Too Long...

It's been too long since I last did this. A lot has happened, or at least it feels like a lot has happened. The one year anniversary of my weight loss surgery came and went and I realized I lost 257 lbs in one year, almost 50% of my total starting weight. We started a monthly routine over the last couple of months where Amy and I have gotten together with my friend Curt and his girlfriend, Jessica, for board and card games once a month. I hope to see that continue. But our monthly D&D game has not yet recovered from the total party kill in October.

That is the thorn I'm wrestling with at this point. I love playing D&D and I really enjoy the social aspect of the game; sitting around a table with friends, chatting about movies you've seen, books you've read, new things going on in your lives. The game is the excuse to get together, the framework or impetus for people to meet and share a like experience. Dungeons & Dragons has been the common denominator for me for almost 30 years.

In my teen years, it wasn't the only thing we did. Weekend nights were for watching movies you weren't supposed to see when you're 12 years old, either on the cable movie channels or VCRs. You'd also be really surprised how much walking around you do at 2am when you're 13 or 14 years old. Any excuse to stay out late and not go home. It wasn't because home was bad, just boring. We were just looking for a little adventure and we may have caused a little trouble looking for it but very little in the big scheme of things. Nothing more than you're typical teenagers I would guess.

And that brings me back to now and the demise of the D&D game. Despite being 40 years old, happily married with a beautiful, vibrant 5 year old daughter I still crave that sense of adventure, even if it is only in my imagination sitting at a dining room table once a month. My life is not really boring but it does sometimes fell routine. But more so than that, I have always been a social person and I am fearful of losing those connections with my friends. I'm afraid that without the common ground of D&D that there will be no reason to get together and spend time with each other, that we will drift apart and not see each other any more. And maybe I can't stop that no matter how hard I try; my desire to keep the game going to keep my friendships alive will not be enough.

But I have to try because I value those experiences too much. Here's hoping March will yield a new game.