Birmingham people will hopefully get the joke in that post title. We have a sushi restaurant here called Sushi Village that sells t-shirts that say ‘I <3 (heart) sushi. Are you?’ Really. If you Google “Sushi Village Birmingham” and then click on Images and scroll down a bit you will see a picture of the black shirt. The shirts are classic around here and a running joke because 1) the sushi there IS very good and b) it’s grammatically incorrect and we love it!

Back to the post topic – Dungeons & Dragons. Or as my husband likes to call it, “after work.” HA! I’m kidding. Sort of. Hubby has been playing D&D for years now. How many years? I have no idea. He’s been asking me to play for years. How many years? I have no idea. But I had not played a game, even after being asked at least 100 times, until just recently. Side note: If you don’t know what D&D is you’ve been living under a rock for the past 30 years and you can look it up. Even *I* knew what it was.

Why hadn’t I played until now? A few reasons. First off, I didn’t see myself spending 5-7+ hours during a weekend on one game – I don’t care how much fun it is. I’ve got things to do. Or sleep to catch up on. Or paint to watch dry. Or ANYTHING ELSE FOR 7 HOURS. Secondly, I don’t have enough imagination to make up stuff on the fly for 5-7+ hours. Thirdly, that game is COMPLICATED. I don’t care what you say – there’s spellzits, and sigils, and wizards, and teeflings, and whatsitz galore with 800 levels of 67-sided die that do everything but butter your toast. I can’t keep up and I’m rolling 1s for intellect every time (WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?).

Buuuuuuuuuut, there’s this awesome new gaming club at my company and we’re revving it up with once-a-month Game Days where we set up shop, bring in all the consoles, all the board games, all the toys, and all the kids for a day o’ fun! We had our first one in September and hubby and I attended. They went all out for it, setting up larger-than-life screens with lots of games (I have no idea what was what so don’t ask), lots of board games that I DID recognize because I’m old and old school (I like it like that), and gaming in every corner of the conference room for newbies like me to learn. They even did a “one off” D&D game (aka a shortened, mini D&D game) for anyone who wanted to play, and they welcomed novices. Well, if ever there was a D&D novice…..

We headed into a separate conference room to concentrate and sequester ourselves for the adventure and off we went! Besides stopping every 3 seconds to explain to me what something meant or on my character sheet, we did ok for a one off game with a complete noob who had NO earthly idea (ha! get it?) what she was doing. I will admit I had a BLAST and definitely held my own among the men, though they were more than gracious in helping me learn the ropes and had mercy on me more than once during our travels. I almost died like twice.

Hubby was pleased as punch that I actually played my first game and he’s excited for me to join a real campaign (that’s what the ‘games’ are called and they can last years) and keep the momentum going. He runs a few campaigns weekly/monthly and he’s hoping I’ll start drinking as much Kool-Aid as he is. Ha! I definitely liked the flavor, but not sure if I’m that thirsty yet.