Friday, November 13, 2009

Friday the 13th.....or why I hate Risk

I went to geek school starting in 5th grade. The program was called A.L.L. and I don't remember what it stood for. Something about Learning.

A lot of people (the cool kids) made fun of us (the geeks) and they called us the "All Lindon Losers". 11 year olds are very creative when they need to be.

But mostly I didn't care because I made some awesome friends from that class. And we (the geeks) all liked us.

Annette, Joanna, and I were totally inseperable. We played together at recess, worked on group projects together, and Annette was my companion for my very first "just drop us off at the mall and pick us up in a few hours" trip. I heard that they had cameras behind the mirrors in clothing store dressing rooms, so I made sure to turn backwards when I was changing so nobody could see my nakeds.

One of our favorite traditions was a sleepover on Friday the 13th. We always got together for the 13th. We watched movies, played games, ate pizza and did normal sleepover stuff.

But the night I remember best is the night we played Risk. Rather they played Risk and I watched....because I'm such a loser.

I had never played before (which was unheard of in a geek class full of 11 year olds who cared about politics and were into strategy-take-over-the-world games) so they kindly agreed to teach me.

I remember struggling to figure out why it mattered if you rolled the red dice or the white ones. I remember not knowing where to invade first and trying to kill off my friends with one little man when they had a whole cannon in their country. I couldn't figure out where all of the countries were (Geography still isn't my strength.) and I couldn't see how they could go clear across the board in one turn. The worst was that I had to decide when I was done with my turn. How was I supposed to know whether I should stop or keep going?

With their careful advice and my uncanny ability to roll 19 1's in a row, I was out after the first hour of the game. The two of them continued to play....for 5 more hours.

I'm sure I was a very gracious loser and didn't pout at all. But I've been pouting ever since. Josh constantly tries to get me to play, I constantly refuse. Maybe that's why we have so many games - so I can distract him from Risk. And that weekend is why I hate Risk.

On the flip side I love Friday the 13th. It's not a real Holiday and it hapens all the time so nobody does anything big, but somehow I was ALWAYS allowed my traditional sleepover "because it's tradition!"

We haven't celebrated Friday the 13th together in years....but I still always think about Annette and Joanna when it comes around.

3 comments:

  1. Was Annette's last name Wilson? Because I had an Annette Wilson in my neighborhood who I think was an All Lindon Loser, and I would like it she was your geek friend. She was my geek friend for a while, but as I got older I grew out of some of my geekiness and she grew into hers, so we stopped having much in common.

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  2. Ha, ha! I won't play Risk with Mike, either, because he has an uncanny ability to roll 19 6's in a row. That, and my complete lack of strategy turn me off to the game completely. Unless I play with someone as inept as I am.

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  3. This is forever late...but her name was Annette Johnson. And it stood for Accelerated Learning Lab. Woot! Go me!

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