An addiction, an obsession.

I grew up a pretty big nerd. I was forced to get glasses by age seven and was put in enrichment classes. I thought reading was the coolest thing ever - to the point where if I was in trouble, my punishment was to have my books taken away. My dad's kind of a computer nerd and, therefore, the trait was passed on the me. I remember sitting on his lap as a little girl asking how to play "Rome Total War" or "Civilization." I was the girl in class who always volunteered to read first in class. Despite all this nerdy-ness, I never really picked up an affinity for video games.

In my house there are 5 televisions, two of which are in the living room. There is also an X-box 360, a Playstation 3, and a Nintendo 64. The guys' favorite game to play? Without doubt, Call of Duty Modern Warfare. My room is closest to the living room, and most nights I fall asleep to the sounds of guns firing, explosions, and "UAV online" or "We are losing B." I started off just watching Spencer play (since it's his game). I just kept thinking "How is this possibly fun and how can you play for so long?!" Then Dan got addicted. Watching them play I thought, "This is so easy! How could you stay entertained?!" Then I took a turn.

The game is a drug. It's more addicting than anything I've ever done before. The first time I played I only got 1 kill and died 28 times. I thought, "I can do better than this, just one more game." Now I can't get enough. It literally gets my adrenaline going, especially since I'm just naturally a competitive person. I started off just playing occasionally. If I'd come home in the middle of the day and one of the guys was playing I'd ask, "Hey can I jump in?" But now it's much worse. Spencer taught me how to load the game myself. Sunday I woke up, turned on the X-box, and started to play while everyone else was still asleep. I've even changed the game into a verb so that when someone asks me what I'm doing I say "CODing." So girls, never again question how your boyfriend can play a video game for so long and not get bored.

Dan and Spencer CODing.