Friday, July 26, 2013

Civilian Game Night ~ Playing Around

C and D from last game night came in and we played together again.  A joined us.  She saw a game called "Scotland Yard" which she said she last played when she was 7 and liked.  The game was made for six, so two of us played two "hands."  When a new guy, Al, and a very nice girl, T, wanted to join we gave up our extra hands.  It was an OK game; I'd maybe play it once or twice more ~ there are two roles, and I'd like to try the other role at least once.  A said it was more interesting when she was 7, and I could see that.

We were joined by Charity, L, a woman we met a few weeks ago, and two other guys I didn't know, S and RT liked Cranium which some of the gamers had played before; I had not.  It involves trivia, acting, charades, wordplay, drawing, and clay sculpting.  Charity, D, and I made up one team; L, T, and A made up a girls-only team, and Al, R, and C were the other mixed team.
clockwise from left: R, C, Al, D, Meg, and L

I kind of loosened up playing the game.  I generally don't get involved in roles where I'm the center of attention in either drab or dressed, but I shy away from attention more as Meg ~ first off, there's a lot of talking and since there's a lot of noise coming from other games, it means I have to speak louder than I am comfortable as Meg.  I avoided picking cards and reading them, leaving that to other players but when there was a lull and no-one picked a card, I grabbed the next one and used my best Meg voice (still not nearly as good as I'd like it) to read it loudly.

Actions speak louder than silence.  I know people might be being "polite" or PC and feel like it's a personal virtue to treat that clear difference like it doesn't matter and then they can go home and pat themselves on the back.  But C and D sought me out to play a game, after our previous game night and the other players stuck around to play a second game after Scotland Yard was over.  When I was offered to be a "puppetmaster" for our team (some of the Cranium turns involved manipulating another person to mime the answer), L jumped up to volunteer to be the puppet.  And everyone stuck around to play Telestrations after that.  As we were leaving, I saw P who I was supposed to play chess with ~ she said she was sorry we didn't get to play and Next Time For Sure.  She was playing hearts with a guy, J, our host, and a woman who introduced herself to me as R (different R).  R asked if I played hearts, and I said I knew how to play and J said it was good to have another Hearts player.  So next time, I might try to play some traditional games.  A couple of people were playing backgammon as well, one of my favourite games.

And when I got home, I had six "good to see you" e-mails from different players!





3 comments:

  1. Meg -

    Isn't it great to be accepted as Meg, and not having to be who you are not with people from the meetups? Because of your experiences, I am now willing to take the next step....

    M

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  2. Meg,

    I find your 'game night' outings to be interesting. You place yourself in a situation where you need to interact with civilians where the focus of the evening is on the games rather than the people and their life stories.

    I think that this is a great form of outreach. If, as you surmise, some of the game people are being polite or PC and then going home and rethinking their interaction with you then that is a good and subtle form of reinforcing the acceptance of "T" folks.

    Pat

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  3. And I think this photo is sweet. You look cute by the way. Well done! 8-)
    Penny

    ReplyDelete

My day is brighter when I hear from my friends!