Scrabble Squabbles
Every year, when the my sisters and I are at the parents for Christmas, some fool will suggest a family game.
Some bigger fool will always suggest scrabble.

Now, the game Starts amicably enough, but my parents always seem to get terribly competitive.
We'll have a bit of good natured teasing over each others 'concentration face' or how long they're taking to go, then a petty squabble will break out about who's 'got all the letter e tiles!?'.
Before you know it, they're bickering like children.

Us real children know how this is going to end, bored one of us will excuse ourselves to use the loo, or make a drink. But this is forbidden.
We could be about to go and use some kind of online anagram solver!
It won't do!

The irrationality builds, until the point where every year, without fail, my Mother accuses my Father of 'reading the scrabble tiles with his fingers while his hand is in the letter bag'.

Her logic is based on the fact that 'he takes too long to pick letters' and 'he looks smug'.
Whenever my Father suggests that She try such a trick herself, she maintains that she can't, because her fingertips aren't sensitive enough. Last year she accused him of preparing for the game by using more hand cream than usual, and wearing rubber gloves to do the washing up for the previous weeks.

Following this, an argument will always break out. One of my parents will get so irrationally wound up that they storm out, cursing the very idea of marriage and claiming they're going to drive to a hotel and live there forever.
The other person will maintain that they're drunk, and shouldn't get behind the wheel, but the strident one will claim they're not, as the door slams and they head off into the night.

Without fail, a about an hour later there will be a phone call. It'll be stroppy parent saying that maybe they should talk, and telling relatively more responsible parent the name of the hotel.
Off parent number two will drive into the night, and they don't come back for hours...

It was only a short while ago that I realised it's probably an elaborate farce so they can go off and have loud rampant sex without the kids over hearing anything too dodgy :(
( Completely Underwhelmed, Wed 26 Nov 2008, 9:56, closed)

*click*
This has given me one of my few proper laughs of the QotW.
( Enzyme is in ur [noun]z, [verb]in' ur [noun]z, Wed 26 Nov 2008, 10:34, closed)