Jonesing for a (Sim) Fix

My life has been very busy lately. Editing, working, spending time with J, having dinner with my sister, scrapbook-paryting with Sarah...it's all good stuff. But a few of my old pasttimes have fallen by the wayside. Reading? I've been reading Stephen King's new book for, what? A month? More, maybe? And I'm not even halfway through. Even though I'm liking it so far, and really want to see what happens. Watching TV? I still have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 or so hours of TV on my DVR that I need to catch up with. Thank goodness for some recent repeats, or it would be even worse. But the thing that is bothering me the most lately, the thing I am starting to jones for in a big way - the Sims 2.

I have a desktop computer that I use solely for the Sims. It used to be my habit to have that computer on and running the game every night after work for about four hours, and on every weekend day for probably 10 or 12 hours at a time. Yes, I was seriously addicted, and wasted a lot of hours playing that game. But I watched TV while I did it, so I was accomplishing two time wasting activities at the same time! So at least I was multi-tasking my laziness. But then I met J online, and we started to talk on the phone every night, and we started seeing each other, and now we're on the phone every week night except the one that he is at my house, and he's at my house all weekend, and my Sims computer hasn't been turned on since somewhere around mid-October, or maybe late October. Yes, my poor little Sims have been languishing in the computer. My Sim Willow is still pregnant, as is her Sim owner. And I don't even remember what else was happening to all of my Sim people, because I've been gone so long. And I haven't minded not playing, because good stuff was happening. A relationship was happening, extra work (and therefore fuel oil money) was happening. It was all good, and who needs to play with fake people when you can play with real people?

Well. That was a good attitude for a while, but now the itch is returning. I am feeling the need to fire up that desktop PC and see what my Sim people are up to. I want to see Willow's puppies, I want to see what her owner has, a boy or girl, or maybe twins! I want to control their little simulated lives. I won't be able to do it tonight, because I am going to my Monday night dinner with D and K, to hang out and see what they thought of J. I have to get the lowdown from them. And by the time I get home, I'll have just enough time to take care of the dogs, put on my pajamas, maybe vacuum the living room and my bedroom, and watch one episode of something off my DVR, then the phone will be ringing. J will want to know what D and K thought of him, and he'll want to tell me that he misses me and can't wait until he comes out again on Tuesday. And I'll of course be happy to hear all of that.

So, no Sims tonight, because of dinner and phone call, and no Sims tomorrow night because he'll be there, but maybe on Wednesday. Yeah, I can fit at least a couple of hours of play time in on Wednesday, I think. I hope my Sims won't be mad at me for abandoning them for all this time.

Now I just have to figure out how to balance the time wasting activities that I miss so much with the relationship/work/friend stuff. There has to be a way to fit it all in, right? Here's hoping I figure out how to fit it all in. Otherwise, Sim Willow will be pregnant forever and my DVR will explode from being too full. And we wouldn't want that.