Idiots and Turkeys. Yum!!!

So yesterday was the big day. Like I mentioned yesterday, I had easy assignments. We spent the day at Curtis' sister Danettes' house. It was very nice. I was a little sad to not see my family at all, but I really enjoyed being with Curtis' family. We pigged out of course. And the girls were giving spa treatments upstairs. I got a foot massage, a back massage, lotion applied to my hands, and my fingernails painted. Oh, I almost forgot, I also had a lovely red and white checkered bow tied around my neck. All was going smoothly until someone suggested a game of "Scrabble".

I don't know if it was the discomfort of my distended middle, or dehydration, or what, but I did something which I regret mightily. Bryan's (Danette's husband) sweet sister Annette was playing with Curtis, Ryan (Curtis' brother) and I. She laid down a few tiles to complete her second turn when I blurted out
"You're not allowed to do that!"

Not "Are you sure that's a legal move?" or "Is that allowed in Scrabble? I don't really know because I never play this game and I'm sure you play it all the time and know all the rules."

"You're not allowed TO DO THAT!" (!?!?!?!)

What was I thinking? I'm generally not that competitive with strangers. I consider myself to be civilized to a certain degree. But I lost it momentarily. Of course Curtis and Ryan both said "Yes. That's allowed."

But did I keep my trap shut? Oh, NOOOO!

"When have we ever played it like that before?" I queried, with a certain hint of defiance in my voice. This comment was directed at Curtis, but all of a sudden I had an out-of-body experience and heard myself saying that from afar: "When have we EVER played it like that before?"

I was met with stunned silence.

Embarrassment swept over me. What was wrong with me? I was like an animal. Cornered and wide-eyed.

Please strike me dead now. Get me out of this horrid situation of my own doing.

I hastily made a weak apology and stated that it had, indeed, been a long time since I had played.

I spent the rest of the game saying "Wow. Good word." and "Good job. You get 13 points."

And biting my tongue every time she laid down her tiles and came up with some other crazy rule we had never heard of.

Of course, she won....(sigh).

I think I might come up with some of my own "special" rules to help me NOT lose by 8 points!!!

"If you're wearing red socks you get a quadruple word" or
"If you got your teeth cleaned in the last 5 and a half weeks you get 50 extra points for using your "J".

Now I'm not being fair. She really, truly is a sweet, soft-spoken lady that I've never heard utter a word against anyone. I'm really poking fun at myself, and myself alone. The rest of the evening went off just fine after I composed myself. I hope she didn't feel weird. But...

...the moral of this story is: When you are playing with the family of family, just smile.


And then smile again.


(For the record: The first rule that I almost body-slammed her for was a, cough,legal move, cough. Dang!!! But the others were most certainly NOT!)