When I Win

Happy Saturday!!! So, several weeks ago, a few weeks after school got started, Lisey (roomie), Frankie (roomie), and JP (random friend) were all in the apartment (home) when I walked in. They were playing Apples to Apples. I have another story on that particular game, but that's not what I want to blog about today. So, I joined the game briefly, but then we got bored, and JP recommended that we play Hearts. I've never played Hearts, I had no idea what it was or how it was played, and the only time I'd ever heard about it was on my trip to Europe with the O'Rourkes when Mrs. O claimed to be the world Hearts champion, who no one had ever beaten. Several girls on the trip challenged her, and all lost pathetically. I didn't stick around to watch, though. I was writing in my journal the whole time.

Anyway, so JP grabbed my deck of cards from our little stack of board games on the TV stand, and started dealing and explaining at the same time. Needless to say, intense confusion set in on my part. After a few hands, though, I started to get the hang of it. I still lost brutally, and was kind of annoyed about it, but once JP left and we all went into our corners to do our homework, I realized something once I got a bit bored and turned to Cake Making on Purble Place to make myself even more bored

I have a computer.

My computer has games.

Most of those games are things like Spider, Solitaire, Poker, and Mine Sweeper.

Hearts must be there.

I can improve my game play by playing against the computer.

And so I did.

Every day while doing my homework, I would take a brain break (reward/reinforcer for good behavior - blame my psychology class) and play a few hands of Hearts. Quite a few hands and 45 games later, I finally did it. I won a game of Hearts. I came in first place, and beat the computer. An entire.... festoon of little red hearts floated like balloons up to the top of my computer screen, and then popped one by one into other little showering festoons of hearts. I was so excited.

2 weeks later (about 3 days ago), I did it again. It's not getting easier, I'm just developing my strategy. But still. It was exciting.

I think that's what it was that made it worth all the time I wasted playing and losing. Winning was exhilarating, and incredibly satisfying. I know I need to cut back, but hey - it's better than baking imaginary cakes for hours and hours.

Love all, trust few, do wrong to no one. ~ William Shakespeare

Willow