I am spending a week at a cottage on Lake Michigan with my pinochle group.  A few of these friends also play bridge, so in the midst of hands of pinochle I am finding the opportunity to also play hands of bridge. 

We are taking this opportunity to study our books and notes, discuss our bids, and replay hands hoping for better results.  While we are engrossed in these endeavors, the non-bridge players look at us askance.  You’re on vacation, they say.  Why are you working so hard?  That doesn’t look like fun to me.

We smile and shrug.  We try to tell them how the game of bridge draws you in, how each hand presents its own challenges in terms of bidding and playing.  We tell them that it is the mental work involved with each new and different hand that makes the game so interesting and so addictive.  

I think we may have a couple of new recruits.