Love and Legos

Day 41: Last week was a big week for the married gamers. 

“Everything is Awesome”

In a previous blog I discussed how my son spent his birthday playing Lego Batman on the Xbox with me.  For his party he extended his lego theme but we super sized it.  We successfully hosted 30 kids at a “Lego Movie” birthday (yup we are crazy people). We had a lego cake, lego doors, lego balloons, lego poop (lego people in ziplocks with MnM’s).  We showed the movie outside and the kids each had lego cars (aka cardboard boxes) for their viewing pleasure.  One of the great miracles of this event was that I popped 8 cups of popcorn, 8 cups not fully popped but in kernel form, and prepared other food but did not set any small fires.   

Geek parent Lego birthday win #Lego pic.twitter.com/jHuEsz2Ab4
— Chris Cruz-Boone (@ProfessorCCB) February 13, 2015

It was so powerful to see all these people come together and just shower our lil' guy with love and legos.  Yesterday I came home from a super tuff hike and found the hubs on the floor assembling birthday minecraft legos with the lil’ guy and this moment brought me so much joy.  I am not sure if having gamer geek parents makes a difference for the kids but having kids makes my life so much better.

Valentine’s Day

It was around Valentine’s day over 16-years ago when my best friend held my hand while we watched Monday night raw.  There was no pretense, or flirting, and it didn’t go any further but it changed the course of my life forever.  That being said I don’t really believe in Valentine’s Day.  I become physically ill when I hear the 50 Shades commercials come on and I do not want freeway roses.  But since things have been rocky, and a friend offered to babysit, I thought we would have a romantic day of games. 

Instead, after the post-birthday sleepover and subsequent cleaning I slept through most of the afternoon.  By evening we took a romantic walk to Target where I was super uncomfortable because most of the women there were dressed in their finest hoochie wear.  Note: Women can wear whatever they want and should not be judged or shamed, but droves of women wearing their chonies on the outside at Target is yet another reason for me to despise this holiday.  The plan was to loose ourselves in games and that plan never happened.  We ended up playing some Forbidden Isle on the iPad and going to bed early.  You can’t schedule geek romance, you can’t force play, you just have to give over to the other person and the fantasy.   Any maybe if you stop planning for one second, you will share a moment, like the brush of your best friends fingertips.  

Game Night

Sunday after church we played three new tabletop games.  Thankfully, we have a great and growing network of friends who are lending/leasing us games to try in our ongoing play. “Leasing” seems like a strange word for sharing board games but one of our friends is trying to weed out some of his un-played games and is letting us test drive them before we buy.  We played Sheriff of Nottingham (one round adults and one round with the kiddos).  We played Machi Koro and SushiGo as some quick card games.  I realized even in all my years playing magic I had never done a draft and it was awesome this weekend.   Having friends to play, share and talk about games keeps the hearth burning bright.  Plus me winning a bunch always makes my day.

“@ProfessorCCB: Face palm and Sheriff of Nottingham with the kiddos @JohnRBoone #gatheryourparty pic.twitter.com/fY25yWeGUI”
— MrNinjaman (@JohnRBoone) February 16, 2015

Update: Paladin Game Castle has scheduled in TableTop day & #GatherYourParty for all day April 11th.  But alas still no news of Wil Wheaton. Curse you Wil Wheaton all the cool kids are playing and leasing board games in B-town.  

Pebbles: Moving the trash cans back up the hill & scheduling the babysitter.

Things that are Hard 2.0

Day 17: Don’t believe what you read on the internet

Make-up and Organizing pre-LotR

Since I have openly discussed in my blog my consideration of divorcing my partner it probably comes as a surprise to no one that I am in therapy.  My therapist asked me what is something hard I had to do this week and I surprised myself when I didn’t say “get out bed.”  My answer: find a tube of make-up primer sh*t.  As I explained my distress to my counselor she immediately replied “its next to the foundation.”  And not for the first time, I wanted to kick her in the knee, hard.

If you ask me where to buy model primer for miniatures, primer for home improvement, or even primer for cooking I can answer those questions.  But asking me to acquire make-up primer at Target is like asking me to solve 10- page math proof.  In fact, with the help of technology it would probably take me less time to puzzle out a mathematical proof.

For those of you who don’t know, primer is a base coat that goes under make-up.  Apparently it is different than moisturizer and is not in the long aisle covered with face lotions/ face sunscreens/ moisturizers/ creams/ serums.  Even though it is a tube of goop that looks exactly like everything else in the face goop aisle, that is not where it lives.  Instead primer is located next to make-up.  And make-up is not organized by what is used for but instead by brand.  Like my therapist this may be obvious to the women reading this blog but just in case you missed the memo I am not good at being a girl.

Si Se Puede

It has only been one day since my last post, and getting out of bed is still hard.  Today I am wearing my union thug hat and organizing with hundreds of other educators from around the state.  Staying in a fancy-smancy hotelmakes getting out of bed easier because my babies are snuggled close, and my union family are here for me.

Happy Union Thug

 

Rolling off lands on my bed/ head.

What are those boxes for behind the bed?

Online Walk- Throughs

When I get stuck in life, and games, I have almost always been able to find the answer on the internet.  Free online game walk throughs have been part of my life as long as the hubs.  I am reading several blogs about LotR card game that I am currently obsessed with (dwarf for life).    

When I told my husband I was considering a divorce, his reaction was to google “what to do when wife wants divorce.”  If you just spit your coffee on the computer screen I understand, but in all seriousness googling is a natural reaction to the unknown.  And just an FYI, the advice he received was not ideal.  Tip of the day: google cannot tell you how to save your marriage. 

Despite my best attempts to resist, I have fallen prey to attempting girflicaiton through online walk-through guides.  I really have tried to put more effort into my appearance.  I say “tried” because after a few hours with pinterest, you-tube make-up tutorials, magazines, and then the looking for primer:  I am over it.  I want to look my best but not if its going to be so f*cking hard.  How do women do this everyday?  Isn’t it easier just to stay in bed?  Speaking of staying in bed, playing card games in a hotel bed is not ideal.

Game: LoTR Card Game

System: Table Top

Developer: Fantasy Flight Games

  

Reflection: After traveling out of town, organizing and activism, and successful application of make-up: we still made time to game.  We moved from our intro level game to the next and way harder scenario in Lord of the Rings.  We only lasted three phases before we got our butts kicked.

Speaking of getting an a$s kicking, today the hubs is playing in his first Warmachine tournament in over 4 months.  My trash talking is not just meanness, we have both been honest that he is not there to win, he is there to learn.  Because winning is great, but the joy comes from the people, the game, and the experience.

Registration at Warmachine Tourney

The Army pre battle

Photo from first 2 hours round of Warmachine

Gone Girl the Game

Day 13: Think Small

Game: LotR Card Game

System: Table Top

Developer: Fantasy Flight Games 

Kiddos grabbed a pic of us play LoTR

I am not known for my artistic or domestic capabilities but I pushed this year to keep my 12^th anniversary gift themed.  My gift was a scavenger hunt, without the Gone Girl evilness, that involved a series of 12 clues hidden throughout the house.  After puzzling out the clues the final gift item was a love letter from me, and the LoTR card game that I discussed in my previous blog.

I got a cool gift from my partner too.  It was custom artwork from a local artist, Johnny Ramos.  One thing that we discussed after we traded gifts was that we both went out of our way to acquire local items.  No, the LotR card game is not developed in B-twon, but it is sold at a local gamestore Otto’s.  Though we both contemplated sending flowers from big box stores or shipping something sparkly (like a game disc) via Amazon as an easy solution to shopping, we wanted to do something more thoughtful.

I am a Gamer not Hoarder…Really!  

I am totally fascinated by people who live in “tiny houses” and I have watched everything on Netflix, Hulu, and Xfinity, that I can to learn more about them.  It is profound to watch people pare down their lives to the bare essentials.  On the spectrum between Hoarders and Tiny Houses I am closer to the hoarding condition.  I have not been able to part with my GameCube, Super Nintendo, strategy guides, and cartridges, and have a china hutch filled with board games.  But when it comes down to it, I have reduced my marriage to the activity that brings me the most joy and that is games because it is about being together.

It makes me sad that when we visited Otto’s, the aforementioned local gamestore, that the neighboring bar was full (Sunday football) and the gamestore was empty.  I will admit that I loved having the space and selection of board games to play in store, but it made me a little sad.  I hope that my current challenge to my marriage that is about reconnecting with a person I love will inspire the 3 people who read my blog to enjoy someone they love, instead of just being with them.

At Otto's playing "Hey That's My Fish"  

At Otto's Playing "Tsuro"

At Otto's kissing the winner. 

Have Games will Travel

This weekend we will travel as a family for the first time since before the separation.  But living in a hotel for three days with two small children is not a reason to abandon games.  My hubby organized our new LotR card game into snazzy boxes and put the cards in sleeves so that we have a portable game to play while we are traveling.  Staying in hotels is like living in a small house, you start to realize you don’t need most of the stuff around you—you just need the people you love.