What is the deal with crossword puzzles? As in, why am I so awful at them?
My parents gave me two crossword puzzle books for Christmas. I grabbed a pencil and opened one up Saturday night, expecting myself to be relaxed by the puzzle before I went to bed.
Nope.
I knew maybe… five of the answers off hand. I couldn’t decode a lot of the clues, and I found myself consulting the reference books in my house for the clues I did understand. You’re NOT supposed to look the answers up, right? It is supposed to be from memory?
Does this mean I have a bad vocabulary, that I don’t know very much, or that the clues are poorly written?
What is the trick behind these things? There has to be some strategy… like Sudoku…
Last night, during dinner at a restaurant with Steven, I said, “I hope my parents get me that Apples to Apples game for Christmas!”
Lo and behold, when I got home, there was an amazon box on our porch, with Apples to Apples inside! What a coincidence! Maybe tomorrow night during dinner I should say, “I hope my parents get me a Corvette Stingray for Christmas”? (With my luck, I would come home to a box with a Corvette Hot Wheels toy in it.)
We first played Apples to Apples on Thanksgiving when we had a bunch of friends over. We had so much fun playing it that I added it to my “wish list” the next day. I think I like the game so much because it is one of those “get-to-know-each” other games, and because it doesn’t take much talent! Ha ha ha.
I am wondering why my parents sent it to me so early though. Or rather, why they sent it to me at all. I won’t be seeing them until January, so maybe they wanted me to be able to play it in December?
It is really really weird that I won’t be seeing my family for Christmas until January this year. That means I don’t have to buy any gifts for them until after Christmas. I have only bought one Christmas gift, and that was for Steven’s brother, who we will be seeing on Christmas day (along with Steven’s parents).
Maybe that is why I am having such a hard time “feeling” the holiday vibe this year – because I am not out shopping with all the crazies at the mall!
All the snow outside has made me feel like staying indoors on the weekends and doing “snowed-in” activities – watching movies, cleaning the house, baking, taking bubble baths, reading books, and playing games…
So I got out Monopoly last night to play. I set up the game board, organized the money, separated the different playing cards, and Steven and I both selected our tokens (Padme and Qui-Jon)… then read the 10-page instruction pamphlet.
Twenty minutes later, after the Monopoly instructions left us confused and tired, we opted to watch Live Free or Die Hard instead of play the game. If I read those instructions correctly, I don’t think I have ever played Monopoly the way you are supposed to. That game is complex! I don’t even understand our own mortgage, and I am supposed to mortgage and keep track of multiple properties?!
Does anyone remember Junior Monopoly – the simplified version of adult Monopoly? I remember playing that with my siblings, and the game would only last us an hour or so. We all had our little tricks – like hiding our money under the board so no one had an idea how much we had until the end. And we made our own rules, such as “not paying a rent for landing in a space unless the landlord remembered to ask.” Ha ha ha. We were so competitive with each other.
I think I would rather play the Junior version.
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