it's in the cards. i've never been whupped so hard at anything i expect to be decent at. i've never full on played spades before. i've seen it a few times. but still. i was terrible. babbs and leslie doubled us. us is me and sam. but mostly, it was me (i made some bonehead plays and i think sam wanted to kill me. thanks for not killing me sam). course we were getting the worst cards ever but can bad luck account for everything? maybe. actually, in this case, i'm 90% convinced we just had terrible karma. but enduring a few hours of super losing was a new experience. i don't think i've ever lost so consistently at something. losing again and again. rinse and repeat. i felt helpless and almost dumb. but then the super ego returned and life righted itself. and then we proceeded to get creamed by babbs and les again, in some romanian card game. i'm never going to vegas. i'm bad luck. either that or i just straight suck. let's go with the bad luck option. it smells better.