The weather is bad here. Lots of wind (typical for South Dakota) and rain today, the skies were gray and nasty and it is chilly out. Just not a go out and have fun sort of day. This kind of day drives me nuts. I get all cooped up feeling and kind of cranky, ok, according to Danny a lot cranky.

So today we did some cleaning. We have company coming next month and our guest bedroom was NOT fit for guests. So we have been working on making that more hospitable, less like a family of wolves lives in there and more like a normal couple lives in the apartment. So during my cleaning I got really crabby, like beyond belief crabby. So when we finished up I proposed that we get out of the house for a while.

We went to our favorite pub for a Coke and we decided to play cards. One of our great stress and anxiety relievers around here is a game called Magic: The Gathering. It is a fantasy card game that we both enjoy playing. I learned from Danny around the time Punkin was born. So I’ve been playing for about two years now. Danny has been playing for around ten, usually he whoops up on me.

Magic is game that requires you to build decks out of fantasy characters. The decks we played against each other tonight were Guys and Dolls, consisting of angels and soldiers, and Dragons, which is made up of well Dragons. So tonight we both needed to blow off some steam and our favorite decks went head to head. I didn’t do so well. I lost both games, but I felt much, much better after we played. It took my mind off of all of the sad things that were in my head and let me focus on something purely fantasy.

So why do I write about this? Stress and anxiety for me usually come down to one thing in the end, and that is missing Punkin. So this is one of our great stress and anxiety relievers. This card game has served me well more than once.