Moments of Joy...

Katie wants me to play a video game she really liked. I haven't played games (real ones, not little phone games) in a long time. Brent and I played before she was born. We kept it up for awhile when she was little. I liked Echo the Dolphin a lot and used the BlockBuster Game Genie rental to get through all the levels of Sonic if that gives you a timeframe.

We played off and on with her when she was younger. We played the Rock Band games as a family. And Boom Blox for a bit. I played Banjo Kazooie. She and I played Spiro together. When we first started she would hand me the controller for the tougher timing jumps, then years later, when the Switch came out and they brought in Spiro I played on her Switch a few times and would hand her the controller for the tough jumps. Sunrise...sunset...

But for the most part I just stopped playing video games for a stretch. I was busy. If I had free time I was going to read not play a game. Then I tried picking them back up once I got a little more time and...Holy cow they got hard. Press this button while pressing that one and move the camera with your thumb while scrolling with your pinky and then press X C and D at one time but not for too long and... Yeah. No.

So this game that she wanted me to play, she said, "it's easy. It's not even so much a game as it is a walk through story. I just think you'll like it and get something out of it."

There isn't much better as a parent of an adult child than when they want you to do something that they enjoy so they can talk to you about it. So that you can share in it with them. I've watched TV shows and movies that she's recommended, though I haven't gotten to all of them, I swear one day I will watch the SheRa reboot. And she's waiting for her dad and I to watch Invincible because she thinks we both will like it but I'm reading them first so I've put that on a slight hold. For the most part I've liked what she's recommended. Some of them I've loved (Steven Universe and The Owl House). So her asking me to play this game was a moment of joy.

Then I started it yesterday.

And...it took me a bit to figure out how to walk and how to open things. I thought, well I guess it's easier, but only if you know what the fuck you are doing, which I do not. And then I got stuck at the very beginning of the game and gave up for awhile. She told me what to look for so I'll go back and try again, but it still made me laugh.

But there is a second part to the joy. The first view of the house in the game you see all of these added on floors to the house and it's rickety and looks like something a kid would create. And I thought, it's like the wonky tower in The Witches in the Wonky Tower. I sent Katie the link so she could "see" what I was talking about and...

She liked the story. Bonus moment of joy.

She doesn't normally read my stuff, nobody wants to read their mom's diary and face it a personal blog is nothing more than a fancy diary. Brent has only recently started consistently reading my stuff (the it shows up in your inbox has boosted the readership in my household to 100%). And I'm fine with them not reading my things, but I'm also really pleased when they do read it, and they like what they've read.

Especially something like The Witches in the Wonky Tower which to this day is one of my favorite things I've ever written.

I reread it all yesterday after I sent her the link and loved it all over again.

Three moments of joy out of one video game recommendation. Not bad.