Last night was a prime example of ‘me’ vs ‘us’ time. I get home a little before 6 from work and
the gym. I cool down and shower. My MinL and SinL are setting the table for
dinner. Stacy gets home around 6:30 and
we all eat dinner. I put away the dirty
dishes and clean up while she plays with the baby. Then my wife decides she wants to take a
walk. After all, its milkshake Monday at
the local ice-cream place down the road.
So we pack up Nathan (my son) into his stroller and head out. We get back in 30 minutes or so when its
getting dark out. She takes Nathan into
the front living room with her Mom and Sister where they talk and are watching
TV, and playing with Nathan who is getting tired and fussy a bit.
So I figure, nothing else going on that demands my immediate
attention. A good time to jump onto Call
of Duty-Black Ops and play a quick game or 2.
Besides, my family is watching the final episode of Bachelor Pad, which
I have ZERO interest in. My computer is
set up in the family room, which is on the opposite side of the house. Stacy wants me to show her something on the
computer but she’s occupied. I figure
when she is ready she will come and get me.
So I jump in team speak with my friends and jump in game. (I
play with a fairly regular group of people who run their own clan server. I’m not in the clan, but a regular) And it’s a good day. All games know what I mean. Especially in FPS games, you have good days
and bad days. Last night was a very good
day. I was kicking ass and taking
names. The other team is cursing me in
team speak for repeatedly killing them, capping HQ points and generally just
being awesome. I get through 2-3 games
where I am just on fire. And when your
playing good, you want to keep playing, riding that wave. Much like when your having a bad day, where
you keep spawning in front of the enemy, take every grenade to the head and die
repeatedly without actually ever killing anybody, all you want to do is log and
go do something else for a while.
So anyway, I play for maybe an hour. And here comes Stacy with the dirty look and
the “are you going to play every night?” comments. I tell her I was just waiting on her to be
ready and quickly log off the game. I
show her what she needs to know on her laptop, but am then expected to sit with
her and watch the last 45 minutes of Bachelor Pad with her in the family
room. Sitting their, bored out of my
mind while she’s typing up stuff on her laptop, watching a show I have zero
interest in. My computer sits, 15 feet
away, lonely. But I know if I go to it,
I will piss of Stacy. Why? Because this is ‘us’ time?
Now don’t get me wrong.
I like ‘us’ time. If there is a
show we both want to watch (I only watch a few TV shows, that we watch together. Castle, Combat Hospital). Or a movie from Netflix that we watch.
(Usually 2 a week?) She has no desire to
watch the shows I like on the Discovery Channel, NGEO or the Military
channel. And she pretty much rules the
TV and what is watching. The ‘Lifetime’
network, Hallmark network, ‘O’ network.
Made for tv movies. I’ve seen so
many of them now. And we both enjoy a
lot of the same interests outside of the house.
But a work night, where nothing is going on?
So is it wrong, if we are not doing anything but watching
TV, generally a show I have no desire to watch to want to go and play a game
for a bit? I’m in the same room as my
wife, so I’m available for questions, comments or honey-do’s. Lately I’ll play while Nathan is on his
pillow or swing right by me so I can watch him.
So that’s my question.
Am I in the wrong? Have the time
I feel guilty for trying to sneak an hour of play time in here or their. For me, its my decompress from work
time. My stress relief. For her, vegging in front of the TV works the
same.
And you know what is the last thing that happens before we
goto bed? Foot rub. For her, a good 15-20 minutes per foot
leaving her falling asleep on the bean bag.
See? I pay for the right to be
able to game some.
-out
