Well, the Spring 2002 NABCs are history. I took the week off from work and spent most of it playing in various events. Sadly, of the three nationally-rated open events I played in (the Mixed Pairs, the Open Pairs, and the Open Teams), I didn't make it past the qualifying round once, though I came close twice. There were a number of reasons for this, but the glaring one is simply that I'm not as good a player as I wish I were. It's easy to be successful against a certain level of competition, where you can make mistakes and not pay a high price for them. At this level, every lapse cost me. A round of tournament bridge lasts for about 3.5 hours, in which you play between 25 and 30 hands. You have to concentrate and pay attention to every card on all of those hands. It's hard to do.

But I had a lot of fun. I got to see some old friends and got to compete against some great players. I'm already thinking about attending the Summer NABC in Washington, DC (only for a weekend, though). We'll see.

Back to work and reality tomorrow, though only briefly for the former as we have a trip to Switzerland planned for Easter. Woo hoo!