Rook

Today is the birthday of an old friend. I wished her a happy one on facebook last night and her reply has made me nostalgic and a bit sad today. You see, she was once married to my good friend Warren. Warren was killed in a plane crash about 3 1/2 years ago. This friend was Warren's first wife. They were married when I met Warren. We lived in the same apartment complex and we spent many weekend nights pulling "all-nighters". Not in any sense that you would think...yes, we were in college at the time so you would naturally think that we were either drinking or studying all night. Nope...we played games.

We played a number of different games, but our go-to game was Rook. Just typing the word fills me with TONS of memories. The four of us had very specific roles when we played, and we had a blast. Warren was the ultra-competitive but slightly nerdy one, I was also very competitive and gave Warren a run for his money, Jim was the comic relief, and Jenny was just there for the company. She didn't care if she won or lost...it was fun either way to her. Warren would have pen and paper at his finger tips throughout the entire game compiling statistics of our wins and losses. At the end of the evening he would graph our evening out on paper and viola we would have evidence of another night well spent in Tucson, AZ. Just thinking about it puts a smile on my face.

These games were a mandatory way to spend our weekends in college. When Warren and Jenny moved to Prescott and ultimately split up our games became fewer and farther between. However, those nights will forever be embedded in my mind. That is where we got to know each other as well as we did and bonded us forever.