My intrepid husband, Bob, and our youngest son, Erik, are off to Camp Thunderbird for two nights. Camp Thunderbird is a fifth grade rite of passage; young campers blow off steam and bunk together in cabins before leaving elementary school behind for the trials of middle school. Bob was a chaperone for this adventure two years ago with our oldest son, Alex, and plays an adult in the cabin for Erik's trip this year.
This leaves my oldest son Alex to look after his aging mother and keep her out of trouble. Alex will achieve the distinction of teenager this spring, and Bob gave him explicit instructions to engage me in some recreational activities to keep me away from the torrent of work email that I slog through on most evenings. Having Alex at home without Bob and Erik is something like having two bachelors in the house; neither of us need much maintenance or care and we both are accustomed to riding the wave of conversation and entertainment from Bob and Erik.
Alex and I had a lovely dinner tonight (if I do say so myself), and Alex explained the pact he had made with his father. My oldest son's analysis of how to keep his Mother entertained came down to whether it would be more difficult to teach me how to play DODA (Defense Of The Ancients, a spin off of World of Warcraft), or Super Smash Bros (a Nintendo Wii game). We settled on Super Smash Bros as the easier game, given my mental blocks with most computer based games. For some reason I have obstacles using a computer for recreation and only recently learned how to play and enjoy Fruit Ninja. I may be the only person on the planet who has not played Angry Birds.
I was somewhat anxious about playing Super Smash Bros. In normal play my two sons annihilate each other without prejudice, and the idea of playing the game at that level is a bit intimidating. Alex turned out to be a great instructor; he let me pick a character (I picked Pikachu - I miss the Pokémon days), and he explained how to move and attack using the Wii controller. Once I could operate a character, Alex suggested that we just play and forget about the goal to battle and kill each other, although I accidentally killed him a few times and won the first round. Hooray for Mom! I think?
In the second and third rounds I picked different characters and we played more than we battled, picking up different tools and weapons and laughing at the aftermath when we fired. I didn't know what I was doing, but it was fun, I think? I accidentally killed Alex a few times, and due to the nature of the game he wound up asking me to go ahead and kill him a few times. Hooray for Mom! I think?
It was getting late and time for bed; Alex relieved me of my lesson and made the observation that it was funny to play with me because I didn't like to kill him. Whenever I accidentally killed him, I involuntarily exclaimed 'Oh, I'm sorry!'. Thinking back on it though, I don't think he came after me once - so maybe he found it difficult to kill Mom. Hooray for Mom! I think?
Tomorrow night maybe we'll play cards...
