The Joy of Cards

We all went over to our family friend Regina’s house for the 4th of July. It was fun to see Regina and Janà again. Regina cooked a whole lot of food, as always. I had some ribs, potato salad, spaghetti, and a piece of chocolate cake. We sat around for a bit, watched some TV (gotta love those music video channels) and relaxed for a bit.

Janà, like me, has been searching for a job with no success. The sad part is that while neither of us has found anything, she’s been looking for months longer than I have. While I “cope” with not finding a job by writing this blog and other things, she “copes” by painting. In fact, she had finished a painting earlier that day, before we arrived. A few of her paintings are hanging up around the house and she also made a table that’s in the living room.

After eating some food, Dad, Samone, Janà, and me all played a few games of cards. Samone and Dad went out to get some playing cards and some UNO cards. We played UNO first, something I hadn’t played in a little while. It’s still a very fun game, although we hated on the new look of the cards. There are no longer any words on them. For example, instead of saying “Draw Two,” the card says “+ 2.” We played a few hands and the wins were pretty spread out. However, the game of the day ended up being spades.

I had been playing spades on the computer for a while thanks to the game I installed from my sister. However, the computer players are very easy even on the so-called hardest setting. So, it was my first time playing partners in spades with real people in quite some time. I was partnered the whole time with Janà, which was interesting to say the least. In our first game, which we played against Samone and Dad, we got beat pretty bad. But things changed once Ray (Janà’s boyfriend) arrived. He took the place of Samone, who sat back and watched the proceedings. We ended up beating them pretty handily. I think I’d like to get back to playing spades with people again. I think I’m an okay player, but my strategy needs a little work.

Samone, Dad, and I had to leave after a few hours, as Dad needed to get to work. My mom decided to spend the night. It was a nice, fun way to spend the 4th. Now, I can next look forward to my cousin Chenelle, Uncle Arthur and Aunt Tina visiting again very soon.