Jason has been playing board games his whole life - first with his family and now with a group of board gaming friends. I join him and his friends sometimes at Thursday or Friday night games. More often (which isn't all that often), I join him in a game or two at home. Game nights are pretty special and we've met some of our closest friends there. Life in Colorado Springs just wouldn't be the same without these characters. While Jason looks forward to game nights all week for amazing game playing and some socializing - I look forward to it for the chance to visit with friends.
Jason's love of games is lifelong and will be a hobby well into his twilight years, I imagine. The core of this love is for strategic board games (e.g. Carcassonne, The Traders of Genoa, San Marco) where you essentially problem solve in a competitive manner. In a way, I think his strong, focused mind needs an outlet like this. He incorporates statistics into this hobby, ranking games, recording winnings, and other types of game-related mathmatical wonders. He records a lot of this on his favorite website - www.boardgamegeek.com. You can check out his profile at this link http://www.boardgamegeek.com/user/smilingra
The interesting thing is that I also have a profile on the website under kleveille. If you check it out, you'll see I registered on the website a full year before Jason ever found the site. Hmm...maybe I'm more of a gamer than he gives me credit for! ; )
My love of games started with the games store we found in my neighborhood in Boston, Harvard Square. The place is called The Games People Play and is still my favorite local games store. We have a games store here in Colorado Springs called Compleat Games and Hobbies. There is something special about browsing through the boxes of games, envisioning their themes coming to life.
Jason recently found a New York Times article that describes his gaming life pretty well - especially as it pertains to game night. Here it is: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
The photos are of two different game nights - one at Jenny and Jose's and another at Thursday night's games at Doug and Beth's. Another photo is of playing a game with Jason's family over Christmas. The frowny face photo of me is because Jason beat me by ONE point when playing The Underground. Bummer!
I didn't know that you were so interested in board games. I thought Dungeons and Dragons was your last fling with games. I think it is great to have a hobby in life, especially when it involves other people who become friends. I really liked the pictures of Jason Karen, Sean and Kathy and the kids around the table. The children are just so sweet looking. Lots of controversy here on campus over the invitation of Pres. Obama coming to N.D. as commencement speaker. Fr. Jenkins has had threats made to him by some far right Pro-Life people and now has a body guard. We are all looking forward to the end of the school year and graduation to be over. I will be visiting my Mom in Canada during graduation and will miss all of the hoopla! Thanks for the blog. Uncel Andre
ReplyDeleteHi Karen - you left me a comment on my blog about wanting to order a few Thrive food items, but I can't email you through your comment so I'm posting here hoping you'll see it! Feel free to email me at Lindsey @ LindseyMote . com. Thanks :)
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