Mother’s Nature

When it comes to the spirit of friendly competition, I’ve been told I can be a teensy bit … well, rabid.  Oh, it’s always said in good fun, like “Whoa, Andie’s playing?!  There will be blood.  Ha ha!”

Yeah.  Ha.  Ha.

Look, it’s not like I upturn tables when I lose, or drop trou and shake my jelly when I win.  I’m not sure how I got this reputation for being such a cutthroat competitor because I never thought I was all that hung up on winning.  I can honestly celebrate anyone else’s victory just as easily as my own.

Really!

No, really, I can.

(Alright, yes … YES!  I like to win.  SO SUE ME!)

Perhaps, then, it was my “play-ah” vibe that landed me in the heat of competition yesterday afternoon at my son’s birthday party.  To celebrate his 12^th, Bodie invited twelve of his friends to an entertainment complex to play a few rounds of laser tag then gorge out on pizza and cake in a cramped, overheated party room, all within the span of two hours.  Good times!

So while the kids battled through their first round, our teenage host came over, handed me the kids’ chits for the next game and asked me if I wanted to play too.  Naturally I declined, citing Sherpa duties as an excuse not to join in.  But he wouldn’t let up, telling me how much I’d love it and offering to throw my game in for free.  He even came up with my player handle:  The Bodie Hunter.

Oh yeah.  G-A-M-E.  O-N.

As I pondered my approach to crashing my own kid’s party, I realized that since bounty hunters don’t usually call ahead, I’d just hang back until everyone was inside the tag zone before sneaking in.  So I milled around, nonchalantly … just a girl with a secret starter tag of her own:

Once the doors opened and two parties worth of kids were suited up and sent into the maze, I quietly donned a vest and gun and followed a few steps behind.

Within seconds I was hit, my chest vibrating like Tickle-Me-Elmo as my gun beeped in mock disdain at my combat unworthiness.  But thankfully the penalty was short-lived and I soon returned to the game with a newfound sense of paranoia and heightened aggression.  You bet it was fun!

In the end, I became the unanimous target, with “GET MY MUM!” and “GET HERRRR!” being screamed throughout the maze.

Even so, I still managed to post the highest single round score of anyone in our party.

Not that it matters …