2002-11-17 - 8:51 a.m.
GLORIED
Mr. Philately �pinches� but I gloried in it anyway. Gloried. G-L-O-R-I-E-D. I gloried in all seven letters. I gloried to the tune of 63 points. I gloried my way to victory. That�s right. After at least a five year dry spell, I beat Mr. Philately at Scrabble�and boy do I glory in that.
When we first began playing Scrabble approximately twenty years ago, I won regularly, if warily. I would watch Mr. Philately play and I knew that my days of winning were numbered. My advantage was a big vocabulary. His advantages were less recklessness and a growing grasp of strategy. He could think more steps ahead than I could and his vocabulary was expanding rapidly. I told him that my days were numbered but he thought I was just flattering him. Would that it had been so.
Time followed in which we were fairly evenly matched. Sometimes he would win. Sometimes I would win. I began to become impatient with his play. Waiting for him to make a move felt like waiting an eternity. He wanted to study the board. He wanted to consider all his options. I brought a book to the table but it destroyed the comradery of a game. We stopped playing as frequently. But we didn�t cease playing.
After children came along, we played less and less. Nevertheless, Mr. Philately, as predicted won more and more. He began to move more quickly and I began to lose regularly. Until tonight, I hadn�t beaten him in five years or so. Worse, every time he played with my parents, he lost but he also would begin to beat me by larger scores. I was beginning to think I was doomed.
But then I gloried and after that there was no stopping me. I took what was supposed to be a closed off triple and stole it. More accurately, I �staw� it for a total (with everything else there) of an additional 69 points. He tried to come back but I �zero[ed]� him out. Then I gave him a �squirt.�
But most of all, I gloried and I�ll glory in it for days. I have to. It may be another five years or more before I can glory in a win again.
LAST YEAR: Taking Questions Seriously
LAST FIVE ENTRIES:
Whole Word
Secrets
The Art of the Possible
Not a Tragedy
Watching Out for Missions
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Copyright 2006 by Ellen |
