I woke up today to the sound of Sasha’s cell phone vibrating against her bedside table. She climbs over me and turns it off. We lie in bed for maybe a few minutes then she gets up to go to school. She comes back in the room and she sits by the heater and is eating breakfast. I wonder if she made me breakfast too, but she doesn’t bring me my breakfast so I figure she hasn’t. We make breakfast for each other often, but it looks like today won’t be one of those days.

I get up a little while after she kisses me goodbye. I check my e-mail and Myspace (yes, I went back. yes, I’m a hypocrite) using her computer since I have specifically decided that Willems house is the place it must stay. My day planner (Willem convinced me to buy one after he watched this video on organized anarchists) says that today I am supposed to work on a garden plan with Erin. Only, I’m hungry and I don’t feel like it. I call her anyway and I’m glad she doesn’t answer. I leave a message and try to sound like I wanted to do it. I throw on some dirty clothes and jump on my bike. Erin calls me while I’m at the grocery looking for cheap breakfast stuff. My plan was instead of working on the garden, I would play video games at Willems house all day long. Yeah, the other day Willem and I were clearing out an old entertainment center in his room so we can turn that space into a study/library/computer station for us. In one of the cabinets he found a USB video game pad. It looks and works like a Playstation controller, only it plugs into your USB port. This is bad news for someone who once had a serious addiction to video games. Willem says it was his brothers. He says I can have it if I want. I take it. I downloaded a Super Nintendo emulator and the Secret of Mana.

I feel less bad about playing games that are anti-civilization in nature. In the Secret of Mana you are a prophet sent to stop an evil civilization from stealing all of the earths life force or “Mana.” It’s still a video game, and it still keeps me inside even now that it’s starting to warm up. I don’t care. So Erin calls and I’m so close to saving the world that I don’t want to answer but I do. She is in pain cause her wisdom teeth are coming in. I tell her I’m at the store. She asks if I can pick her up some Kefir (fermented milk). I buy some breakfast stuff and cook it at Erins. She asks me when the hell I’m going to move into the Tipi in her backyard. I’ve been putting it off. I tell her I need a tarp to cover the top, that it’s too wet inside and there is no way to waterproof it. She says we should go to the store right now and buy a tarp and some garden stuff, seeds and things. Sometimes with Erin it’s not really a choice. You just go. I hate to do things I need to do, but Erin does this kind of stuff effortlessly. Well, not effortlessly. She works hard, but she doesn’t have any bullshit reason to not get shit done. Well maybe she does, but she gets shit done. This is one of her biggest strengths and probably one of the reasons I asked her if I could use her yard for this project. I’m hoping a little of that will rub off on me. So I get the tarp and some seeds and the weather goes sour again and now Erin is feeling woozy from her painkillers.

Some friends come over and I finish putting up the tarp in between fun conversation and listening to them play nice music while I sip green tea. Erin makes some cookies but I won’t eat them. Still going strong on the body ecology diet. It’s been a month and a half since I had sugar. I only crave it once and a while, but the body ecology diet makes the paleo diet look like a cake walk (without the cake). This is good because when I go back on a more paleo version, where I can eat fruit, it will feel like I can eat anything. Erin leaves and I go to Willems where I’m writing this instead of finishing the Secret of Mana. I told Willem the other day when I was playing it that I didn’t even really feel like finishing the game. That I’d had enough, but it’s like trying to quit smoking when your cigarette pack is still half full. You get tempted back into smoking the rest. I don’t know how many times I told myself, “I’m quitting… Mm… I’ll just finish this pack.” Video games are not cigarettes. I don’t have physical and/or psychological addictions to them. I binge on them once and a while, then walk away for a long time. I think it’s time I finish it.

P.S. I’m working on a blog entry about playing video games, it’s a piece of writing I’ve been working on for a long time, so I’m trying to get it done. Stay tuned!

—

Show your support and appreciation for Urban Scout