Competitive?

"Nah, not me" I told Kristine as we started one of our favorite board games. We played "Ticket to Ride," one of our favorite new board games tonight after dinner. (There's actually a blog post devoted to the game down below that Kristine wrote if you're the type that wants to understand the game a little more.) By the end of the game it was quite clear to me and Kristine that I am really competitive, about this game at least. Let me give you the late game play-by-play so you can taste the emotion.

Kristine and I had both put trains all the way across the board and I was slightly behind her as to the number of trains we had out. I picked up some cards called destination cards that could either help me or really hurt me at the end of the game. If you put trains between the two destinations indicated on such a card, you get the number of points shown; otherwise you lose the points. It just so happened that since I had been so successful thus far in the game, I took some cards that were a little more ambitious. One went from Seattle to Montreal and the other from Montreal to Atlanta. They were worth 29 points together. I picked up the cards, all the while being absorbed with planning my placement of trains.

After I took that turn, Kristine went and placed some trains in a part of the board that didn't entirely affect me so I went on thinking about how to complete the new goals I had imposed on myself. Suddenly, her two last trains caught my attention lying askew in her piece bag. Sudden realization of what that meant jerked me out my absorbed state and cold hard reality began to set in--this next turn was my last. About the time that I was realizing this, Kristine gleefully announced it as well. It was not something I wanted to hear since my own moment of realization had been amply painful. This was about the time that my true competitiveness exploded inside me.

I wasn't able to finish either of my new destinations on my last turn. I wasn't able to even do anything that gave me any kind of advantage. Kristine happily finished her last turn and then began counting points. As she did so, my competitiveness turned into frustration and welled up inside me. The first thing that I had to do was move backwards 29 points, from there on out I would add up the rest of my meager points and find that I was a heart-shattering 60 some-odd points behind Kristine. The game board only has 100 point slots on it! So, I got angry. Then I started saying stupid things like: "I'm not even going to count up my points!" and "I hate that stupid last turn rule!" which only made Kristine laugh. She thought it was fairly ridiculous of me to act like that. Then she said I should write a blog about it--so I did.

I was amazed how angry I got and how long it took me to settle down. It probably took me a good fifteen minutes until I could breathe easy and think clearly again. So, yes, I think I'm a little competitive. I guess nothing has changed from since I was a kid. I have some great competitive stories from my childhood and my friends lives. I think I'll outline some of those in my next blog.

If anyone else can relate, I want to hear their stories so leave me a comment or something so that the top 10 most ridiculous can be my next blog. Anyway, let me know.