games with strangers

2008 - NOVEMBER 29

(with josh and jesse) in berkeley, california, usa

So, Josh Hug had this thing he did frequently where he would go out and challenge random strangers to games. As we were eating dinner at an Indian restaurant, I asked Josh if he had brought Taboo, the board game, to which he responded (kind of to my surprise), "I did!"

He proceeded to take it out of his bag, and we noticed there was a girl behind me who was eating dinner by herself, reading a book. We invited her over to join us in a rousing game of Taboo, and she agreed. Her name was Lisa, I believe. She was fairly young -- I think a Sophomore in college -- and religious, but not religious. She had a class ring from her Catholic high school which looked dope; it was this Victorian-looking ring of the Sacret Heart. Much better looking than your usual high school ring!

She said she wanted to move to some Mennonite community at some point, just for fun, and she currently lives on a hippie farm. She didn't come off as a hippie whatsoever, but she wanted to live in yurts and things in case of the apocalypse. Interesting.

After eating and shooting the shit, we decided to finally play Taboo! Josh and Lisa were on the same team, and Jesse and I were on the same team. Playing Taboo is funny because it really gives you a good idea of how people's brains work. People just describe things really differently.

Jesse and I worked together pretty well, I think, and towards the end, we would average 4-5 points per round consistently, I think, even though initial rounds were kinda mediocre. Josh and Lisa were interesting because they would describe things in such a roundabout fashion. I guess brains just have to sync up for Taboo to be easy. I don't know. I was looking at Lisa's cards, and for some of them, I could come up with ways to describe stuff really easily, and she would use words and think in ways that I'd never even thought of... or she'd be at a loss for words.

Interesting!