Twenty-seven months ago, I made the second of two purchases with the same purpose. I agonized over the decision for which mah jongg set to buy off of Amazon, settling on one a couple steps up from the most basic, for about a hundred bucks. Months earlier I had ordered several copies of rule books and teaching guides from the Wright-Patterson Officers Spouses Club, the keeper of the official rules that air force groups follow. I was just sure that once I was settled at my Park West, I'd have people come over and play mah jongg often and it would be awesome. But then things went sideways. I started real estate school and my home life got very uncomfortable. Then as I started work, I discovered just how sick I was. My grand plans of hosting my own mah jongg club evaporated. I didn't even take the plastic off of the tile sets for years. The whole kit stayed in my spare room in the basement with all of the other games we bought over the years that no one plays anymore. At first I was incredibly disappointed in the missed opportunity, and then I eventually forgot about it.
A couple of weeks ago, our regular D&D got canceled, but we still had several of the group come over to the house and play a card game. At that time, I remembered that the mah jongg set existed, and I suggested to the group that it would be a good thing to try. There was minimal interest, but I didn't give up. On Thursday, several of us talked about playing games again this weekend, while it was supposed to be snowy and icky, and I had more success, when one of the people I asked actually had experience playing the game with his grandmother. I had an in! We made plans on the spot.
Tonight we went next door, my foster daughter, her husband, and I, and we played on the new game table that Mr S-P built as a Christmas present for our neighbor. I didn't know how quickly the group would pick up the rules, but they took to it like they were born to it. It helped when my neighbor won, and then won again, and then again... Overall, he won at least five rounds, and my (is this the right term?) foster son-in-law won two or three. I don't know how many rounds we played, but we were there nearly four hours, from set up and basic instruction to when we finally packed it up, swearing we'd do this again.
I am so happy. I have been wanting to do this for almost three years, since I stopped getting to play at my dear friend's house in Charleston. My mah jongg group accounted for some of the best friends I made during the entire 20 years I was an air force wife, and I still love and miss them to this day. The only other group that came close to that was the bunco club, and if I can get at least 12 people to come over to my house, we can play that too. Now that we have broken the seal on this game, I want to keep trying to draw people in, and make this a regular thing. I'd even spring for a second set, if I could convince a minimum of seven or eight people to show up on a rotating basis. I know of at least three to ask, plus another two who might be able to work it into their schedules. The longer I mull it over, the longer the potential list becomes. All this from one game night. It took years, but now that I have cast the lure, I am going to reel in some big fish.
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