think about the time i kicked a boy 'til he cried

Day two --- much better.

Today I went 5-3, bringing my cumulative record to 6-5. They say tournament newcomers should be happy to win two games, so I'm pretty thrilled with this.
I actually won my first five games today. At 6-2, I was the #4 player in my division. 4 out of 38 is nothing to sneeze at. However, the second part of the day saw me pitted against some of the other top players in the division, and I lost my final three games. I suppose it's all done in a power-power matchup. I think at this point, I'm #11 in our division. Hey, I'll take it.
I'm very pleased that I was able to bingo with ease today.

A lowercase letter indicates the use of a blank tile.

• game 4: TOADIES, AUNTIES, TEaRING. win 405-361


• game 5: MEANIES, SERIATE. win 386-301


• game 6: trAINEES. win 420-263


• game 7: tASTIER, RAINIEST. win 367-366


• game 8: RALLIeS, ATONIES. win 385-259


• game 9: OPiATES, DETAINS. loss 366-357


• game 10: POINTERS. loss 449-320


• game 11: RAVINES, SITTERs. loss 372-279

Game 5 was a mystery to me. My opponent was a young boy, probably 12 or so. He's apparently been getting kicked around. Before you start tearing up, remember that this is a competition. There's money at stake here. Nobody cares about hurt feelings or anything like that. He actually played pretty well against me, but he had a reputation that preceded him about a lack of confidence. I didn't take advantage of that by playing bogus words, but other players probably did. In our game, he lost his challenge on my first bingo (MEANIES). The challenge really surprised me because of its commonality. The second one, though, (SERIATE) is pretty uncommon, but didn't draw a challenge. At this point, I realized that I could have thrown some phonies out there, but I didn't get a chance. I could tell he was having a hard time focusing, but to his credit, he was doing well.

In game 8, ATONIES was challenged, and the guy got really pissed when it came back good.

In game 9, I did have one bingo (STAINED) challenged off, but only because I was trying to hook an S to something that doesn't take an S. However, one play later I laid down DETAINS, hooking the S somewhere else. However, my loss of a turn probably cost me that game. I only lost that round by 9 points.
In game 11, I had ZORII challenged off. A gaffe on my part. It was late in the game, and I was holding a bunch of vowels. The Z was already out there, and I know ZORI is good. I was thinking that it took an I to pluralize it, and I needed that second I to double the score on the word. However, it takes an S to pluralize.

Interestingly, my trAINEES in game 6 garnered the lowest possible score on a bingo. 56 points. Hey... I can't really complain. 56 points is 56 points.

Even though I'm barely above water in the win-loss, and below water in the point differential, I'm damn happy about the way things are going.

And I'm having fun.

Don't worry. By Monday, I'll stop dweebing out and go back to the normal me.