My addiction

I've been playing World of Warcraft with renewed interest lately; you see, an expansion for the game came out a couple weeks ago and I can think of nothing else. I'm avoiding my knitting projects (I have a half-finished mitten that needs a mate and a gazillion animal toys that need to be made still), and only working forty hours each week. I'd say that I've also let the house cleaning go, but that's not remarkable at all since I totally fail at being a real wife who cooks and cleans.

I remember when Mr. J and I first purchased and loaded World of Warcraft in November of 2004. The install was painfully long, but it was exciting. By the time we'd loaded the entire game we didn't have much time for anything but we were out of our brains with anticipation. My first character was a Night Elf Rogue named Jaide.

Back then I was working 5am to 1pm, and I was pretty useless anytime after 8pm. But I stayed up late every night because it was exciting. Every evening we wolfed down our dinners so we could rush off to play and it was fun. There was so much to see and do, and it was all new. I loved it, adored the game, thought Blizzard was God. It was so much fun playing the game with my husband and exploring the world and stabbing stuff in the back.

During the Burning Crusade release last year it was snowing. I left work at 9am and it took me four hours to get home. Mr. J had gone in the snow to get our games, and we installed them and again went through the painfully long, four-disc install all the while chatting and excited. The game had lost that first blush by then; it was still loads of fun, but the experience of first-time newness never really comes back. We still loved it though, and were excited all over again. We looked forward to new content, new quests, new terrain, and new stories.

I've been burnt out with the game for a long time, haven't raided in months and have been generally disinterested. I have been focusing on work, and on my crafting, and yoga. But now ... now that I have a shiny new expansion pack to play, with new content, new quests, new terrain, and new stories I'm excited all over again. I can't wait to play, can't wait to learn and see and fight and skin and cook and die. The anticipation of all that newness comes back to me and makes my heart speed up a little bit, makes my brain throb, and it's not at all unlike an anticipation high after a long clean period.