Thanksgiving Archives - 2 Generations Gaming Present: Gaming is a Gift 2024

Introduction

Fear not, faithful reader. This week neither represents a rapid and sudden disinterest in the page nor one of our patented extended absences. I simply had no time this week to post the updates I wanted to post. In the past, I have used my time more wisely by scheduling updates in advance. Not even that happened recently. In a year that I thought we might begin to at least approach some sense of normalcy after Covid, it brought anything but that normalcy. And so, right now, I’m thankful for Thanksgiving 2022 coming up next week.

So Freaking Busy (C’Mon Thanksgiving 2022 Break)

I thought Monday might be a more relaxed day because of no after school meetings. I don’t remember why, but it ended up being just as busy as every other day and I made chicken patties for dinner instead of what I planned. I just remembered that Quinn was supposed to have swim that day, but he didn’t. That’s how crazy things are right now. I went to grab pellets and in the short walk to the back room where we store them, I completely forgot where I was going and why. I went into the pantry completely confused.

I think I came home on Monday and took a long nap because I’ve been feeling under the weather for the last week or so. Staff meeting Tuesday and still feeling sick. Then Nintendo club and Christine and I went for a wine tasting date on Wednesday after she attended Quinn’s parent-teacher conference. Dungeons and Dragons went a little bit over yesterday.

Wouldn’t Trade It For Anything

I rushed home to bring Aiden to try out for a travel soccer team. He took last year off after the chaos of switching schools and Covid. Then, he told us at the beginning of this year that he wanted to play again. We supported him, of course, because he always enjoyed the sport. He only played JV this year as a sophomore and swinger in a couple of games. However, it gave him enough joy and confidence (along with a conversation with a favorite teacher) to inspire him to try to get better and go to college to play, too.

Eventually, he started talking about professional soccer as a career path. Now for the cliche…being a parent is quite difficult sometimes. We tried, as all parents do, to support his dream while still trying to temper expectations. Based on his reactions, we felt (as I’m sure many parents do) that we failed miserably in both departments.

I know all too well the realities of shattered high school dreams. I legitimately thought that I would make a living writing and eventually become the “next Stephen King.”

But, we gave him this opportunity to work on his skills and face some tougher competition with this travel team. He played soccer, on a freezing night, for an hour and half. Well, he actually only ended up playing for maybe a half an hour. As he said when we pulled in, “There are a lot of people here.” From what he told me, he did okay and got to talk to one of the coaches. If he doesn’t make it this year, he’s actually in the youngest group of his league, so there’s two more years to practice and try again.

The Verdict

Linking that old article up above to improve my “SEO Score” reminded me of some of the other traditions that we wrote on the page in the past. Even though nobody reads this, I like having it around. It represents anther type of journal in addition to the other two that I keep. Thanks for anyone who does stop to read and probably more than any other recent year, I’m absolutely thankful for Thanksgiving 2022.

(Guest Editor’s Note: )

This is the time of year when many stores, and more recently even normally right minded people, want to skip right from Halloween to Christmas. I’m not sure what is driving this Thanksgiving boycott other than blind greed in the case of the stores. If you are people, Thanksgiving represents the best in alliteration; family, food, and falling asleep in front of the TV watching football. I’m pretty sure that all of you can find at least 2 out of those three things enjoyable on some level. We here at 2 Guys Gaming love the entire idea of Thanksgiving. While we won’t judge you if you are an early Christmas riser, we will not skip over this month in favor of some premature “Ho, ho, ho”s. In that spirit, I celebrate the first Friday (2 days late, of course) of November by listing some of the things that I’m thankful for, aside from the obvious ones of family, friends, and pizza.

Pizza is the love that keeps on giving and asks nothing in return. — Pizza is the love that keeps on giving and asks nothing from you in return.

Twitch ran a marathon of Bob Ross for at least a week. I don’t think I watched anything else during that time. Watching has even inspired Quinn and Aiden to take up painting.

I love my job and I’m not just saying that because there are only five weeks left in the semester. Okay, I’m only partly saying that because there are only 5 weeks left in the semester. I get to teach all levels of math, meet new and interesting people, and still have plenty of time for my family. Plus, I’m close to the Holyoke mall and a great place to get gyros.
It’s a great feeling to be a nerd, geek, dork, freak, dweeb, or however else you define your particular lifestyle choice and have lived long enough to realize that we did, in fact, win the culture war. Games, comics, fantasy novels, miniatures, and cosplay have all infiltrated mainstream popular culture to some extent. Hell, even sports have been taken over by our stat crunching brethren. We are the meta.
I’m going to sound like a basic white girl here, but I love so much about Autumn. I’ve always been more about the changing of the seasons and so much is changing during this time. College football starts and finishes. The leaves in New England paint the scenery all sorts of colors. Pumpkin lattes lead to peppermint, eggnog, and gingerbread lattes. Fire up the wood or pellet stove and snuggle in to your favorite sweatshirt. It’s a great time to be alive.
I know that I said that I would skip the usual thankful stuff, but I think that I need to acknowledge this one. I’m thankful to be healthy and alive. I caused a bad accident on the way to work at the beginning of last week. Nobody was hurt, but I totaled the van and am still experiencing some of the fallout with insurance and maybe a concussion. But, I’m alive and for that I’m thankful.