You're Go....

The other night we put the girls down for bed, and lo and behold...neither of us were completely and utterly exhausted. Miracle of all miracles, right? Usually we are ready to crawl into bed right after we say, "and chances are, if you give him some milk, he's gonna want a cookie to go with it...." (that's the last line from one of the girls' favorite bedtime books). In fact, there are many times when we have fallen asleep while doing the bedtime routine...sad, but true. Don't judge.  ;)

So, here we are...coffee brewed, it's 9pm and we're awake and wanting to have some, ahem....platonic hang time. Good, clean fun, you know?  We didn't want to pop in a movie because we had just endured a rainy weekend and the DVD player is just plain tired. Instead we opted for a game and conversation. Sequence is usually our go-to game. It's fun and challenging, and we both know it well enough that there's not a "you're a newbie so I'm gonna dominate you" vibe going on. But tonight, as I was pulling out the Sequence game, the marbles from another game, Abalone, fell out of the box. I picked them up and suggested we play since it's already out anyway.

I had played this game about a gazillion times when my parents took me to Argentina to visit my grandfather and cousins for a month when I was 15. My cousins, Nicolas, Carolla, and Mercedes (yes, car names) were all very fun and welcoming, and while we had plenty of great conversation getting to know each other, this game served as both a "we don't have to think about how to translate what we want to say" break for all of us and a fun opportunity to compete with each other. My parents went out and bought it as soon as we returned stateside.

Brandon didn't know how to play, so the first game was a learning curve for him. And yes, I dominated him. Complete domination. The game is pretty simple. You have to move your marbles to be able to push the other guys' marbles off. First one to 6 wins. There's more rules than that, but if you want to know, you're on your own to Google it. Just take my word for it. Loads. of. fun.

But here's the thing. Brandon isn't like any other opponent I've ever had. He never has been, and when I say that I mean that he is super annoyingly slow when taking his turn. When my aforementioned Argentine grandfather who pretty much plays cards 24/7 with a bunch of old retired guys came for a visit to the States and visited our home, my entire family played a lot of cards. A lot. We didn't have kids yet, so really...hundreds of card games. And my poor grandfather...when it would get to be Brandon's turn, he would hold his tongue after a few minutes passed. We all would. Brandon would sit, and internally examine every possible outcome for every possible move he could make. And it would take forever.

After a couple games, Brandon started winning. A lot. And that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. My grandfather would stand no more for allowing Brandon so much time to strategize. He started saying comments in all seven languages he knows to try to get Brandon to go faster. My mom chimed in. I gave him the, 'you better move or we may be out of the inheritance' look. My dad just laid his cards down and went to bed, his statement sure. But it didn't work. Brandon knew that it was getting to everyone and started using that as his strategy to beat us all.

Needless to say, Brandon's tactics of stalling are still in full force. By the end of the second game, this gal was so frustrated that I pretty much threw it so we could stop playing.

Pathetic, I know.

Do any of you know someone like Brandon who takes forever to take his/her turn at a game? Maybe you do it yourself?