Shout out to Gloria’s mom- “pick your table wisely.” After a Mah jongg drought, which can only be understood by those in the know, I grabbed my ever ready mj bag and left the house. I showed up early and waited in the lobby to go up with the one and only Marilyn H. Everyone loves Marilyn. Much like the mj tiles themselves we all are distinctive characters in our own special way. My homies consist of two tables of play. We overlap, fill in for one another and share so much more than tiles and and dollar bills. A panoply of choosing tiles and catch up stories, as we glance at pictures of weddings and babies. Does it get any better, I ask? Cliches run wild as this game brings out predictable facets of our personalities. We open and close the window with frequency, decide upon the chicken or tuna for our meal of choice and in a medically prescriptive way we laugh a lot and often. Last evening was just one of those on pointe times. The Chinese tiles all have different symbols and meanings. A recurring tile that kept showing with unusual frequency was the 2 Bam. Symbolically bamboo represents the “axis of the earth.” One definition of axis, is a straight line about which any object may rotate. Here’s to our table of play being the constant and so many more days of belly laughing through two Bams.