Friday, July 24, 2009

on Scrabble

We play all the time, but the games and the tenor of the games has changed. When we began I was by leaps and bounds the superior player, and I played with relaxed arrogance -- multitasked when I played -- reading, TV, going on line etc. But Nick is a quick study and got better. Much better. He started out as many people do, mistaking what is really a math and strategy game for a word game. He played words he liked, with little regard for strategy. But that changed. He no longer plays words just because they're cool, he pays close attention to the board, anticipates what I'm going to do (and when he can he reads through the Scrabble dictionary for ideas.) And so he started to win. Not often, but occasionally, and the wins were squeakers. The games are tighter, faster and we're much closer. I still win most of the time, but his victories are no longer few and far between. When he wins it's usually by a hair but not always -- a few days ago I was humbled by his nearly 100-point win. I no longer do other things when we play -- I pay attention. And I take him much more seriously as an adversary. All of which combines to make the games much more fun.

I love it that he now effortlessly uses words like eth and von . He hates v's -- his least favorite letter. He also doesn't like having only one-point words (I don't mind -- when I do a seven-letter word it's usually made up of one pointers.

1 comment:

  1. I love playing scrabble too! I've had the same game for years and I mean years. It's travelled with me on more trips than I can remember. There's nothing like sitting under a palapa in a tropical location, sipping on a pina colada and relaxing the day away playing scrabble.

    The greatest thing is that most of the score pads from years gone by are in the box with my trusty board. Must be some neurotic passion of mine. Each time I open it up it makes me smile.

    I find scores of myself and my ex-husband, my children, my sister and bother in-law, boyfriends, friends and family.

    Yep... there's nothing like sitting around with good company and a good old scrabble game.

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