I quit! And I'm taking my ball with me.

I'm a Wade. Wades are competitive.  We can also, sometimes, be sore losers.   When we lose we can get angry, very angry.  It's not pretty. I've seen my father and his twin brother swing golf clubs at each other.  The day I threw a chessboard across the room because I was losing was the day I realized I had the "winning is everything" gene.  It was also the day I gave up chess.

I've learned to control this ugly side of my competitive nature.  I can smile and congratulate the winner very convincingly.  But every so often, if I lose to the wrong person (someone who is gloating - someone I think I should have beaten - someone who keeps handing me my ass over and over), I feel this rage boiling up inside me.   Mostly this just causes me to talk through clenched teeth or in extreme cases to leave the room.  Once in awhile though I lash out.  I'm not proud of it.  It's just how I'm wired. 

Last night we played Live Trivia at a local bar.  We had a powerhouse team.  Daughter, son-in-law and son.  They bring me and dear Hubby along for anything that happened prior to 1990 they didn't learn in history.   Stuff like Chaos being the evil organization in Get Smart or the fact that we know who George Burn's wife is.  At stake was a $30 gift certificate but more importantly, bragging rights. 

Our toughest competition was a table of young, suburban punks.  I call them them punks because they were obviously cheating.  The rules clearly state "No cell phones allowed."  After all, with google's help what fun is a trivia contest.   The Suburban Punks were clearly googling under the table.   WE CALL FOUL! 

At half time we were behind them by only one point after we scored an amazing 10 points on the bonus question.

Name the meat contained in each of these dishes:
Sashimi                               (fish)
Bushy Tail w/ apples           (squirrel)
Marsh Rat                          (muskrat)
Squab                                (pigeon)  - a last minute change in answer no less

Second half starts.  The opposition was hobbled by a quick reminder from the Trivia MC about no cell phones and her watchful eye for the rest of the game to make sure they didn't cheat anymore.  Score at the end of the 2nd half was in our favor 63 to their 57. 

Time for the bonus question, sort of like Jeapordy.  You can risk all or nothing on one question.   Sucks if you're in the lead, awesome turnaround possibility if your'e not.

Besides Jimmy Carter, name one of the other two 20th Century Presidents who lived 30 years past his election.  

You have the time it takes for them to play two songs to answer.   At this point one of the suburban punks gets up to go the bathroom.  When he returned he looked around all nervous like, sat down, wrote the answer down and turned it in.  OK, they cheated, obviously.  We could only assume they had bet everything.  This left us no choice but to do likewise.  We bet all 63 points.  We were confident in our answer - Gerald Ford.

Correct!  We beat them 114 to 126.  They were not happy.  But little did they know they narrowly escaped my competitive fury.  If they had beaten us by cheating I would have gone all "Wade" on their asses.