The Game

I love a good competition. The problem is that sometimes, a little competition can go too far.Take Farmville for instance. I started playing this little game on facebook in November. At first, it was just so cute and fun. I planted crops and harvested them, and all was happy until one of my friends decided that he was going to play too. Only his strategy was better than mine, and he started to level up faster than me. Never one to be outdone, I had to change my strategy (well, more like HAVE a strategy) and I became a planting, harvesting, and plowing machine. Then another friend decided that HE was going to play, and overtook both of us because he apparently has hours to spend in front of the computer.Needless to say, the farming was intense. We were plowing, seeding, and harvesting everyday, sometimes a few times a day. My farm was very well kempt. All of my animals were brushed everyday. The trees were harvested. The eggs were collected. The cows were milked. I built fences, buildings, and continued to plow. I was a very busy beaver.

That is until one night when Julien kind of burst my little happy farming bubble with a simple question, "How come your farm is so neat when the house is such a mess?".

Ouch.

Begrudgingly, I took a look around me. Dishes piled on the counter, laundry to fold on the couch, and a glance in the mirror at my unbrushed hair suddenly made me feel ashamed of myself, like being caught with your hand in the cookie jar. I decided to count how much time this game was taking me, and was appalled at the results. Here I was complaining that I never have time to do anything, but yet I was spending about 3 hours a day on that game. Granted, it was not in one sitting, but that is alot of time for a dumb little computer game.Needless to say, I have decided to leave the virtual life for reality. My house is getting cleaner by the hour, while my animals are left needing to be brushed and my crops withering and wasting away. It's amazing that all of a sudden I feel like I have free time, even though I have the same amount as before. I guess it's just a question of priorities. You'd think that after almost 30 years on this earth I would have learned that by now, but apparently I forgot somewhere along the line.