The Best Family Game

I had my new card class in Burlington tonight. I love getting to go to Burlington because they are a wonderful group of women who have been coming out for classes every year. Tonight cute Amy Vaughn had her daughter, who lives in Raliegh, come to class. I love when there are multiple generations playing mah Jongg.

Amy said her daughter, who is an excellent player plays against someone who she has a hard time beating. The girl told her if was because she learned from me. So Ann’s Daughter wanted to see why my student always wins. I can’t wait to hear how she does now that she has taken my class.

On my way home from Burlington I got a call from Terry in Smithfield. Terry brought me to Smithfield to teach some years ago so that she could have friends to there to play with. Now they have hundreds playing.

Last year Terry finally convinced her very busy daughter Morgan to come take my class. She had taken a previous class from someone else, but was not playing. After my class she was hooked. Terry says it is the best thing because her daughter will come play with her after work now and they spend much more time together because of mah Jongg. And now Morgan is good enough to beat her mother.

Mah Jongg is the best intergenerational game. It brings families of all ages together to do something fun and entertaining, which they can equally compete against each other.

When I was in Lyford one of my student’s husband asked if he could learn. Absolutely. Men are finally realizing it is a great game for them too. Why should just women have all the fun. And men are realizing they are missing out on all this family time.

One reason I think it is so good for families is you have to concentrate on the game, so there is not much time for fighting over the normal stuff you sometimes fight about. If you can spend time playing and having fun, maybe there will be less fighting when you aren’t playing.

April In Lyford is in the Books

This was the most fun three days with a giant gaggle of the most fun people. We had great attendance and even better attention paid in classes. Today we were putting into practice what everyone learned the day before.

We played three group games which is quite rollicking with 69 people in the room. We lost the first game, but fairly fast, so it wasn’t a painful drawn out loss. We started in on the second game with four disparate pairs. There were some new students to me who were slightly appalled that I was passing away two of the pairs. The Charleston did not save the day, but I was undeterred, guessing that our opponents also did not get much.

A newbie tried to sway a calling situation. I let the room vote and the majority voted with the newbie voice not to call a one dot and use our only two jokers. I had not weighed in on my opinion until after the vote. Then I let it be known I would have gone the other way. The room decided to re-vote without my asking. Almost everyone changed their vote and went my way. I was happy to let them live with their decision, but thought I should let them know I thought otherwise. We still needed three tiles to Mah Jongg, two being a pair of flowers. The newbie who did not want us to call the one dot sat skeptically in the corner.

We drew a flower. Then a needed one crak was discard for us to call. And we sat ready to call Mah jongg when a flower was thrown. The corner was certain we had made a mistake. Then just as I had thought would happen a flower was thrown to give us Mah Jongg. The room erupted.

Then with only twenty minutes left we played a third game. And even worse start from the deal. It was not looking promising. But we kept the faith and pulled out the win. A room full of believers finished the class on a big high.

We were off to the celebratory lunch to bask in golden feeling of having learned well and put into practice the lessons.

Sometimes you just have to trust the process. It’s not about luck. It’s about knowledge.

New Card Class Lyford Style

Everything they do at Lyford is perfect. So new card class should be the same. I was up early to go check out my room. Chairs for 80, which was more than enough, but the competition to get a good seat was real. Students started showing up 45 minutes early for class.

We did a big AV check, but when the show actually got started the Projector was too zoomed in and my clicker was not advancing. Thank goodness for young people who could figure it out.

The ladies were excellent students. Paying rapt attention for over three hours. I did have some trouble getting them to come back from the break because of brain overload. In the end it was a very big day of learning.

I had lunch at the beach shack with Cherrie and Isabel and Carson joined us late. I was supposed to have a private lesson in the afternoon that did not happen. That is a story for a non-public post, but ask me.

I got to play with Baby Jane before she went to put her toes in the Ocean for the first time. What a perfect baby she is.

After I got to have a catch up call with Carter after she and Claire went to Camden for a tasting before the wedding. The updates were very exciting.

The big event was the lovely cocktail party Melanie Munk was giving for me and the mah Jongg crowd. She has the most beautiful house and everything was so perfect. Especially the caviar. My worst dilemma was I had too many dinner invitations after the party. I went with the first one I had accepted and had dinner with Ruth E.’s gang.

Tomorrow we have new card practice class. I guess I’ll sleep when I die.

The Day Before the Day

Today is my travel day to get to the Bahamas. This has been on the calendar for months. I had not a bad first flight time at 8:30 AM. Then Russ decided since I’m going to be away he might as well go visit his Dad in Philly. That pushes up my time to go to the airport by an hour so we can go together.

No problem. I would rather ride with Russ and wait an hour in the club. So I was up at 5:00 AM.

Flights were uneventful, and I even had my own row on my Atlanta- Nassau Leg. That did not make up for the hour wait in the immigration line. There was some famous rapper on my flight with his crew, but I did not know who he was, or that he was some famous rapper. He was a few people in front of me in the forever immigration line. This unattractive middle aged white woman who was a whole bunch of people behind us started screaming at him that she wanted his autograph.

It was a scene. One of his crew took care of her, but I got quite a kick out of the whole thing. Speaking of kicks, there were too many young boys on our flight and they could hardly hold it together to wait in the line. They obviously needed snacks. If I had any I would bribed them with them because they kept pushing rolling suitcases into me and other adults.

I told one eight year old behind me, “I’ll make a deal with you. I promise I won’t fall on you if you won’t fall on me.” He said, “Deal,” and proceeded to sit on his rolling suitcases case and had it fall over into me. He fell off and was quite embarrassed. Thankfully not hurt.

My poor driver was so thankful when I emerged from the airport. He said he almost gave up on me. Thank goodness he did not.

It is always a pleasure to be back at Lyford Cay. The staff all know me by now and I got a big hug from Leonardo the best bell man. After taking my stuff to my room I went down to the Mah Jongg room to see my friends.

It was the end of their play time, but Gabby, Pat and Laura did let me play one game with them. Laura now has bragging rights that she has beat me 100% of the time.

At 6:00 I had to go to the cocktail party for the mah Jongg class. It was great to see old friends. Since Phones are prohibited I only got one picture there with Kelsey, which she promptly sent to Carter, as they are friends.

After cocktails I went back to the Holdings for a dinner party. I should have known I should have not eaten all day. We sat at one long table, the 12 guests and had a big old time. The food was divine, but the company was even better.

When Frank asked, “What time is Dana’s class tomorrow?” I Knew it was past my bedtime. Class is at nine and I have to go set up for it, something we could not do today because of power outages.

Kelsey brought me back to the club in time for me to maybe get six hours of sleep if I can force myself to fall asleep soon. Oh so hard for an extrovert. Tomorrow is the big day. Thank goodness I have given this exact class so much in the last two weeks I can do it in my sleep. Sleep, oh yeah. I need sleep.

Pray for Rain

If ever there was a year to be too busy to garden it is his one. We are in a serious drought. Down by more than five inches of rain right now. It is not looking good for the near future.

It was cold late into the spring so when I did have a little time to garden it was too cold. Now that it has gotten hot fast I am not only too busy, but the lack of rain is a serious problem. Last weekend I planted just two tomatoes and a bunch of peppers and one basil plant. Just keeping up with that is proving to be difficult and peppers don’t need much water once they get established. They certainly aren’t established yet.

People should not be watering their grass right now. Water is much too valuable a resource to waste on grass. Grass is amazingly resilient and will die and come back.

As I was driving through Eastern North Carolina this week I saw field after field that looked like they had rows for planting, but no plants growing. As if things are not already hard enough for farmers, not to have rain is the worst.

Pray for rain. We need it.

The Apple Does Not Far Fall

I was driving home from my final class of the week — It was a big week — Six classes in six different locations in four days, staying with two different friends two nights. And after my last class I got this photo texted from Carter. Teaching some people to play mah Jongg.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing my girl sharing the love of mah Jongg, and seeing her doing it right.

I am very thankful for my dear friend Lee Vann who along with Judy Tucker organized my class in Greenville. It was held at St. Timothy church and they had a very nice lunch for the students before we got started. We forgot to take photos because I had to high tail it out of that class to get to Rocky Mount for the Benvenue class.

Such a nice group of people and a good class to end the week on.

I get a day off tomorrow to do laundry and re pack for my Lyford class trip. April is crazy, but 11 new card classes are in the books and only eight more to go.

BIg Winning Day

I arrived in Smithfield tonight for class and the first thing I heard, was “We saw your Kinston class on Facebook. We hope we are on Facebook too.” So I promised my Smithfield class they would have a photo. Then We let a man take the pictures. That was the mistake. So Smithfield, you were a fabulous class. I was so happy to have so many friends there, but your photo does not do you justice.

I should have taken a selfie with you all so I knew we could see all your faces. My mistake. It was a big day.

I started at Becky’s house and we went together to Debbie’s farkle Fundraiser. It was a fun time playing this game and being with nice people. I did not win the farkle, but I over performed in the raffle.

I bought $40 worth of raffle tickets wanting to contribute more to the scholarships. When it came time to do the drawings they pulled one number for the top prize of $500 in gift cards on a tree. A woman who one was as thrilled as someone winning a million dollars.

Then they drew the second place winner, $200 in gift cards on a tree. I WON! Then the third place tree. I thought that was it for the raffle, but I was wrong. They had a bunch of other prizes and I won two more times. It was shocking. There were many hundreds of tickets in the bowl. I should have bought a lottery ticket today.

But I felt like I won the lottery with friends today. Thanks to the Kinston crowd and the Smithfield gang for making my day so happy. The bonus is I ended it with the dearest Jane and Warren Brothers as I am staying at their house tonight. I’ve got Greenville and a Rocky Mount tomorrow.

Like Being Home

One of my favorite days is when I get a chance to be back in Kinston with the gang I adore. Kinston has always been so good to me. I drove into town early to get my car serviced at Massey Toyota. It is worth the drive to buy and service all our cars there. They are fast, honest and efficient.

Then I was off to my friend Becky’s house. Becky loves games as much as I do. She made dinner for me and Jane before we were off to KCC for new cards class. There is nothing like Becky’s chicken casserole and congealed salad.

We had a lovely crowd at KCC and it was great to see all my friends. (Ann Cherry you were missed.). It was so good to catch up with Suzanne. The best part about having this class today is that I am staying over for the night and going to the Farkle Fundraiser that Debbie runs tomorrow. More games with my friends.

Thanks Kinston for being such a sweet town full of the nicest people. I love you.

Mah Jongg Friends

Such a fun day. It started very early with a trip to Raleigh to teach new card class at a Hayes Barton Place. Sweet Ann Janvier is always so generous in welcoming me there to teach. There were so many friends there to learn. It was a very fun class.

After I had lunch with Bit and Ann and my friend Angier’s mom. How delightful it is to live at Hayes Barton Place. I will be back to teach there again.

I had a short two hour break between getting home from Raleigh and that in person class before Jan arrived to go down town with me to Russ’ office to do my zoom class.

Jan is my producer on the zoom class which is so helpful to have her and Russ for all my tech needs.

There were hundreds on the zoom class. The thing I hate about the zoom class is I can’t see anyone’s faces when I am teaching. I am teaching in front of a camera, but I also can’t see myself. So that is probably better because I don’t see goofy faces I might be making.

I did have the benefit of having Jan in the room with me and she handled the online questions. It was a very productive class, but It was a very long day. At the end of the zoom class I asked everyone to turn on their cameras I got a chance to wave at all my friends. Thanks so much for coming to class today, no matter how you got there.

My favorite thing today is the memo is one of the student’s check. Rather than putting Mah Jongg, or class,n they wrote “entertainment.” I love that people think of my classes as entertainment.

If you missed the zoom class the recording will be available tomorrow and anyone who already paid for it will be getting the link. If you want the recording it will be valuable for purchase anytime. Just Venmo me $50 @danacarterlange and put zoom and your email in the memo. Some might say it’s entertaining.

Masters Sunday

For years I cheered for Rory and it was so heart breaking that he would get close, but never win a Masters. Then last year he finally did it. He’s just such a wonderful guy.

So to watch him win again this year makes me so happy, especially since his parents were there to see him win this year. The thing I admire most about Rory is that when the Saudi’s tried to buy off all the great golfers to join LIV Golf Rory did not sell out.

I love when the good guys win. I also like Scottie who came in second. It was a great masters and Rory gave me an edge of my seat 18th hole. Thank goodness it did not have to go to a playoff. I don’t think my heart could take it.

You Can Read It On My Face

One of my sweet students, Cindy took photos of me teaching class this week. They were actions shots. Oh boy, you can really tell what I am thinking on my face. I like it that way. I would hate to get Botox and have students not be able to read my emotions on my face.

“DO you think that is a good idea?” I can say with the raise of one eye brow.

“Well, that is an interesting choice.” Sometimes comes out of my mouth, but my face says, “You should rethink that idiot move.”

There are also the times that my face says, “Wow, you are brilliant.” And people are so happy, because my face really meant it.

Most of the time my mouth says a bad word, and my face is laughing. I never call anyone a bad word, but sometimes my face does.

The one thing I know from looking at these pictures is, there is a reason I like teaching classes live and not making videos. If I had to edit myself all the time I would not be happy.

Speed Shopping

A friend who wants to remain anonymous went shopping with me today at Kannon’s in Raleigh. This friend loves shopping and is excellent at picking things out for others. So I took her up on her offer to shop together.

I hate shopping. I bore easily in stores. Things interest me for a few minutes and then I am done with it. My idea of hell is walking aimlessly through stores. So speed shopping if very important for me. I try and keep to what in essence is a capsule wardrobe so everything goes together. Or at least when I’m traveling I only need two pairs of shoes.

This means the majority of my clothes are blue and white. There is not a shade of blue I do not like or look good in. I look awful in yellow and orange so I only entertain those colors as small decorative bits in any outfit.

Today my anonymous friend and I had the cutest young woman Emily helping us. Emily was excellent at bringing me the right sizes and finding exactly what I was looking for when I just described it to her.

So it a nascar like time I was able to get a few valuable items for my wardrobe. Thanks to Emily and my great Anonymous friend. And now I don’t need to go on another store for a long time. More time for mah Jongg.

Thanks to the Charlotte Crowd

Karen Reid is my hero. She took mah Jongg from me at High Hampton last year and when I was not doing new card class there this year she took the bull by the horns and organized a class for me in Charlotte. It was so wonderful of her to go to the trouble to find a location. Shout out to Myer’s Park Pres. It was a great place to have the class. Karen organized all the students. Collected the money and did all the heavy lifting! All I had to do today was drive to Charlotte and give the class. Since I didn’t do anything for this class I had no idea who was going to be there.

And thanks to Carter Mac Bain for all her organizing. The room was exactly as I needed it. Ann Linde, generously offered her house for me and I hope next time I am in Charlotte we can spend more time together.

It was a great surprise to see so many friends there. I wish I had gotten photos with all you. Kim and Ann did make sure to get a photo and I loved seeing all you friends.

I texted my pastor on my way to this class since I knew he has friends who work at Myers Park. I wanted to give him a heads up in case I got In trouble while I was there. He said he would start praying for me. I asked when he stopped praying for me?

I am happy to report I did not get in any trouble there and I think I kept my use of bad words to a minimum.

It was a happy day and thanks for the hospitality Charlotte ladies. I loved coming to see you and hope to teach you again sometime.

Mah Jongg Super Bowl Done

MY annual new card bonanza in done. I taught three classes back to back to back today at Carolina Country Club. It was a great day of seeing so many old friends from teaching there over so many years.

It was a long day, but I am totally energized by these wonderful people. Everyone could not have been nicer. Especially the staff who take such good care of me.

The morning class was great and then I had lunch with my faithful crew of Jill, Mary Jo, Bit and Martha. It all went too fast because I had to get back to teach the afternoon class. And a big crew from that class asked me to have a drink with them and catch up after class and so thanks to Ginny, Wes, Mary Nell, Jenny Sara, and Marr.

Then I had the night class, self dubbed the cocktail class. It was full of all the cute young friends. Anna Claire told me her group was coming and wearing their new Wednesday Mah Jongg group Sweatshirt. I made sure to get a cute picture with them. And with my darling Meghan and Caroline. I always wish I had more time with these friends.

Thanks to the many of hundreds who came to learn today. I know it’s so much information. You all pay such good attention you make teaching so much fun.

First New Card Class In the Books

It takes a village and I am so thankful for all in my village. Tonight was my first new card class at Westminster Presbyterian. I am so thankful for the “new” fellowship hall and all we built into that building because it is a great place for me to have the first card class.

Russ came over and set up the chairs which was so helpful since we had 124 people In This class. Jan came to do the check-in and be my general producer. Raynor helped man the check-in desk and made sure everyone had their cards.

Kate took notes of mistakes in my power point and texted me all the fixes I need to make. Thankfully there were not that many, except for one slide being. “Just DAMN Wrong.” In Kate’s words. I had put the wrong hand in the photo! Jennifer was concerned that one of my dragons was upside down in one Photo. I told her I was not fixing that.

Everyone in the audience paid rapt attention and that was hard to do for over two and a half hours. I know it was a lot of information and is hard to take it all in.

The best thing everyone did was help stack the chairs up! Saved my back! I have already fixed all the mistake and now need to chill out enough to go to sleep. I have to get up at 6:30 and drive to Raliegh to do it all again times three tomorrow. My biggest New Card day, morning, afternoon and night class all on the same day, but thankfully all at CCC.

If you want to get into an in person class, 10 spot just opened up at Hayes Barton place next Monday April 13 9-noon. Contact me if you want one of those seats.

There is a big new decision tree this year and it is needed more than ever!

New Card Classes Start Tomorrow

Today was arts and crafts day for New Card Class. I made my big teaching trip-fold board. Last year I brilliantly ordered a box of five Science Fair foam core boards. Thankfully I remembered that I put the extras in Carter’s closet. So today I got one out.

I still had to make a trip to Micheal’s because I did not have enough extra foam core to make the flip up extender I need to fit the whole giant card on one board. I also made two little signs that Velcro on the wings of the boards.

One is the QR code for my website. I am going to try and have people electronically sign into classes so I can have them type their email addresses rather than my trying to read people’s bad handwriting. The second sign is the tattoo. “NEVER can you use a Joker in a single or a pair.”

After making the new teaching card I finished up the decision tree for 2026. It is quite a journey. I really should make a blow up of that! It was the last slide of my 84 slide power point I needed to complete before my first class tomorrow.

If you are signed up for the Westminster class come early as it is going to be a huge crowd. Bring a notebook and a pen to take notes. Please don’t call or text me between 5-9 tomorrow as I will not have my phone on.

The worst is people who text me at the last minute to tell me they are running late. Class does not wait for you. You don’t need to tell me you are late. Just come in. Check your name off on the sign in sheet and take a seat. Bring a drink and a snack if you want. It’s a lot to learn and you may need sustenance.

I am very excited to share all my information with you. It should be lots of fun.

Happy Easter

I am so lucky to get to be the lector at church on Easter Sunday. That means I have the best seat in the house. It also means I don’t have to worry about getting a seat. Church filled up to beyond capacity 15 minutes before Church began so I was thankful for my own personal small pew at the lectern.

The highlight of our Easter service is always the Westminster Brass ensemble led by the famous Jim Ketch on his trumpet. Jack Walker on his trumpet is his faithful sidekick along with people on bassoon, trombone and French horn. The choir and bell ringers all joined together with the children’s choir to preform their magic.

The wild card portion of any church service is the children’s message. You never know what those little ones are going to call out during their time sitting up front. This year there was an abundance of little ones in their Easter finery.

After church Russ and I took my Mom to lunch where we were joined by our dear friends Jeanne and David. It was the perfect way to celebrate the day.

Not a Hobby

I was going through my Email, most of which just gets deleted without opening it, when I came upon something from Martha Stewart. Since I was sick and tired of writing mah Jongg content all day I opened the Martha Email for distraction.

The headline that caught my eye was “6 Beginner Friendly Hobbies to try this spring.” Now I have way too many Hobbies right now. I always have. But that does not mean I am not interested in something new and different I have never tried.

I was wary of the beginner moniker, but I scrolled on just the same. Baking, container gardening, blah, blah, blah. Nothing exciting. Then I came to the forth one.

Wax Sealing? What? You mean melting some wax from a candle like rod and pressing a metal seal into it? That is not a hobby. There was no art project to be made with seals. Just the suggestion of sealing envelopes. For the record the post office discourages wax seals on the outside of envelopes because the wax falls off and gunks up the sorting equipment.

So No, Martha, Wax sealing is at best a very short activity that can be done by the dumbest of humans. It is not a hobby. You can do better when creating a list for your readers.

Next up in Hobbies, washing you hair.

Working at My Game Table

A Friend asked me, “What are you doing this week?”

I sent them this photo of my game table where I have been sitting for the last 120 hours working on my new card class power point.

“120 hours?” They asked in disbelief.

This particular friend does not play mah Jongg. (I know, how can I be friends with someone who does not play. Well, I am married to someone who does not play, so…)

I went on, “those hours do not include all the hours I have been playing to gather data.”

“How is playing gathering data?”

This friend obviously is not an analytical person. I told her that I like to play 1,000 games to figure out how to teach people what it’s important and what is not.

“I have played over 800 games so far. So I can work on my power point, but not make my final conclusions until I get to 1,000.”

“Why don’t you just use AI?”

“I would not learn everything well enough to teach it without notes if I had the computer do the analysis. I did see an AI generated analysis that someone sent me. It had many mistakes. A person published it, but did not understand the information well enough to catch all the mistakes.”

“This is why it takes years for playing and teaching to become proficient. It is one thing to understand the game well enough to play it, completely a different thing to understand it well enough to to teach and still a whole different level to teach it well.”

I work for hard to be able to teach it well, but even after 28 years am constantly learning and developing better ways.

Grandmother of the Bride

I do not want to preempt showing the cute dresses my Mom got today. Just want to say it was a very fun day taking my mother shopping to get clothes for Carter’s wedding.

We went to Smitten and had a most wonderful woman helping us. My mom tried on many dress and many would have been perfect. Just as she was about to buy just one the sales woman brought one back we had not pulled. My mother tried it on and it was THE ONE. She loved everything about it right off the bat. She may have it shortened a bit, but I think it was great at its current length.

She was giddy with excitement as she loved it so much. What a big day. She bought two dresses and is ready for Maine. I am happy she did not wait much longer because it causes too much pressure to need something at the last minute.

After our shopping I took her to lunch to celebrate. It was a very fun day and she is going to look so cute at the wedding.

Passover Seder

Russ and I had the honor of attending the Passover Seder at our friend’s Julie and Paul’s house tonight. It was a meaningful evening of family and friends. PAul, ever the professor, took us through many readings about the meaning of the Seder. Each of us read different parts from a book to guide us to think about the world and the year ahead.

We all had hats of different plagues to wear. Mine was Hail. Russ’ was darkness. I was unfamiliar of darkness as a plague, but considering the days we are in can see that now.

Julie made many delicious dishes which were enjoyed by all. Especially her matzo crack toffee. Walt gave me the “best reader “ award zebra. I did get very choked up as I was the final reader. An excerpt from the diary of Anne Frank, “I still Believe.”

It was a thoughtful evening. Reminding me that we all have to keep trying on and doing our best to make the world a better place. Those sentiments used to make me think about making the greater world better, but now I am just trying to make our local world better. A good reminder, that it can all change.