Hubby is on his third – THIRD – incarnation of a gaming system. First there was the PlayStation (I think; it was a long time ago) that he bought with money from our wedding; the second was an Xbox that my parents bought him for Christmas when G was a baby; and the third is the Xbox 360 that he bought for himself with birthday money.
Where did those first two systems go, you ask? The first one he sold to a resale shop because he was bored with it. The second one he sold on eBay because he thought he wasn’t spending enough time with his family. Also, he was letting his precious baby son sit next to him as he killed aliens in a bloody spray of glory.
[Uncle Todd and Auntie Leelee's caption for this was "Holy Cow! We killed an alien!"]
Hubby still has the 360. And this one I am hoping he will not sell. Even though he is already talking about selling it. We don’t watch a whole lot of TV (we don’t have cable), so at night after the kids are in bed Hubby plays Call of Duty IV and I web-surf. It’s a nice little arrangement we have.
Another benefit of his gaming is that I don’t feel guilty when I leave at night. I know I shouldn’t, but I sort of feel guilty when I make plans at night that don’t include him. We have a healthy relationship (read: not codependent), but when I’m walking out the door to see my friends I do feel bad leaving him alone. But leaving him playing Xbox does not make me feel guilty.
Last week was my turn to host Bunco. The Bunco group was going to take over the first floor while the kids slept and Hubby played his 360 upstairs in our bedroom. Well, I waited til the last minute to clean the house – because why would I pick up the toys in the middle of the day when the kids would just drag them back out? and how am I supposed to sweep the floors and vacuum the carpet when there are toys everywhere? – and during this last-minute cleaning I realized that we didn’t have enough ice for drinks. So I asked Hubby to run out and get some ice. By the time he got back most of the Bunco girls were already at our house, and probably feeling a little out of place as the only guy in the midst of a bunch of giggly girls, Hubby put the ice in the kitchen and quickly retreated upstairs. Without his Xbox. Which I didn’t realize until later that night after everyone had left.
Without his Xbox he had to watch our cable-less TV. Which did not leave him with many good options. “I had to Castle and Oprah, Erin. OPRAH.” Hubby was a bit traumatized.
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I need to get The Woman reading your blog, maybe it will inspire her. She would rather we both sit and stare at the wall, because at least we are doing it “together.”
Yeah, I am so not into togetherness. After the kids’ bedtime, Jackie has headphones for the TV and I surf the Internet. I really need to make more plans to get out of the house after bedtime also. Jackie probably couldn’t care less to watch me go since he would be able to watch the TV like a normal person without headphones on. After the cacophony of an evening with the children, I need complete silence.
Poor guy! Stuck without something to do and only Oprah as an option. Good thing he is a reader.
Without cable at our house the xbox is very important.