What's with the long blog titles today? God.
Okay, do you remember my telling you that over Thanksgiving D played scrabble with the Benevolent L and me, and really enjoyed himself, and then wanted to play it on Christmas and NYE? And how that really pleased me, because there's a definite difference in him when he's interested in things, and even better, interested in things that involve social interaction and not just being totally inward? Well, now he's at the point where he's asked me spontaneously to play a game with him. He also went down the cellar to see what other games we have from when he was a kid. This has, not incidentally, coincided with other positive developments like remembering to do those things around the house that I've made his job, making a few phone calls on his own (major!), and showering almost every day (not just when he has to go somewhere or someone's coming over or when I say, "yo, you're starting to stink, dude.") Again, not stuff that anyone else would find remarkable, but very heartening to me.
Well, Tuesday night he asked if I wanted to play scrabble. I was tired and at first I said no, but immediately changed my mind, because yeah, don't want to discourage any attempts to engage. So we started playing, and we were both having a crappy game. Our scores were pathetic. At the end I asked him if he wanted to go again and no. Both of us were just not feeling it. So then I suggested that instead he go pick out another game out of the others he'd found downstairs. Cool. And thus it came to be--here's the humiliating admission, get ready--GET READY--that two (chronologically) mature adults played a spirited game of Operation, with no grade school children in sight. We actually had a blast and laughed our asses off. It was really hard. In fact, the writer's cramp? That's impossible. Neither one of us could get that damn pencil out after about forty tries, so we ended the game with it still in the patient. I kept saying, "What's it say on the box? Ages six and up? There's no way in HELL a six year old has the fine motor coordination for this. Are they on drugs?"
Here's where I need your help, boys and girls. Does anyone have any suggestions for less embarrassing, but fun!, games for two players? Caveats as follows. We have Clue (which was D's fave as a kid) but that's impossible to play with two people, Trivial Pursuit which can be played with two people but is a lot more fun with more, Yahtzee which I like but D doesn't care for, Life and probably Monopoly but those take too damn long. Neither one of us knows how to play chess. I used to know how to play cribbage and backgammon when I was a teenager, but I totally forget after not having anyone to play them with for 30 years. D and I played many many games of crazy 8s when he was in the hospital (irony, we haz it) so while we've discussed how we should play cards again, I think the idea is a little bittersweet for both of us, frankly.
I was thinking Uno, which I vaguely remember as being fun, but is that more than a two-person game? Also, Boggle, but looking online, the new-fangled electronic versions seem to be given the thumbs down by people like me who remember the original. Then I was thinking, what's the game of world domination Kramer and Newman were playing in that episode of Seinfeld? We never had that one. What's it called and do they still make that? Basically, I'm just looking for suggestions, peeps. I know this would be easier if we just bought an XBox or Wii to play together, but for reasons I am completely unclear on, D is dead set against that.
I've played Operation. Help me before we devolve further to Connect 4 or Hungry Hungry Hippos!
xoxo
7 comments:
What's wrong with playing a game that makes ya laugh?? I say play Operation at least once a week! lol I never could get that darn pencil out either.
Is it Risk? The world domination game.
Uno can be played by 2 people, and it's pretty fun.
Im not much help, other than I vote for Operation. You dont have to tell anyone but your faithful readers :-)
My daughter and I boned up cribbage before last summer's camping trip. It's easier to get going than you might think.
This says more about your needs than my simple mind, but we Em was little we loved Chutes and Ladders. I think I might still, but that may be senility.
Yes, Risk, thank you! I looked it up however and you need three players, making that entire Seinfeld episode implausible. hahaha
Cribbage is a good game, right? It's one of those things, like playing "tennis", that I used to do as a young teenager that totally went out the window when my hobbies shifted to, like, going to the drivein to drink and have sex. Sigh. Maybe I could re-teach myself to play.
I like cribbage and should play it more. What's more, in my teens I also learnt a variation which goes back to the Middle Ages and is extinct about everywhere but Wales. This is cool in the SCA but totally useless anywhere else.
Stick with the basic model. All you need is a deck of cards and a cribbage board. You can even fake the board with a sheet of paper.
Card games are a great category for 2--Cribbage, Gin, 500, and even War if you don't want to think for awhile. If you want to go completely old school, find someone who can teach you Pinochle or Canasta. (Wish I had paid better attention to my grandparents telling me how those worked when I was younger).
Chess has always been my favorite "for 2" game, but Stratego makes another good one. Battleship works. Have a set of Mah Jongg tiles? There are a bunch of Avalon Hill strategy and war games that me and my friends (all boys, so, sorry if they won't appeal to your distaff sensibilities) used to play all the time as kids, 1-on-1.
Then there are puzzle-style contest games like Jenga...
My kids and I like playing Blokus, and that works for 2. (Though better with 3 or 4).
Just keep collecting 'em and stashing 'em in a cabinet. You'll find the right ones.
I actually think I used to know how to play pinochle too! (My people spend almost as much time playing cards as we do building up our bulgy catcher thighs and drinking. For srs. :-))
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