A Playday

Sometimes it sneaks up on you when you just don't expect it.

With best of intentions you set about to have a productive day. You scrub that toilet bowl. But not with vim and vigor.

A spelling test is administered. "Great job! Let's do some cursive writing." One line of practicing upward curves and loops and we call it quits. "Good work! Let's be done for today with that. Go do your reading."

Meanwhile, Mom checks out the Scrabble game played online with a buddy. And the Wordtwist Challenge from some unknown contestant. Uh-oh. Getting sucked in.

A game or two later the computer is closed and the documentary on five Hungarian Holocaust survivors is watched. It's very good. The Last Days. I recommend it for your consideration if you are interested in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Very good.

But that was it. The last truly productive moments just happened. Unless you count gathering around the screen in the kitchen to watch mom come up with that perfect word that just might win the Scrabble Beta game as productive. The onlookers shouted, "Try u-r-e-m. That sounds like a word to me." Or "Can't you spell t-h-e-n somewhere? You have those letters." "Sure son, but it won't get many points. You see, this is how it works..."

Finally a choice is made and we push the key for our final selection. My opponent's response is soon revealed on the glowing screen. "Ooooh -- good one. Okay, Mom, you should try..." On it went for sometime. Their enthusiasm at last began to match mine (until then I was continually being chuckled at for this new found addiction.)

So that was it - the deterioration of my day was cast in stone right then and there. We won that game, but it was neck and neck. And it was fun. So, of course a new one just had to be started.

Fortunately for them there was leftover soup in the fridge. Yup, it was going to be one of those days...