Friday, July 31

Editorial: Charlene is a gamer


First off, Charlene is my wife and no this is not a photo of her (it's Jessica Alba). July 14th 2007 we got married, it was the second most beautiful day of my life! Everything was just perfect. About 300 people at the wedding ceremony and 150 invited guests at the reception. I can smell the day like it was this morning; sunny, peaceful, calm, I was not even nervous (the night before I was). It was like God gave me the day and said it’s all yours have fun. The breeze was blowing just right, my cousin came over early on wedding morning to check on me hoping I did not die of fright (LOL). Family came from near and far and in a show of unity everyone pitched in to make this a wonderful experience for the both of us.

I must confess, I was not too worried about what would happen next. You know, people overanalyze (and that’s justifiable) a lot when getting married. Suddenly there’re responsibilities on your shoulders you never had to carry. You’re now responsible for the well being of a family which is now your own. Remember this is a department many men have never been in and so just getting into it with all of life’s insecurities, will definitely shake most foundations. Well it did nothing to me, I don’t know why, I have a way of brushing off situations; don’t know if this is good or bad, perhaps it’s good and bad but I never felt like the world was crashing down on me. Also Charlene never knew that her new found husband was a hardcore gamer. She was well aware that I played video games, but having an unrelenting passion for it,? Of this she had no clue.

Skipping through the other ceremonial details, (you don’t need to know what happened on the honeymoon) let’s get deep into the situation. So now we’re married, a bit awkward at first even if we’ve known each other for years, it was the first time we slept in the same house on the same bed, eat from the same plates, fighting for the remote control, she want’s quiet I want noise, “the tv’s too loud!” she yells and I’m thinking, I can barely hear anything. But after some tweaking of each other’s mindset it was and has been smooth sailing ever since. Well to be honest we have our share of arguments but nothing out of the way.

I got my ps3 when Metal Gear came out, yes, that’s somewhat late but hey, we’re in tough times, got to watch the money, and I decided when Snake is ready to Bite then I’ll be bitten. On June 12th 2008 snake came along and bit me, and I mean really hard. I’ve been a fan of the long running saga since it’s debut on the original Playstation so there was no other way to go, I needed that slick black system to kick some Shadow Mosses butt. Well my friends, the most amazing thing began, Charlene would be in the living room with me, yelling at the television, being enthralled by snake and the masterfully written story, hec, she even started to play the game a number of times. Now why this never occurred with any of the 360 games is beyond me. Halo is an awesome game with first class story telling, Mass Effect, Gears of War, and again the list is long. But something about snake got her enticed and from then on my wife developed a love for gaming. She was not just an onlooker, she played games and I mean BIG time. When we got Soul Calibur 4 she became the best player around. No, Seriously. You cannot not challenge my wife in this game cause she will kick your butt. She never liked FPS games. One Saturday morning I was snipping away at some bastards in Resistance 2 having a real good time, she was aching for the controls so I gave it to her. I said “babe, be careful not to fall into the water, that water creature will get you.” she did not listen, running full throttle into the abyss; the creature came up and bit her so bad she jumped off the couch gave me the control and ran away (LOL). Moving forward she abhors Fist Person Shooters, but she’s addicted to sack boy and Little Big Planet. She’ll even purchase the magazines, it’s like my young beauty was born again with a definite love for gaming; and that my fellow gamers is a hardcore gaming enthusiast dream come true. Now I can picture my son with a control in his hand slapping some lead into a villain's brain in Modern Warfare 2. Eh…sorry, my adult son I meant, whenever that comes along.

So are you in a relationship? Tell me, is your girl a gamer? If yes then lucky you my friends because most of them aren’t, but if she’s not, don’t give up on hope, because just like my Charlene she might, just might come along.

07/31/09 Ernice Gilbert

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