Uno

I remember playing it with my brother probably ten years ago, and haven't really given it much thought since then...until now. Uno is back! (well I don't think it ever really left but it did in my mind) In the past few weeks Josh and I have been getting together with some of our friends to play some friendly rounds of Uno. We even found an old version of the cards that Josh had from his younger years. I don't know if you remember how to play but basically the object of the game is to be the first person with no cards left. Each player starts with 7 cards and there is one stack in the middle. Then everyone takes turns putting down a card, but it has to be either the same color or same number as the card in the middle stack. If you don't have one of those to put down, you have to draw from the middle until you get one - this is where the game can really get you, and you can end up with tons of cards in your hand! There are also "action" cards that you can use against the other players, such as "draw 4" (the player next to you has to draw 4 cards from the middle), "draw 2", "reverse" (reverses the order of the players), and "skip" (makes the person next to you skip their turn). And there is a "wild" card, which you can use and make it any color you want to. When you only have one card left in your hand, you are supposed to yell "Uno," hence the name of the game. This weekend me, Josh, and four of our friends sat down to play Uno. The first few games went well, with with someone winning usually in 10-15 minutes or so. But then we began THE game. We really had no idea what we were getting into when this game began. This particular game of Uno lasted nearly 2 hours!! Every time someone would get close to Uno or having only a few cards in their hand, they would end up having to draw several from the stack. At one time, I had over 20 cards in my hand! Towards the end I was kind of wishing someone would win because I was tired and ready to go to bed! Finally, when all our backs were hurting from sitting up straight and our heads were spinning from so many colors and numbers, our friend Chris won this epic battle of Uno. We all really had a fun time playing it. So, if you haven't played Uno in a while, go pick up a new game or rummage through your old stuff from childhood and you just might find an old stack of Uno cards that is begging to be played!