Yesterday was one of those days. My car broke down at lunchtime. Stupid alternator, stupid piece of crap car. And though I was annoyed that my car torpedoed my work day, at least I didn’t have to go back to work. So once AAA towed my car home and I told my honey what had malfunctioned and we made a plan to repair, it dawned on me that I’d have the rest of the afternoon to game. Woo hoo! 🥳
As I sat down to play Blue Light, a sweet little platforming/puzzle game with a Zelda-esque hero, I got a text from my boss telling me a very large batch of meds I’d compounded might have had an issue. And though this issue was through no fault of my own, it would need to be thrown out and remade. It’s akin to grinding for 8 hours and then the game crashes and it turns out none of what you achieved had saved.
At this point, my mood might have been salvageable. But the hits just kept coming. As an attempt to brighten my sour disposition, I bought a game I’d been wanting for a while. A little retail therapy as it were. I was sure Stray Blade was gonna be so much fun. But it wasn’t. The combat is slow and clunky and it’s hard to time defensive actions. I’m sure I could muddle through and figure it out, but yesterday was not the day for frustrating combat. I just wanted to hack an enemy head off in glorious fashion. Was that too much to ask?!
Then the dog had an accident on the rug (he’s old, it happens, but it’s never pleasant). I also discovered we were out of dog food and of course I have no vehicle to go get some. And the little inconveniences just kept piling up.
It was death by a thousand cuts. My mood spiraled down and down until I reached that space where I wanted to crawl out of my skin. Or grab my keys and drive until I ran out of gas…oh wait. Yeah, that’s not gonna work.
By the time Charles got home I was a seething ball of hatred for the world. Not even goofing around on Blue Light was helping. I’d gotten stuck in an area I couldn’t figure out how to get out of.
After giving me a hug and kiss–well, lots of hugs and kisses because he could see the black aura emanating from me–he suggested we jump on Godfall together and tackle the Ascended Tower of Trials. At first I thought this a terrible idea. We’d never been able to beat all 30 levels before, today would most likely not be that day.
But then he reminded me, we were playing to spend time together. Who cares if we beat it this time? And besides there’d be lots of enemies to dispatch with an abundance of malice. I do enjoy the combat system in Godfall. I begrudgingly agreed.
Two hours later, my prophecy proved correct. We got our a$$es handed to us on floor 20. But boy was I wrong to resist. By the end I was laughing and my mood was so much better and several times throughout the levels we’d hugged or high-fived at our moments of brilliance. See, it wasn’t just gaming I’d needed to cheer myself up, but gaming with my favorite person in the whole world. Well, to quote the old Mastercard commercials, priceless.
I’m hoping today I am the windshield and not the bug. But even if it all falls to crap again, I know exactly what to do and with whom I’m gonna do it.
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Game on, my friends!
When a Gamer Girl Grows up 