The Balance

The Assassin game started less than 24 hours ago and my team is already energized. Plans are being discussed, agreed upon and in the coming hours more than likely finalized.

I'm about 50 miles away from it all right now and frankly, couldn't be happier.

Though I will likely miss the first hit of the game (Or will I? Maybe I'm actually sitting at home and this post is a big psych out. Only one way to find out...) and wish I was making it happen with my teammates, Im perfectly content to be here in Sacramento for Courtney's Mom's wedding.

The idea of balance came to me in a kind of un-expected way a few weeks back, when I was in The City and Courtney was here in Sacramento wrapping up last minute preparations for the wedding. When I say balance, I don't mean it in a spiritual/metaphysical sense. Though Nerfing provides me a profound stillness and calm of spirit post game, by balance I mean between Nerfing and not-Nerfing.

As stated, it wasn't even something I had though about before. With Courtney gone, I was loafing around the house that Friday night (not being a drinker and living in a drinker's neighborhood, I tend to do a lot of loafing come Friday), BSing on Facebook.  I started getting messaged from people I met through games and or through my online Nerf community. I had some good conversations with people, BS'd a little bit more and called it a night.

The next day in the early afternoon (what I like to call "the morning") I got messaged by even more people, then got drawn into a pretty good group discussion. I started thinking about it, namely "man, why doesn't this happen more often?"

Then it hit me: you have a girlfriend, dude. Friday night we're together and I'm far away from social media and children's toy blasters. Ditto for Saturday afternoon (unless there is a game, then we hang Saturday night), but these are the prime Nerd computer hours and thus the best time to connect with my Nerd kinfolk. Prior to this, I thought I was on Nerf overdrive, as I've gone to at least one game a week for the last two months (sometimes as many as three a week if I'm hosting something), as well as constantly planning new games, meeting new people and trying to collaborate on Nerf stuff. I didn't think there was much more I could do. If anything, without giving it much thought, I cut back on activity. Specifically if there is two games in a weekend (or day), I would make a point to only go to one and spend the other day with my special lady.

After running all this through my noggin, I was actually happy that there was a balance between Nerf and non-Nerf activities in my life. I have a tendency to dive face first into anything I think is half-way cool and Nerfing is definitely not an exception. More then anything, I was glad that I naturally went about maintaining the balance, without diving overboard and having to be fished out by a girlfriend who wants to see me more then once a week. So, even though this blog is called Nerfing in the City, I encourage everyone out there to do some non-Nerf stuff to compliment and accent your Nerfing. It'll make the time you spend on the battle field, online chatting or posting much more special.

With that said, I'm taking a break until  Monday to enjoy life up here. Its like 80 degrees out, which means a lot of if you're used to an ever present layer of fog blocking out the sky. A lot, if not damn near all of Courtney's family is coming out for the Wedding, plenty of whom I haven't met and look forward to sharing a word and a laugh with. Until then, keep Nerfing, not-Nerfin or doing whatever makes you happy.

See you monday!