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(age: 21 years, 11 months, 26 days, 23 hours, 15 minutes)
[history: 2002... 1990... ]

Monday November 22, 1999

22/XI/99 - Oh what an addiction!

I ought to explain my outrageous absence (okay, so it was only two days, but they were weekend days which is unusual for me). I've become addicted. Yes, something other than beanie babies has over powered my mind and consumed my every notion of time. I'm officially a roller coaster park making fanatic!

Saturday I went to breakfast with my mommy. Then we went to SlaveWay to get salmon for dee-nner. On our way home to play Scrabble, Ed drove by heading towards where we had just come from. I waved and said, "There's Ed!". My mom didn't see him, but she said, "Oh, Hi Ken!" (she's got this thing with basic guy's names... she can't get them right!) Ed, I noticed, also saw us and waved! After we got home, I had cleared off the table, and gotten the Scrabble board out, I called Ed to see what he was up to. I tried my house first (natural instinct), then his, then gave up. As soon as I got off the phone with his mother, my phone rang. According to my caller id, it was me (I know what you're thinking: that's impossible... you can't call yourself! Can you? No, I can't... it just means it was coming from my home phone: Ed was at my house!) "Hey Ed!" "Where are you?" "At my mom's" "Oh, did you see me then?" "Yep!" He asked what we were doing. I told him we were going to play Scrabble and I invited him to join us. "I don't know about you, but I'm about to install Roller Coaster Tycoon on your computer!" "Really?", I asked, totally and completely psyched! We talked about it a bit more and I said I'd go down later and play with him. He was going through the tutorial as we spoke. "I got you something else!" he said, tauntingly. Baffled and excited I asked, "Really? What?" "They're white and round, and..." I interrupted him, "...and if you open up the drawer below the candy drawer you'll find two more boxes!", I laughed. I could hear the drawer open as he grunted a 'Nuh uh', "No, the drawer under the candy drawer!" I insisted. Again I hear a drawer being opened, "Ahhhhh!" he says as his eyes feast upon two more boxes of White Chocolate covered Oreos. "It's okay", I insisted, "this is the only time you can get 'em. We have to stock up anyway! Put the ones you got in the freezer!" I could almost hear the goofy grin on his face as he realized how yummy they'd be! He then proceeded to explain why he had gotten them. In February he found a box I had hidden away, and ate them... leaving only three or four (which he ate the next time he came over.) After I protested, he promised me he'd replace them, not realizing they are a seasonal item in the US (stupid, stupid, stupid company for that matter). So now that they're back in stores... he felt the need to redeem himself by re-stocking me for my unpredictable cravings. I got turned on to these wondrous delights in Argentina. They were expensive, so I didn't get them often. But every now and again I'd be likely to romp down the street as much as ten blocks to find a kiosko that had even one little pack of two cookies. If I have my mind of something, I'll be darned if I'm gonna just sit there and think about it! Now, when i came back to the US, I realized they don't sell the white chocolate ones (I don't like regular chocolate, I'm weird like that!)... except at Christmas time. Are you beginning to see why I love Christmas so much? Back to my newest addiction: Mom and I played an awful game of Scrabble. Trying to convince each other of words like requakewow, luntsafondlerto, and more insane connections for lack of better possibilities. She won, only because she took all the S's, by a little, and I was on my way home to play my with my new toy until dinner. Wow! What a cool game! I'm glad I trusted the epinions I read about it. (They're what turned me on to it enough to convince me I actually wanted it!) The graphics are real cool. You can watch people check to see what time it is, munch on their bought goodies, interact with entertainers, etc. Meanwhile the building can be either invigorating or just downright frustrating. Either way it was extremely enjoyable and addictingly challenging. At first I just sat and watched Ed do his thing. Until I got the hang of it that is. Then I started making suggestions, asking questions, full on participation. He finally switched me places and let me control the board. I did pretty well, but I would frustrate him a bit because I was definitely slower then him. He does have a head start on me though, he's played things like Total Annihilation, SimCity, and others that have that same "build strategically theme". However, patience has been abundant in Ed lately. Therefore he did great at letting me do my thing at my own pace, no matter how pathetic it was. He was even what you might consider supportive of my futile efforts. He's really been a pleasure to be with during all of our recent encounters and interactions. I've noticed little things especially, like how he'll always check now to make sure that we are at the end of our telephone conversation before hanging up. Whereas before, he would just hang up... (maybe he just doesn't want to deal with me calling back... either way, it comes off as thoughtful!) We spent the whole afternoon playing. Then we went up to my mom's house for dinner. My mom and I obviously miscommunicated, so dinner wasn't ready yet when we got there. It's all cool though, we ended up helping get the stuff together. After we'd assembled the salad Ed plopped himself in front of the TV and did the unthinkable... He watched football. Not that he wouldn't ever watch football, it's just that no one watches football at my mom's house. She has a hard enough time dealing with Canela's baseball/softball stuff! She tried to complain, but he just laughed it off and asked, "Is dinner ready yet?", every four minutes or so! After dinner Ed gathered all the dishes and began to clear the table, all in efforts of returning to my house to play more game. We had left my game going while we were gone, hoping it would sort of complete itself. Well... Once we got home we saw that I had failed my goal. Good thing we had saved it before leaving, that way i could go back to where we had left it off. He continued playing his game and I watched Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? He stayed until almost 12:30am, not having any inkling as to the time. I swear (or maybe I shouldn't, sorry!) you can lose all track of everything with that game: time, hunger, bathroom needs, everything. You'll know how Guest #756 is doing in all that, but your own needs are set aside! Sunday, as I drove to church, Ed passed by on his way to my house. I later brought home sandwiches from the New York City Sub Shop for lunch. Mom came over and we watched Notting Hill. All the meanwhile Ed's still Tycooning away! At about five o'clock he decided he ought to go home. I had been asking him to let me know as soon as I could actively take part in the game with him... but he never got to that point... I was disappointed, to say the least. He even turned off the computer as he got up to leave, as if I wouldn't be using it. Whatever! I went over and turned it back on, loading up my saved game. I completed it, and then another. I admit I ran into a few stumbling blocks along the way, but I persevered with high marks in the end. For instance, it took me a good two or three months to try and build a walkway to the entrance to my roller coaster. My problem was that no matter how I did it, the roller coaster itself would get in the way. By the time I finally got it up and walkable, I had run out of money and couldn't complete the exiting walkway. Well, in order to bring up some cash, I opened up the ride. Unfortunately all this did was leave tons of people over, stranded as they tried to exit the ride. I had to pick them up one by one and try to get them back on the normal path. Needless to say, I had to demolish the whole coaster to get myself back out of the red! I eventually got a better hang on it, but I still think that coaster I was working with is crap, I'll never buy it again!

  scribbled by manky @ 0:00:01
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