The first week back after my family’s trek to Ohio has finally come and gone. I think the week immediately following a crapfest like the previous one is primarily about de-stressing and finding your center again. I managed to do that with the help of Maggie and her amazing Xbox 360. Wednesday, after she finished doing some touch-ups to her Ripley gun, she popped in Left 4 Dead 2 and asked if I wanted to kill some zombies.

Pfft.

Do I want to kill zombies. Honestly, what kind of question is that? Of course I want to kill zombies.

I don’t play videogames often these days. It’s not because I don’t enjoy them. I do. I truly do. Most of my time has just been taken up with job searches and working and trying to finish the doggone thesis and worrying about a dozen other things. If I were to add videogames into that mix I’d never get anything else done. As much as I love sewing and making costumes, I can pretty much guarantee that I’d barely get anything done for them in time for conventions because all my time would disappear into the vortex that is “Meg in game mode.” Yes, folks, video games suck me in that much. All things considered, it’s best I don’t have one of the newer, swankier consoles out there. I’ve got a GameCube my sister gave my brother and me, and a PS2 that I bought off my friend Andy. If I added the online capability of the PS3 and Xbox platforms (along with the cavalcade of gaming selections said platforms come with) into the equation…well, you would see a sharp decrease in the number of entries posted here, that’s for sure.

I’m actually surprised at how well I adapted to the gameplay in Left 4 Dead 2. My ineptitude with Xbox controllers is nigh on legendary amongst my gamer friends. I have been forbidden from ever playing Halo with Maggie again. In my defense, I’ve heard that whole section with the waterfall in whatever edition of Halo it was that we were playing caused problems for people who were more adept with the Xbox controllers than myself. At least, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Halo isn’t the only game I’ve had problems manuevering in, though. I’ll admit to problems with the original Fable, as well. Needless to say, my character in that game never rose to true hero status.

Now, give me an old-school PlayStation controller and watch me go to town!

That being said, I didn’t do too horribly when it came time to kill zombies and run for my life. In fact, I managed to be the only member of my team to survive the run to the chopper at the end of the bridge level (on the Normal setting). I barely made it, but I made it, just the same.

I came away from the two days of zombie-slashing with two realizations. One, the avatar I created for myself on Maggie’s Xbox is possibly the cutest version of myself that could ever exist. I wish I looked more like that in everyday life. Don’t get me wrong…you can definitely tell it’s supposed to be me. It’s just cuter than the real me.

Two, I have the world’s worst potty mouth when I’m playing a game like Left 4 Dead 2. I’m not talking about every other word being a curse word. I’m talking about a stream of words where only the fifth or sixth word is something acceptable like “what” or “the” or “stupid.” Oh yeah, it’s bad. I don’t remember having that problem when I’m playing a game with my nephew, which leads me to think that it’s just going to come into play with games where I’m being confronted with flesh-eating zombies and the like. I honestly don’t have much of a potty mouth in my day-to-day life. I try to substitute weird words or phrases when I feel frustrated – stuff like “piffle” and “sweet dixie minis” (which happens to be a dessert at Famous Dave’s) – and it generally works pretty well. That censor just appears to be shut off when I get an Xbox controller in my hands. Oh well.

Anyhoo, the three day weekend looks like it’ll be getting off to a fun, creative start tomorrow. I have plans to head out to Hancock Fabrics in Manassas on Saturday, with Maggie and my sister. We’ll be picking up the fabric for Heather’s Orko and Barf costumes, as well as looking for the material for Maggie’s Castaspella costume. That’s right, she’s decided to make Castaspella instead of a female version of Skeletor. We’ve got about 98 days until Dragon*Con now, so we’d best get cracking.

I plan to work on Kowl’s body for most of tomorrow, after I get back from the fabric store, and I should have a new post up about the progress sometime in the next two days. The inner ears are finished being pieced together. I’ve just got to figure out what to put inside the top to make them more stable. Then…I’ll be able to put them on the head and show you the finished product! ::EXCITEMENT::