Tag: games

Playing Pretend

Ever since my successful experiment I’ve been playing a game with myself. At random times as I go through my day I ask myself “what would Future Me do?”

The results have been fascinating.

Future Me has slightly different tastes than I do. I have found myself selecting different outfits for work and digging through my small stash of costume jewelry to mix things up a bit. Some of the items were discarded as Future Me curled up her nose at their condition. She’s a bit picky, it seems.

She doesn’t seem to talk as much either. Two of my coworkers have asked me why I’ve been so quiet lately. I hadn’t even realized that my behavior had changed so much until they mentioned it. I was simply moving through the store, pretending to be her as I dutifully tidied the shelves.

I’ve also seriously reduced the time I spend online. I didn’t even aim for that; I simply asked myself what Future Me would do one evening and allowed things to progress from there. Now I check my email, visit a couple of news sites, and move on with my life. I wasn’t expecting that.

I’ve done a bit more journaling over these past few days but that might just be due to the fact that I’m reveling in the new journal I treated myself to. I feel seriously wealthy when I place my thoughts upon the pages.

One of the most fascinating discoveries is the fact that I smoke less. Future Me is a nonsmoker; she tends to point out that she cares for her body and doesn’t want to mistreat it. She also reminds me that I didn’t start smoking until after I moved here so the habit isn’t that old. While I haven’t stopped smoking completely, it gives me enough pause that I find myself occasionally passing up the opportunity to smoke now.

I’m starting to wonder if this game will provide a way to completely cease the habit.

I believe that I am going to continue this game. It’s rather amusing to step aside and allow the person I envision myself in the future to take charge. Even better, this game of pretend is making me think and change some of my behaviors.

I will keep you updated on my progress.

Have you ever pretended to be your future self? What happened? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Fun and Games Shoestring Style

My daughter and I haven’t owned a Monopoly game since our last one bit the dust in a horrible accident. We missed it but such is life.

We struck gold the other day, however. Sitting on the top of a trash can was a Monopoly box. We snatched it up and brought it home to discover that only a few of the pieces were missing. We gathered up some of the stuff we had managed to save from our old game and created the items we still needed using pieces of paper and whatnot, then sat down and started playing.

We had a blast! Hopefully we will be able to scrounge the cards we’re missing over time, but until then the game is playable. We just have to remember that giving an IOU for rent when just two people are playing doesn’t work out so well. We kept passing that ticket instead of one of us giving up until we finally called a draw. It was fun, though!

Have you ever scrounged or created something you could use by just piecing it together from scraps? Please share your stories in the comments below.