Cards, Games and Dashikis (Updated)

I have just discovered Yahoo! Games. As if I needed something else to contribute to my internet addiction. It's not that I never knew it was there, but I never bothered to really check it out....well, except for one exceptionally pitiful night when Katrice, Kwesi and I all sat in the same room, each with a laptop, trying to set up an online game of spades. It was pretty pathetic since I have at least 4 decks of cards I can put my hands on in an instant.

I played Spades last night. I wish the world would figure out how much better Bid Whist is than Spades and catch up. There's no Whist on Yahoo! I play a bunch of card games, but Whist is my favorite to date. I have just started to play Poker and it is fun beyond belief in a very different way. The betting adds a dimension to the game that catapults it to another level all its own. I love it so far--but then again, I'm playing with someone else's pennies. I could never play any game for real money. Although I'm a little loose on the spending tip, I could never, ever bring myself to throw the cash away like that. (And anyone who says, "but think of the money you could win," needs to get a sponsor in GA.)

I'm a card fanatic. I grew up sitting on my parents knees while they drank beer and played cards at their card parties. All gatherings of my parents' friends turned into card parties. I love card parties. I want to have card parties. I need my friends to get on board. I wrote a post a long time ago about Bid Whist and the only groups of people I could find who played were my grandmother's age. OK, maybe my parent's age, but old. I have, however, discovered another cohort that is resurrecting Bid Whist, the recently paroled. Apparently the old heads are teaching the young bucks in prison. I could invite a bunch of these guys over for Guinness and Whist. They're easy enough to find. No? Well then learn how to play and come play with me so that I'm not forced to host a Cell Block C party!!

My cousins know how to play, as does my brother and a couple of friends. The only person who's as obsessed as I am (who actually learned to play in the slammer-lol) has an overly crowded schedule and keeps promising me that we'll get a card party going. I'm waiting...[taps foot impatiently]. My passive aggression means nothing. He stopped reading my blog a year ago...too busy. What the hell are you people so busy doing???? There are cards to be played?

This is worse than a chocolate jones on the first day of my period. I really want to play cards. I want a group that's competitive, but not overly aggressive. I want a couple of tables going, some beer, snacks and laughter. NO SMOKING though. That was the least favorite part of mom and dad's parties. There is this one pic of my brother (at about 4) passed the hell out because he took a glass of straight gin to the head, thinking it was H20...or so the story goes. Ah, drinking folks' beers while they weren't paying attention, now THAT was the best part of the card parties.

These parties are also the reason for my appreciation of music by, say, Earth, Wind and Fire, Ohio Players, Commodores, Kool and the Gang, the Isley Brothers and the like. I think I even remember mommy with an afro. I wanted her dashikis so bad. She gave them to Goodwill before she realized I had plans for them. I was heartbroken. Heartbroken, I tell you. The ones they have today just aren't the same. Close, but no cigar.

I'm realizing as I write this that I am morphing into my parents. So is my brother. My parents have recorded the Young and the Restless, As the World Turns and the Bold and the Beautiful every single day since there have been VCRs. They sit, mom in the recliner, Dad on the love seat, every night and eat dinner while watching their "stories" until they each pass out and dad wakes them up at 2am to go to bed. Every night. Guess who's TiVoing Y&R?? Hell, no. Not me. But my brother and the wife. It's really, really sad. I expect to see Jack, Jill, Katherine, Victor and Nikki at my family reunions. THAT's how much these characters were a part of my upbringing. Mom used to spend my $5/MINUTE phone calls from Argentina telling me about Y&R. Who cares? They'll be doing the same thing in a year when I'm back in the States. Relax. And they were, of course.

I also love board games. Except Scrabble. I love Boggle, I hate Scrabble. I've concluded that my decoding abilities far out-shine my encoding abilities and so I'll leave Scrabble to the otherly inclined. I really, really hate it for some reason. I must say I hate Taboo now. It's done. Over. Dead. Kill it. Find a new game, please. PLEASE. Good Jeezus. I get so sick of getting dirty looks when I guess "Jack-in-the-Beanstalk" from so much as an inhalation. I know them all. The game has been on the market for 20 years. We ALL know them all. Please, if you host a game night...buy another game. I'm I the only person who knows dorks who host game nights??

Well call me one and all and let me know when you're coming over for the card party. I'll even print out cheat sheets for everyone who needs them (everyone needs one for Bid Whist until you learn the bids, don't feel bad). Come from Jersey, Denver, San Francisco and Indianapolis. There's beer and ginger ale for all. And no Taboo.

I WANNA PLAY!!!!!!!

Edit: All this excitement had me jumble Jack and the Beanstalk with Jack-in-the-Box, but you knew what I meant.

Junkie Udate: OMG! Yahoo! Games has Trivial Pursuit!!!!!!