The Club

It took me a few years but I think I may have a bright future in winning the National Spelling Bee. It's always been a dream of mine ever since elementary school. Every year they would have a school spelling bee to see who would qualify and go to nationals. And every year this girl named Ingrid Backstrom would win. Next to me I swear she was the second shortest person in our class but clearly that didn't impinge on her ability to spell every single word in the dictionary correctly. And look where Ingrid is now. Smart people always win.

I never was smart enough to become apart of what I see now as the super awesome clubs in high school, like Debate, DECA, FBLA, Math Team, Drama, Cheer...oh wait, I was on the cheer team until they gave me the boot. Anyway, I've grown up and now I'm finally in an elite club made up of super smart people. We don't have a club name yet but when the white smoke appears from my chimney it'll be the best damn club name ever. Wanna know what the club does? Well, we gather every Monday morning at the Barnes and Noble Cafe, grab some coffee (I always get a grande non-fat caramel macchiato just in case you want to drop one off in the morning) and we play...

I know, right? It's a friggin cool club. At first I was playing to fill a spot. But really it was the "hazing" phase of joining the club. You know those intellects, always finding trendy ways to enlist you into their elite clubs. Well, they wanted to see if I could hang with smart people and apparently I passed when I threw down the word slut. It was all I could do when the rest of my letters were E's and A's. I'm really serious about playing the game and figuring out different words I can make. Like this one:

Truth is I can't spell worth crap or come up with "smart" words. So I have to resolve to trailer park trash words. And when asked if QUELL is spelled with one L or two I just nod my head in agreement. As if I know what the word quell means! Which, according to the dictionary, it means to suppress or put an end to. And the origin date...the 13th century. Seriously, how could I have forgotten?

Note to self: Pay closer attention to The Tudors and stop drooling over Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Who, by the way, is a hottie. If King Henry VIII looked like that...well you can send me right back.


Meet the Club:

The Lawyer. aka Daruma

The P.A. aka Lammy

The Fairley Awesome Outdoor Enthusiast. aka BMW (Burly Mountain Women)

The Traveler. aka GOD

The Writer. aka TBD (To Be Determined)
with Little Miss M. aka Cutie Pie/Peacekeeper

Me. aka HHM (High Heeled MaMa)
with Little Man H. aka Spike/Peacekeeper

The Feminist. aka Newbie
with Little Miss L. aka Princess/Peacekeeper

You're probably wondering why we have Peacekeepers. Scrabble can be a very intense game. Especially when you're playing with people who play by the rules. There are times when someone wants to make a word up or spell it as they see fit. A debate breaks out and someone has to pull out the trusty Scrabble dictionary - I know, the game has its own bible! Without the Peacekeepers, a fist fight would probably break out and we can't be having that kind of rubbish. Especially when the game isn't over. Hence the Peacekeepers keeping the peace and making sure the game is played Fairley...I mean fairly!

This past Monday we played a great game. It was Newbie's first game and so she teamed up with TBD. They worked together collectively and came up with some awesome scoring words. Lammy was in deep thought about her garden, cooking and sci-fi movies and came up with a high scoring regrown. But it wasn't enough to claim victory.

In the end it was Daruma that won the game. With a smart score of 213!

In the game of Survivor, you win a challenge and get the Immunity Idol. Evidently the same thing happens when playing Scrabble. You win and get to take this idol home with you:

It's like getting a blue ribbon for winning the 20 meter dash in 4th grade. It's a huge honor! And who wouldn't want to display this in the center of their dining room table for all to see? Seriously, who?

Unfortunately the Idol has been MIA for some time now. Last we saw of it was when BMW kicked our ass and took it with her. If you spot her in the mountains please call the park rangers. She didn't get her name from sitting in a rocking chair knitting gloves. She's armed and dangerous and her "smart" words will hurt you. And plus, I've been secretly studying the Scrabble website and would love to play with her again.

And you're wondering about GOD? Well the guy can't be in a million different places at once. Although many would argue that. He's got a huge role and when he's finished spreading world peace he'll join in on the fun.