The most useless vowel

I played Scrabble as a child and teen and then not much as an adult until Words with Friends came along. One of my "competitors" has the disturbing habit of making seven-letter words, sometimes twice in one game! Other than that--because I'm not very good at that--we play on a fairly level field, oftentimes winning every other game.

If you play WwF, you know the frustration of getting seven of the same thing, be that vowels or consonants. I'd rather have the latter because 1) there's more variety and 2) lots of times they can combine front and back and all you need is a willing and lonely vowel in order to receive four new letters in your digital tray.

But it's when you have seven vowels that the challenge comes in. And, after playing this game for over three years (more?), I have my least-favorite and least-useful vowel all picked out: the i.

The letters a and e are easy. The o isn't too difficult and the u is always useful with a q. But the i? What a little troublemaker.

And then I got to thinking: maybe the I is a troublemaker as well. While the old saw "there's no i in team" can come across as trite and risk the sayer a dirty look, the I is all the time getting itself in trouble, being too selfish, too prideful, too loud.

Be it capitalized or no, there's not any cure, I suppose, but constant vigilance--and looking for new places and ways in which to set a more useful and understanding iI.