Facebook Scrabble and the House of Cards

Scrabble on Facebook hasn't been working for a few days. And you might well ask---so what? You might wonder why I don't just pick up a board and play a live person, as my sister asked and as I'm sure other people wonder. Why am I so upset an on-line game isn't working?

Well, it's all part of the house of cards. Let's just think about what real live Scrabble would involve. I'd need to find someone who wanted to play. I would need to go to their house, or have them come here. I'd have to find a time when someone else was watching Janey. It would have to be a good solid block of time. Even if I could do any of this, the chance of finding someone I could play at about my level (which I would call intermediate) would be not great, and even in the best scenerio, I'd get to play them about once a week, maybe.

Now think about on-line Scrabble. I have about 6 people I can play with. I can play a turn any time I have a minute. I can watch Janey while playing, or wait until she's being watched. I can play in the middle of the night, if I wake up and can't sleep. I can chat with the people I'm playing with, through the chat box in the application. I get a little boost many times a day, a chance to use my brain, to do something that has absolutely nothing to do with autism. I get a break at my convenience. I get a little socialization. I truly enjoy the game. It's sometimes I've come to depend on, to need.

And it's all part of the house of cards. People might laugh at someone being upset that a stupid Facebook application doesn't work, but when you are a full time caregiver for someone like Janey, when you cannot simply go out and socialize when you feel like it, when so much of your life involves cleaning up diapers and keeping a child from tossing food around or crying hysterically for hours, when the best chance at entertainment you often get is re-watching an episode of Kipper you've seen 100 times, well, the little things like Scrabble take on a huge significance in your life, and not having them might be the difference between sanity and not.