There are lots of things I have to be grateful for right now, and to save you the task of reading my whole gratitude journal, let’s just say that having a job and a roof over my head are right at the top of the list. Food in the cupboards and fridge and the ability [...]]]>

There are lots of things I have to be grateful for right now, and to save you the task of reading my whole gratitude journal, let’s just say that having a job and a roof over my head are right at the top of the list. Food in the cupboards and fridge and the ability to prepare meals are right up there too.

When I think of all the places in the world I could be, I always have to give thanks that I’m right here, right now. I know with some degree of certainty that tomorrow will be pretty much like today. I know that, barring any extreme act of the universe, I’ll be waking up, making breakfast for myself and the girls, and heading to work to help make a difference in the lives of our clients. Not directly – I’m not involved in direct client service, but through my marketing efforts – I can help make someone’s life better. And for myself, I will make every attempt I can to better my own life.

How will I better my own life? I believe that what you concentrate on you get more of, so I’m NOT concentrating on the pain in my back right now, though having said that, that’s where my thoughts just went. So, enough of that. I’m in love with Sundays. I have no reason to wake up until my eyes open. The girls are now old enough to entertain themselves when they get up, until I get up, when that responsibility defers to me. They could, if they wanted to, make their own breakfast. However, they prefer to wait for me to wake up and make breakfast. That’s fine with me. I really to prefer to have control over my kitchen and experience something bordering on an anxiety attack when I’m faced with a kid-destroyed kitchen!

I spend the day poking around online. Reading blogs (see blogroll), researching ideas, maybe looking up recipes, and thinking about what we’re going to eat for dinner. That really can take up the whole day! Sometimes, I may play Wizard 101 for a couple of hours. I enjoy battling my way through quests and helping Paris, Ciel and others to do the same. Sometimes I might just stare at my bead stash and either think of a design I’d like to make, or just enjoy staring at the beads!

Right now, we’re watching Ace of Cakes, which I’ve never seen before, and we are all engrossed in watching the process of the team making a “squig” cake for a convention. What talent these people have!

And now … a request from Ciel to play on her Club Penguin account. How can I deny that one … later, everyone!

Photo credit:

Once back into the game this afternoon, it didn’t take long for my newly acquired “love interest” to find me online. Please note that his name has been obscured for obvious reasons.

He [...]]]> [make sure you've read the previous post "wizard 101: the experiment" before you read this one. Or it won't make much sense ]

Once back into the game this afternoon, it didn’t take long for my newly acquired “love interest” to find me online. Please note that his name has been obscured for obvious reasons.

He was oh so romantic when he messaged me with a solitary word.

“Port”

I kind of felt for a moment that I was being placed into a role of subservience, and I obeyed. His castle was much more appealing than my little dorm room. He was obviously a player who has been at this for a while, amassing wealth enough to build himself a “castle” and move on up, out of the dorms.

We hadn’t really chatted much when he dropped this one (our text chat is in purple, and is between the two of us. The text in white is public):

I hope I didn’t sound too flakey when I asked him where we were going to!

Oh! As boy o friend and girl o friend, huh? Remember, even though you’re in “private” text chat, certain phrases still aren’t allowed. So boyfriend and girlfriend become boy o friend and girl o friend.

After I told him I didn’t know, he dropped the subject and chased another girl around for a while. I told him I was going to finish a quest (sorry, I’m really getting into this game!) and would see him later. I left his castle, ported back to my little dorm room, then asked him to come talk to me. He did, and I just asked questions about the game. How long had he been playing (a while), how do you get a castle (u have to be a high lvl), and if he would help me with quests (sure, yeah). When I said I was leaving, he told me he’d be around if I came back.

I try to equate this to Paris, who – at 10 yrs old – would probably find the close attention of a boy welcoming. Especially when you put it in the context of helping out with a game.

I’ll continue with this little experiment to see where it ends up, but there is no way my girls are getting anything CLOSE to text chat!