I am married to a board game aficionado. My spouse loves games the way I love plants, coffee, and quilts. It’s a big love.

For years he has collected games, and we played occasionally. Sometimes we had long stretches where player two (that’s me) was too __________ to play (fill in the blank, it’s probably accurate).

At the start of the year, we started talking about our goals, and one of his goals was to play more games. He joined a game Meetup, and that was good. But I separately realized that I needed his support for some of my goals, and that meant I had to up my game and be a more active supporter of his game-playing goals.

First step: game room
The first I moved my sewing room upstairs so that he could have a cat-safe game room. (Our cat is a player, she can’t help it.) So, this sounds straightforward, but it was a lot of work for a fabric collector. Unfortunately, this was before I got the FitBit that counts flights of stairs. But I know it was at least 40 trips up the stairs. Also, moving my giant heavy sewing table was no small feat. About halfway up the stairs, I was sure I would not make it. But I pushed through.

Second step: figure out how to play more
The main challenge in playing games was finding an hour to it down and play a game from start to finish. So I proposed an asynchronous approach to board games. He would set up a game that would allow us to take turns independently, and I would commit to playing regularly.

Success!
So this was wildly successful. We have played so many rounds of Splendor, Patchwork and Builders that I have lost count. We play every day. Let that sink in. We play games every day. This daily play is game player nirvana.

What I did not expect…
I love playing games. I like trying different strategies, and I find that I think up new house rules to add challenging dimensions. I’m sad when a game ends. And now we both long to hear those three little words.
“It’s your turn.”