Why I Play Xbox During Nap Time

Me: “Hi, my name is Angela and I am a gamer wife.”

Group (that’s you): “Hiii Angela!”

As far as I know there aren’t many of us.  We’re kind of like rainbows, I suppose; you can only find us when the conditions are right.  “Hello, hello, hello… any female gamers out there, out there, out there…?”  That’s me echoing out for female gamers.  Okay that was kind of lame, but hey, it’s a hard knock life trying to find other rainbows!

Anyway, here’s my backstory:

When we got married Mister said, “hey, while you’re at home looking for work, you should learn to play Xbox.”  I was introduced to Elder Scrolls Oblivion – the most time consuming game ever.  I would practice all day trying to learn the game.  Once I learned how to play Xbox… oh boy, did I learn it.  I played as soon as he left for work at 8am and stopped right before he got home at 5pm.  Yes, it was that serious.  Sometimes I wasn’t finished with a mission before he got home or I’d wake up early on the weekend and get on the game before he could.  After a few bouts of this, he declared that HIS Xbox was not OUR Xbox and that he was evicting me from his Xbox.  How rude!  But it worked out because after I got my own Xbox, Xbox Live account, headset and separate plasma T.V. we were able to play together!  Mister and I would spend most non-working hours playing Xbox.  I’m talking about: wake up early, turn on the game and play until our eyes burned in the midnight hour.  Usually we picked up beer the day before and ordered pizza so we wouldn’t have to take a break and eat at the table like civilized people.  It’s a shame, I know.  I’d be in the living room and he’d be in his man cave, both playing Xbox online together with our headsets talking to each other (and with a good amount of his real friends also online – that makes teams so much more fun).  The day that Elder Scrolls released their next series, Skyrim, I left work during lunch to buy us 2 copies at the local Best Buy.  It sounds really bad when I say it out loud.  Imagine if I was that on-top-of-my-ish in other areas of my life?

Those days are long gone since having our little one, which is why I play Xbox during nap time.  I need my fix.  Plus it is actually relaxing.  My love bug is an amazing toddler, but some days he is on TEN.  Okay, maybe seven… eight… naa, seven… he really is a great boy.  Xbox takes the edge off by allowing me to completely zone out and not have to think about anything other than what I am doing in the game.  And when my hun bun wakes up I am calm, cool and collected.  Now I know that some moms get that feeling from working out, shopping, watching T.V., cooking or having a glass of wine, but Xbox is my opiate of choice.  Some wives/girlfriends get annoyed when their man is playing video games and seemingly ignoring them.  (Let’s not make playing Xbox sound like a negative.  Let’s rebrand “ignoring” to “focusing on recreational stress reduction activities.”  See, problem solved.).  My suggestion: join him!  C’mon give it a try!  Yes, there is a learning curve, but the action in the game is fun and best of all you get to spend quality time with your snuggle bunny big strappin’ man!  In a weird way it makes you feel as though you’ve really accomplished something when you level up – even when your real life laundry isn’t done.  Are there any rainbows that feel me?  What games do you play?