I suck at Scrabble

I was thinking that I was relatively decent at Scrabble.  Certainly not a top competitive player, but thought I could hold my own in a tournament in the 3rd division.  Turns out that I’m either not a very good player or have the worst luck in the world.  But first let me offer the excuses.  There were only four people in the division.  Two of use had never competed before.  The other two have been active competitors and aren’t really “novice” players.  I also had relatively lousy draws.  In one game I drew all vowels twice in a row.  In another game, I had all vowels, exchanged most of them, then drew all four S’s and more vowels.  S’s are considered power tiles, but you don’t want all of them in your rack at one time.  I only scored over 300 points once in 6 games.  It was a pretty disheartening day.  I also didn’t like the fact that most of the time I played on really closed boards – meaning you couldn’t play any long words because there were no open spaces.  I had several bingo word possibilities that I just couldn’t play.  So I don’t know if/when I will do it again.  I guess I will try to just get more practice and see how things go.

In other news, Matt heard from his mother.  He has been relatively estranged from her for a number of years.  He sent her a letter around the first of the year and she sent him a note back to him this week.  He had mentioned me in his letter and she commented about him bringing me up sometime to visit.  I may be the bridge between them building a relationship again.  We are now talking about a time that we can go up to St. Louis to visit her. 

Matt and I went to church together this morning.  Since I’ve been here and going to church, I have not really attended the same church twice with the exception of the church that I went to confession at – and then later a service.  The thing about the churches here is that they are simply beautiful.  They are older and very ornate.  We went out for breakfast afterward and then I headed back home and took a nap.  I still need to catch up on sleep.  Matt is coming over this evening for pizza.  I need to pay bills and do some house cleaning. 

The month of February is going to be a busy one for Matt and me.  Next weekend we are going to a Spurs game.  The weekend after that will be the symphony and then a Scrabble competition in Salado.  (Though I’m undecided on competing.)  The weekend after that is my band concert followed by the orchestra concert the following weekend.  Josh leaves around 17th.  My friend, Kirsten, is coming around the 8th.  Somewhere in there we are going to go see One for the Money.