Once upon a time, when we were all young and carefree and had too much time on our hands, Mike used to play video games.  He played a LOT of video games- along with his brothers and the rest of their strange clan of nerdy friends, they would have parties where everybody would bring their computer- their DESKTOP computer, because laptops weren’t good enough to play the good games- and they would play these games (Halo, Alice, Starcraft, Counterstrike and lots of other games that I don’t have any recollection of) until the wee hours of the night, and sometimes until the morning, and they didn’t think this was strange or particularly nerdy or anything at all.

I was rarely present for these dorkfests- usually I used the time to go out with MY friends and do things that didn’t bore me to tears.  Sometimes though, I would be a good sport and hang out while the boys played.  I would read a book, or browse the internet, or wander around aimlessly looking for somebody who wasn’t playing a game who would talk to me.  One time (I think shortly after World of Warcraft came out) during a particularly epic session that was taking place at our house, I drank an entire bottle of wine out of boredom and sat in the middle of our living room (which was filled with 7 or 8 temporary desks) calling my best friend Mary to complain that nobody was talking to me.  I only remember this episode because, according to Mary, it was one of the saddest and most entertaining conversations of our entire friendship.

Now that we live in Seattle and Mike works entirely too much, the days of marathon video game sessions are a distant memory.  Well, they were until yesterday, when we got a new addition to our family- the iPad.

(At this point, I hope nobody is surprised that Mike got an iPad the first day it came out.  I mean, you’ve met him, right?  He might as well have “Early Adopter” tattooed on his forehead.)

The iPad has a bunch of theoretically awesome features- you can watch your Netflix OnDemand queue right on it and play Scrabble.  We even used the ABC instant streaming app to watch the iPad-themed episode of Modern Family on the iPad- talk about meta-awesomeness.  Or at least meta-novelty.

Anyway, as cool as those things are, what I think we all underestimated about the iPad’s appeal was the game-play factor- evidently this is the perfect platform for low-commitment, wonderfully amusing and epidsodic video games.  As a result, this is what the last 36 hours of my life have looked like:

Ben, who had no interest in an iPad until Mike talked him into it on Friday, is here and got one too.

As annoying as it can be, it does kind of make me feel young again.

Also, with the boys distracted, I had time to get a lot done today.  I got some writing done for an all-new secret project I’m working on (details coming soon).  I tasted a ridiculous number of cupcakes during a cupcake tasting that Barrie organized yesterday.  I then found out that I am way too old to eat a bunch of cupcakes and not become a total narcoleptic.  I had a massage to work a wicked knot out of my back (my self-diagnosis of piriformis or sciatica was incorrect- I just worked out too much last week).  I made a whole bunch of food for the next week, including a pretty decent pork and lamb ragu that took about 6 hours to make.  There was so much that I canned a jar for my friend Cristina, who just had surgery after falling off her bike and shattering her elbow.  She has to spend the next 6 weeks wearing a sling.  I know how that feels.

Injuries are bad.  Thankfully, friends, cupcakes, lazy days and moments of recaptured youth are good.