Flair with Introverts

I'm learning that flair assumes many forms. Many introverted forms. Forms like puzzles and card games. If you hang out with my husband and his family, you learn these things.

So I'm sitting at a card table. The children are playing Go Fish and War and probably some mysterious game called Solitaire. (My husband still laughs at me when I tell people I don't know the rules of Solitaire. I'm an extrovert to the extreme--not much alone time)

There's a 1000 piece puzzle before me (an old Milton Bradley, not a Springbok—apparently there are standards for good puzzles and Springbok is the best). Anyway, the puzzle. The puzzle is called, “ By a Canal, Holland.” I've been patiently assembling the sky when my husband announces that I'm doing it wrong. He says there are rules to puzzling like:

1. 
   
   
   Find all the edge pieces.
2. 
   
   
   Group them kindly by color.
3. 
   
   
   Claim your puzzle region.
4. 
   
   
   Begin assembling.
5. 
   
   
   Do not stop until the wee hours of the night.
6. 
   
   
   Start trash-talking about how you are “puzzle master” and “this puzzle is no match for me.”
7. 
   
   
   Reminisce about other puzzles you have put together in your lifetime: the 3D Notre Dame, the impossible Globe one, the historical puzzles, the Coca-Cola Memorabilia puzzle that's framed in your basement, the fluffy kittens, the Wizard of Oz.
8. 
   
   
   Decide who gets to put the last piece in (the one who has worked the longest).
9. 
   
   
   Rebuke the person who swoops down at the last minute and tries to put in the last piece.
   
   
   So I'm doing the puzzle. And I start thinking about what region of my brain is being activated.  This puzzle is good for my brain!  It's good for my marriage!  It's good for my family!  I need to hang out with introverts more! 

Living with flair means joining the introverts for a night. It's puzzling, that world, but good for my brain, my marriage, my family, and my flair.