Words With Friends

I had never heard of the game Words With Friends until Alec Baldwin got into aviation difficulties while playing it.  Then my friend from work told me it is just like Scrabble except you play on a wireless device.   She can let the game know she is ready to go and it hooks her up with random strangers.  She was a little concerned about being cyber stalked by serial killers so she invited me to play.

I didn't have a smart phone but I did have my trusty Nook!  I bought the app and we were off.

I don't know how smart phones work with this game, but my Nook has to be in a wi-fi location for me to play.  That shouldn't be a problem.  We have wi-fi!  But unless I constantly (and obsessively) wake it up and check, I don't know when my friend has taken a turn.  Now, unlike me, she works for a living.  She has to be at certain places at certain times.  She can't be playing around with her phone.  But she has lunch and maybe she played then.  So now I drag the Nook around with me and turn it on, check, and go about my business.  Off and on ALL day. 

If the wi-fi is too far from my Nook it won't upload her move, then I think she hasn't played.  Our wi-fi modem is upstairs in our office.  Our bedroom is at the other end of the house on the main floor.  Sometimes I have wi-fi there and sometimes I don't.   So periodically,  I hop up and walk to the hallway and stand there staring at the Nook to see if she has taken a turn or to send my latest word. 

Lee would ask, "Where are you going?"  "Here,"  I would reply.  Now he no longer asks. 

Sometimes I can get just enough of a signal if I hold the Nook towards the doorway.  Strangely I think I might "catch" more of the signal if I wave it around.  So I reach across Lee and wiggle it.  Lots of times he would think I was handing him something and reach for it.  Now he doesn't.  I wonder if he would take it and wave it at the door?  So far I haven't had the nerve to ask.

I am not sure why I am so anxious about losing games with friends.  I think it has something to do with playing games with my brother when we were kids.  He would have to win, even if he had to cheat.  Then he would laugh maniacally at my humiliation.  Gee, that was fun.

I am also a little concerned with playing random strangers assigned to me by a giant computer in the sky.  Remember Hal in 2001? "Open the door, Hal."   Or how about Matthew Broderick in WarGames.  "How about a game of Global Thermonuclear War?"

Yes, I realize I am dating myself.  No, wait, I saw them on Netflix.  That's it.  I just watched those ancient movies on my DVD player.    ;-)