Thanks, Earl

My husband and I met over a gaming table. Actually it was a large, round table with a Robo Rally board on it. Every year I go to the World Boardgaming Championships. It's big, it's full of good competition and it's tons of fun. It's the one week we make sure to have off every year. You see, for years I worked in a game store. The guy I worked for had one night a week that he met up with his buddies and payed various boardgames. I'm not talking about Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit (although those are fine games.) I'm talking about Union Pacific, Successors, Up Front, Acquire and many more. Some of them are games published by the now defunct Avalon Hill (which has sort of been revived by Hasbro, but that's a post for a different day,) and some are newer games put out by German companies or independent American publishers.

My boss' group consisted of about half a dozen guys who had one week each year to go to WBC (née AvalonCon) by themselves and game non-stop. One year,one of the sweetest gamers in the group became terminally ill. He told his friends that he knew he wouldn't be able to attend, but as his spot was already paid for, they should send somebody else in his place. His one caveat was that they choose a person who would a.) really enjoy it and b.) otherwise be unable to afford to go. I had been playing games with them on Game Night for several months and they knew I could hold my own. The only concern was childcare for my two-year old. My mom stepped up and said she would be thrilled to take care of him, so I hopped the plane and took off toward a new adventure. I scheduled something for almost every waking moment and I had a blast. I played Robo Rally and thoroughly enjoyed myself... in spite of being blown to bits, driving off the board and being shoved into pits. (It was OK, the GM was pretty cute.) I had such a good time, I was invited to join the guys the next year. We found out on the way home that our friend had just passed away. I found out at Earl's funeral that he was glad to hear they had chosen me to take his place and his wife was thrilled that a female would be going along. She thought I might keep the guys out of too much trouble.

The next year I went back and played many of the same games, but I didn't try to schedule each moment. When I went to play Robo Rally, the same cute guy was running the show. He had the same cute friends hanging out with him and we seemed to show up at a lot of the same games. (turns out this is not uncommon. If you think about it, people who like one particular game tend to enjoy other similar games.) Over the course of the week, he and his friends dragged me to a lot of games that I had never played before. The good thing about being an active gamer is that it wasn't a problem picking up the rules just before the tourney. I had such a good time with these guys, that we kept in touch afterward and the GM and I began dating. Years later, I have not only the cute Robo Rally GM, but another son and a daughter to love.

Thanks Earl. Who could possibly have known what would come of your generous gesture?