My family wasn’t particularly competitive. And any competitive-loving genes that they may have possessed didn’t get passed along to me. That’s why I don’t like most games that involve skill. The only games I can really enjoy are those that are based on pure luck. That’s why when I go to Las Vegas, the only games in which I will partake are slot machines. Though some may argue there is some skill involved, as I see it, one only needs to pull a lever and pray.

A very long time ago, Bill and I were visiting my brother David in AZ. I can’t imagine how this came about since David is probably less competitive than even me, but we somehow began playing the game Trivial Pursuit. Obviously being either temporarily insane or having had one too many glasses of wine or beer, we decided to play boys against girls. Of course, this meant that I was playing against Bill. Oy vey.

I simply don’t think quickly on my feet. In addition, trivial information doesn’t stick in my head. (You can tell that I’m saying everything to avoid saying that I’m not terribly smart.) On the other hand, Bill is a quicker thinker, and while he can’t remember birthdays or doctors’ appointments, he can remember the years that Queen Victoria was on the throne. Every time I would draw a card and read the question being asked out loud, Bill would say, “Ohhhh, that’s sooooo easy.” And I, of course wouldn’t know the answer. By the end of the game, I wasn’t speaking to him, quite literally. I even remember the question that put me over the edge: Who was the president of France during World War II? Though at any other time, I would have known the answer was Charles de Gaulle, the name wouldn’t come to me for love or money. And then Bill said, “That’s sooooo easy.”

I began speaking to him again a year or so ago.

The one kind of competition that I rather enjoy is when I am competing against myself. I have mentioned before that I am addicted to a game called Happy Color, which is a color-by-number app. My daughter-in-law Lauren got me hooked. She didn’t realize she was creating a monster. I color in the morning before Bill gets up. I color while watching television. I color while waiting for doctors’ appointments. If the house started on fire, Bill would have to grab my iPad out of my hands to get me to pay attention to the flames. It’s not good.

Happy Color allows me to be competitive without having to beat anyone else. There are picture categories, and when you color X number of pictures from each category, you get bonus pictures. I find myself checking nearly every hour to see if I am close to completing the necessary number of pictures from a category so I can earn my bonus pictures.

(Maybe it’s time I look for a part time job.)

There is no need for me to have the bonus pictures because the options are seemingly endless. Plus, every day Happy Color offers new options. But the idea of me EARNING these bonus pictures feeds into what competitive spirit I have.

(Maybe instead of a part time job, I should take up Pickle Ball. )