get Out of Jail Free card? Thanks!!! Oh, consequently, that gives me a monopoly on the green properties that I am now going to put hotels on and will cost everybody $1400 a whack every time they take a stroll down the lane..." You know what's even more dumb than everything I just mentioned? We spent three hours being miserable doing it!!! And dumber still??? We could have spent those precious minutes playing a game that we truly enjoy, having fun!!! After all, isn't the the whole point of a game??????? Well, we blew it tonight. The only good thing that has come of it is a lesson well learned. Tomorrow morning our family is gathering in the backyard for a sacred Torching of the Monopoly Board ceremony. Maybe I'll keep the ashes in a little urn in the game cabinet to remind me to never again buy that stupid game. Ggrrrr. What a waste.

In other news (thank goodness!), several of our "regulars" were gone today, but we had two visitors in church! Praise the Lord!!! Two of the women who were at Bible Study on Wednesday came, and the only reason the other friend wasn't with them is because she was out of town. We had a really good service and they seemed to really, really, enjoy it. It's soooooooo exciting!!! God is just so very, very good to us and I can't thank Him enough for all He's doing in my life, my family, and our church here in little old Andrews, Texas. :-)

Yesterday was another spontanious day. I've had about as many of those as I can handle--I'm ready to find some rhyme and rhythm in my life so I can start making sense of things again! James wanted to take us out to Main Street Deli for lunch. It's the new Mom & Pop joint here in town and he hadn't had a chance to try it yet. It was mediocre at best, but in a small town it's just nice to have something different. It's just across the street from Aunt Sue's store, so we strolled on over there. Aunt Sue was out of town so the relief girl was working, but I was wanting to find a large sign for my wall to replace the "Sit Long, Talk Much" one that I've had for years and years and years--I had a different place for that one anyway. Well, one thing led to another and we walked out of there with the large sign I wanted, two shadowboxes, a tin star, and a bag bulging with miscellanious stuff. (I told the relief girl that she had a lot of holes to fill--she'd better get busy! Ha!) James just kept telling me to grab everything that I liked and thought I might have a place for and that we'd take it home, play around with it and see what I liked, then return the rest. (The privilege of being the niece of the owner!) Well, you know how that goes. I only picked things that I like, so naturally I found places for most of it! (I have a not-exactly-bulging bag of stuff to return to the store tomorrow.) I was feeling sooooooooooooo guilty over it all because house decor doesn't exactly fall into the category of "necessities" and there's no reason I had to buy all of it right now. (My plan had been to purchase one small thing at a time over the next year or so.) I was ready to start ripping it off the walls and shoving it back in the bag until James reminded my of my stash. Before we got married James received some amazing counsel from a very wise man (thanks, Dad!) to always give his wife a certain amount, no matter how tiny, from his paycheck. It gives her "her own" money and cuts down on fighting over finances. So I've had a continuous stash that we usually use to draw from in tight situations, then James will replace it when he can and add a little extra when possible. Anyway, we use it for our "reserve," but it's really supposed to be my play money to spend on anything I want. I got to thinking about it and I can't even remember the last time I used it to buy anything for me!!! So suddenly most of the guilt lifted (not all; I always feel guilty when spending money--it's part of my personality make-up, I guess!) and I dug out the stash and found enough to cover all of the stuff we got and I still have a little bit left over. --Thanks entirely to the sweet little "family discount" Aunt Sue allows me. None of this would ever be possible without that, I assure you! Ha! So anyway...

When we left Aunt Sue's store we drove down the street and stumbled upon a... Hhhhmmmm, how should I say? A parking lot with a whole slew of cardboard boxes full of "stuff" (each box had a price scribbled on the outside, from $1 to $3--or maybe up to $5) and a trailer with a dude sitting in it collecting money. You know, a moving junk sale. One box was full of baby plates, the next had tiny screwdriver sets, the next had packs of socks... You get the idea. Junk. The kids went nuts. They were diving head first into every box they passed like a bunch of scavengers--vultures swooping down on the prey. James was almost just as bad and I even found a thing or two amid the heaps. I couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it all. We just came from Aunt Sue's very, very nice, classy anything-but-junk store... drove a few blocks and landed in junk sale city! Ha! I guess our family just doesn't fit into a category. Nothing is above or beneath us! Ha!

Good grief. I would pick a night when it's way past bedtime to ramble. Oh yeah--after church today I got the living room and bedrooms cleaned up, the bathroom scrubbed down, the kitchen floor mopped, and the whole house (minus my office and the kids' play room--they're kind of separated and will have to be worked on tomorrow, hopefully) vacuumed. It felt great!!! Still does! And James went out back and started to work on a miniature fence that's going to surround our soon-to-be-planted garden. What a productive day! Then Sam and Tammy came over and we had a nice visit... until somebody whipped out the Monopoly board, that is. It all went downhill from there. Ggrrr. What a waste. I could've spent those three hours playing Rummy!!! We have to fight to get James to play a game with us. Well, he sure showed us tonight. He is NOT invited next time. (He's the dope who chose the game and you can rest assured he knew exactly what he was doing. He knew he'd be off the hook and not asked to play again for months. Jerk.) Okay, I gotta get some sleep. Look Mom, I blogged!!! Aren't you proud?! No hands! (Well...)

G'Night!
~ Bec ~

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17 comments

I know how you feel. I've said I would never play again with my dad, cause he won't put his money under the board like everyone else does. He shoves it in his pockets so noone can know how much he has. One night it was so bad, I was calling dad "Boss Hogg" and him and Will started fussing over the rules of the selling of property, so we had the rule book out to see who was right. It was "NOT" a fun night.
Then the kids wanted to play a couple of months ago, and they argued the whole game over property. That game is of the devil and I will not play anymore. I think I might burn mine too. hee hee

For real! I don't think it's a game that Christians take part in at all. It does nothing but get everybody all riled up and contentious. People who are normally sweet, loving sanctified brothers and sisters in Christ are suddenly at each other's throats arguing over whether or not you get to MOVE when you roll doubles to get out of jail, or just "get out" and wait until next time. Maybe we can see about an amendment to the Advice to Members. "The playing of Monopoly genders strife and contention and should not be engaged in."

Yes, you blogged! And what a blog it is! HA! Monopoly hardly counts as a game as far as I'm concerned either. Like James, Dad has a way of behaving in a way that makes you NOT want to invite him to play any more games . . . of Monopoly or whatever other game it is. My dad loved to play games with the family and did so nearly every night before bed. He cheated like crazy, but it was all part of the fun. Some men dislike playing games enough that they enjoy making the game MISERABLE for anyone else who DOES like to play. *shaking head* At any rate, you did well to post a new blog. THANK YOU!

You can throw my husband into that pile of "men-who-don't-like-to-play-games" too. I'm lonely...I don't have ANYONE to play games with and I even bought Rook cards to play "I Buy" but alas...I can't play by myself, so what's a gal to do?

Great post though! Sounds like you had a grand time until Monopoly showed up. ~smile~

BTW, you mention who WON? Judging by the bitter tone with which you posted we already know who didn't win! LOL! You never were a very gracious loser. I wonder where you got that from?

Nobody really "won." In a bizarre twist, Tammy and James were the ones who actually ended up with most all of the property. James finally started dealing and everybody had a few things to work with. I actually got $5,000 out of him for Oriental Avenue, one of the cheap-o blue ones. Tammy had Boardwalk and Parkplace, James had the green ones with the agreement that Tammy would never have to pay rent on them (part of the deal when she sold him the 3rd property), I had the yellow ones, Tammy had red, James had the whole block between Jail and Free Parking, Sam had the cheap blue ones (until he had to sell out to James to pay off his debts), and James had the cheap purple ones--which Tammy hit every single time she made the loop. Everybody had some good stuff to work with and it just kept going back and forth for a long time before we finally decided to quit and add up the totals. James had the most property and cash, so he was the winner. Then Tammy, and I came in last. "Last" I say because Sam had already gone bankrupt and was out of the game. So as long as I beat him, all is good. That's what our games are really all about, you know--beating Sam. ;-)

James read my post this morning and said, "What are you talking about? I thought we had a good time last night! Nobody got mad or anything like you seem to be saying..." Yeah, well. What does he know about fun?! ;-)

So enjoyed reading your blog today. I couldnt do anything but laugh thru the entire thing. It reminds me of all of us when we play a game, especially Dustin and I. If ever needing a laugh you can usually read your blogs. Thanks for the laugh!

I especially loved the part about the Monolopy burning ceremony. I wish I was there, it sounds like lots of fun. I always think I want to play Monolopy but luckily the people in my life who would all play with me know better.

I feel so sorry for you. If we lived closer I would play you a "GOOD" game of Monopoly.

I have to agree about Monopoly. The closest I get to it is Monopoly Junior. Even that can get trying with my boys! But we usually have a good time.
Jon must not have inherited the anti-game gene...he's generally pretty good at playing games with me and the kids.

Darren is the Monopoly player in this house and he wheels and deals like he's Donald Trump or something! My husband CHEATS! and then accuses me of being the one cheating! You know, the old pot-calling-the-kettle-black scenario. ~rolling eyes~

I tell you, sometimes I wonder if RA and SS aren't close relatives! Cheat? My husband thinks that's the whole point of playing a game! He gets such a charge out of it! Actually, I think he gets a charge out of my reaction to it, now that I think about it. *shaking head*

I totally know how you feel, Becky. My husband hates to play games and I love it. There are rare times, however, when he gets the hankerin' to play "just one round" of something, and whether I really want to or not, I jump at the chance because otherwise I'd never get the chance. Anyway, our big "no-no" game around here is Rummy. He cheats--well, what I'd consider cheating anway. He always just wants to do sets so nobody can get any runs and I can't stand to play that way. grrrr ..... Gets me all upset.

So we tried switching to DVD games here a while back when they started coming out. We bought a couple (Family Feud and something else) and they are both HORRIBLE. They're really slow and way too easy. Not challenging at all, so that fizzled out really quick. It really got my hopes up too because I thought it'd turn him into a gamer getting to do it with the TV. No dice (pun intended), and life is back to the humdrum of no "family game night" around this house.

Maybe RA and SS are long lost twins because my husband gets a charge out of my reaction too! MEN! ~giggle~

Wow. I had no idea that there are so many people who feel such ire toward Monopoly. Very interesting.

Bekah, I would love to play you a "good" game of it, if there is such a thing once you pass age 14. (That's probably about the time of the last good game I can recall.)

Mom and Sis. Tammi, you both married PHLEGMATICS. They don't have to be related to act just alike--it's one of the defining characteristics of their temperaments to act creepy and throw cold water on what others find pleasure in.

Amy, you should try the Wheel of Fortune game that you can plug into the TV. It's actually pretty good and James will, indeed, play that one from time to time. (It helps a lot if you can offer the guy a soft, cushy recliner instead of a hard kitchen chair, you know.) ;-)

And Emilee, you've done amazing things with Jon. ALL throughout our growing up years I would BEG him to play games with me and he wouldn't. Of course, to hear it from him I wasn't the most enjoyable sister in the world, so maybe that had something to do with it. He always liked the brainy games (naturally) like Stratego and Chess, both of which bored me to tears. I'm so glad that he's willing to play fun stuff now! Maybe there's still hope for James... Nah!!!

My husband dosen't like to play games. Old fuddy duddy as his grandpa would say. I don't really like to play monopoly because it takes so long, but I will play. I love to play games. I play with my girls or my son Josh him and I like to play phase 10.

Me and my mom would play games all the time when I was growing up. Dad would play board games but not card games.
Card games are mine and Will's favorite. We love anything you can play with cards. His dad taught us a game called Hand and Foot. It's a lot of fun.