Pokémon Go

[Brian]

Just visited Deep Ellum, a trendy Dallas neighborhood. I think I was the only pedestrian not playing Pokemon. One mom was playing with her teenagers. Even a parking lot attendant was telling passers-by where to find more critters.

[Mirror Image]

Also never played it as a kid, so I'm not playing it now.

But another friend of mine, who again never played it as a kid and had no interest, downloaded the game just to see what everyone was talking about. Unfortunately, this friend has a personality quirk where she obsessively needs to collect things, and if she has 2 things from a set, she needs to complete the set no matter what. Mirror Image would like her. So she quickly got into the game. Her husband is 20 years older than she is, so he was really contemptuous at first, but then he started catching Pokemon "for her" to be nice, and within 24 hours it became clear that he had totally gotten sucked into the game, was having a total blast, and cared about it a whole helluva lot more than she did.

So anyway, Saturday night they took me walking around their neighborhood, with glasses of wine in little plastic cups*, while they caught various critters. To my delight, they refuse to use the actual names of the Pokemon, instead saying things like "caught another bat," "caught a goldfish," "it's that weird bird with two heads," etc.

They refuse to play the part of the game where you fight other players because, quote, "We don't actually want to interact with other people." They just like the collecting cute animals part.

*a gloriously silky-smooth small-production 2008 Barossa shiraz; gotta stay classy with those plastic cups!

You had me until I read the part where this woman was married. That's too bad. We would have been a good couple. As for this Pokemon Go phenomenon, I really could care less. I prefer to walk outside, breathe in the air, and be one with nature. I don't need a game interfering with these kinds of moments.

[Brian]

You had me until I read the part where this woman was married. That's too bad. We would have been a good couple.

Careful...she's read the entire GMG "Girl Problems" thread... 

[Ken B]

Even a parking lot attendant was telling passers-by where to find more critters.

Bouillabaisse?

[Mirror Image]

Careful...she's read the entire GMG "Girl Problems" thread... 

Man! I'm doomed!

[NikF]

So that's what it probably was... This morning I was stretching my legs via a hard run casual trundle in the park. A young man engrossed in his phone cut across the trail path and stopped halfway down a slope. Then on my second lap he again came walking in my direction, head still bowed in reverence to the screen...and all of a sudden I appeared to be running even slower than usual. But all that happened is that without looking up he had almost instantly gone from walking forward to walking backwards. Ah, as long as he's happy.