Pursuit of a different sort

Okay, I promise this is the last time I will mention this, but I am writing this on a laptop. In bed. Isn't that awesome?

Back to your regularly scheduled post. I had dated Biker Boy for about six months before I went to meet his family. BB is from a family of five children. For me, a person with one sister who barely squeaks, this was an overwhelming experience. All of his siblings, their significant others, BB's parents, BB's grandparents, and let's not even discuss the extended family of aunts and uncles - this was terrrifying for me. They are lovely people and I do enjoy them and all of their quirky family dynamics, but the first time I met them, I was really intimidated.

It was his older sister's wedding. That was the occasion for which we were visiting Iowa for the first time. Two nights before the wedding, Trivial Pursuit came out. Apparently, Biker Boy's family is filled with Trival Pursuit fanatics. They may take their trivia games a bit more seriously than the rest of the world. During this game, after dating for six months and having known BB for years, I met a new Biker Boy.

The trash talking Biker Boy.

I guess I knew that BB was competitive, but I didn't realize how competitive. He talked big, he talked dirty, he gloated when we won, and pouted when the other team did well. I was, I must admit, a bit shocked. It was fortunate we were on the same team, or I think the words coming out of his mouth may have made me cry. Let's be clear here. I am so uncompetitive. I don't care who wins games. It's about the experience. It's about the group dynamics. It's about enjoying the activity, be it a physical activity or a mental activity. It's about enjoying your companions. Again, with just me and my sister, we never actually kept score in games. This entire concept of antagonizing your opponents was foreign to me.

Let's flash forward to many months later. A normal date night for me and Biker Boy involves a walk around the lake; watching a movie, during which we demolish a bag of microwave popcorn and I inevitably fall asleep; and cuddling under this huge fleece blanket that is so unnecessary that BB almost always ends up tossing it across the room in a fit of pique. Last night, we came back from a walk around the lake (it is unseasonably warm - yay! Minnesota weather), we sat down on the couch, and Biker Boy asked me what I wanted to do with our night. Now, the night before we had actually watched a movie, so I didn't want to have anything to do with that for another night. So, without thinking, I said, rather stupidly, "let's play cards."

And so we played games. I was consistently walloped by Biker Boy and I consistently heard about it. He never shut up. It's so not in his normal character that by the end of the night, I was purposefully losing just so I could hear what shocking things would come out of his mouth. It was brilliant!! And hilarious. He couldn't understand why I was laughing at him and this further antagonized him. Yay for trash talking Biker Boy!!!