"Will you accept VIG?" I asked because Mark can be a bit of stickler for rules.
We both can.
I am typically the one calling him out on small, obscure words.
In sixteen years, he has one every, single game we have played and we have played numerous games of Scrabble.
We have played Scrabble at home, on the beach in Mexico, in Maui, on a plane.
He always wins.

I have the more creative words, but he is very shrewd when it comes to those blocky configurations; skilled at building one word off the side of another in a way that is too similar to math for my brain.

I require things to be in a straight line.

I like order and linear patterns.

I am also horrible at making change, or counting a handful of change.

It is surely a type of dyslexia?

I would be so delighted to have a diagnosis, for my inability to cope with piles of stuff.

When things are all jumbled up, then make me nervous and uncertain.

Mark grew up working the cash register in his grandmother's cafes and drive ins, literally from the time he was three, I am told, he was standing on a stool making change for customers, so he knows what he is doing.

Sadly, both of our children have my math feebleness.

The inability to make much sense of numbers, unless concentrating hard.

Math is not our friend.

Math is a meangirl, that makes you feel like you are wearing the wrong brand of jeans.

I used to play Scrabble often with my college boyfriend.
He had an apartment with charming wooden floors and we would sit on the floor and play Scrabble, with the goal of getting above 200 points. We would sometimes play with other people, but they never were good at keeping the aesthetic of the long, elegant words.
I thought of those games, as I was winning, during this game.
That boyfriend was an excellent Scrabble partner for me, as we both played to get long words.
Creative words.
Substantial words.

Mark is a shark, he will never forgo the short inelegant word, for something more lovely, like I am apt to do.

A friend from college sent me a text the other day  

"do you know we've known each other almost 30 years?"

I had sent him birthday greetings.  I keep up with him, and worry over his well being, which he pretends to find annoying, but secretly likes.
We play online Scrabble. 
I pester him about his atrocious diet, between turns.
I said I did know, and that I had recently exchanged a few messages with the Scrabble playing old boyfriend, and he said that there was no reason that he shouldn't be in touch, and I said, life is very short and precious and that it's foolish to not be.
I have no idea whether, or not he will follow up.
He most likely will not. 
He is not a diligent sort of person. 
He confesses openly to excessive leisure, and has no children or wife to keep him centered.

When I play with Mark, I have to have to board facing me.  It used to be no big deal, because he could play well upside down, but I noticed this time that he kept having to turn the board around, the way I used to when playing with my mother and my brother.

I may be wearing him down!