Dice and Dips

This is how we roll.......

I got invited to something pretty cool Friday night. My friend Keri (subject of earlier blog "New Friends") is doing a 3-Day Walk for the Cure for Susan G. Komen and put together a Bunco for Boobs fundraiser. She just got done with her chemotherapy and is looking fantastic! Her hair is growing back. Her color has come back to her cheeks, and I have to applaud her for taking on such an unbelievable challenge.

She has spent the last half of a year with her body being beaten down by a disease that is supposed to be a killer. The treatment for that disease can leave the body weakened and sore and whithered. It can leave the spirit the same. But Keri has decided that she is in charge of her body. She decides what her body is going to be doing, what her body can handle, not some stupid disease or the treatment to stop her stupid disease. Cancer may have slowed her down temporarily, but she is the one in control. She has signed-up to walk for 3-days, 60 miles to help raise money to find a cure for the disease that knocked her down. She is training now. Just this weekend she walked a total of 16 miles in training. Her strength and sheer tenacity inspire me.

To raise money for her walk, she organized this Bunco for Boobs night. 20 women attended and we raised $200. Bunco is a dice game that women have been playing since the turn of the century. The last century. There is absolutely no skill involved whatsoever. You roll 3 dice and try to roll the target number. If you do, you keep going, if you don't, play goes to the next player. The women sit at tables in groups of four. I only knew 2 people at this party, so I was excited to get to know 17 other fantastic women. After each round, if you win, you move to a different table. Unless, you are at the head table, in which case, if you lose, you go to the "Bounce" Table.

My friend Lana brought the "Bounce" table. This was a rickety old avacado green card table that someone in her family must have gotten in the late/mid 60's to play their bridge or pitch games on. I could only imagine how many ash trays were full of butts, how many cups of coffee were drank, how many cocktail weenies and sweedish meatballs were eaten around this table. Friday night, by the rules that we were playing by (which by the way in Bunco, I have a feeling that a lot of the rules are kind of made up), if you rolled the dice and didn't roll one of the "target" numbers, you got to pound the table with your fist in order to make the dice jump and "re-roll" themselves. Kind of like a do-over. I loved the "Bounce" table.

In Bunco, when you get 3-of-a-kind it is called a "Binky." (At least that is what this group called it. It could be called something different where you come from.) The winner of the "Binky" gets the honor of holding a special "trophy," and at the end of the night the person holding this special "trophy" wins a prize. Our "trophy" was a pair of furry stuffed breasts strung together by a string. Kind of like fuzzy dice, but with boobs. Now for a run-of-the-mill guys Texas Hold 'Em night, that might sound kind of tacky but this was a fundraiser for breast cancer research after all. When someone would roll 3-of-a-kind, they would yell out, "Binky!" and someone would throw the furry "boobs-on-a-string" their way. Can you imagine the fun of 20 women, rolling dice, drinking cocktails, eating unbelievable dips and hurling a pair of fuzzy boobs through the air?

Oh, and the dips. One of my favorite things about being a woman (that most men I'm sure don't think of) is that women get together they like to out-dip each other. Not in a cut-throat, witchy Desperate Housewives way, but we do like to impress each other with our dips. You don't hear of men who get invited to those poker parties bragging and complimenting each other on their dips. "Ooooh, Larry, what is in this 7-layer bean dip?" But I tell you what, bring 20 women together and there is some gooooood eatin'. There was an unbeliveable jalepeno popper dip, a delicious spinach dip and a really yummy queso. I think that Bunco is just as much about the dips as it is about the dice.

I had a great night. I made a lot of great friends. Had the "Binky" thrown to me a few times. But what I really loved was how I felt connected to womanhood in general. Decades and decades of women have been getting together to play this silly little game. To drink, to socialize and to forget about their diets for the night. To not have to worry about the stresses of their jobs, to not have to worry about the challenges of their children, to not have to worry about the struggles in their marriages or lack there of. Bunco night is just a night to be with the girls. To laugh and eat and drink and throw boobs at each other. And maybe, just maybe, make a little difference in the world. Good luck Keri! I'm cheering you on!