Friday, February 11, 2005

An unsuspecting Queen

We have two inches of snow on the ground and George is going to clean off the back steps so I won't fall down on the way to the car. He is leaving early for a meeting today, and I am feeling chipper after going to bed early last night. Early to bed early to rise is us.

George and I are hosts to the Hearts Party at church on Saturday night. About 30 people come to play the card game Hearts, and people bring either a snack or a dessert. It is my turn to decorate so sometime today I have to get the Valentine themed tablecloths, napkins, cups, etc. I'm going to put a big bouquet of red and white carnations on the table. The party is over about 10:30 p.m, and we all have to get back there for church in the morning, so I've found that decorating has to be easy and fast to disassemble. We crown a King and Queen of Hearts, and the Queen's crown has disappeared since last year, so I will have to find another at a party store tomorrow. Both King and Queen wear their crowns in church the next day, but last year the Queen was too shy, so she didn't take to the crown. It has since gone by the wayside.

I am not a great card player. It is embarrassing to say this, but the first year I went to this event, I was crowned the Queen of Hearts! To this day I am sure that I was so scared of playing foolishly, that I sweated it out and concentrated on keeping my scores low. I got in the playoffs. At the last playoff round, I started collecting hearts -- by mistake...and then, by Golly, got them all...and did a "shoot the moon", on the final round, giving everyone else 26 points and deducting that many from my score. No one could believe I did that. It was just crazy. I was one very surprised Queen, let me tell you! I was just incredibly lucky. They thought I had been bluffing them when I had said I didn't know how to play Hearts.

I hope not to repeat that experience ever again. In years since, I've been very eager just to be in the middle somewhere, neither the Fool nor the Queen! That's pretty much my philosophy in life as well, I guess.

Have a good and happy day. TGIF.