My First Bunco Night

"You're seriously playing Bunco??" is a question I would teasingly ask my older sister when I was living the life in the city and she was in the burbs with a husband and kids. I would envision her sitting around with a group of sweat pant-wearing moms, chatting about potty training, playing a silly game, eating chips and dip, while I would be out at some hot new club or restaurant. I vowed I would never play. My, how times have changed. 

Since moving to Garden City three months ago, I received my first Bunco invitation. Initially, this seemed like a cruel joke, another one of those "face it, you're in suburbia now" moments- similar to joining Costco. I debated going as these thoughts ran through my head: I have so many other things I could be doing, would I like the other women, do I have to make a commitment, I'm not a game person, I don't want to listen to other people's kid stories all night, I don't like dip, etc etc. 

In an effort to "put myself out there" in a new town, I accepted the invitation and attended my first Bunco night. This was no sweat pant-wearing, potato chip eating crowd. They were fun, fashionable and friendly. The host graciously welcomed 12 women (even us newcomers) into her beautiful home, fully set up with various tables for game-playing. And there were no chips and dip in sight! Instead, it was catered by a local Italian restaurant and dinner was creative and delicious. Even better, the wine was flowing and continued to flow all night. I met women who worked in a variety of fields- law, medicine, business, fashion, etc.. There was no potty training talk here, nor was there much Bunco playing. The night mostly revolved around good wine, lots of food and good conversation- three of my favorite things. We eventually did get around to a little Bunco, but I think that was mostly in honor of the newcomers, so we could say that we actually played. 

In the end I did learn the dice game, which is a bit effortless (I was right!) but hey- if it leads to a night of fun I'm all for it. I also made some new friends and came home much later than I had in a while. My preconceived notions of Bunco were totally wrong and I was happy about that. What I thought would be a mundane night of game playing was really a disguise for a fun night of socializing that had very little to do with any game. I'm on board with that. It was a great time with great women and, if you twisted my arm, I guess I could commit to this ; )