Monopoly

When was the last time you played Monopoly?

You know, "One of the best-selling commercial board games in the world.... Players compete to acquire wealth through stylized economic activity involving the purchase, rental and trading of real estate using play money, as players take turns moving around the board according to the roll of the dice." Yada Yada...You know the drill.

Well, before yesterday... I think it was about 3 or 4 years ago (Maybe more) for me. It was one of my favorites to play when I was young, and also one of the worst games to play if you had a bad temper (I don't think I had one that bad, but did lose it on occasions). I was pretty good at it too (At least that's what I thought when I was younger).

A few other favorites when I was young were Scrabble, Trouble, Shoots Shute's and Latter's, Candy Land, Trivia Pursuit, Sorry! just to name a few.... in case you were wondering.

So yesterday my wife and I thought we'd try something different for a change so we give Monopoly a try. Now I thought I could just jump back into the groove of things and start kicking ass and taking names like the olden day's... boy was I mistaken. I think the game lasted about...maybe less then an hour before I went broke.

My strategy was to buy as much as I could before she got a chance to, so I did just that... (You know you only get a total of $1,500 starting off right?)... I bought everything I landed on the first two times I went around the board. Everything, even the crap one's. Her strategy was to just buy the one's that I didn't have the other half of the "Monopoly" on already. And to pace herself, Ha! I was like... "Yeah baby, lettin’ me get the Monopoly on these aren't gonna do you any good." (In my head, but let her play her way. She was gonna lose big time) But luck wasn't on my side to land on the other properties that would give me the Monopoly. Oh no, luck was not on my side.

Fast-forward about 9 or 10 times around the block... She somehow got all of the Railroads and 3 Monopolies, to my one...! (Mine was Park Place and Boardwalk though) I landed in jail about 5 times (Without collecting $200 for passing go, mind you), landed on her Monopoly of Railroad's like...5 times and couldn't pay my mortgage on the other 5 properties I owned and had to get a second mortgage on most of them to pay the bill's.

In a little less than an hour she had houses on 3 of her Monopolies, and I mortgaged off everything I owned to pay her off!@ I mean, I couldn't get a break the entire game! She totally rocked my boat! She ruled! I kissed her feet afterwards. It was... ...it wasn't a pretty picture, that's all I could tell you. So much, that I let the old school Monopoly anger start to seep out a bit (But I think I controlled it pretty well. I was very proud of myself).

It was very degrading though to say the least, not my best moments in board gamage. But I did challenge her two out of three... and plan to deliver my best Monopoly Playing ever, on our next two outings! She'll see, I'm the best. She just got lucky.

As for all of you out there in computer land... I challenge you all to a game of any of the above-mentioned games.... any time... anywhere! Go ahead, make my millenium!