the scrabbath

i submit that there is no better way to spend the lazy monday morning of a three-day weekend than playing speed scrabble. and, even better if that speed scrabble is played in a charming cabin in the woods. does anyone disagree?

speed scrabble, for the uninitiated, goes like this. every player takes eight tiles. you have to make words out of those eight tiles and the first person to use up all their tiles says, "go," whereupon every player takes two more tiles. the next person to use all their tiles says "go," everyone takes two more tiles and so on, until all the tiles are gone. the winner is the lucky devil who uses up all his or her tiles first; the losers tally the value of the tiles they have left (that is, if you keep score, which, frankly, i never do).

the game is actually sort of stressful for me. i like to take time to form my words, either out loud or on a board, and the constant "go" yelling gives me a lot of anxiety. (my dad says that's nothing compared to playing scrabble with my grandparents who, he alleges, treat it like a contact sport. i have never witnessed this, but can see how it might be the case.) at any rate, i've had some bad speed scrabble experiences. but this most recent attempt was mighty successful. i even won a round thanks to the word "slutty." what does that mean, you ask? i'll let you decide.



and here are some of my other genius plays. (i will admit that some of these words are suspect: cg, nah and che chief among them. but beveled? gaunt? lieu? you have to admit those are pretty inspired.)





i also submit that there is no better way to unwind from heated speed scrabble matches than to watch "hairspray" (the new one) and then learn the dances from the special features on the dvd. i, sadly, don't have photographic proof that this took place, so you'll just have to take my word for it. morgan, sallee and i rocked it like it was our job. and a fine job indeed.