All writers in Op Ed are here to inform and acknowledge issues of importance to our communities, however these writings represent the views and opinions of the authors and not necessarily of The Advertiser.

Linda Nidiffer

How many times have you said, “I have seen it all,” and thought you meant it? At my age and with my cynicism, I think I have seen it all. Life is funny.  Just when you think you have your world well ordered it throws you a knuckle ball where you least expect it; leaving you stunned and shaking your head.

I am addicted to playing Words with Friends on my phone.  I have hated playing Scrabble with real people because they take too long between turns.   Tom is the worst!  He is a real joy sucker and we agreed a long time ago that it would be better for our marriage that we would not play.  I finally diagnosed his problems.  There are three: he is competitive, he does WAY too much math for a word game, and he is dyslexic.  I swear that I could bake a batch of cookies while he was figuring out his next move while I would have my tiles down in the next heartbeat. WWF erases all of that tension for me.  I can just play it just for the joy of it and it exercises my brain which at my age is a good thing.

WWF also encourages you to play with new people. Last week I thought it would be fun to play with someone new.  I have been playing with the same people for years and I was ready to see how someone else thinks and to learn some new words.  (As a meaningless aside: When I played in college we would award bonus points to salacious words.  How we would laugh! RIP Mac)

I accepted an invitation to play with Clarence O. It is interesting from a “word smith” point of view to play (I don’t use compete because I don’t care about winning or losing.) with the opposite gender.

With Clarence’s opening move he started a conversation. He thanked me for starting a game with him.  He wanted to know where I lived.  He lives in Houston.  He wanted to know what I do for a living; how old I am; what I did for fun; did I have children.  With every move there was a new question or two from him.  He is 50 years old, a marine mechanic, has a son, likes to read and hike. I can’t remember anymore and don’t care to remember any more.

The questions just kept on coming and kept on getting more invasive.  My answers kept on getting more and more vague.  I am retired, I am old besides you never ask a lady her age, I don’t do fun, yes, I have two children.  This guy was creeping me out!Then came the deal breaker: Send me your email address so we can exchange pictures and emails. Yeah, right.  I had an on-line stalker!  How do I get rid of this jerk?  Between plays I formulated my none too subtle response, “Hey, Clarence, I am not looking for a pen pal. I am looking for someone to exchange plays on WWF.” The next thing I knew our game had disappeared—what a relief.

Okay, now I have seen it all and done it all and don’t want to do it again.  Pray for peace.