Every once in a while I forget where I am.  Like this weekend.  The ladies got together for Mahjong game. A word from the (now wise) do not, I repeat, DO NOT say the following words to a real world Mahjong player. “I love that game I play it on the tablet.” Depending on the degree of patience from the recipient of the statement, the reaction varies from the “you are a special kind of a person,” to the kinder, “I was there myself you poor child”  facial response. Fortunately, most of them were the latter and I knew the situation demanded red wine. So having said that let the story begin:

This is what my car looked like after the drive.

I really forgot that the roads to every friend’s house is not paved.  When you get used to something you forget that it may be different. One being the mud.  We had snow.  A lot of snow this weekend. The drive to the house was the usual.  Music playing on the radio with me being the best non professional backup singer ever! It wasn’t until I got to the house that I began to worry.  Every vehicle and I mean every truck was coated in mud.  I don’t mean the wheel wells or the fenders. Those vehicles were touched from top to the bottom.  Think over six foot tall trucks.  I honestly thought that perhaps I was at the wrong house.  I warned myself thinking that this might be a house of men returning from a hunting trip. This all changed when I stepped out of my own vehicle.  I’m going to be honest and admit that the words, “Ewwww!” came out of my mouth and from that point everything was touched with only the fingertips.  Otherwise the mud, like it happens in the sci-fi shows, would remove a layer from the side of the car and render me one of it’s hapless victims.  I have concluded that mud is the real tool of Zombies.

Thank the Lord, I was at the right house.  And true to their word, the real world

This was one of the winning sets of tiles

Mahjong is nothing like the computer version. I still find this slightly disturbing. Four hours later I had won two games.  Please don’t ask me how because I couldn’t tell you. However, I can tell you it was fun trying.

The game experience created a significant pause for reflection.  It was the weekend. And, the Mahjong game was one of the various activities that we participated in. Our home has three flat screen televisions. None of them have been used for days.  This is my best description of being “country.”  We are removed from convenience to the point where we find value in each other. We laugh a lot. We talk a lot.  Everybody, men included, has a killer recipe for something.

I like this part of adventure, of change, of a new life. The part where you still are in unknown territory, but you aren’t afraid anymore. Because you know there is someone who walked the steps before you, and he or she is willing to step back and pull you in the right direction. And, they’ll give you a great recipe for venison sausage while they’re doing it.