Bringing Backgammon Back (yeah!)

You could say I’m a gamer. Not the Modern Warfare, sit-in-my-room-all-day-and-act-super-awkward-around-others kind (although I do like hanging out in my room and am pretty awkward around others). I’m more of a board-gamer. I love a good Monopoly match. Clue is my shit. And I won’t say no to Connect Four. I don’t even need the boards; I’m always up for card games, Apples-to-Apples, and other remnants from my childhood like Black Magic. My family was always big on games (and any other forms of cheap fun), and with three other siblings, I had built-in allies and opponents.

But when one of my sisters tried to teach me backgammon, I wasn’t feeling it. She and another sister have always had a set between them. When the four of us get together to watch awesomely bad Lifetime movies, they’ll have a backgammon tournament raging (personally, I need to devote all my attention to the complicated plots that are woven in those movies; who’s the dad going to seek consolation with after his wife is mysteriously offed? Where did the roommate suddenly get all this extra cash? It’s a real Oscar-worthy endeavor).

I’d tried my hand at a few rounds of backgammon, but couldn’t really summon the excitement that I had for other games, like Scrabble or Sorry. The catalyst was after Christmas, when B and I went home and didn’t have much going on between drinking and more drinking hitting up all the Syracuse hot-spots. My sisters showed him the ropes and he was all too excited to mop the floor with me (like I would let that happen).

With him always after me to play, I figured I’d give it another shot. And you know what? It’s a lot of fun. We have some intense battles. It probably isn’t the best thing to happen to our relationship, since we’re both highly competitive. And I’m kind of a sore loser (after losing my first game to him, I remembered why we stopped playing tennis together). But I’m getting better. And I’m very humble about my wins, for the most part. Except when I’m kicking ass. It’s a good thing bragging never gets old. That’s probably my favorite part about gaming.

it's not just for old people, I swear!

Comments

Yeewuz said…
Backgammon has owned my life since that fateful day in Syracuse. Thanks for seamlessly accepting your new place as #2 priority in my life.