Two year ago, in the Austin regional, when we had two or three black points and not much in our bidding arsenal, we finally, on the last day of the event, made a partial red point. I remember going out into the hallway whooping it up that we had scored. Yesterday, we came back from the same event with 12.5 gold and 3 red. Progress do you think? Well maybe.
The weirdest thing that happened during a week of very weird stuff, was awaking Saturday morning to husband/partner wanting to talk about a dream he had during the night. I said, "I had a weird dream too - you go first." He started, "We were in a restaurant and I flicked at your gold earring and it fell on the floor. I spent hours crawling around under tables looking for it." My turn, "That's strange. I had a dream about my gold earrings too. I was visiting someone and took off the earrings to take a shower and couldn't find them when I dried off." I was of the opinion that someone was robbing our house and taking my jewelry while we were away. Husband/partner thought that the hours (not to mention dollars) we had spent the whole week looking for gold points was sublimated into our collective unconscious and symbolized by the gold earrings. I hate it when he is right. I guess we have been married way too long when we have similar dreams.
In other regional news, as I walked in one morning, I was greeted by great player Ira. He was standing by the door and he and his two buddies were laughing uproariously. I had the uncomfortable feeling that it was directed at me. It was. Ira said, "I was telling these guys about the "Judy boards" I played in San Diego to drop in the standings. As my friend Barbara the native Texan says: "DANG"!!!
We were in the worst pairs game ever (in our two year history). It wasn't just our score that was bad (it was) but the pairs wouldn't move. One of everyone's fave directors, Scott, was ready to tear his hair out. He got on the mike several times asking people to move along to no avail whatsoever. As our usual luck would have it, we were behind the slowest of the slow; two novices. Now, being one myself, I'm usually pretty patient with any novice but these guys had no clue. Director Scott reminded them that they needed to finish each board in about 7 minutes. One of them said, "Really? No one told us THAT!" Meanwhile they continued doing their nails instead of moving. Okay, that's a small exaggeration - very small. I don't really know what the heck they were doing. The next time Director Scott got on the mike he said, we are renaming this event the "Not so fast pairs". It should have been slower than slow pairs. He finally gave everyone an extra 10 or 15 minutes on the clock. They STILL didn't catch up. It was truly horrible. There were late play boards everywhere. I was feeling really sorry for Director Scott and told him I would bring a box of Valium to the next regional - for him - not the players. They don't need any further help slowing down.
Seen around the hotel.
Two women from my home club with a tray full of vodka martini shooters. We left the bar before we found out if they finished them.
The drama queen who sighed and shifted and in other ways gave signals to her partner that she was conflicted. She was not as young as she pretended to be and my partner was ready to slap her silly. If we had to play against her again, we asked the guys to switch with us. Luckily, we didn't.
A guy in the Swiss with a red, white and blue balloon thing on his head. Distracting the opponents?
The wife who was wretchedly horrible to her husband. We couldn't even feel too sorry for him because he brought it on himself by whining about what a bad player he was compared to her. Her reponse was, "Oh STOP it!" and then complaining about his bidding on the next hand. We had to play eight hands against them in the Swiss but it was worth it since we blitzed them and scored all 30 victory points. Maybe he was secretly helping us. I wouldn't blame him.
So that's about it for the Austin regional this year. It's a great event, filled with friends and fun and great and not so great bridge like any other tournie. I did one great thing. The bidding went 1 spade by me and 4 spades by my partner. I went to 6 spades with a 2 suited black hand and two red singletons. It made and I felt, just for one short moment, like Ira. He says he would have made 7.
We really appreciate the four B players who helped us get to the semis in two KO rounds and get some gold. They are a great example of wonderful players who help us newbies along on our journey so thanks to my sometime partner, Paula, Steve's sometime partner, Jay, and Phil and Phyllis, friends from our club.
So now at least when people ask "How much gold do you need?" instead of hanging my head and saying "All of it", I can joyfully say "About 11". On to New Orleans. I'll keep you posted.
We were in the worst pairs game ever (in our two year history). It wasn't just our score that was bad (it was) but the pairs wouldn't move. One of everyone's fave directors, Scott, was ready to tear his hair out. He got on the mike several times asking people to move along to no avail whatsoever. As our usual luck would have it, we were behind the slowest of the slow; two novices. Now, being one myself, I'm usually pretty patient with any novice but these guys had no clue. Director Scott reminded them that they needed to finish each board in about 7 minutes. One of them said, "Really? No one told us THAT!" Meanwhile they continued doing their nails instead of moving. Okay, that's a small exaggeration - very small. I don't really know what the heck they were doing. The next time Director Scott got on the mike he said, we are renaming this event the "Not so fast pairs". It should have been slower than slow pairs. He finally gave everyone an extra 10 or 15 minutes on the clock. They STILL didn't catch up. It was truly horrible. There were late play boards everywhere. I was feeling really sorry for Director Scott and told him I would bring a box of Valium to the next regional - for him - not the players. They don't need any further help slowing down.
Seen around the hotel.
Two women from my home club with a tray full of vodka martini shooters. We left the bar before we found out if they finished them.
The drama queen who sighed and shifted and in other ways gave signals to her partner that she was conflicted. She was not as young as she pretended to be and my partner was ready to slap her silly. If we had to play against her again, we asked the guys to switch with us. Luckily, we didn't.
A guy in the Swiss with a red, white and blue balloon thing on his head. Distracting the opponents?
The wife who was wretchedly horrible to her husband. We couldn't even feel too sorry for him because he brought it on himself by whining about what a bad player he was compared to her. Her reponse was, "Oh STOP it!" and then complaining about his bidding on the next hand. We had to play eight hands against them in the Swiss but it was worth it since we blitzed them and scored all 30 victory points. Maybe he was secretly helping us. I wouldn't blame him.
So that's about it for the Austin regional this year. It's a great event, filled with friends and fun and great and not so great bridge like any other tournie. I did one great thing. The bidding went 1 spade by me and 4 spades by my partner. I went to 6 spades with a 2 suited black hand and two red singletons. It made and I felt, just for one short moment, like Ira. He says he would have made 7.
We really appreciate the four B players who helped us get to the semis in two KO rounds and get some gold. They are a great example of wonderful players who help us newbies along on our journey so thanks to my sometime partner, Paula, Steve's sometime partner, Jay, and Phil and Phyllis, friends from our club.
So now at least when people ask "How much gold do you need?" instead of hanging my head and saying "All of it", I can joyfully say "About 11". On to New Orleans. I'll keep you posted.
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