Ladies Of Cataan

Long ago, back in the day when we lived in a two-apartment home in Boston with a friendly family (the Wilkensons!) upstairs, I would sometimes put our kids to sleep and bring the baby monitor with me up a flight. With their kiddos and ours sleeping soundly, they introduced me to the great board game, Settlers of Cataan, and we'd play into the late hours of the night. And I would always lose.

The Goodsells also did their best at that time to get my husband and I out to their monthly game night, where Cataan and a HOST of other good strategy board games were featured. We missed most of the game nights, but the memories of hospitality linger (Colleen, like a good host, also fed me really spicy Indian food one time when I was trying to get a baby to be born.)

Then, as the story goes, I entered my homeschooling days. One of the BEST benefits of homeschooling is that you can tell the family "We're going on a trip for 3 weeks" and it all works out fine. We visited the Hammonds in Paris for 3 glorious and memorable weeks (sigh) and as a housewarming gift, I took them Settlers of Cataan.

The first few nights there, I had to do a little arm-twisting to get them to play with me (after we had both broods in bed), but the quick minds and competitive nature of my excellent friends meant that they eagerly looked forward to our nightly battles henceforth. (Watch for any comments to this blog to indicate otherwise or verify this fact.)

After 3 weeks of nightly Cataan (and lots of French pastries), I think I could say I was a well-seasoned player. And I didn't always lose!

Now fast forward to the present time. No more homeschooling freedom, no more long "educational" trips to fabulous places. No more late nights with friends who conveniently share the same roof. (Although recent experiments indicate that my baby monitor DOES send signal as far as my next-door-neighbor...I'm going to have to take advantage of that more often.)

While my husband was traveling a lot in the autumn, I decided I needed to host some "girls nights" to prevent myself from getting the feeling that I never talk to adults or have any wild parties. (I said "feeling" of wild parties. I doubt I'll ever ACTUALLY attend a wild party.)

I found that a fair few women I know also like Cataan, and so Ladies of Cataan was born.

It works like this: Ladies...if your husband is going to be out of town...plan to put the kids to bed at an early-ish hour. Have all the other ladies show up with fattening treats (although, Tamara's flax-and-sesame-seed-granola-bars are welcome, too). We play a few games, have a few laughs, and build a few roads.

If you're a Lady of Cattan and reading this post...see if you can guess who these players are:

1) She has a fair-trade policy, and "do no harm" mantra. She always puts the robber in an innocuous place. Surprisingly, she wins with this strategy fairly often.
2) She builds cities like crazy and wins 80% of the games, usually by whipping out five points in one surprising turn.
3) She looks at the cards of the person sitting next to her, but makes lots of jokes. (okay, this one was me...sorry Margaret!)
4) She's new to the game and reveals information she shouldn't (ie: "what am I supposed to do with this card that says Victory Point?") and we love having her.

If you're NOT a Lady of Cataan, then you should definitely invite me to your Bunco game next month, or let me in your secret gathering, whatever it is...I'm still looking for something to fill my "feels-like-a-wild party" needs. On the other hand, my husband is going on a trip next month...