"The Waiting Game"

            Waiting.

            Waiting for a delivery takes a special kind of patience that I don’t have anymore. In the past, I would fill the hours by reading a book or watching something on television. Perhaps I’d do a few easily interrupted household chores to help pass the time.

  

          Today, I await our new Amana refrigerator. The Home Depot called last night and gave us a four hour window. I’ll receive a more specific time within an hour of delivery. At that point, I can shift all of the food into the sparkling clean and dutifully awaiting cooler.

            In the meantime, I linger around the house. I haven’t gone outside to water the gardens, as is my usual routine, in case I miss the phone call. I’ve tried playing Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma’s Revenge to keep me busy, but in the back of my mind, I listen for the truck’s sighing brakes.

            With my luck, the refrigerator will arrive late this afternoon, making me miss my workout at the gym and preventing me from picking up something to eat for lunch.

            With my luck, I’ll be the last delivery before the driver heads into his home base. That means an extra late start on chilling the new fridge and a delay in getting some groceries (which I haven’t bought for this week, of course).

            And so Impatience chats with me as I wait. Her ADHD keeps me on edge, though, and emphasizes that waiting just isn’t my game.

    

 

Copyright 2013 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

“Room Design”

 

https://yoworld.com/

            My sister loves trying different games through her Facebook account. In 2014 she raved about YoVille and invited me to play, too. Then she switched to Bejeweled Blitz and Words with Friends followed by Mahjong Wonders 3D Cube. She bounces from game to game, sending requests for me to join along. While she’s out searching for her next form of entertainment, I still load the now YoWorld onto my computer daily. My collection of houses, furniture, outfits and hair numbers the thousands. I rarely utilize the social aspects within the game. I simply do enough to gather funds for my various purchases.

   
         My relationship with Bejeweled runs deeper. I discovered that playing a round or two before stretching out in bed resets my brain. During the years of caregiving Mom, playing this computer game nightly rewired my thoughts to focus on lining up and blowing up little colorful jewels. This played out behind my eyes when I settled for the night. We even purchased Bejeweled 3 to refocus me with variations of the basic game. For the last thirteen years, my bedtime routine includes a round of two of “Poker,” “Zen,” or “Butterflies.”

            While my sister dropped Mahjong Wonders 3D Cube rapidly, I found the drill helped my memory and speed of matching alike items. Although I played it for many months longer than my sister, I dropped it for almost a year. When I quit work with the 2020 shutdown, this game became a favorite way to past time.

            Room Design caught my sister’s attention about a week ago. She asked for me to play along because you challenge friends to room design duels. We’ve shot competitive contests back and forth for over the past few days. Every day, I note that the list of friends participating in the game grows longer. Now if my sister and I follow our usual pattern, she’ll shift to another game by March. I will be ensnared in the game for another ten years!

 

https://www.facebook.com/RoomDesignGame/

Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman
       

 

“The Waiting Game”

 

            Waiting.

            Waiting for a delivery takes a special kind of patience that I don’t have anymore. In the past, I would fill the hours by reading a book or watching something on television. Perhaps I’d do a few easily interrupted household chores to help pass the time.

  

          Today, I await our new Amana refrigerator. The Home Depot called last night and gave us a four hour window. I’ll receive a more specific time within an hour of delivery. At that point, I can shift all of the food into the sparkling clean and dutifully awaiting cooler.

            In the meantime, I linger around the house. I haven’t gone outside to water the gardens, as is my usual routine, in case I miss the phone call. I’ve tried playing Bejeweled Blitz and Zuma’s Revenge to keep me busy, but in the back of my mind, I listen for the truck’s sighing brakes.

            With my luck, the refrigerator will arrive late this afternoon, making me miss my workout at the gym and preventing me from picking up something to eat for lunch.

            With my luck, I’ll be the last delivery before the driver heads into his home base. That means an extra late start on chilling the new fridge and a delay in getting some groceries (which I haven’t bought for this week, of course).

            And so Impatience chats with me as I wait. Her ADHD keeps me on edge, though, and emphasizes that waiting just isn’t my game.

    

 

Copyright 2013 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman