"Slow Ride... Take it Easy..."

I never thought I'd hear myself say the following statement:

I have a battle wound from playing a video game.

Thursday evening as we sat down to dinner, Steve asked me to close my eyes because he had a suprise for me. Who am I to say no to a surprise? I closed my eyes, and when I opened Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Wii was sitting on the kitchen table. I decided I loved the game after our friends Derek and Stacey brought it over right after Christmas, and we hadn't been able to find it as it had been sold out everywhere. However, Steve found it Thursday on an excursion to Best Buy with some co-workers and brought it home for me as a present. For those of you who don't know what Guitar Hero is, think Dance Dance Revolution... only with a Guitar in your hands.

Friday evening before our friends came over, I popped it in the Wii and started playing. I made it through 10 songs before dinner. Saturday while Steve was off at his boss' house helping install a home theater system, I played probably an hour and a half off and on throughout the day. Saturday night we went to our friends' place and we brought Guitar Hero with us... and of course took turns playing for a while.

This morning I woke up and noticed I had a small nickel-sized bruise in the middle of my arm. Now, I'm a known clutz so this didn't entirely surprise me; I've bumped into things and gotten bruises without knowing it in the past. We did some Sunday stuff and got home around 4:30 or so. Steve had some reading to do, so I busted out the Guitar Hero while I did some laundry, made chicken soup, and cooked dinner (I'm good at multi-tasking). After playing 2 or 3 songs, I noticed I was sore in the middle of my arm. I thought about it a minute, and had an epiphany of sorts - the bruise had come from playing Guitar Hero.

Exhibit A: Guitar Hero War Wound

Did I stop? No, of course not. That would make sense.

Needless to say, this caused some amusement at home. While I was between songs and cutting potatoes waiting for the oven to pre-heat, Steve came out in the kitchen.

"Honey, where'd you get that bruise?"
"Uhm... promise not to laugh?"
"Yeah... what happened?"
"I um... got it playing Guitar Hero..."
"Are you serious?"
"Yeah..."

I can honestly say that the bruise is totally worth all the fun the game is. I LOVE playing it and can't wait to get good enough to progress past the easy level. One of the coolest things about it is that it uses the REAL songs, not some lame covers sung by people who are only trying to sound like the singer. It makes it that much more enjoyable to play.

Maybe someday I can have mad skillz and beat the Expert level......