0090: What?

Wow.. today flew by. It's hard to believe that it's nearly 9pm already. I woke up when I wanted (10 till 5), and made it to work almost perfectly on time (2 minutes late). The day went by rather smoothly, which explains why nothing stood out in my mind, except for one thing that occurred right at the end of my shift.

A couple of years ago, you may remember me mentioning a pharmacy tech named Julie. Heck, I may not have mentioned her at all. (Though I think I did.) Imperfect memory aside, I thought she was great. She was sweet, a brunette, and intelligent. Of course, I would never ask her out. That's too forward. Anyway, she quit, getting a job at Le Bonheur. I figured I would never see her again.

I have seen her from time to time since then. I always enjoy running into her, and she seems pleased to see me. We talk about how the other is doing, and say goodbye to each other. I never fail to feel good after talking to her. I think she's really neat, and that I could do a LOT worse than seeing how she feels about a date, yet I never quite get around to doing so.

So, today, we ran into each other again for the first time in probably a year or more. Heh.. she's still got that beautiful black hair, and that pretty smile. We began talking while she checked out, and stood there for a little while, making small talk (the usual "how are you?" bit... still kinda important). I got called to a register to fix something, so I had to walk away. We both said goodbye, and I could have sworn that I heard something that hinted that I should have asked her out. Just the way she said goodbye, and told me to take care. *shrug* I'm not going to regret it.

Dang it, I'm not.

After that, I had a smile on my face that wouldn't go away. I then ran into another ex-employee. She was great, but this wasn't a romantic prospect. It was more of a person who was a real delight to work with, who quit over another employee. So, in less than 15 minutes, I ran into two ex-employees, both of whom remembered me in a fond manner. Needless to say, I left work feeling pretty good today. (Though I'm thinking that I should hope that Julie will be by again soon, so I can see if she's interested in getting dinner or seeing a movie.)

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Now, in a slightly related subject, I've begun to give thought to where I am in life now. I can see myself working at Kroger for the rest of my life, sadly (and in some ways, not sadly). I can move into the management training program, and begin moving my way on up in the company. The thing that gets me is this: whenever I think of "growing up", I always think of not gaming anymore. Now, I don't mean just not playing RPGs, but no collectible card games like Magic, no board games like Settlers of Cataan or Monopoly, and no video games like DooM or World of Warcraft.

Now, I know that's just silly. Why on earth would someone quit everything that he likes? For all you folks out there with significant others, how do you reconcile the two? Now, i can certainly see selling most of my RPG stuff, keeping just those few games I actually would play. Of course, sitting here, thinking this, I basically convince myself that the best way to deal with this desired "maturity" is to eliminate games entirely, which I think overbalances myself in the other direction.

Here ya go.. the question I'd like answered: What do you folks do for fun? People with significant others, or not, what do you do as a hobby and to have fun with?

Now, i work another early shift tomorrow, and I'm tired now, so sleep is a necessity now. Take care, folks..