Blocks on the rocks and other drinking games

At the end of the day yesterday I was starting to unravel. Hubs has been sick all week, and while feeling slightly better, chose to work from home again, so he could nap between bouts of nausea. Whenever he was on the phone for work or answering the millions of email messages that have flooded his inbox this week, it was my job to distract and entertain Little Guy. Usually, I can get him to play on his own a little, but having Daddy around was some sort of signal for him to alternate between clinging to my legs begging to be picked up and pounding on the locked office door crying for his father. Loads of fun, really.

By 5 PM, I had dinner in the oven and Little Guy and I were hanging out in the family room stacking blocks while I was sipping a beer. I indulged in a little fantasy that I had to take a sip every time the blocks crashed, like some sort of twisted preschool drinking game. The blocks didn't even outlast my beer and eventually I caved and switched on Noggin instead.

The brief game of blocks on the rocks reminded me of a friend I had in college. He altered our Jenga game to be some sort of drinking truth or dare. You had to either answer the question on the Jenga block (most often of the personal and embarrassing variety) or take a swig or two or three (or five) as the dare. We used to play that game for hours.

Back then I didn't have to worry about getting up early to make breakfast and get little people dressed and ready for their day. I could skip my morning class, sleep til noon, and start the whole thing over that evening. I could even go to the bathroom by myself.

Ah, how times have changed.

Last night I dared to poor myself another beer. The truth was I really needed one.