Gratitude - Scrabble...

For years Mom has been an avid Scrabble player. It wasn't unusual to show up to visit her and find her playing solo; right hand versus left. She has the official Scrabble Dictionary, and a notebook of cheat sheets listing, for example, uncommon two letter words.

I've never enjoyed Scrabble because I didn't really think I could be very good at it. In the last couple weeks, I finally caught on to the game, mainly by watching her and seeing the strategies she uses to maximize her score. We've been playing nightly games, and I've been doing ok. Monday night she kept giving me tips (who'd have thought a single Q could get you 44 points? Put it on a double word score at the intersection of two i's to make QI, a spelling variant of CHI. It's in the Scrabble dictionary.) Last night she didn't help me much, and I still scored well.

One of the things that Scrabble reminds me is that it is going to work out. The other night I had that Q, and no U in sight. We were coming to the end of the game, and I was sweating over getting stuck with that Q. At one draw, she picked up all the Us. Then she pointed out the QI, and I was home free. I'm a born worrier, but it works out.