I have spent all day – and I mean the entire day – playing a game. I started last night, went to bed much later than I intended, woke up & was vaguely friendly to my family (who then went out for the day – skiing 😆) and, after they left, started again.
It has been glorious. My mind has been completely engaged in planning a civilization, sending out settlers, city planning, diplomacy and more. I haven’t thought about school at all – heck, I even forgot to write a post this morning and I certainly haven’t started commenting. Instead, I’ve been Eleanor of Aquitaine, carefully building up my cultural and religious influence as I slowly gain power. I’ve fished and farmed and fought (as little as possible of that last; I maintain a big enough army that people don’t really want to attack me). I settled near Halong Bay and constructed Chichen Itza and the Colossus and the Hagia Sofia and more. Cervantes grew up in my empire, as did Rumi, and their writings have made us all very happy.
I’ve played for so long that my brain is seeing hexagons (the tile shape in the game) everywhere. Now, my family has returned and I’ve baked another batch of blondies (thanks to fellow blogger Arjeha who shared the recipe two days ago – because my children ate *the entire pan* yesterday) and I’m going to go for a walk even though the weather remains stubbornly cold and gray. Soon after that I’ll have to put on something other than sweatpants because we’re going out. Sigh.
Nevermind. In Eleanor’s world, I’m building a theater and an aqueduct. The closest volcano has gone extinct and I’ve circumnavigated the globe. I’m fairly certain that another Vietnamese city will soon ask to join my empire because of my amazing culture.
I’m a reader, and I get easily lost in a good book, but if you ever have a need to forget the real world for a few (ok, a lot of) hours, do I ever have a good game for you. (It’s Civ VI – if you didn’t notice that in the title😉.)
Persistence and Pedagogy 
Oh, the dangers of a good round of Civilization! Honestly, I have had to delete anything like that from my computer because of the very thing you are talking about. I would not resurface for days!
I love how you weave in the drudgery (ha, ha) of every day and having to, gasp, interact with people with this, “Nevermind. In Eleanor’s world, I’m building a theater and an aqueduct. The closest volcano has gone extinct and I’ve circumnavigated the globe. I’m fairly certain that another Vietnamese city will soon ask to join my empire because of my amazing culture.” Of course they will. Eleanor is on point.
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Glad your family enjoyed the blondies. I am sure Eleanor would have her staff bake blondies because she has more pressing things to do.
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Amanda,
Between you and Saba I’m gonna lose this I’m not playing video games life structure. My kids play that game and have played every iteration of it. I am a video game lucite, but next week I’ll be in Boise w/ my grandson so I might become a reluctant gamer.
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Civ is the only video game I have ever really played. I have to admit that I love it (though I play at a low difficulty level and I turn off war as a victory condition). It’s actually quite fun, though it takes forever… I probably play twice a year. Bet your grandson could give you a good intro.
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I’ll have to get that intro from my son. Ezra is only eight months old, not quite a gamer yet!
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🤦🏼♀️I knew that!
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I love this! Gaming is a great activity and I love that you have taken a vacation from the rest of life to play today. We’ve been working on our Mario Cart skills at this house.
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Good for you for finally getting into the groove of break!
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I love this in so many ways. “vaguely friendly” — ha! As always, I love how you’ve written it, banishing the rest of the world with a “Nevermind” as in…let’s just get back to the important stuff, shall we? lol Most of all, I love that you’ve taken a break and enjoyed something mentally stimulating, but ultimately entirely low stakes. And fun. And refreshing. Viva la break!
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I think your slice just served up a character for the book I haven’t written yet: Eleanor the Vaguely Friendly. Meantime, keep enjoying vacation every which way you can.
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