"Its all about world domination"

That’s what the chief protagonists of the game Risk kept telling me last evening when I asked what the game was about as I’d never played before. “So, what’s the game about”, I asked. “It’s all about world domination”, he replied. “So how do you play the game”, I asked. “You try and totally dominate the world”, he replied. Four hours and many defeated armies later I couldn't have put it better myself. Essentially the globe is equitably divided between all the players and you attack other territories and defend your own. And you have little infantry men standing guard on your territories and the image of these little men with their guns pointing upward are strangely chilling (especially when you’re getting ready to attack) even though you know its only a game. Although, some of us playing had difficulty remembering it was just a game… Wives annihilated husbands, friends turned on friends, Egypt declared “jihad” on North America, even my own S very seriously said to me, “If I have to get rid of you, I will… because this is war baby and there ain’t no love here”.

There was no winner… it might’ve turned into a physical fight if we’d continued to battle each other to the death on the board. We tried playing Dumb Charades after but that turned into a shouting match as well because I think we were all still smarting from our global domination efforts and the extra rowdy effect caused by all the beer. I’d forgotten how much of a hangover six bottles of beer can give you. This morning was NOT cool.

The first half of the weekend was also fun. Friday night was the usual piss-up and I met up with a few people I hadn’t seen in a while. There was some drunken Harry Potter discussion also I feel. At home, I felt the urge as I quite frequently do when drunk to call someone and I decided to honour my sister with the call this time but she had her phone switched off. And then I couldn’t stop myself from calling my Mom to find out what was up with that. I sooooo need not stop ringing my parents and/or grandparents when drunk. Surely they must know that I am heavily intoxicated.. the late hour, the slightly higher pitched voice, the extra laughing for things I normally wouldn’t laugh at, always some drunken boys in the background being loud and abusive and sometimes even singing the National Anthem… they were doing that on Friday. My parents were like what the hell is going on and I’m like they’re singing the freaking National Anthem and I have no clue why. But anyway, mostly they also just laugh and don’t bring up the drinking which is very good of them as the next morning I am always incredibly embarrassed about having called them whilst under the influence.

Something they said though just stuck with me the whole weekend. My 15 year old sister was out a friend’s house and they were on their way to pick her up and they said, “It’s almost like we’re alone now. Its like both our daughters have left home”. When I was 15 and treating my house like a hotel, my sister was always at home. But now she’s started leading her own life too and I can’t imagine how that must be for parents, to come home to an empty house all the time.

Anyway, for now, she’s still there on a part-time basis at least. Apparently she’s playing the “You let my older sister go out all the time” card quite often these days and that is such bullshit… I went out quite a bit but she still seems to be doing things a couple of years in advance and the path is just so much easier for her since I’ve done it all before. I think that after fighting with me tooth and nail about my partying lifestyle (okay, that was an exaggeration, they got over it in a few months) and seeing that nothing really happened to me, its easy for them to be mellow and more unconcerned about my sister. Still, they don’t have too much of a clue of what its really like for a teenager these days and I think that that 15 year old kid sister of mine will warrant some watching in the years to come!