Swiped from elsewhere...Burning Question #1 Why does the Kool-Aid man have to wear pants now? Is a naked pitcher of kool-aid really such a big problem?
When I was a youngster in SDC Buggy an older respected member of the organization sat me down and gave me the new mechanic's speech. He could see that I was hooked and wanted to make sure I knew what I was getting into. He tried to tell me that the higher I went in the organization, the less fun it would be. I'll be honest, at the time I didn't understand what he was talking about. I couldn't see how it was possible. Having more responsibility in an organization that was such fun couldn't possibly be a bad thing. Then came my senior year. It was my least favorite year in buggy. When I watched the last buggy roll successfully up over the hill to our catcher and the tears started to roll down my cheeks, I had a moment of clarity. Not an epiphany, just clarity. It's common sense that the higher you go, the more responsibility you get, the less enjoyable that it could become due to all the red-tape, etc. It's just something that you forget every once in a while. However, what happens when just the illusion of being in a high place causes you overt grief?
I bring this up to explain something that's being going on for over a decade now. Somehow I've earned the illusion that I'm some sort of whiz at games. Board games, card games, some minor sporting events (bowling, pool, darts, things like that). I'm only about half sure where this reputation came from. Of course my ego perpetuated half of it, but I manage to keep fairly accurate tabs on different gaming things. And, the tally is...I lose a lot more than I win. And that is fairly standard across the board. I've had my ass kicked a lot more often than I'd care to admit, and by opponents far and wide not just one person or a small group. Nowadays since my friends have been scattered here and there, I certainly don't play as much as I used to. But when I do play I like to play things that I enjoy (hey I am human). And my enjoyment for gaming stems from skill and knowledge since I have no luck whatsoever. So while I enjoy most trivia games, I don't hold well with things like poker and scrabble which depend largely on the luck of the draw. However, due to unknown reasons rarely can I get anyone to play a trivia related game and if I do, it's certainly not one that I would prefer, just one that I end up settling for. Which means that win or lose it turns into a big competition. Terri and I used to play frequent games with the same set of friends and somehow it always degraded into some sort of argument and I usually ended up handicapped in some way. For example, I've played a number of rounds of trivial pursuit where it's been me as a solo player against one or more teams. And the results have been typical, 50/50 at best. I'm sure this sounds like a big whiny bitchfest, but I had another moment of clarity playing Scrabble this evening. Games aren't any fun for me anymore. Regardless of what we're playing, who's playing, when we're playing, or where we're playing it just hasn't been fun for me for a long time. This isn't a knock on anyone I've played against, it's just a personal decision that has been a long time in coming. So, I'm announcing my retirement. I've made the decision that I'll be the permanent babysitter for Gage and whatever other children are present so that everyone will have fun. So now maybe the illusion will go away.