The word surreal and unprecedented have been used so much in the last few months it almost feels like they have lost all meaning. If you had asked me at the beginning of the school year what the 4th quarter would look like I would have said a lot of testing, encouraging my students to finish strong and really hot mornings on bus duty. Now school is closed, I am doing my best to facilitate “distance learning” for my special education students, and my husband is also working from home for the foreseeable future.

I am typically a homebody but that doesn’t mean I particularly enjoy being at home 24/7. I can’t even go to the grocery store because I am immunosuppressed. My husband has to do all the shopping. I have to admit I am going a little crazy.

On Saturday I came up with an idea to break up the monotony; a board game tournament. As much as I love to knit I needed a break and my husband and I are also fairy avid gamers. We made a list of all the two-player board games that we own. Turns out, we own 70. We created a uniform scoring system since each game is played and scored differently. We also put the names of all 70 games into my Santa Claus cookie tupperware to draw one at random.

Everyday, after we exercise of course, we draw one out of the bucket and we play after we eat dinner. There are no throw-backs. The one we draw is the one we play. Shorter games are played in a series of 3 or 5 and longer games are played only once. To get a score we take the score we individually earned divided by the total number of points earned by the two of us in the game and multiply that by 100. A total of 100 points are up for grabs every night. We are also keeping a running win-loss record.

So far we have played Casino, Ticket to Ride, Squirmish, and Yahtzee. My husband has won three nights and I have only won one. The night I did win I creamed him so the points totals are pretty close. I am also certain that he may have cheated last night playing Yahtzee. Seriously, who rolls three yahtzees?!

Our nightly games are fun and they also give us something to talk about that isn’t about work. It also prompts us to turn off the TV, if only for a little while.

The whole thing has taken on a life of its own. My friends were so interested that I created a Facebook page and Twitter account they could follow for updates.

I hope everyone is safe and healthy. If you are a doctor, nurse, grocery store clerk, or anyone that is still out there working hard, thank you.