I don’t know that I’ve ever mentioned this before, but every once in awhile, I display quite the competitive tendencies. I am really only competitive in two categories though: Monopoly and boyfriends.

Now, HOLD UP. I’m not saying I’m competitive when it comes to stealing boyfriends; I’m competitive when it comes to being the BEST half of a couple.

In fact, I’ve developed quite the system for it: Good Girlfriend Behavior.

You see, it all started when my ex showed up (well, he wasn’t my ex at the time of this story but you understand? right?) on my doorstep. He was just coming over to watch a movie, but there he stood with a bouquet of flowers. He had immediately earned Major Points and I wasn’t about to let him one-up me.

So, the next night at HIS house, we decided to watch tv. He turned it to something we would both like, but in the sweetest voice I could muster, I asked him if he wouldn’t rather watch the basketball game that was on. Almost instantly I had scored The Ultimate Good Girlfriend Points. In fact, he never caught up.

But that could be because we broke up not long after that.

So now, come to think of it, maybe my system doesn’t work that well. Hmm. Note to self: reevaluate Good Girlfriend Behavior system using Imaginary Boyfriend as test subject.

Anyway, earlier tonight I was looking through some pictures of my Starlite leaders because I miss their silly faces. I came across some pictures from our last retreat and realized that I had never told ya’ll The Story of The Plastic Bottles.

On our way out of town, I handed each girl an envelope with her name on it but told them they couldn’t open the envelopes until we reached our first destination. As we got near the shopping center, the girls opened their envelopes and found cute little papers giving them cues about rubber duckies, bubbles, etc.

The big surprise was that we were going to a store called Bath Junkie where you get to make your own bath products! I had set everything up with the manager ahead of time and arranged for the store to be closed while we were there. And so, for the next hour and a half, my girls got to make their own lotions, shower gels, etc. Seeing their expressions when they realized that they got to make products will probably end up being one of my favorite memories ever. It was such a great, practical way to show them how much we appreciate all their help — especially since they don’t receive any pay or college credit for it.

As we finished up, the store manager told me she had a game for us to play. We divided up into teams of two; Allison (our other employee) and I were paired together. Basically, you had to put on one of the store’s aprons, screw as many lids onto the plastic bottles as possible and put them in a container before your 60 seconds was up. To make it more difficult though, you had to run back and forth to get more lids to the bottles.

I’m sure you can only imagine what happened when it was my turn. But as they say, a picture’s worth a thousand words:

We were going strong…

Almost had our container full! (Guess which foot is mine — hint: I always wear a little bit of pink!)

And then………………

So, in other words, I’m working on the competitiveness.

(But, if you want to know the truth, if we were still doing the Good Girlfriend Behavior system, I’d totally be kicking Imaginary Boyfriend’s ba-donk-a-donk.)