At Least Some Things Don’t Change

Posted by Rampant Coyote on August 27, 2010

We bought a minivan (also known in Utah as a “Mormon Assault Vehicle”). Not that we have enough kids to justify it – we only have the two. But see, my youngest daughter entered junior high school this week.  And the ladies in the neighborhood carpool to school and other activities, and to participate in some of the carpools one needs to have enough room for more than four kids. Yeah. She’s now a (gasp!) “soccer mom.” And then there’s the fact that most “wagons” nowadays don’t have trunk space to handle camping gear & farmers market sales stuff & trips to visit the in-laws at Christmas time with all the presents…

That means our crappy old wagon with the hatch that no longer opens goes to the older daughter, who is taking driver’s ed now and will be eligible for a license in December.

Last week, I hurt my back. Again. Not too badly, this time – I took care of it immediately. It’s due to a cracked vertebrae I got when I was approximately seventeen years old. Whether from gymnastics or all that running around in chain mail hitting people and being hit by fake swords, I’m not sure which.

The sex-symbols of my youth – those who didn’t die of drug overdose – are starting to look… *gasp* … old.

I have eyebrow hairs that are turning gray.

I just have one question:

HOW THE FREAK DID THIS HAPPEN?

A scant fifteen years ago (er, I guess almost sixteen, now) I was a fresh-faced kid right outta college who was the youngest employee at a newly-funded game company called SingleTrac. Employee #16. I was “the kid.” Surrounded by “old guys” in their mid-30’s to pushing 50. Yeah, even then we recognized that the employees at SingleTrac were WAY-WAY older than the median in the games biz. Still – I was self-conscious about being the “kid.”

Things change.

When I was in school, I assumed that once I got married, had kids, etc. I’d have to give up the gaming lifestyle and burning the midnight oil. I’d eventually outgrow all that silly gaming stuff.

Fortunately, I married a (moderate) gamer. We still get together with friends weekly to play D&D or some other RPG – many of the same folks we’ve been playing with since college.  We’ve sporting a few more pounds and a few more gray hairs than we did back then, but we’re still the same bunch of gamers.  Our kids are playing now, too… though they don’t get to play in the “grown-up” games except in one-shots on Thanksgiving or whatnot. We’re embarrassed enough by what they overhear in our regular weekly gaming sessions. Yes, mommy and daddy sometimes make jokes about wild gnome sex.

And I’m still playing video games. Sometimes the same games I was playing twenty years ago. And I’m still staying up until 1 or 2 in the morning either making or playing games. People keep telling me how they used to do it but found they couldn’t do it anymore as they got older. How old? Oh, about thirty or so, they say.

Hah. Wusses.

So maybe this is some indication that my mental and emotional progression is completely stunted while my physical age, unfortunately, marches on.  It’s no fair when life decides to keep going when you decide you are happy where you are at. But I’m really glad that some things don’t change.

Viva la games!

Filed Under: Geek Life - Comments: 4 Comments to Read



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