December 06, 1999
Back Again
Gah! Life is starting to go back to normal now, I hope. I'm ready for it to. I had a nice normal weekend complete with a nice normal (well okay maybe not) drive up to Bay City to play Shadowrun and run Changeling. I can't explain how much I'm enjoying running this game. I mean, when I first started gaming, about five years ago, I held the game master in awe. I could barely come up with what my own characters were doing. Here was someone (or someones) who kept track of all the PCs, and played the cast of supporting characters. This in addition to coming up with storylines, creating snappy dialogue and descriptions on the spur of the moment, and being the arbiter of game rules. I could never ever do that. Or so I thought at the time.
Apparently I was wrong. I'm not only doing it, but I'm doing it well. Even if I do say so myself. I love it. I love hatching plots and springing them on my players. I love watching them try and unravel the mysteries I toss out -- and even some that I don't. The ones they only think are there are almost more fun. I love it when they surprise me by finding nuances and hidden things in the story that I didn't realize were there. I love watching them get as sucked into their characters as I do with mine. It's a rush I've never really had before. They look to me for ideas and to see what happens to their characters next. I don't know how to describe it except that it makes me glow.
Ahem. So. That was Saturday. Sunday was supposed to be a day of errands and the like, but it was cold and rainy, so I stayed in my lovely house and made homemade soup. I forgot to mention: last week was spent helping my aunt and my mom clean out my other aunt's apartment. Apparently my aunt (the one who died) had just bought new living room furniture a few months ago. I inherited it. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. Mostly I feel guilty for enjoying the furniture so much, when I came to have it because of a death. I know, I know. She probably would have wanted someone to enjoy it, but...
Anyway, I stayed home and made soup. Not a common occurrence for me, but I think I need to start doing it more often. Suffice it to say, I made yummy soup. Just like my grandma used to make.
My grandma. There's another difficult topic. I spent a lot of time with her last week, and it was rough. She forgets so much, we wind up repeating things to her again and again. It gets... well... annoying. I know she can't help it. I still love her. But she is rather trying at times. Still, for all that's happened and for all she's been through, she's a strong woman. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at one point last Wednesday. All day Tuesday she fretted about the potted plants from the funeral. There were maybe five or so in the house, plus the ones she already had.. "Welp. Looord, there're too many plants here," she'd worry. "What'm going to do with all those plants? Did you want one? We'll have to take those to so-and-so." (Some of the plants in question have been in her house for years.) I kept reassuring her that the next day we'd get the plants taken care of. Wednesday morning she woke up before I did and rearranged the plants to suit herself, but still fretted. When my aunt and mom got there, we took several of the plants to the care center where my aunt Eula had been living. All taken care of, right? As soon as we got back to my grandma's house later that day, she started up, "Where'd all the plants go? Didn't you girls know I wanted to keep some of the plants from Eula's funeral?" Mom and Vera and I just looked at each other and sighed.
But now I'm back to work and things are settling down again.
Posted by Lisa at December 6, 1999 05:10 PM
