Yesterday was much better!  Our overall score improved, but mostly I felt better about the way I was playing.  The director said, as long as you learn something each time you play then you are doing well.  I learned a couple of things (at least): Not to leave my partner stranded when she is bidding to tell me what she has (or doesn't have).  A couple of times I didn't understand her bid, so I just passed!  Mistake!  I should have taken over and bid again, even if I wasn't quite sure what she meant or if I thought the bidding was getting too high.  Another thing I learned is to look at my overall hand quality rather than going strictly by the book.  I had 6 strong spades, 4-5 diamonds, 2-3 hearts.  I opened with a weak 2 spades bid because I had only 10 points.  Turns out that my hand was so strong that I should have opened 1 spade.  

On a personal note, while most of the people are very pleasant, we did run into at least 2 very grumpy people (at two different tables).  One table was actually quite stressful; I was glad to move on from there!