#26

jay and i pulled into their driveway a little bit after 8pm last night - running "fashionably late" - and were so warmly welcomed into the lovely home of frank and erica delalla (frank is jay's pastor and long time friend) for our double date game night. their two beautiful children, julia and franky, were already in bed so that after a little bit of chit chat and laughter we could start our game of monopoly.

the first hour or so we played sitting on the ground around the living room coffee table. but eventually our bodies complained - our butts were numb, my feet fell asleep from sitting on them, backs were aching - and we moved the game to the dining room table. we went from playing nicely with each other as we considerately didn't buy what we know our competitor wanted to buying whatever we landed on in order to bargain and deal later. pizza rolls and mini tacos were followed up with brownies. the more we filled out stomachs the more we wanted to satisfy our greed as we built houses and hotels and collected as much rent as possible.

erica quickly took control of the game as she owned all four railroads. jay and i split the most desirable locations - he had the boardwalk and i had park avenue. but frank was strategically putting house after house on all of his streets. jail became a desired destination because for a few turns it kept us safe from having to pay our opponents. deals were being made right and left, but soon most of mine were made just so that i could survive. frank discovered that despite our initial thoughts, the treasure chest and chance cards do not always have positive results. suddenly i was out of money and was left to the role of the banker. even though jay now had possession of both the boardwalk and park place, he soon had spent all of his money and given everything away. it was down to erica (who owned just about everything, having collected both my and jay's locations) and frank. despite her sweet and generous attempts, erica cleaned frank out of all his money too and became the winner of the evening.

two and a half hours later, i had completed number 26 of my '30 by 30' list - we had completed a game of monopoly, which i don't think i had ever had the patience to do before. it didn't matter that i lost. we had a good time with a great couple and had barely spent any money at all! so thanks to erica, frank, and jay for a wonderful evening and for being a part of my '30 by 30'!

my apologies for this internet photo. i was planning on taking a photo of each of the 30 items, but i partly forgot and tiredness had kicked in. you get the idea.