I don't remember joining the circus . . .

I had a REALLY bad day at work yesterday. All I wanted to do was go home, have a glass of milk and go to bed. I didn't care what might be on TV or whether the sun was still up or not. I was hot, miserable, tired and grumpy. Throw in a few more adjectives and I would have been all the seven dwarfs rolled up into one.

One of the things that made me grumpy was paying my bills. I was already set to leave work when I realized I hadn't written the checks for my bills and they needed to get out in yesterday's mail. So after hanging around work for another 1/2 hour while I wrote check after check after check and watched my bank account dwindle to almost nothing I finally packed up and left the office. I was so tired that instead of turning toward the post office I started towards home. Oops. I made a U-turn and headed in the right direction. Now I wanted to get home and go to bed more than anything . . . and I was getting hotter by the second.

On the way home I realized that the new maps were coming out for Gears of War 2 today. While this thought was not earth shattering in its nature it was enough to brighten my day and I started to look forward to getting home and playing Gears and then going to bed. But I was still hot. I figured it would take a while to download the maps so I planned to log in as soon as I got home, start the download of the maps and then go out swimming to cool off while the map pack was being delivered to my system. Sounded like a good plan to me.

When I got home all that changed.

I changed into my swimsuit, logged onto my Xbox and went to the marketplace to download the maps. I saw that it would cost me 1,200 points to do it and I only had 990 points in my balance. I was hoping it would only be 800 points, but I figured I'd have to buy points anyway. I hit the button to "add microsoft points," selected an appropriate amount and then selected "confirm payment". Unfortunately I realized my credit card had expired in June and I forgot to update the expiration date. Because of this the system wouldn't allow me process my purchase. No points. No maps.

At the same time I started getting invites from my friends to play Gears. I jumped in the party and told them I was trying to download the maps and would be on later. I guess swimming might have to wait awhile. After looking around for five minutes for a place on my Xbox 360 to change my expiration date on my credit card (I opened up every menu options and then some) I realized I would have to change the date by using my computer. Great.

I went into my office and turned on my computer. I waited while it went through the boot-up cycle before it came to the screen for me to pick my log in ID (dain also has an ID on my computer for repair purposes). Then I had to wait while it loaded all of my preferences. Then I had to wait while my system ran it's virus, spyware, etc. checks. Once that was all done I clicked on my internet icon (Firefox) and waiting for my internet browser to open. What I got instead was a pop-up message box saying my Firefox application was being updated. Great. And how long was that going to take?

Now I was hot, tired, miserable, even more grumpy and looking at my dog I could tell that she couldn't figure out why I had my swimming suit on but wasn't going out side into the pool. I decided to say "screw it" and take my dog's advice. I would stay out and swim and cool off in the pool as long as I like and would come back in to change my expiration date, buy points, download maps and play Gears when I bloody well felt like it. So there.

At least that's how I thought it would go.

After about five or ten minutes in the pool, just when that knot in my head and body was starting to unravel Zoe went ballistic at the back gate. I floated over there to see if I could tell what set her off. All I could see was someone going back and forth in front of my house. Great. What now?

I decided to get out of the pool, go inside and see if I could tell what was going on in front of my house. So dripping wet, I trundled to my front window and looked out. There was a kid (jr or sr high school age) riding a skate board back and forth on the sidewalk. Really? It's 115 degrees outside and you're skateboarding? Go home and stay in the AC idiot.

Since I was already inside (when the AC kicked on it did a really nice job of cooling me off, but that was because I will still dripping wet) I decided to check up on my computer. I put my towels on the chair and sat down. Apparently after the update my system froze and I lost all access to my desk top. The only thing for me to do was to turn my system off and restart it. Which meant I had to sit through another boot-up, log in, virus check, etc. Once I got through all of that it took 2 minutes for Firefox to open up a web page. I was just about to give up for good and go back to my original plan of going to bed when I decided I came this far I might as well finish the deed.

I found the right web page, changed my expiration date and selected the map pack from the marketplace to download to my Xbox 360. While it was downloading I went and changed out of my wet swimsuit and waited for the system to finish. When it finally did I checked my friends list and found all of my friends were already playing in full groups. I thought about trying the new maps on private so I could walk around and learn them before I actually had to fight on them, but I had had enough. I put in Eternal Sonata hoping a nice quiet RPG with bright colors would improve my mood.

That's when the invites started coming again.

I seriously considered not joining Evil Ric and G Sneaka in their game but I had jumped through so many hoops just to play these news maps I wanted to see if it was worth it. I felt like a dog at the circus, performing trick after trick, and now I just wanted to hear the applause. What did I think of the new maps like, you ask? Eh.

I think I played 5 matches. Two on Sanctuary, two on War Machine and one on The Highway (I think that's the name). After that I just didn't care to play anymore. Not that they are bad maps (although I don't think I like the new War Machine) but I just wasn't in the mood. Sometimes at the end of the day this old dog just wants to lay down in her kennel and call it a night.

I went back into the pool afterwards and spent a good twenty minutes or so trying to relax. After that I packed it in and crawled under the covers. I was in bed about a quarter after 10pm and asleep abut one minute later. For me, going to bed before 11pm is early. I usually end up in bed by 11:30 and I don't usually fall asleep until around 12am. But last night I needed it. Who knew this circus life could be so tiring. I wonder what feats of daring I'll have to perform tonight when I get online. And you know, you can teach an old dog new tricks . . . it just takes too much out of her when you do.