Alright folks, let me tell you about this “humongous crossword” thing I tackled. It was a beast, lemme tell ya!
First off, I stumbled upon it online. Looked innocent enough, a crossword. But then I saw the size… whoa. I figured, “Why not? I’m bored.” So, I printed that sucker out. Big mistake. Should’ve gone to Staples for a poster-sized print. Ended up taping a bunch of sheets together – looked like Frankenstein’s monster of puzzles.
I started with the easy ones. You know, the “Erie Canal” type clues. Got a few acrosses and downs to give me some momentum. That’s always the key, right? Build up that confidence.
Then BAM! Hit a wall. Some obscure historical figure, some weird foreign word… I was stumped. I mean, completely and utterly stumped. Started Googling like a madman. Don’t judge! We’ve all been there.
Google got me a few more answers, but then I felt guilty. Like I was cheating on my crossword puzzle. So, I tried a different approach. I started looking for patterns. Common letter combinations, prefixes, suffixes… that kind of thing.
That actually worked surprisingly well. I started filling in little sections here and there. Like a tiny crossword archaeologist, carefully brushing away the dirt to reveal the hidden answers.
But still, there were these ridiculously hard clues. I’m talking, like, “A type of Precambrian rock formation found only in Outer Mongolia” kind of hard. Seriously? Who knows that stuff?
So, I called in the big guns: my dad. He’s a crossword wizard. Always has been. He knew a few of the answers I was stuck on, which was a huge help.
Even with my dad’s help, it took me days. Days! I’d work on it for an hour or two each evening, slowly but surely filling in the squares. My kitchen table was completely taken over by this thing.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, I filled in the last square. Victory! I stepped back and looked at it. It was a mess of taped-together paper, filled with ink and pencil marks, but it was done. I had conquered the humongous crossword.
Would I do it again? Probably not. But it was a fun challenge. And now I know a lot more about obscure rock formations in Outer Mongolia. You never know when that’ll come in handy.
Lessons learned:
- Get a large-format print. Save yourself the taping headache.
- Don’t be afraid to Google… sparingly.
- Look for patterns.
- Call in reinforcements if needed.
- Have patience!
So yeah, that’s my humongous crossword saga. Hope you enjoyed it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go clean my kitchen table.
