Slow Fade

Okay, it's not a picturesque sunset.  It almost seems to fade to black, but we all know that's not what's going on here.

So it's a pet battle!  Yes, I'm playing PokeWoW.  Shut up!  That's not ALL I've been doing the last few years.

Is it?

It might as well be.

Somewhere along the line life got in the way of blogging.

Don't get me wrong!  I didn't stop playing WoW!  A girl must have her priorities.

The problem came when I stopped doing anything interesting.

So, everyone lost interest in this blog.

Okay, okay, I lost interest in this blog.

It happened somewhere about the time I got engaged to a non-WoW-player.  Guys, men, a lot of you know what I'm talking about.  You love this game, and then you find The One and this mythical creature of absolute perfection who actually gives you sex...is just not interested in the game you enjoy most.  Woe.  But, you know, the sex kinda trumps the game.

I never thought I'd be one of those players, of course.  I'm a girl!  I'm the one with the power!  Right?  Uh, no.  Equality works both ways, I'm happy to say.

I thought I'd give it time.  Getting engaged and planning a wedding out of state is a HUGE time sink.  It's like...winter saber grinding, the old fashioned way.  You know, before they turned it into a few dailies that take a week or so if you're lazy.

So, after the wedding I figured I'd have time to get back to raiding at least occasionally.

It was not meant to be.

Just a couple of months after the wedding my father-in-law got sick.  He walked away from it with a weird and lingering case of laryngitis that just wouldn't go away.  A few doctor visits later and they came back with a paralyzed vocal cord that probably wouldn't be too hard to fix, but they had to do a few other things first.  Even the prostate cancer they said could have killed him in the next ten years was a low, low, low priority.  He pretty much had cancer of the...everything.  Possible skin cancer, but they never actually got that far.  Esophagus, stomach...I'd go on, but I can't even remember.  It was a tumor in his liver that finally killed him the day after my first wedding anniversary.

I did my job.  When I had time off while my husband was still at work, I played WoW or Diablo 3.  I played a lot.  The novel I'd been poking at for years?  No.  I couldn't concentrate for that long.  Rep grinding, pet battles, leveling, questing...that's about all I had in me.  There were plenty of short and sweet Facebook posts here and there, but anything longer than a paragraph was beyond my powers of concentration for a very long time.

End result: Shavra, draenei shaman, level 90; Ceraan, night elf druid, level 90; Tsarat, night elf mage, level 90;  Jerasha, human paladin, level 90; Hiiro, pandaran warrior, level 90; Shaelek, pandaran monk, level 90; Ebraere, night elf priest, level 90; Yosaphbridge, human rogue, level 90; Weeinsanity, gnome death knight, level 90; Aislen, draenei hunter, level 90; Ahrianna, worgen warlock, level 90; Romanaii, blood elf hunter, level 90; Bivran, undead priest, level 90.  Hell, I won't even count Aranisera, Joulaim, Oddbit, Frale, or any of my other low level alts.  I'm not even looking at any server other than Moonrunner.

That's 13 level 90s, and not a real preference for any one of them.

My altitis had grown worse.

And after we'd grieved, after we'd started to feel like life might even out and give us some sense of balance or peace, my husband lost his job.  He found a new one that cut his pay by a few dollars.  And then it was announced that my hours would have to be cut down to 30/week.  And...I decided to stop.

I can't play WoW like this.

I just can't.

I don't think this is the end, but it's coming after a long and painful fade to black.

The second draft of my novel is done, and I'm going to try to do more with the drive I had put into this game.

I don't know if this is goodbye.  If it is, it can't be unexpected considering how long it's been since I posted a thing.

It was great fun while it lasted.  I met some wonderful people.  The game time on my primary account has already lapsed, and my second account will follow soon.  I might indulge in a one month for my birthday/WoW's 10th anniversary, but I might not be able to afford it.  (How sad is that?)

Safe travels, friend.  Time is money.  Keep your feet on the ground.