So, recently after running, my friend Paige and I have been pulling out games and playing them till I get tired of losing. Board games and card games are pretty fun. Really fun. But it would be nice to win every once in a while. Growing up, I used to think I was pretty good, but you see, Paige happens to be very good at games. And she’s really competitive. And she enjoys slaughtering me horribly.
For example, about a week ago she showed me this game called “Set”. Basically it’s this card game where you match up 3 different cards together and you call “Set!” when you find a match. Pretty easy right? A second grader could play this game and win right? Good clean fun right? Wrong. Very wrong. This is (along with Yoga) just one more way that Paige proves she is better than me. She beats me so bad in this game that I can’t figure out if she’s just really that much smarter than me, or she’s cheating.
So, we tried backgammon. I had never played it. It’s pretty much a game of luck. It couldn’t be that hard right? I mean, you roll dice and move little checker pieces across a board. Easy right? Once again, wrong. She laughed as she beat me.
That’s why I was so glad that she wanted to start playing chess. I like chess. It’s a fun game and I even know how to beat most second graders . . . depending on the second grader.
But once again, yesterday, while we were playing chess, she was in the process of beating me horribly. I, who until recently had thought I was good at chess, was getting smoked. She had my queen, my rook, knights and bishops. I had 4 pawns . . . .but somehow I put her in checkmate with a pawn. No joke. Basically it was an accident on my part, but I tried to play it off really well as if I had planned it the whole time. She couldn’t believe it. The look on her face was priceless .
I smiled. I had finally won at something more intellectually challenging than connect the dots.
Take that world.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Haha...congratulations, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI don't like chess. To me, it is one of those games that you only become good at because two people are stuck on a deserted island with nothing but a chessboard. It would just take way too much of my time, in a world full of books and movies and school and sports and the outdoors and girls, to learn to play it well.
You should challenge her to a ping-pong match, and then when she refuses, make fun of her for not wanting to lose at something and for being a terrible sport.
This post is so laden with half-truths I don't even know where to begin!
ReplyDelete# of Chess games played in the past 3 weeks or so: 25ish
# WON by Joseph: every. single. one.
[you've at least WON games of Set]
# of games where Joseph was even SLIGHTLY worried about losing: 1, maybe 2. no wait, just THIS 1.
I can better summarize this post in a single sentence:
"Oh sad day, I almost lost a Chess game for the first time in like 6 years---to a girl--but not to worry, I slaughtered her just like I have the past 25 times we've played"
Direct quote after being checkmated by your stupid pawn:
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!
enjoy conference.
Oh and Colton: I hate ping pong :)
joe! your blog is sooo cool!
ReplyDeleteThank for the many dances tonight, i hope that can happen again !
:) jillie
If she beat you at chess, I think I'd have lost all respect for you. Well, maybe not ALL. But if she beat you at any Pokemon game, THEN you'd be forever sunk. I hear you're a chess wiz. So says your older bro. :)
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I am 99 days away from losing a four year long bet with Sam. You better get a move on, buddy.
Hey Joe,
ReplyDeleteEven though the name says Shandi it is Scott Larsen your cool cousin. Ya know the one you use to tear off roofs with. Well I was looking at Paige's blogs of her family and I went to EA with her sister. It is a small world, Hope things are going well for you and your having fun in the sun down in Tucson.