I have never liked the game of Monopoly, (except maybe when I played it on the Sega—somehow it was cooler with animated dice) but it is one of my husband’s favorite games. And it’s no wonder why. He remembers learning to play it with his dad, who showed him no mercy, and now he shows others no mercy as he wins every time. No joke. Every time.
It’s interesting to look at how we approach the game of Monopoly, and how it directly relates to how we approach our own lives. Lloyd is all about investing, and taking risks, and spending money, and of course, getting lucky. I’m more about taking it slow, and never running out of money, and eventually going bankrupt. Lloyd is ready to start trading properties after the first round, and I have my weird little rules that prohibit me from even entertaining the idea of trading until at least the third round, and preferably after most or all of the properties are owned.
There comes a point in the game where Lloyd acquires at least one monopoly and then he uses all his money and mortgages all his other properties so that he can spend every last cent on investing in hotels for all three properties in one monopoly (sometimes he even does this with Mediterranean and Baltic). I always feel a little smug at this point since he only has 2 or 3 three viable properties and I’ve got a couple monopolies that are free and clear—and very empty of any hotel developments.
A few rounds later and the game is over: Lloyd is sitting on a fat stack of cash and I’m frantically adding up the values of my properties, hoping to scrape together enough to pay him off one more time, even though I know I have no way to earn any money once everything is mortgaged. And I vow to never play Monopoly again.
In the real world, I’m somewhat glad I’ve aligned myself with Lloyd, because at some point he will recoup all his losses and be sitting pretty, but right now we’re at that just-starting-to-mortgage-everything stage. But this time I feel a little like collateral damage, rather than his opponent holding on to a few monopolies myself.
We’re in the process of figuring out how to rearrange and be able to afford a move to California (which is more like Park Place than Baltic Avenue), and while he’s building his hotel out on the west coast, getting to live his dream and work on his budding business, just waiting for the right sucker investor to land on his property, I’m taking care of the mortgaged Saint James Place (or maybe the yet-to-be mortgaged Baltic, which is worth very little). There’s talk of shipping me and the kids back north to the wastelands of Nebraska, where the snow is plentiful and the homes are cheap, and while this option seems less-than-exciting, I am also aware that this is just the part of the game where everyone else is smirking at Lloyd, thinking he’s lost it and he’s going down. But I have a feeling he’ll turn it all around like he always does, and in the end, we’ll be walking down the Boardwalk together.
The Daring Kitchen
How very insightful of you!!!!! You should go with your husband. As awesome as Lloyd is at leveraging — he has to have his emotional needs met in order to perform at maximum capacity.
Way to have a positive outlook on all of this. I agree with above response–you’re reading this situation correctly. And you guys are good for each other. Who knows what crazy trouble Lloyd would get into without you to balance him. He keeps you from ever being bored. And the stress is making you super skinny (I clearly need more stress in my life!).
And I laughed when you said Lloyd is interested in getting lucky.
Haha! I didn’t even realize the double meaning to that. At least by living in 2 different places he’ll appreciate me more when it’s over! He’s pretty good at getting in his work zone and tuning the rest of the world out, so I’m sure he’ll be ok for a little while. And I thought stress made you hang on to pounds, but yeah, it seems like the more stressed I am, the more I’m burning off. Weird.