Posts tagged nerd

It all happened so fast.
“I have no idea what I’ll do tonight,” I said. I could already feel the boredom sinking in even though I was barely 5 minutes through the door.
“You could go to game night, you know,” He said.
“Yeah?” I replied warily.
“Yep. Nerds find girls ten times more sexy when they join in on game night.”
“Um. Right. You know I’ll have no idea what’s going on….”
“That’s okay! You can just sit and watch!”
“But it’s boys’ night! Are you sure you want me there?”
“Of course I do!” And I looked at the excitement in his blue eyes, like a puppy just asked if he wanted to go for walk, and with great trepidation I replied:
“Fine. I’ll go.”

And so I went. And from 7:30 to 10:30, I sat on the sofa while 7 grown men played something called CthulhuTech at the dining room table behind me. I remember there was a thing…and they had to try to kill the thing…and a warehouse…and riot shields…lots of guns…and dice…I don’t know. It was a like big, nerdy blur that sucked up 4 hours of my life.

And it was odd, too, how Dan changed in front of his friends. I always sort of expect to be ignored when he’s around other guys, but in this case, it was just the opposite. He’d get up and visit me on the couch, give me a little kiss and ask me how I was doing. I came to visit from time to time to see what was going on (there’s no physical game there, I found out) and he’d pull me over, give me a squeeze and hold me next to him for a while. Totally not expecting that. But I suppose when you consider that 5 out of 7 guys at that table didn’t have girlfriends, much less a wife, it’d make sense if this was Dan’s slightly geeky way of showing off a bit. While less than subtle bragging usually drives me up the wall, it didn’t feel so bad to be a trophy wife for a night. :)

But when I was back on the couch, nose glued to my phone, I did try to listen as the guys talked. I had decided that my only goal was to pick up enough that I could honestly ask Dan questions when he was done and deserve the nerdy trophy wife status. Much to my relief, I actually caught a few things towards the end that sounded kind of like my LoTR video game, so I had a small arsenal of questions at the ready when we got into the car. I knew I’d be regaled for hours about aliens, H.P. Lovecraft and various other things that I didn’t fully understand, but when we got home, he thanked me for asking questions and for sitting through it all, and it felt worth it.

Just like the books say, husbands really do appreciate it when you show interest in their extra-curricular activities (you don’t say!) So my advice is, no matter how boring, how dorky, how silly it may actually be to you, sometimes loving your husband just means going to his game night every once in a while, be it joining him on the couch for football, reading up on political events or even donning your dork shirt and spending the evening listening in on a post-apocalyptic world full giant bug wizards. He’ll feel more respected and you’ll probably gain +42 Wife Tenacity in the process, and that’s always ftw.