DGINSTUY ABBCELRS

And once again, we have been horribly delinquent about blogging. Horrible busy-ness is once again the culprit here...Michael and I both had crazy times at our jobs and had put blogging and studying both on the back-burner!

But no longer. Nationals is coming up, I'm free for the summer, things are calm for the moment for Michael, and we're kicking it into gear. With $2500 up for grabs for me in D3, and $1500 for the taking if Michael can bring it to the D4-ers, we really can't not step it up and immerse ourselves in tiles, mnemonics, and stems!

Even I - the cardbox shunner - have been Zyzzyva-ing it till I feel like my brains are going to fall out. Eternal thanks go out to Kevin C, Mike E, and Pete Z for the input on how to prepare for Dayton, and even more eternal thanks go out to George V for not only providing input but offering to sit down with Michael and me and go through games with us.

I feel like I've reached the general point I can get to being a Scrabble player who doesn't study and has the strategy and the words I currently have. My rating hasn't changed much in the past months, and I refuse to be a 1200-something player forever. Enter - high prob sevens, eights, power-tile-fives, three-to-make-four-hooks, and four-and-five-vowel sevens and eights!

I have a really obscure, probably unreachable goal for the next year, which is to gain the 3-to-4-hundred rating points I'd need to get on the Ohio team for Michigan v Ohio. (Disclaimer: Even if by some miracle I pull this off, you WILL NOT EVER catch me wearing Ohio State gear! Hail to the Victors!) Not sure if I can do it - that's a lot of ground to cover in a year, and a 1200 player is a very different player from a 1600 - but it's one of those where I may as well set the goal, and if I don't achieve it I'll get closer to it and will just keep plugging away. But it's even more motivation to study, as if I needed that right now ;-)

I did spelling bees back in middle school...studied like mad...and this totally feels like the same deal. You look at words till your eyes go blurry, but every word you get in your brain is increased confidence and another tool in your arsenal at show-time. And it is T minus 22 days till show-time!

So here's my poll of the general Scrabble world at large: Are you going to Nationals? Are you playing up at all? How, if at all, have you been studying? Has your studying increased as Nationals is getting closer?

Would love to hear everyone's feedback about studying - hope everyone is having a blast as NASPA tournaments start and Scrabble fever continues!