Pressure

Yesterday a friend had a birthday party that was unlike most I've been to since I was a kid, and not much like any from when I was a kid. It was a daytime birthday party (mostly) and had as the primary activity a program of field day style games. My team fared poorly, but we had one or two bright spots. One was the trivia race. Each team had to designate a person to run out to a spot before they could answer the question. It was novel.

We also had a tolerable showing at team Jenga, at least in a way. Jenga is a pretty fun game. I hadn't played it in forever, but I don't think I suffered on account of that. Our game drew out a long time. I had two turns come and go without incident. The first was easy. There are lots of great options at that point. For someone thinking at a higher level there may be ones to go for that help you down the line, but as far as I can tell, it's all good at the outset.


My second move was tricky. I got some applause for managing it, and it seemed warranted. It required some painstaking effort to slowly extricate the piece and then delicately place it on top. We were at the point where it seemed that any move could end the game, and so it seemed very possible- or even probable- that the tower would topple before my second turn came around. There were indeed a lot of close calls, but people kept pulling it out.

My third turn came when it looked like the tower could fall on its own at any time. There was nothing good left. Every piece you could possibly remove carried great risk. I tested and probed and took the counsel of my teammates under advisement. In the end, a piece on the ground floor of the tower looked like the closest thing to a good option. A player from the other team had tried it and given it up as hopeless, but at this point it was the best I could do. I told myself that things might have shifted in favor of trying that piece since her turn a while back.

I was doing pretty well. I slowly, patiently wiggled the piece out. I was trying to feel how the tower was reacting to my move, and it seemed all right. I didn't think there was real weight resting on the piece. By the time I had the piece almost completely out, I was sure I was in the clear. It just remained, surely, to gingerly place the piece on top and hope the tower held until the other team made their move. Sadly, the whole thing came down the moment the 100th percent of the piece was out. I lost us the game. No one held it against me. It was a fun game, as all the games were in spite of how my team did in them.