Games

I’ve played games against myself all my life. That’s what you do if you don’t have anyone to play with. I was alone for some of that time because I couldn’t find anyone to play with me; the rest of the time, I didn’t even bother. And part of that time was because sometimes you just feel like being alone.

I have a small travel sized set of chinese checkers. It’s a small, circular, wooden board with wooden colored pegs instead of marbles. It’s great for playing against myself. I just play all 6 sides at once and just keep turning the board until they’re all back where they’re supposed to be.

I play monopoly against myself too. Well, usually I play it with my stuffed animals. Either way . . .

One of the signs of my Asperger’s syndrome that no one picked up on when I was younger was the way I played pickup sticks against myself and my bears. I would tally up the scores each time and would do this for pages and pages and pages. My mother said that I was one of the most boring children she had ever knew. She has a theory about the world related to Sesame Street. She says that the entire world is made up of Bert’s and Ernie’s; Bert with his paper clip collection and Ernie with all of his crazy experiences (mostly in the middle of the night, if I recall correctly). She says I’m a Bert because I enjoy things that most people consider dull.

Speaking of aspie signs, when I used to play with matchbox cars, I’d line them up and arrange them by family (color). And then they’d fight usually. And I’d crash them into one another. Repeatedly. And then I’d set up a car wash and meticulously wash them all one by one (I inherited about 20 from my brothers–real metal ones, and I had about 20 or so of my own; so this was a long process). I also washed all of my rocks.

Lately, I have a new game.

I start out with two columns:

1. 1

And put in the shortest words (of equal length) that I can think of, starting with two different letters, like this:

1. at 1 be

Then, the next level is to put down a word for each column that is one letter longer.

1. at 1. be
2. ate 2. bet

Then it continues.

1. at 1 be
2. ate 2. bet
3. ages 3. bean
4. after 4 beast
5. alters 5. better

This continues until one column can no longer thing of any words that are longer and then the other column is called winner.

Of course, technically, I’m winner both ways, but I don’t necessarily think of it that way. Oh and the other thing is, you can’t use a dictionary or anything like that. It has to be all from your head.