Settlers of Catan Musing

Love at first play

I think I fell in love this weekend -- with a new board game. I must have. I spent hours and hours with this game (and the friends who played it with me) over the weekend ...

I remember, when I was little, Mom an Dad used to have game nights, when they would invite their friends over and play games like Risk and Axis and Allies for hours ... but we kids weren't allowed to join. I always felt a little cheated over that, and more so when we were older (and understood that the game pieces didn't belong with our other toys), and they quit having their game nights ... sad.

It was a good weekend. Amber graduated, and then it was a nearly nonstop party after that. People packed and crammed into her little apartment, family and friends who had come from northern Wyoming and Colorado and Nebraska to be there; we ate and ate and ate, played Settlers of Catan 'til almost 2 in the morning (and Amber's grandpa hung in there to the bitter end, beating us all ...), debated torture, immigration, the war and a few other things, ate some more, played some more ... and Sunday was pretty much more of the same (minus the debates ...), with about a dozen of us taking over the back room at J's Prairie Rose Cafe for brunch (rugby players can make a room pretty rambunctious, for the record), walking to Coal Creek in the gray and slush for coffee while we waiting for our table(s) to open up at the restaurant, going to see "Spiderman 3," playing that game again until past 1 in the morning, drinking waaaaayyy too much coffee .... and just having a good weekend. I wish all weekends were as good as this one was. I was sad to see it end, to have to meander off to bed, to have to get up today and be a responsible adult again.

Prom "dresses"

So, I was reading my hometown newspaper's Web site this weekend, and it was prom, and the picture that they had on the main page showed a girl, running in the rain, wearing what was purportedly a prom "dress," but looked more like a swimsuit with a really long skirt. Really. This thing showed more back and tummy than my swimsuits do. Maybe it's because I'm not 17 anymore (thank God), or because I'm a prude (possible, I guess) ... but good grief. Save a little bit for the imagination, honey.

I feel old

On May 17, I will have officially been out of high school for 10 years. I feel old. I still remember the way I felt when all four of us walked down the aisle to "Pomp and Circumstance," gave our speeches, cried, hugged, tossed our caps on the lawn outside the church, cleaned out the lockers we'd had since 7th grade (Brooke, Eric and I, at least), cried some more, stayed up 'til about 4 in the morning ... Almost every detail of that day, of that weekend, I remember with pretty decent clarity. I can't believe it was 10 years ago.