Backgammon

A lifetime ago, when Doug and I lived in Switzerland, all we had to entertain ourselves, other than beautiful Bern, were books, CNN, and Backgammon.

Such simple times.  We would spend our days working out, one night a week I would have a Volleyball match, or he would have a Basketball game.  Time was on our side.

It was a great way to spend the first year of a marriage.  Our only priority was each other.  And we really had no one else to lean on, so if we were angry at one another we had to resolve it quick.

One of my favorite memories of this time were the endless games of Backgammon we would play.

I suffer from magical thinking, so I make much riskier moves than Doug.  At times this works in my favor, but most of the time it results in my pieces being put in jail, where they remain as Doug runs the board.

You would think after 20 years of trying to beat him at this game I would have changed my strategy.

But those of you who have known me for longer than Doug, know that my noggin is pretty hard.

Last night we pulled out the board and began to teach Graham the ways of Backgammon.

I am the acknowledged better teacher of the family.  While I have a hard head, I do like to learn the way things are supposed to be done and copy that.  I shoot a basketball with perfect form, swing a golf club with a traditional grip, ski on my edges.

Doug on the other hand is a total non conformist.  He is admittedly utterly un-coachable.  I gave up a long time ago, and now find this to be one of his more endearing qualities (after it drove me to the loony bin for more than a decade).

Anyway, because of this Graham and I were on one team, Doug on the other.

Doug's first roll - double sixes.

It was downhill from there.

But really it wasn't.  Here we were, 19 years later, with our beautiful first born, moving pieces around a board.

And I was quite certain, life doesn't get much better than this.