So, it’s been a while since I’ve sat down and written just a “this is what is going on in my life” post.  Figured it was high time.

Frankly, this week has pretty much sucked balls.  I’ve been dealing with a bunch of crap, and most of it has revolved around those three words often repeated here – World of Warcraft.  Specifically, the people in the game.  Not individuals per se, or their actions, but the fact that there are so many of them in our guild now.  Despite the fact that most of us have at least some kind of real world connection, that’s no guarantee that we’re all going to think and act alike.   There are occasionally going to be bumps in the road.

Just turns out that a few of those bumps decided to show up around the same time, and they were all those really big speed bumps that will totally fuck up your car if you go over them too fast.

The sad thing is that most of this happened on Tuesday night, when I wasn’t even online.  I had decided to take the night off because I was feeling stressed about the game for OTHER reasons.  I watched some TV, relaxed for a bit, and decided to check our guild forums before I went to bed.  In the 3 hours I was offline Mt. Kilimanjaro decided to explode all over the guild.  In the days following, the volcano kept spelling ash out all over the damn place as I had all kinds of issues that folks have been keeping to themselves dumped in my lap.

So I’m also dealing with a lot of red herrings.  Joy!

There are 94 people in our guild currently, and at times it seems like there are 94 different ways that people think the guild should be run.  From the super casual folks who feel neglected to the super hardcore folks who don’t think we’re strict enough to everyone in between I’m standing in the middle trying to do my best to keep my cool and find ways to keep everyone happy.

Lots of times, it ain’t a lot of fun.  It certainly ain’t easy, and I don’t always succeed.  Sometimes I make the wrong choice.  Sometimes I blow my top, too.  It doesn’t happen often, but it happened twice this week.  I ain’t proud of it, but ya know….Try walking a mile in my shoes….

Yep, I could quit.  Would be as simple as stopping the payments on my credit card.  Trust me when I say I’ve thought about it.  I guess what ultimately keeps me from doing so is the fact that this game has not only put me back in touch with old friends who I hardly ever spoke with, it’s also the only social setting I can associate with certain folks who I met there.  I mean, I have friends in this guild who I’ve known since I was a teenager.  20 year relationships, and I talk to them more now than I EVER did before we started playing WoW together.  I’ve also gotten very close with people who I met in the game.  People who we’ve since met in real life and consider part of our inner circle.  WoW is the ONLY way we regularly “see” them.

I know.  Those of you who think it’s “just a game” can’t possibly understand.  These games have brought more than a few people into our lives, though.  People who we never would have known had we not played them. 

xany_hellion

 being the big example, there. 

Which is also why it’s not easy for me to just say “fuck it” and start kicking everyone out, too.

It would be easier to deal with if I was one of the yelling, controlling, “this is how the guild is going to fucking be” types.  Not what I’m about, though, and not the kind of people we are.  Sometimes I envy those folks, too.

Speakingof WoW, the fact that K. is going to now be working for wowinsdier.com means that we’re likely going to go to Blizzcon this year.  Which, while being an exciting thing, also sucks because it’s the weekend one of our friends is having a get together in Colorado.  Fact is, the only reason we’re really going to be able to do Blizzcon is because it’s going to be a tax writeoff for K.  As are her monthly game fees and upgrades she makes to her computer.

You take whatever help you can get, really.  Things are a little better after the refinance, but still going to be tight for a while.

I don’t imagine the flight is going to be a lot of fun for K, either, especially since we’re going to have to do this with as little time out of town as possible (I’ll be wrapping up a big project at work).  She’ll have very little down time between one flight and another.  Couple that with jet lag and it’s going to be…interesting.

Yeah, it’s sad that I’ve written this much about a video game and that said video game pretty much defines the state of the Critus, but there it is.  Have some other stuff I could write about, but at this point I gotta get back to that real life stuff….