No Skillz at the Arcade

For some strange reason, I got $5 worth of free video arcade tokens for each day of internet service I purchased at my hotel here in Orlando (they also throw in a liter of Fiji water, free golf range usage and a bunch of other things, all for $17 a day?!?). Even though I'm only using the connection for three days, they gave me four vouchers... so I went to the arcade to cash in the vouchers and check out the games.

I'm too old to be able to play half of what they had, but my eyes lit up at a few of the old school choices available: Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Centipede, Millipede and Missile Command. I thought that 1 token equaled one dollar, but each dollar got me 4 tokens, so I had EIGHTY TOKENS handed to me in this gigantic cup. One game is only 2 tokens?!?!

There was no way I was going to be able to play forty games of Ms. Pac-Man, so I found a harried-looking mom of four and poured half of the tokens into her hands and I think she thought an angel had descended from on high--her crazy kids were going to be occupied for the next hour--hallelujah! Before you start thinking that I am a nice person, just know that if the arcade had housed Area 51, I would've kept all of the tokens for myself. A little known fact about your blogger friend e is that she held the high score record for Area 51 in the Minneapolis Airport Arcade in 1996. That's what happens when your consulting project is based in Minnesota in the dead of winter and your flights constantly get delayed... you find ways to pass the time.

Anyway, I ended up playing all of the games listed above, plus some car racing simulator and some shoot-em-up game that was similar to Area 51, but not nearly as cool as there were no aliens. I was awful at all of these games. I kept looking around to ensure no one was watching me--I was that bad. Little kids who could barely reach the controls were better than I was. But it was still fun.

After expending all of my energy at the arcade, I needed to power back up in preparation for my visit to five theme parks over the next three days. Yes, five theme parks. Rest assured I will report back about my antics after it's all over. Anyway, I went and got a huge dessert--brownies and caramel sauce and fudge and ice cream... and mini chocolate chips thrown on top for good measure. I have such a high tolerance for sweets that, believe it or not, that feast will not keep me awake with sugar-fueled jitters tonight. Rather, I will drift off to sleep thinking back fondly on every bite, and running through my plan of attack for the parks tomorrow.

- e