Positive Experience #7

We've almost made it, the worst month of the year is just about over. I couldn't be happier! Due to the decreased sunlight in the winter, everyone in Alaska gets a serious itch to get the crap out of town and into warmer climates. This is why everyone who can afford to goes to Hawaii in March. I didn't get the luxury of travel this month due to the continued appearance of surprise medical bills, but I'm certainly feeling much better than I did last year, when I was learning all about the drudgery of clinical depression and not having a restful night's sleep in about a year. It wouldn't really take much to be better than that, but it's certainly been better, all told.

This past week I've been on call for the first time at work. This consists of being given a company cell phone and a mobile wifi hotspot and being the person that customers get forwarded to whenever there's no one logged into the phones at work (either because the person who is there is at lunch or there simply isn't anyone scheduled at that time). There isn't anyone scheduled from Saturday afternoon for about 25 hours until Sunday afternoon. This ended up being more of a hassle than I would have wanted it to be. However, I understand I didn't have it too bad. And Aubrey and I did some funny stuff to cope with it.

It was Aubrey's grandpa's birthday on Saturday, and he's going in for surgery this week, so she really didn't want to miss it. We drove down Saturday afternoon and had "ice cream cake" (which is more of a frozen pudding cake with a buttery nut crust) as it traditional for occasions with Aubrey's Grandparents. On the way back home, the clock struck 4, which meant that I would start getting calls, which I did immediately.

So we were driving up I-15 and I was on the phone and on my laptop in the passenger's seat taking tech support calls and typing up cases. It wasn't "fun" like doing something that is actually fun, but fun in it's own way, it felt pretty cool to be able to make it all work. Plus Aubrey thinks it's sexy when I take care of business like a total bouse. So win-win there! I also took calls at home (of course), in the Best Buy parking lot, and someone else that I can't remember. It was pretty fun times! And I event got paid for it. Everything we did turned into a "race against" time to try and get through something before the phone would ring. The best was definitely when we went out to dinner. There was some serious suspense, and we ended up never getting a call! That bread pudding we got for desser was a real shame though. That was an alcoholic sponge, not bread pudding.

The on-call ends tomorrow (which will be a relief). I'll have to plan something awesome to do with Aubrey since my schedule in the evening won't be all janked up.

Another positive thing: I caught a whiff of Breakup this weekend.

Let me explain, when I was growing up, there was a special time of the year (in April or so) when all the snow would really start to melt in earnest, and all of the grass and mud would finally be exposed for the first time in month and it had a distinct "melty" smell. (Sidenote: 6 months of frozen animal poop and garbage would also become exposed at this time, but we won't dwell on that.) And this triggered two things in my mind: Running and Heroes of Might and Magic 2. YEAH!!! I was on the track team in high school so I always get the itch to run in Spring. And I played a lot of that game one spring with a friend of mine. So I did both over the weekend and it was awesome and I loved it! Actually, I didn't run, I did walk for a good time and difficulty on the treadmill though. I kind of need to work my way up. I've gotten totally fat and I still haven't really gotten used to the elevation in Utah. I'll get there.

But either way, things are looking up! I hope everyone has a great day!

Most Enjoyed: 2012

Sure, it's coming way after I promised it, but here it is none the less.

Mists of Pandaria - I'm currently taking a break from WoW because I'm tired of farming in games (ironically, I love the little farm you can get in the game now). But a great expansion! I'd be more interested if I had a good raid team/schedule, but in the absence of that. I'm ok without playing for now.

Starcraft 2 - I managed to get a feel of being more involved in the game this past year. Great game. Great community. Expect more great things to come.

Dungeon Defenders - I got freaking hooked on this for a couple of months! Still a great way to burn a few hours.

Guild Wars 2 - Content patches are coming out all the time for GW2. You should definitely take a look if you're in the mood for a good MMO w/o wanting to pay a subscription.

Age of Empires Online - Still fun, but after playing SC2 the gameplay itself feels slow and stale.

Punch Quest/Ski Safari/Road Trip 2 - I love these side-scrolling runner games. Extra props to Ski Safari for having the catchiest music.

Amnesia: The Dark Decent - Aubrey and I finally got brave and started playing through this game. And then we got a big tv. And then we played it on the big tv. And then we decided we were better off just watching Day9's playthrough.  By far one of the creepiest games I've ever played. Great mechanics.

Nastolgia:
Chrono Trigger/Majora's Mask/FF3(6) - Got these babies on the Wii Virtual Console and I play them on the treadmill. Great multitasking!!