springading.com

A few weeks ago, that’s what I told Phil several times: “I used to be a nice person.” Phil tried to tell me that I’ve always been nice to him, but I stand by what I said. I’m not as nice as I used to be, not since my divorce and getting stabbed in the back by both my ex-husband and a girl that I thought was my best friend. And I always blamed the fact that I was nice for that situation. In many ways, I brought it upon myself. There were things I figured out and noticed but was too nice to say.

Things have changed. My theories have changed. Being nice is usually just not saying stuff you’re thinking. Now, if I’m good friends with someone, they’re getting what I think. And it’s not always nice. But, still, the people I choose to say stuff around are people I know who won’t go repeating it.

I may not be as nice as I used to be, but I still don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings.

Which brings me to last night. If you told me five years ago, this would be the scene in my living room, this would be my reaction, I would have been surprised at my future self.

Here’s what happened: Jim and I went on a drive, which means he started talking about gaming, which means we always start talking about relationships with gamers, and, of course, the stereotype that most gamers hook up with other gamers because nobody outside of the gaming community would ever date them.

No, it’s not true in all cases. But it does have truth in others.

Anyway, Jim talked about one such girl where the stereotype did hold true. He couldn’t figure out why anyone would date her, as she was neither attractive nor nice. Apparently, she must have been really unattractive because Jim suddenly really wanted me to see a picture of her, just to show me what he had meant.

We broke out Google. Didn’t help much, as Jim couldn’t remember the girl’s real name, so he tried searching for her character’s name. Unfortunately, she doesn’t appear to be playing that character anymore, so we just kept pulling up pictures of some female wrestler instead.

One thing led to another. And, because I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings–this blog is public, and you never know who is going to stumble upon it–I’ll leave out names and try to be kinda vague. But what Googling that one girl did was lead us into trying to Google for pictures of Jim’s old gaming group, just because he wanted me to see pictures of some of his old friends–and even enemies, in some cases.

In the end, we ended up at the Flickr page of one of the girls of his old group, a girl Jim thought might have had pictures of the old gaming crew, who, incidentally, is a girl that Jim used to like when he was younger. “I thought she was so hot,” he had told me before. It sounded like he had it pretty bad for her–for a short time, at least.

We pulled up her Flickr page, looking to see if she had old gaming pictures, but I caught sight of more recent pictures. “Wait. Is that the girl?”

Jim glanced at the profile picture, which appeared to be an older picture. I couldn’t really tell much from that picture because it was so small. “That’s her, up there,” he said. Then he glanced down at the more recent picture I had found. He stared. “Oh, my gooood…Oh my god. Yeah. That’s her.”

And then my reaction, the one that would have surprised the old me, the reaction that isn’t nice, but it is honest:

I pointed at the laptop.

I started laughing.

I started laughing so hard that I almost cried.

Jim just stared at the screen. “Wow. She’s gained weight. She is not aging well.”

“She looks like a sausage stuffed in a doily!” I gasped. “That’s the girl you thought was so hot?” To be fair, while Jim seemed to think she had gotten chubby, I didn’t think she was particularly overweight. She just didn’t look like she had a shape, and she was wearing this clingy dress that wasn’t flattering. Could just be the dress, though.

Also, if I wore that dress, I would look like a sausage in a doily too. The difference is that I know better than to wear a dress like that.

Then I started feeling bad about my reaction. I didn’t mean to have that reaction, though. It’s just you expect someone to look one way and when they look the complete opposite…Well, it just came out. And poor Jim was still staring at the computer, looking almost scared–which just made the whole scene funnier to me. “She aged horribly,” he kept saying. “Oh, my god. It’s like she gained a bunch of weight just under her CHIN. She looks BAD.”

And then I started howling with laughter. “You wanted to hit that!”

Jim, of course, got defensive, claiming she didn’t always look like that. We did find older pictures from when he knew her, where she looked less frightening, but still–she was never what anyone would call pretty. Jim looked kind of embarrassed when he realized that she was never exactly what he remembered her to be. “In my defense, I was, like, 18. I would have made a go at a table leg, if I thought I had a chance.”

It just goes to show that both love and lust are blind.

Afterward, I felt a little bad about it. At first, I thought it was because because the girl could be nice, for all I know, and  she could be someone that I might have liked. (Then I remembered stories Jim told about her. Nevermind. She certainly didn’t sound nice. At all.) I think I feel more bad about the look of horror on Jim’s face when he saw the pictures. I didn’t mean to embarrass him. But let’s be honest–not nice, mind you, but honest: Don’t most of us look at people we’ve been with or liked in the past and cringe? Don’t most of us look back and say to ourselves What the hell was I thinking?

I’ve offered to show Jim some of the guys I’ve been with before him. One of them is downright ugly. Unlike Jim, though, I never deluded myself into thinking he was good-looking. But the dark can make anyone look better, right? And I had a thought:

Somewhere out there, someone has probably thought the same thing about me.

And you know what? I’m okay with that. As long as I don’t have to hear about it, I hope they’re having a good laugh! Life’s too damn short to be nice all the time.

From my informal poll of the providers I talked to while taking hotline calls this week, I’ve learned that my company is one of the few that have Martin Luther King Day off. No wonder why the day after MLK day is the busiest phone day of the year–the providers are trying to get two day’s worth of stuff done in one.

At any rate, I do have a three day weekend and an agenda to match:

• Bread machine! I love my bread machine. So far, I’ve only made the one, plain, white bread recipe in it several times, but it’s just so good. I might try one of the other recipes this weekend, though. Just because.
• Craft stores! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned the giant Warhammer 40K army that Jim was commissioned to paint a while back that he’s still working on. Anyway, Jim told Phil and me last night that he was going to Hobby Lobby today to get something to make one guy glow-in-the-dark. Of course, you know I’ll be going with him…and that I’ll drag him over to Joann Fabrics while we’re out because I still have money on my giftcard, which brings me to…
• Knitting and crocheting! I’m thinking of using aforementioned giftcard to get the needles for this cthulhu dice bag pattern. Phil asked me last night if I thought I could make that, and I said no way, it’s above my skills, but then I started looking at the pattern, and you know what? I think I might be selling myself short. Sure, I’ve never done the magic loop on knitting needles and I’ve never worked on circular needles period, but I think I could do it. Of course, I wouldn’t be able to get to this right away, as I’m still in the middle of crocheting Piper’s cat mat. I ended up having to rip out just about everything I got done on New Year’s.
• Sewing! Ha! Okay, yeah, I’m not about to sew just yet. But my other plan is to take my sewing machine out of the box, dust it off, and just figure out how to put the thing together. Even if I had time to try a project, I don’t have the stuff. One thing at a time.

Now, as to how much of this list I’ll actually attempt is anyone’s guess. For now, I’m gonna watch some season 6 of Supernatural.

2012 so far:

Work. On the phones every single day. Every. Single. Freakin’. Day.

Checked e-mail box for group I work. Note I’m the only person who works this email box. Find an e-mail asking me to “respond as quickly as possible” as the provider is irate. Email is from a week ago. Sorry, but haven’t had time to check, been on phones. Every. Freakin’. Day.

Diet good. Seven pounds lost. Only took two weeks.

Jim bought cream soda. Pretty sure it’ll only take me two days to gain that back.

Got my invite to Pinterest. It’s addictive.

Too tired to write more. Going to bed, going to work at 6 AM. I have to be on the hotline at 8 and stay for the rest of my shift.

Keep praying for snow, so I can take a snow day…keep getting this stupid 50 degree weather.

Ugh. Done now.

I developed a sore throat a couple days ago, but this morning I woke up with a voice that’s cutting out and body aches all over. And I wasn’t even drunk last night.

(Although Jim very much was.)

Here’s hoping this is a little blip and not a sign of things to come.

Incidentally, my bread machine makes wonderful bread. It went along great with the wonderful soup that my wonderful husband made.

When I woke up this morning, I had completely forgotten that today is New Year’s Eve. For some reason, I was thinking it was tomorrow. Funny, I entered 12/30/2011 on all the claims I adjusted yesterday; you’d think I’d remember the date. Apparently, I’ve decided that December has 32 days in it.

Except, of course, that it doesn’t, no matter how hard I try to make it so.

Remembering that today is New Year’s Eve reminds me that if I need to go to the store, I’d better do it soon, since I don’t know what time they’re closing tonight. And going to the store is definitely on my agenda. I have full intentions of using my new bread machine today, so I need ingredients. I also  plan on making use of that Jo-Ann giftcard Jim’s brother Dan gave me for Christmas.

Despite my subconscious effort to lengthen December, I’m glad 2011 is coming to an end. I started it off by trying to overcome one miscarriage, only to lose a nephew that I was close to and suffer a second miscarriage. I know there were a lot of good things about 2011, but those three things have haunted me.

But there were good things about 2011, too. The big one: Jim and I got married! Then we had a wonderful honeymoon, and we managed to pay off the huge credit card bill that had been looming over our heads for over two years. Jim quit smoking, quit his job, and went to school full-time. I’m doing well in a job I like and got a couple of pay raises.

I can’t help but wonder what 2012 will be like. Normally, I’m not too huge on resolutions, but this year, I’ve decided that I need to. Here’s my list:

1. Lose weight.
   I know. Not exactly original. But the recent health problems have made me concerned, so I think it’s time I got serious about it. I’ve almost completed my first week of my diet, and it’s been going very well. I even managed not to go crazy on my “cheat day.” (Which I’ve decided is Fridays, by the way. Having a cheat day worked really well for me when I lost a ton of weight last time; I see no reason why I shouldn’t do it again.)
2. Stop biting my nails.
   Yes, I know it’s gross. Why do you think I’m trying to stop? However, this isn’t going nearly as well as my diet. Half of the time, I don’t even realize when I’m biting them. And since this time of the year is the most stressful time at work–my chances of getting stuck working the hotline, which I hate, skyrockets in January/February–I’ve noticed that my nails seem to be getting shorter and shorter. I don’t even know when that happened.
3. Learn to sew.
   And here we start the fun goals. Notice that I’m not saying “learn to sew WELL.” But I’ve had this sewing machine my mother gave me shoved in the back of my closet for a year and a half. I’d at least like to drag it out and learn how to set it up, ya know?
4. Buy a new computer.
   Screw you. It’s a legitimate goal.
5. Crochet/knit more.
   Okay, I was on my way with this one, anyway. But it’s still a challenge, since I’ve been working more and more 10-11 hour days since August.

Seeing that I do work long days most of the time, I’m going to end the goal list here. I also have to be realistic. There are many things I’d like to do, but until I get us caught up to where I want us to be financially, I don’t have much time for anything else but work, work, work.

And on that note, I’m off to get stuff done. Until then, have a wonderful New Year!

Cute?

Jim put this picture on our desktop. I feel like it’s his round about way of hitting on me…and I think I’m okay with it?

Originally, I had started this post while doing laundry. Hence, the title. Since then, Jim insisted that he finish laundry up, despite the fact that he’s sick and really has no business doing it. Regardless, laundry is done. But I  refuse to change the title. Moving on!

Hope everyone had a good holiday. Well, everyone who celebrates any sort of winter holiday this time of year. If you don’t…well, hope you had a good weekend, anyway.

It was a good weekend for Jim and me, all in all. Friday night, Phil came over. Phil brought over Kung Fu Panda 2, which he and Jim watched while I picked up pizza and played on the Internet. I was fighting all I could to not give Jim his Christmas present early. See, right after work, I went straight to Game Stop and bought something I knew he’d been itching for: Assassin’s Creed Revelations. Jim, as it turns out, had money set aside for Christmas that I didn’t even know about, so the money I had earmarked for Christmas shopping? Yeah, he didn’t even touch it.

Therefore, present: Justified!

So they watched TV and played video games, while I tried to talk myself out of giving Jim his present early. Phil had barely left when I blurted, “Okay, so do you want your present now?”

There was a bit of back and forth, and we finally agreed to give each other one present. As it turns out, we both thought that the other had given us one gift because that’s all we could see. Well, we’re more alike than either one of us thought: I had his “good” gift hidden away (I’m so proud–I got it past him after work by sneaking it out of sight in my lunchbox) and he had my “big” gift hidden at his sister’s house. We agreed to give each other one because we couldn’t wait, so he got his game (which he was NOT expecting–the look on his face was priceless!) and I got this book.

Overall, we both had a good Christmas. My other gift to Jim was the second season of Supernatural. (We were missing seasons 2, 3, and 6. I figured someone would know to get the most recent–which I was right, his mother got it for him–but only I was privy to which seasons in the middle we were missing.) My big gift from Jim was actually a joint gift from him and his sister and her husband. And guess what it was? A BREAD MACHINE.

I’m excited. I’ve wanted a bread machine since I was something like 18 or 19 years old. I’ve already warned Jim that the next time we have pizza, I will have made the crust in the bread machine. HELL, YES. He and Phil can eat it and like it!

(Don’t know what it is with guys and their hatred of homemade pizza crust.)

Oh, but that is a little bit of a problem. I’m getting this bread machine right in time for my diet, which, incidentally, I started today. However, I’m thinking that food-wise, I might not be too bad off. I signed up on My Fitness Pal today, entered my calories, and easily came under the suggested amount of calories. I’m pretty sure my issue is with soda and coffees with lots of creamer, which I laid off of today.  So, my hope is that I can still (mostly) enjoy everything my new bread machine has to offer–and still lose weight.

I think the secret is moderation. Yeah, I know: Not news.

We got a lot of other great stuff. I got several skeins of yarn (YES, YES, YES!), a cordless vacuum cleaner (THANK GOD, my old one sucks and the cat hair is driving me nuts), a Scentsy (didn’t even know I wanted it until I had it), a hat, scarf, gloves, socks, a food processor (yay!), candles, and lots of lotions and soaps and perfumes.

Oh. OH. And one of the other presents Jim’s brother Robert gave us…let me just backtrack and tell you why it was perfect.

When Jim and I first started dating, he was living with his friend Karac, and I had just moved out of my sister’s to this apartment. My apartment was still a mess from moving, so I wasn’t exactly inviting company over. (I went on a few dates with one guy who tried to invite himself over. Wasn’t happening.) Jim was also embarrassed by his living situation–ugly bedroom, his roommate was always fighting with his then-girlfriend–so I was never in his place more than five minutes to pick him up for dates, and I never saw his bedroom.

Anyway, after something like six dates, I decided it was time to invite him over. We could drive all we wanted around town, but a new relationship that is ready to go to the next level needs a certain degree of, ah…well, privacy, heh. So, finally, one night, when I was dropping him off at work after a date, I asked, “Hey…do you ever want to come to my place? Maybe watch a movie or something?”

Jim was surprised. “Sure!” he told me. “You know what? I just rented Tropic Thunder. I’ll bring that over. We can watch that.”

So that was the first time Jim ever came over. I cleaned up a storm that afternoon. He brought Tropic Thunder over that night. But, ah…we didn’t watch much of it. Oh, I remember hearing it play in the background. I also remember going all the way through and then playing again. But the movie? Yeah, we didn’t really watch it. Not that night anyway.

That was also the night we decided to make ourselves official as a couple.

Fast forward to last night. Robert hands us this smallish package. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen this before, or if you’ll even like it,” he admitted. “But–I don’t know. I saw it and, for some reason, I was thinking that this was it for you guys–the perfect gift.”

Jim opened it and we started laughing. Yup. It was Tropic Thunder.

Sweet, no? Anyway, I’m going to wrap this up and find something else to eat. I’m gonna grab an apple. I’m not particularly hungry, but I came in with few enough calories that My Fitness Pal is warning me about my body possibly going into starvation mode if I don’t try to meet the 1200 calories. Who’da thunk that would be an issue?

Well, this post was started almost a week ago, but then it came to a screeching halt when I was writing and heard the mouse trap go off. Yup, a mouse trap. In all my years of apartment-living, I’ve never had a mouse, and if it hadn’t been for Gremlin hovering around the bottom drawer in the kitchen, we would have never known. We hadn’t seen any evidence of a mouse until we checked the drawer Gremlin was so desperate to get into and found mouse poop.

If you’re wondering why we hadn’t noticed it sooner, let me point out that it’s a rarely used drawer. Pretty much every where else is clean.

I really hate mouse traps. But I also hate mouse poop. I also hate arguing with Jim about when said mouse poop should be cleaned up. Me: Immediately. Him: Never.

Okay, I exaggerate. He wanted to wait until we verified that all the mice were gone before he cleaned it up. “Otherwise,” he said, “I’ll just have to clean it up all over again. ”

Whaaaaa…? If someone breaks into your house and poops in your kitchen, you do NOT leave it there, saying, “Well, they might break in again, so let’s just wait and see and clean all the poop up at once.” That’s just crazy talk, not to mention gross.

Whatever. Jim caught himself a couple mice and has cleaned up everything very nicely. He’s a nice guy, that man.

Sadly, that was our excitement for the week, epitomized by images of Gremlin circling that drawer and Jim shaking his fist at an imaginary mouse, shouting, “I declare war on your tiny, furry house!”

I think I picked a husband that’s like my cat, come to think of it. I don’t think that’s really a bad way to pick one’s soul mate, really.

I’m on my second cup of coffee, and I know I’m going to regret it later. The past week or so, ever since the scary symptoms I had a few weeks ago, I’ve been trying to monitor what I eat and drink, see what sets off alarms, and it seems that I’m getting reflux symptoms after caffeine. Still, it’s still early-ish, I’m tired, and I want to be coherent enough to write something before Jim gets up.

So, it’s been a week since the last post. In that time, I found that my work had ALL the wrong 2012 benefits listed for me (they basically had me listed has not having insurance at all for next year); I called the Employee Services people and gotten it corrected (our peeps are so nice, so that was a bonus); I got a small raise (WOOT); and I actually spent Saturday doing stuff.

This Saturday was so much busier than most Saturdays. I cannot lie: I pretty much do nothing on the weekends. Since Jim quit his job and went back to school full-time, I don’t even do laundry or shopping anymore. It was nerve-wracking at first, especially when bills were so tight, to turn shopping over to Jim. Still, I held back and told myself he had to learn how it worked.

And WOW. I’m so freakin’ proud. Jim struggled a little bit the first time, but he’s done great since. I always budget for $100 per week for groceries, which we never spend, but I rather overshoot. The last time he went groceries, he spent about $110. “Oh no,” I thought. “How could he go over budget?”

Um, no, Spring. That was $110 for two weeks worth of groceries.

Okay, I totally went on a tangent there. My point was, we had money left over to actually do stuff on Saturday.

First thing: Jim paid his dad back some of the money we owe him. I said that we actually had enough to pay his dad back completely, but Jim pointed out that we hadn’t even started Christmas shopping. There’s a good chance that we’ll be able to finish paying his dad off by January though.

Second, I had lunch with Tracy, Eva, and Darren at O’Charley’s yesterday. They’re some people I work with. We all used to sit by each other, but since then, Darren has been moved to a different unit, and Tracy and Eva were part of the lucky few to get selected to be able to work from home.

I was a little out of my element, since I’m so rarely social, but it was worth it, since I don’t get to see Tracy and Eva anymore. They’re doing great, loving being able to work from home. Yeah, if I ever get my own place around here, I’m totally going to look into doing that. But our work has very specific criteria your home has to meet before you can work from home, such as having your own office with locked drawers. (Keep in mind that we handle people’s personal information, so security is a must.) Needless to say, I have neither.

But I digress. Part of going out to lunch and catching up meant that I was caught up on office gossip. I know–it’s kinda weird that people who work from home know more about what’s going on at the office than I do. But at work, I pretty much keep my earbuds in all day and just work. I mean, that’s what I’m getting paid to do. So, no, I never know what’s going on. I got to learn all about it over a plate of nachos, who is getting divorced, who is having an affair with whom.

(I have to say, the big one that is apparently going around the office…it floored me because it involved someone that I would have never expected it from, someone I actually respected and thought was one of the nicest people in the world. Guess it goes to show that we’re all human, and even nice people occasionally will do awful things.)

Anyway, after lunch, I came home to Jim. We went to Hobby Lobby. I bought more yarn. YAY. Came home, played a little Fable 2. I’m FINALLY starting to get into it. The key? Actually learning what I was doing. Oh, I still don’t know totally what I’m doing, but I’m getting better, and it makes me enjoy the game more.

However, while I was playing the XBox, Jim started getting texts from his friend Ben, warning Jim that someone he detests has managed to weasel her way into their D&D group, despite Jim’s protests about her playing, despite the fact that she is very well aware that she’s not really wanted there. It would be one thing if Jim was the only one that dislikes her, but he isn’t. Not by a long shot. So Jim is pissed because, apparently, he’s the only one who has the backbone to tell her no (she originally tried to get into his Spelljammer game), and now he’s debating quitting the D&D game.

That bit of news put a damper on the evening. “Jim, let’s just do our own game when Matt’s is running,” I suggested.

“I want to play in a game, I don’t want to DM everthing!”

“Then teach me to DM!”

Jim just shot me a look. Even I knew that was a long shot. I get so self-conscious while playing. And I barely know how to play; DMing is a long ways off. As in, maybe in another lifetime…but certainly not this one.

Luckily, we were distracted by BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

“Are those drums?” I asked. We went to the window and looked toward the middle school. The band was out. “Hey–is today the Lights Fantastic Parade?”

It was, and we decided that was the perfect distraction for Jim’s gaming woes. We decided to walk, since it was in the 60s earlier that day. Maybe not the best idea, as the wind picked up by the time we got there. By the time we sat down, we were freezing.

The parade was…eh. What do you want? It’s not that big of a town. Also, the toddler behind me kept kicking me in the back. “Stop kicking the lady,” said the woman next to him, who, I deduced from the conversations I overheard, was his grandmother. His mom was on the other side and just ignored it completely. I gritted my teeth during the whole thing. Next year, we’ll bring chairs.

Anyway, during the parade, some girls were giving out flyers to a new restaurant called Evelyn’s on the strip. It looks like they’re just starting out–not a ton on the menu yet–and most of the menu was meat-based. I don’t think most soul food is vegetarian friendly, anyway. But while I’m no longer a vegetarian, I still don’t like a lot of meat.

(Sidenote: I don’t think I even mentioned the no-longer-a-vegetarian thing, did I? After being a vegetarian for 14 years, I’ve stopped. The reasons why I stopped is two fold: 1) we have saved money by having Jim and I eating the same meals–we simply couldn’t afford to keep doing it the way we were doing it, and Jim as not going to be a vegetarian, and 2) after the second miscarriage…well, I want to rule EVERYTHING out about why it’s happening. I know you can get enough protein being a vegetarian, but not the way I do it.)

Still, I don’t like much meat at all. Everyone acted like if I would “just eat a little bit of meat again,” it would all come flooding back and I’d be devouring every animal in sight. My cats would start to look good even, heh. But, nope. For the most part, I don’t like the taste of it. There was some meat on my nachos at my lunch with my co-workers (I immediately wished I had ordered it without), so I didn’t want any for dinner. I stuck with the mac ‘n’ cheese.

WOW. It was really good. It even rivaled my own macaroni and cheese, and I have to say–I make damn good mac ‘n’ cheese. (Two kinds, actually. The regular kind and the Tex Mex kind.) I can’t remember what Jim got, but he was shoveling it in so fast, I thought he was going to choke. “This is SO GOOD,” he said. “This is the BEST…Oh my god, we’ve got to come back.”

And we will. Providing that we can manage to keep funds up.

So, yeah, if you’re the Carbondale area, check out Evelyn’s, give ‘em your business. The service is really good, too.

Jim couldn’t eat everything, though (SO MUCH FOOD), so we walked home. By then, we were freezing because of the wind, and it started to drizzle by the time we made it back to our apartment. Jim hopped in the shower, and then he put in Carnivale, which we traded with his Aunt Donna for Justified. We watched the first two episodes of Carnivale, and I have to say, I think I’m going to like the series a lot. The cinematography is great, and it’s got…mood. I’m all over the moody stuff, heh.

Anyway, it’s after 11 now. I probably should see if Jim wants to wake up, since he doesn’t like to sleep in too late on the weekends. Not sure what we’ll be up to today. Sadly, no Walking Dead tonight–yeah, that mid-season break is kinda lame–but I guess I can just use that time to knit more dishcloths with the yarn I bought.

This will be short–our TV shows (Once Upon a Time, The Walking Dead, and Hell on Wheels) start in 10 minutes–but I hope everyone had a good holiday. My four day weekend was great, full of my favorite things: knitting, Dollhouse, Dexter, video games, and, of course, Jim. I’m kinda bummed to have to start another week working 11 hour days.

Oh, well. One thing I wanted to mention. I know I’m not the only person who has quit World of Warcraft because of money reasons. (Although I think I’m one of the few whose laptop just can’t handle it anymore.) Over the weekend, I decided to check out Runes of Magic, which, I had heard, is very much like Warcraft, except free.

So I downloaded it. And I can attest that it is very much like Warcraft, which I was happy with. Granted, it also overheats my laptop the way Warcraft does, but at least I’m not losing $15 a month for a game I can’t play. Because I can’t play more than 15 minutes before my laptop shuts down on me, I haven’t gotten very far in Runes of Magic–my toon is only level 6 or something like that–but this is what I’ve noticed so far:

• Music. It’s just not that great. Put it on mute and let good, old fashioned Pandora do the mood-setting for you.
• You can only play either a human or an elf, from what I’ve seen so far. That kinda sucks.
• However, there is way more customization of your character. I love that.
• You get a ton more gold in the starting quests–I think my girl already has almost 2,000–and you get dailies up front. Also, you get a mount up-front–but you “borrow” it.