Monday, March 22, 1999

Archive - 22 March 1999

All right, all right, I know. I didn't update this weekend. I had forgotten to take my Zip disk home with me, and I don't like to make updates directly on the server. So that's why. It's a crummy excuse, but it's all you're going to get.

Friday night we went to visit my parents after dinner. We wound up talking until almost midnight, which was nice. We talked about our own pet theories about reading and how different people read. This is something my dad and I have talked about before, because I love to read, and my dad really hates it. I won't get into it here, but I may bring it back up another time. But finally Matt caught my eye and indicated that he was getting pretty tired, so we headed home.

Saturday we loafed around the house most of the day, and then we walked up the street to see the Mystery Dinner Theater with some other people from the office. Since we were walking and Matt was going to pay, I didn't bother bringing my purse with me. When we got there, Matt paid the entry fee, and we decided what kind of entree we wanted, and then we were seated. Looking at the menu/program, we both saw a note at the bottom, stating that the entry fee didn't include tips for the staff, and a suggestion of an appropriate tip. I looked at Matt. There hadn't been a place on the credit-card slip to indicate a tip, and neither of us had any cash with us. Matt slipped out to the lobby of the hotel that the theater was in to see if the front desk would let him get some cash, but they wouldn't. We felt kindof bad about not being able to leave a tip (actually, we did leave a tip - Matt found a couple of bucks in his wallet - but it was woefully inadequate) but really, you'd think they'd make it a little easier!

Sunday we did the chores and then went to K.T.'s apartment to play Alternity. It was a slow game, though. The characters are about to head into Certain Death (well, okay, it isn't really Certain, but it's darn close!) and we kept getting distracted and going off on side tangents anyway. So nothing much of note happened. Matt and I had a talk in the car on the way home about my character - I won't go into details here; I was just dissatisfied because 1) my character is supposed to be the party leader, but every time anything important happens, no one ever wants to do what I tell them to. They all go off on their own tangents, and it's irritating. Especially Kevin's character, who keeps finding things that could be really useful if he'd just tell us about them! (Note that I don't really blame Kevin for that - he's just playing the character - but it's still frustrating.) And 2) because my character is more of an administrator than anything else, I seem to be gaining experience points much slower than everyone else. For the last five games, I've only gotten the "thanks for coming" and "roleplaying" points, and everyone gets those. Other points are supposed to come from other players noticing when you do something impressive. Every game, someone suggests that Matt get a point for impressively smashing in a bad guy's skull. Matt argues - because that's what his character is supposed to do, so it's not all that impressive for him - but he gets the point anyway. Last night, the doctor got a point for doing his job. Greg usually gets a humor point. But my character isn't an impressive fighter, doesn't have any life-saving skills, and I'm not usually that funny. Did I get a point for getting us in to see the planetary council? Nope. Should I have? Not technically - it was my job - but it seems like there just aren't any ways for me to impress my fellow players with the character I'm currently playing. To make matters worse, she spends about half of every game out of action because she's of a delicate race and every combat puts her in the hospital. ::sigh:: Wow. So much for not getting into it; I guess I'm still a little irritable about it. I'll stop now, I promise. I apologize to my non-gaming readers for getting totally spooky, there...

As I was drying off after my shower this morning, my gaze happened to fall on my bathing suit, hanging on the doorknob to dry. Then it suddenly occurred to me that my gym bag was still in the car from Friday, when we skipped aerobics class - but why was the suit still in the bathroom? And the water shoes, too! I realized that the gym bag in the car contained my towel and nothing else. Oops. Guess it was a good thing we'd skipped class on Friday!

This weekend we're going up to Christiansburg for a weekend of gaming with my friend Jen and her husband Brian. (Why do I always say that? It's not like Matt and Jen aren't friends, or that Brian isn't our friend. I guess it's just that I knew Jen before either of us had met our husbands. But how important is it to know what the relationships used to be if they're different now? Weird.) Anyway, Jen calls these trips the Lost Weekend. (I find myself somewhat amused by the name, because I first encountered the phrase "Lost Weekend" in a book where it had distinct sexual overtones.) But this will be gaming. And probably lots of just sitting around and talking and telling stories. I'm looking forward to it, even if it means that it won't be very relaxing (no matter how much fun the weekend is, staying up late and sleeping in a strange house and driving four hours each way isn't very relaxing) and we'll have to rush on Sunday to get all the chores done on time. But I've known Jen longer than any other non-family member that I have regular contact with, and we haven't seen her and Brian for several months, so I'm definitely excited. Need to remember to bring some allergy medicine with me this time, though.

Anyway, I've put off doing work plenty long now, so I'll sign off until tomorrow...

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