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.