In Which I Confess that I have an Addiction....

This week has not been a fantastic week. It hasn't been bad but it's been one of those weeks in which somehow time has slipped away from me and I'm not entirely sure where it went. I've had no TV to watch since Monday so, technically, my evenings should be open wide with time to do everything I want.
Except that doesn't seem to happen and I have no idea why.

Then again, when I analyze what I do in the evenings, I do seem to be spending a rather large amount of time...wasting time. Last night, I thought I'd use the leftover filling from the butternut squash ravioli I'd made a while ago to make more butternut squash ravioli. This time, however, I'd try using the pasta roller that I'd 'borrowed' (read: stolen) from my dad who had received it as a gift several years ago and never taken out of the box. Well, I have to say, it is a fantastic invention. I took my dough and rolled it through and within moments I had lovely thin sheets of pasta. It was quite tasty if I do say so myself. Thank you, Mario Batali, for making me believe I can actually cook. Seriously, I love his recipes; they are delicious yet nice and simple.

Yet, as you can imagine, that took a while to make though not long to eat. Which meant I'd already spent a good chunk of my evening making dinner which I consumed in less than ten minutes. I enjoyed it though.

I also confess, I know where a very large chunk of my time is going. I have a horrible addiction and it's time to put it out there. I'm addicted to a game on facebook called Bejeweled Blitz. I HATE this game because I can't stop playing it. Each game lasts one minute. You have to line up three or more jewels of the same type by shuffling them around the board. You get to see your friends scores and the goal is to beat them. I'm very competitive. I'm last at the moment. This means I have to try to beat at least the score just above me.

The game is horribly deceptive because I find myself thinking, "Oh, it's only a minute," and I play. Then I decide I cannot possibly stop playing until I get a decent score. Then I get a decent score and I want to beat it. Then I have a bad game and I think "no way can I end with such a crappy score..." Before I know it, I've killed 30 minutes.

The other unfortunate side of this addiction is what I call "The Tetris Effect." Anyone who's ever played Tetris for any length of time knows the danger of it; it means that for at least several hours, you will mentally still be playing Tetris. Your brain will try to be fitting things together, Tetris style, for quite some time even when you're not playing the game. Bejewelled Blitz is having this effect. I knew I had a problem when I was talking to my coworker and trying to rearrange her face so that I could move her nose up in line with her eyes and have a line of three. This also occured in a meeting in which they projected a computer screen and I started to try to mentally line up the file icons so I could get some points.

I have a problem. I need to stop playing this game. Yet like any good drug, it's calling my name. It says, "Captain Monkeypants, come play! Come put your Green Day CD on and get comfy and forget the world for a while in our shiny, shiny jewels! Come on! You know you want to, you know you do."

I end up giving in. I hate it. I need to go to Bejeweled Blitz rehab. Fortunately, I'm going away this weekend to stay with my best friend for a few days. I shall use this period to detox. I will come back from Washington D.C. without the urge to line up jewels in my mind. At least...until I play again. Which I won't. I hope.

So...maybe I, uh, do know where my time is going in the evenings. Though I did start writing a short story last night so that's something, at least. I just kept trying to line up the words of my story so they could make a row, like in Bejeweled Blitz.

Yes, I know I have a problem. The first step is admitting it...right?

Happy Thursday.