I woke up feeling a bit tired today. I was up late (as seems to be my usual), and last night just didn’t do much for me. Some of it is my bedsheets. They badly need changed, but over the last few days I just haven’t mustered the attention for it. Some of it is stress. I can’t help but think about my uncertain future, my dwindling funds, and plenty of other things I feel unhappy about.
At least there’s a warm shower waiting for me. I take a moment to rub some crust from my eyes and pick a scab or two before I turn the hot water on. It feels nice, but I’m not really in a singing mood. Instead of music, my mind is reeling with things I should or might do (as well as questioning whether I will actually do them).
Luckily, the most pressing thing on my mind was finally completed recently. A bit of emotional turmoil and existential dread pushed me to a breakthrough in the last few days, and I finally completed my last writing assignments for Ball State. I finally broke through the last few steps to graduate and get on with my life. It’s a huge weight off my shoulders to just have it done. Today then, I was thinking about cleaning up part of my apartment and doing some dishes.
After my shower, I hop onto my laptop and shoot off a few emails. I’m a bit hungry and thinking about the leftover pizza in my fridge, but I decide to push it off for a bit. I check Discord, which has taken up more of my attention recently. I’m playing a living campaign with pickup groups from 20ish players, and I’m actually playing a game later today. No one has said much, except one player who seems a little controlling telling us where to meet in-game.
I spend a little time watching YouTube videos when I get a call from my dad. He wants to coordinate our departure tomorrow for our monthly poker game in Ohio. He actually wants to head over there a bit earlier, which suits me just fine, but first he’s going to stop off and visit my sister while she’s working on a school project. After a brief chat, I decide to have that pizza for dinner, and settle for a hotdog and some chips.
After my lunch/snack, I sweep the tile floors of our kitchen and follow up with a quick vacuum over the living room. I recently put together a new Dyson my aunt gave me, and I was somewhat skeptical of how good it would be. However, it actually worked quite well with excellent handling and decent power and reach. Final judgment: it sucks (badum-ptsh).
I do a little bit of dishes, but my heart isn’t in it. I get some bowls and plates done and call it quits early. I retire to my usual time-wasting of choice: Apex Legends, usually followed by a little bit of Smash Bros. I play a couple of uninteresting matches, mostly losing ranked points, until I hit a very successful game with Wattson (one of the characters). I actually became the kill leader and ended up solo winning the round at the very end. A nice little pick-me-up.
As it gets close to 3:30, I put all of the leftover pizza and cheesesticks in the oven to warm back up. As they start to get ready, I begin to wonder if I should have heated it all up today or only done half and save the rest. But, since I will be away from my apartment for the next few days, I won’t have another good chance to eat it before it goes bad. I feel pretty stuffed after I eat all of it.
After eating, it’s north to Fort Wayne. I have to make a pit stop at the gas station on Wheeling on my way out of Muncie, but then it’s smooth sailing. I kind of zone out for the hour or so it takes me to reach my destination. It’s relatively sunny at the moment, but it occurs to me that I don’t know if our game is at 6pm or 6:30, and I might be rudely early. A quick check on my laptop shows that I am on time (and everyone else is late).
Inside, my friend decides to vent a little about players who are annoying him, and the need for him to monitor the game more closely than he really wants to. I commiserate with him, but I’m a little uncomfortable as I feel like I too have caused some of the problems. I also learn that one of the players for the night is going to skype in, which we are both skeptical of.
After a little bit of time, two of the other players arrive. The last player is not yet accounted for. We spend some time talking about certain rules of the game that are unclear and need workshopping. I’m trying to get to the heart of what the GM wants, while one of the other players is kind of just spinning his wheels, and talking about what he wants. He’s being a bit rude to be honest, and running right over me while I’m trying to speak. I let it go, and eventually we determine the last player isn’t coming, so it’s a party of 3.
We work pretty efficiently together in-game, making quick decisions and proceeding cautiously but boldly. We actually find a large cache of sweet gear pretty early on, which gives my greedy little player heart a nice high. It did, however, make me a little careless and my character almost got eaten by a mimic shaped like a chest in the very next room.
Without going into to much detail…one of the other players kind of annoys me. He is inconsistently cautious, barely listens to me, and lacks a level of common sense that I would be comfortable with. We also hit a situation that could have easily killed all our characters and I wasn’t thrilled with his response. As we pull back to close out the night and divide the loot, he started complaining about not getting enough, and not wanting to divide the special items. I manage to find a reasonable compromise, but he was wearing on me. Still, between treasure and experience, I went home mostly satisfied with the adventure.
I was a little drowsy driving home, but didn’t encounter any problems. Once home, I spent an hour or so on Smash Bros. while “The New Pope” played in the background. Finally, I had enough and decided to go to bed.