Tuesday, August 07, 2007

THE MAGIC OF BEING PREPARED AND THE WONDERS OF MONOPOLY

To celebrate Lakeiya’s going to law school Monica, Q (who may want to remain nameless in blogworld) and I had a good old fashioned sleep over complete with horror movies. It really was the way to go. I haven’t had a proper sleepover in ages. As an adult, sleeping over is usually referred to as “crashing”. Crashing happens when you are either too drunk or too tired or too far to safely make it home. In most cases crashing involves a couch.

Not so with the sleepover. When sleeping over you go prepared. You have pillows, sheets, toothbrushes, and even pajamas. The foresight that goes along with a planned sleepover makes it much more comfortable than the unexpected crash. Monica is awesome enough to have a humongous air mattress that Lakeiya and I were easily able to sleep on. Q could have fit too but she was too close, sober, and awake to sleepover. That is perfectly acceptable, we are grown-ups after all. The air mattress also served as a great place for the four of us to huddle together, try and creep each other out with odd caresses, and watch scary movies. We even ordered pizzas! What good times.

The foresight also allowed me to spend the next day at Monica’s house without feeling like there was death in my mouth. I love brushing. If it wasn’t for the toothbrush I wouldn’t have been able to play endless games of Monopoly and wouldn’t have been able to stay long enough for Morgan to come by and enjoy said Monopoly with us and then, eventually drive me home. Without the toothbrush, my trip home would have been long, dirty, and hot. What wonders a clean mouth can do.

Monica had a brand new Monopoly board. I typically don’t enjoy brand new Monopoly unless it is of some fun variety such as Star Wars, Simpsons, or Looney Tunes. I recall there is a Muppet Monopoly out there somewhere. I wouldn’t object to having it. This new Monopoly of Monica’s, however, had something rather exciting in it, thus making the game exciting despite the money being stuck together. It was a special blue “speed die”. I play Monopoly in a rather speedy fashion as it is so the speed die didn’t immediately intrigue me. Monica and I played a good old regular game and, when Lakeiya showed up, we decided to put the speed die into use.

After your first trip around the board you can use the speed die. You roll it along with the two regular dice and fun ensues. The speed die has the numbers 1-3, a bus, and two “Mr. Monopolies adorning its six sides. If you roll a number you add it to the value of the other two dice making a larger roll. If you roll the bus you can take the singular value of either of the normal dice or their combined total. Then you get to Mr. Monopoly, more affectionately known as “The Man”. The Man can be your friend, or he can be your worst enemy. If you roll The Man, you take your turn based on the roll of the white dice and then move to the next unowned property, which you can buy or not. If you are playing with the actual rules the property then gets auctioned off to the highest bidder but who plays that way? Once all the properties are owned, The Man becomes evil. You now must move to the next property on which you will owe someone money. So if you landed on a hotel on Park Place and had The Man show up you would then have to go to Boardwalk and pay on the hotel that would also be sitting there. Oh, the ins and outs of The Man.

It was nice to be in a place where I could play at least ten games of Monopoly in a two day time span. Playing games is probably the thing I most miss about living with Monica, that one is good for games. I don’t think Monica, Brooke, and I have ever played a game of Monopoly together. That has to happen sometime soon. No one loves that game as much as the three of us do. Ladies, let’s make a date.

The unguessed songs from last week are as follows:

1. What if the show didn’t go on/ What if we all got jobs and got to bed before dawn/ What if Old Joe had to retire/ What if all the stagehands were let go or fired. Promises of Eternity, Magnetic Fields.

2. You’ve taken the fun/ Out of everything/ Making me run/ When I don’t want to think. I think this is called No Other Way and it is certainly by Blur

3. Every night/ Out for love/ Get my strength from the man above/ God of pistol/ God of steel/ God is here behind my wheel. Working For The Man, PJ Harvey

4. I said oh/ I got this feeling and it's deep in my body/ it gives me wiggles and it makes my rump shake/ I said oh. Speaking in Tongues, Eagles of Death Metal

5. I can’t believe that I’m writing this down and/ I can’t believe I’ve got you in a song/ I don’t want to be a whining girl/ Rather not be in your world. I Don’t Want to See You, Camera Obscura.

11 comments:

Blog Antagonist said...

That sounds like so much fun! Good for you for indulging in some girl time. I don't think grown up girls do that enough.

Anonymous said...

I have known some grown up girls who have traveled together, usually to celebrate 40th birthdays. (Don't ask me why...)

One time I drove to Billings, MT, with two friends. We drove there nonstop, to pick up one friend's car which had broken down while she was on vacation. We got the (fixed) car, stayed overnight, and left the next day. Even though we didn't have much time to spend, it was a huge, huge amount of fun. (Natalie, that was when I bought the little red mobile.)

Johnny Yen said...

I loved Monopoly as a kid-- funny, given that I'm a rabid leftist these days. My son loves it now. I think the fact that Kim's daughter likes it too was part of smoothing their transition to being in a family together.

Have you played "Apples to Apples?" Great game-- it requires you to figure out the other players.

Katrina said...

I hated Monopoly as a kid. Mainly because the only person who'd I ever play with was my brother who's just a little over a year older than me and would always, always kick my ass in it. He also had a mean streak when it came to playing, he made me cry more than once. Why I kept playing again and again I don't know.

But since then, H Ditty and I have played it many times. With the board (Star Wars only of course) or on the computer. It's very odd but I hardly ever win when we play with the board but on the computer I kick ass.

promoteyourblogforfree said...

nice blog

Evil Spock said...

I rule at board games, but my competitive nature turns off a lot of people.

So, no pillow fights or girly kisses? Have movies been lying to me this whole time?!?

dmarks said...

Haven't played board games in too long.

When we were kids, the big deal was "Easy Money". It was sort of a Monopoly rip-off. One of the corners was "The Hospital". IF you landed there, you got money that accumulated from a few fines and fees. We once tweaked rules so that all money paid in fines and fees went to "The Hospital" isntead of the bank.

The stack got inches tall, and the whole goal of the game became seeing who would land on the square.

lakeiyam said...

i very much enojoyed the monopoly. i was a bit daunted by you and monica's monopoly stamina but really i'm just a baby at the game, so i guess it makes sense that i can't quite keep up.

"apples to apples" is a great game. you guys should definitely try it. my fam plays it at holidays (it's surpassed "taboo" as the fav family game). but it's most fun when you have six or more people (though it can make the game a bit long).

Foofa said...

BA- I totally agree. I hadn't had a proper sleepover in ages and it was totally worth it.

Mom- Travelling together would also be a great time but not as cost effective as an air mattress and movies we already own.

Johnny Yen- I haven't played Apples to Apples but I am now very curious to try it.

Katrina- My Star Wars Monopoly mysteriously disappeared when I moved. I blame Eric, the roommate from hell.

Evil Spock- Actually, the next night I gava Monica a very tender kiss on the forehead but only to creep her out. I am now officially one of the creepiest people around.

dmarks- We put all fines in the middle and whoever gets "Free Parking" gets them. Don't even get me started on special doubles rules. That's the good stuff.

Lakeiya- You were a very good novice player. I don't think most people could keep up with the Monopoly stamina that we possess. It's a bit scary even for me. If only we had had Scrabble...

CS said...

I love that just brushed teeth feeling.

I also like monopoly, but I miss the little metal game pieces. My favorite was the dog, then the car.

Anonymous said...

so......to the untrained eye........"creep each other out with odd caresses" whilst snuggling up on an air mattress........let's just say ......could be taken the wrong way, i think...but I'm still really sad that I couldn't make it :(