humble pie

i fancy myself a rather good speller. i enjoy grammar. i like words, new vocabulary, good punctuation. i am a nerd. but i like it that way and i have always been proud of my skills in this department. i am also very competitive and a bit of a perfectionist. these things do not make a very good combination.

as a kid, i played lots of games. i love games. i didn't play with dolls much. no barbies for me (except sometimes i let them go to the prom and made them smooch). i played word games and card games. racko. uno. word rummy. go fish. everything was a learning process. i lost all the time, mostly just because i was a kid, of course. as i have gotten older, i have learned more words, and have gotten better at those types of games. i love taboo, catch phrase, pictionary, etc. i get a daily email from dictionary.com with my new word of the day. it's awesome.

so this weekend, i introduced my new favorite game to my family. it might be the best game ever: bananagrams. it's like scrabble, only faster, and you play individually. the best part? when you use all your letters you get to scream, "BANANAGRAMS!!!!!" i have played this game with my in-laws and my nieces (who, though only 8 and 5, are very smart and excellent spellers...). when i play with them, i win a lot. i expected nothing less this weekend. i was wrong. i played in excess of 50 games of bananagrams. i won 2. i cheated on both of those. and now i hang my head in shame. i did manage to spell some excellent words: torte, rabe, zanzibar (that's one of my cheater words...you can't use proper nouns). but none of them helped me win. my words let me down. i let my words down. or did i let down my words...hmmm???

in an effort to lift my spirits, i participated in a few other games. aggravation is a game from my childhood that i haven't played in years. it's awesome...and i lost. i also played twelve rounds of mexican train dominoes. i lost them all. it's official. i am a sore loser. i wanted to win. i wanted to be the smartest. but i am not. it's so sad...

anyhoo...i feel confident that the next time i play, i will win again. yeah...that's right. i 'll be playing with scarlet and lily, ages 8 and 5.