My Life

LAN party

Well, a new day has dawned. I felt young just a minute ago, until I looked at my son towering over me.

Hell, a new day? I’m thinking more like a whole new life!

I just want someone to tell me when my little baby went from diapers, to hanging with the guys!

I mean, it was just a few days ago that he was toddling around trying to figure out how to get his legs to work right.

Then all of a sudden he was into hot wheels, and then r/c cars (remote control). Then before my very eyes, (out of nowhere) it was radio controlled cars. Difference being, a few hundred dollars.

Then he started designing car bodies...I could see the creativity flaring in him. I swear it was just yesterday that I took this child to the hobby shop to get body parts for Evader. (his radio control car) My bad, it was the day before yesterday!

Anyway, now it’s all about learners permits, gaming, and beyond.

Josh is now 15, he’ll be 16 in August. I look up to him, literally. The child towers over me. OK, so that doesn’t take much, but he does! And when did he start getting a beard and mustache? This is just so wrong! I cannot possibly be old enough to be his mother.

Yet...I am.

I don’t think he will give up his radio controlled cars anywhere in the near future, but he has moved on to other things as well.

He went out with his friends for the very first time. One of the guy’s dad drove them to LAN Shark for a LAN party. Yeah, he’s a computer geek...but who isn’t these days? Anyway, it was 4 guys and two girls.

In my youth I wouldn’t have been allowed to go with one guy, let alone being out numbered two to one. But things have changed.

Picture if you will, I’m doing this for the folks of my age. I didn’t have a clue! a dimly lit room full of, about 24 computers all connected so the players can battle one another. They had over Five hundred games to choose from, they selected Battlefield 1942 road to Rome.

I sent the cell phone with Josh, as I hadn’t let him go out before. Not that I keep him in locked in a closet, I’m just normally the parent that takes him and his friends to and from each others home’s and such. Venturing into this field, I wanted to make sure I was able to reach him. I also wanted to be sure he could contact me if he needed to.

Mind you, I used to go to bed about 8:00pm since I get up so early. The last few months, that has obviously changed. But still, 10:00pm is like 1:00am to me.

I waited and waited for him to arrive home, especially since the games began around 6:00pm. At 9:00, I called the cell. “Are you ok?” Yeah mom, we’re just leaving.

“Just leaving? I need to go to bed. I can’t go to bed until you get home.”

“Yes you can, I have my key.”

The child has no concept! I couldn’t go to bed, no way could I go to bed. It’s his first night to really go out. I want to hear everything, but I also want him home safely! Besides, Dale Jr. just won the Daytona 500 and I want to tell him all about that and about Mikey’s crash that he walked away from. [i} The child loves NASCAR, so I knew he’d want to hear all about it.

He came strolling in around 10:00, after they had dropped the girls off.

I told him about the race, he told me about the LAN party.

I think the funniest part was when he was telling me how he had paused the game to go help another player. A different player fired 5 rockets and 10 grenades at him and nothing had happened. That was about the time that Josh got back to his computer and un-paused the game.

Realizing that nothing had happened, the player bellowed over the computers “Hey Josh aren’t you dead yet?” Josh told him he had been helping another player and had just un-paused. Josh then realized the position of the enemy on the screen and proceeded to blow the other player away. NICE! Guess it really does pay to help others in a time of crises.

Of course, I also found humor in the way he explained “After you kill a person so many times...” I said “What, you can kill someone more than once?” Ah, perhaps the future does hold promise!

It’s a game! But now, what rating do I have to make this story? I will leave ‘as is’ until someone says it should be otherwise. I’m clueless! (But the game is rated low, and some of the kids playing it were younger than Josh.)

I love you dear child! Glad you had fun, and it’s always a blast to laugh with you!