100 Things That Make Me Happy Besides Money

Just like Deanna and I, Beth and I have been friends since we were 10. I think the card playing started when we were 12. See, Beth and I took piano lessons from the same (awesome!) teacher, which meant that one of our mothers took us to the various piano competitions that we participated in. Some of the competitions were far away, like in Miami or Columbia, so we would play cards in the car on the way there. And on the way back. Inevitably, we would have spare time between performing and waiting to find out how we did, so we played cards.

As we got older, we enjoyed the freedom of our own cars, so we would plant ourselves at a Mexican restaurant, eat free chips and salsa, and play cards for hours. (Don’t worry—we always tipped well!) I remember spending hours in Beth’s room listening to the Beatles, eating Cheez-its, and playing cards. I remember play cards all night at my house: Spit, the game I always won. It’s a very long game, and Mom would inevitably come in several times throughout the night telling us to keep it down (we laughed a lot) and that we should go to bed. “But Mom, I’m winning!”

Our senior year of high school, we had lunch period together, so we would just stay in the classroom and play canasta. We kept a running total of the score that year. I think by the time we graduated, Beth was ahead something like 45,000 to my sad and embarrassing 20,000.

It didn’t stop when we got to college. The only thing that changed was the Mexican restaurant (Cielito Lindo, of course!) and the place we played in. Now that Beth lived off campus, we usually met at her house to play. I even remember a few late nights at the campus Steak’n'Shake.

We play all sorts of games: spades, 500, several versions of spit, speed, canasta (house rules), gin, rummy, gin rummy, golf, you name it! We both like to win (who doesn’t!), but we never hold grudges. The best way to get over losing is to play a game that you’re good at and your playing partner isn’t.