Reality...

I apologize for not posting last night. Not that anyone is harboring any deep resentment against me for the oversight...I was a little busy.

And by "busy" I don't mean "productive". I just mean busy.

I was housesitting. I had spent the first part of that day chilling with the miniature dachsund who lives at the house. We ran around the yard, we turned on some music in the living room and danced around, I serenaded him on the keyboard while he gnawed on his stuffed alligator. Good stuff.

And then, we ventured upstairs.

Now, these people are good friends of mine. And I KNOW they have an XBox. I'm not dumb, nor unobservant. I knew, and I didn't think it would be a problem.

But as we climbed the stairs up to the rec room, I started to realize all the games I could suddenly play. All day. With no one to be accountable to except a cuddly dachsund, and he was happy as a clam just sitting around with me. Crap. This was not good.

Needless to say, I played. A long time. Started with Halo (the original), and blasted through the Silent Cartographer before I finally had to turn it off, knowing I was getting hooked. It was a brief moment of clarity before I saw it...sitting there...calling me...

Fable II. Which I had never played.

Aside from breaks for meals and walking the dog once or twice (along with an impromptu yoga session out on their back patio today and baking a loaf of bread...more on that later), I played Fable. In less than 48 hours I earned gold, I killed monsters and bandits, I changed my outfit several hundred times, I kept randomly and accidentally setting off spells in town and causing all the townspeople to run away from me ("Wait! Come back! I didn't mean it! I'm sorrrrryyyyy!!"), I finished quests, I ran The Crucible, I memorized most of Albion's landscape and cartography. Seriously, I was hooked.

It occurs to me, in the quiet and solace of my own bedroom, that I'm glad I don't have an XBox. Sure, it's ridiculously fun. And sure, you feel accomplished in a...virtual sort of way. But I don't think I have enough self-control to stop when I need to stop, unless I'm forced to by the fact that the people who OWN the house are coming home and it would be weird if I wouldn't leave simply because I needed to continue playing the game.

Actually, it was church that finally dragged my sorry butt off the red futon. And church tonight was AMAZING. I laughed, I cried, I sang. It was fantastic.

-The GLS

(PS: You didn't hear it from me...but my review of Fable II? Unmissable. Seriously, play it at least once if you get a chance. It's really fun. But remember...don't get hooked. And always play video games with a dachsund cuddling on your lap. Guaranteed, it's better that way.)