Nerd Outlet

When I was job searching last spring, one important factor was living in a larger area. I was in a small college town of ~12,000 with the next closest big area being 30-45 minutes away. Adding that with the ever-changing but mostly night hours of my job and I didn't really make a lot of friends outside of work. So, when I moved in Wisconsin, I wanted to have an outlet - something that would get me away from campus and do something with people who I don't see on the clock.

Sometime in September or October, one of my RAs told me about a place called Gnome Games that had a plethora of card, board, and tabletop games. The only real game store I knew about before was Games by James, which is more by the Cities metro, so I was intrigued by having something near by. I took a chance one day and stopped by and was pleasantly surprised. The store was jam packed with all types of games (adding puzzles, miniatures, and RPGs to my previous list) and maybe a dozen people were playing a trading card game. I'm not one for trading card games, but after talking with the employees, I learned about a board game meet up at the store's second location.

Since then, I've been going to the meet up each Saturday and having a blast. It was a little slow going the first few weeks since many people were elsewhere enjoying the warm weather while it lasted, but there's definitely a core group of people that I've gotten to know. Each week, we all bring a variety of games and play those or some of Gnome Games' demo library. The same group also meets on Tuesdays at Denny's to game after dinner, but I can only go to those when I don't have a staff meeting that night (so breaks and special occasions).

Honestly, I think this was just what I needed. A group of people who I can view as peers (rather than being young enough to be students) who come together to enjoy each other's company while gaming. It was nice to go there today and be welcomed back since I had been gone for a few weeks with Christmas travels. So yeah, that was most of my day and I may devote future entries to specific games we play. For now, though, I just wanted to talk about my nerd outlet.

I think this definitely fits nicely with January being Get a Balanced Life Month.

DFTBA!