Weekend of Cards and Walks.
Well, the title basically says it all. This weekend was a weekend of card games. Let me explain.
Saturday I met Mark, Matt, Jordan, and Jocelyn for lunch around 1:00. We ate, then Mark had to go get ready for a family reunion and Matt had work to do so Jordan, Jocelyn, and I met up with Zhen to go shopping for a birthday present for Jordan's sister. It was a nice trip. We got on the rapid and took it to the waterfront to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We weren't really in the mood to go around it so we just got gifts from the gift shop and then decided to walk around Cleveland some. We were trying to find a mall and Jordan and I remembered our SAGES professor Chris telling us about something called "The Arcade". We found it on a map and walked to it. On the way we came across the ingenuity festival which was a set up of fair-food booths and a swing band on stage performing. The Arcade ended up being a very old building converted into a Hotel on the upper floors with a bunch of small boutiques on the first two floors. Most of the places were closed and the ones that weren't didn't have anything worth buying.
Our next stop was Tower City. It is the main depot for the Rapid trains that run around the Cleveland area but it is also a big shopping mall on the upper floors. We went in there and Jordan was able to find a game called "Pit" which we would play later. I also bought 6 decks of cards so I could teach others to play "Hand and Foot". We grabbed something to eat in the food court and then headed back to campus. Then, the card playing began.
First, Jordan taught us how to play pit. The deck consists of sets of 9 cards that all have some crop or produce item on them like "barley" or "wheat". After all the cards are delt, you are supposed to trade cards with people but you can't say what you are looking for. All you can say is the number of cards you want to trade. If someone else is looking to trade the same number, you can switch those cards with them. The first person to get 9 of a kind then slaps the "corner - a card in the center" and they win the point total of the cards they collected. For example, wheat is worth 100 points, barley is worth 85 , ect. There are two wild cards. One is the bull which can hurt you or help you. If you have 8 of a kind and the bull, it can count as a wild to be the 9th you need. If you have 9 of a kind and the bull (since two of the four people get 10 cards instead of 9) you get double the score on the cards. However, if someone slaps the corner while the bull is in you posession, it counts as -20 to your score. The other wild card is the bear, which only hurts you. If you have the bear, you can't slap the corner until you get rid of it and, again, if you have it when someone else slaps the corner, it is a -20 to your score. The first player to 500 points wins the game. As you can see, it was an intense game of screaming "4? 4? 4! here, okay 2...2...2...2...2!!!" You sound extremely stupid but it is so much fun, it is all worth it.
After several games of pit, we played a game of UNO to 500. We were vicious. There were games when we would just gang up on people (meaning too or not) and sometimes one of us would end up with a hand of nearly 200 points.
Deciding to take a break from cards, Jordan, Jocelyn, and I started listening to and looking through my music. The three of us all realized that we sing different parts. I sing soprano, Jocelyn is an Alto, and Jordan normally sings baritone. I rememberd that Mark is a tenor so I'm going to check some music out of the music library and we're going to for a little quartet for fun. I'm so excited!!! After watching some tv, we decided to call it a night.
Sunday, the three of us hung out all day. Mark was still at his family reunion and Sam, Zhen, Matt, and his twin brother Chris all went to the air show down at the waterfront. Sam is obsessed with planes and is looking for ways to get her pilot's licence. Anyway, the three of us went to lunch around 1:00 and then went back to the lobby of Taft to play more cards. Jordan taught us an italian trick-taking game called "Cala Brasella," one of the few games made for 3 people. Then we played two more games of pit with a fourth guy from our dorm. I actually won both of these games.
At this point Jocelyn needed to practice for her audition so Jordan and I played a game of Cribbage while she practiced. He also taught me another trick taking game for two people before Zhen called saying they were on the greanie on the way back. We ate in Leutner for dinner and then Jordan, Jocelyn and I went on a walk to the park by the Library and then went to starbucks for coffee. After playing pool (which I suck at) and ping pong (which I'm a little better at) in the lobby with Zhen and Sam, we went to Jocelyn's to watch Finding Nemo. Mark came back at the end of the movie and he, Jordan, Jocelyn, and I went for one more walk around campus just to see it at night. After getting back to the dorm, Mark and I talked for a while just to catch up and then I went to bed.
Today is a study day. I don't expect anything extremely exciting to happen but who knows? At college, you never know when the ordinary will become an adventure. Until later, thanks for reading.
Comments