Imagine this.  Sitting in the computer/game/therapy/sun room (no sun though, a cloudy day).  Clicking away at the keyboard while my brother, the miraculous one, sits behind me (actually a little behind and to my left).  He seems transfixed, almost possessed by what is in front of him.  His mouth continually works, forming itself into alternating ohs and grimaces.  He jerks, twitches and then...yes!  Following a flurry of swords and the clinking of armor, the enemy has been destroyed.  A slow smile spreads across Sam's face and his eyes glow from within.  What could hold  a man's attention and cause such rapture to fill his features?  Oh yeah...a stupid video game.  Yuck.  Worst thing ever invented.  I just asked him if he was "winning".  (Yes).  I then mentioned that I was enjoying all of the "ooohhh" mouths that he kept making.  He broke into a giant grin (well, he didn't break into a giant grin--is that right?  It sounds correct, but the visual image that goes along with it is a little funny, yet disturbing).  Anyway, I will just say...he smiled and then added, "Yeah, I do keep doing that face, don't I?"  I guess the sticky point in the game he is playing right now is a giant spider and an ogre--they seem to be working as a team and it isn't looking good for Sam.  Plus, the odd thing is, the ogre just keeps appearing at the most inopportune times.  But isn't that how it always is.  Poor guy, can survive a severe head injury, but just can't battle an ogre and spider at the same time.  But, then again, who could?

Sam is really messing with the virtual heads of some of the characters.  Ongar (the "World Weary") is a guy in his game that is constantly complaining about how exhausted he is.  Even his voice sounds weary. His line is "I'm tired, can we get on with this." So a while back Sam decided to mess with Ongar's mind.  He went to different people's virtual houses and stole a mess of baskets.  He then went back to Ongar's house and filled his bed with the baskets.  And now poor, world weary Ongar can't even lay down in his own bed.  That man hasn't slept in months.  No wonder he sounds so tired.  And Sam's justification for this "basket bombing" is based on the fact that Ongar is a member of the Thieves Guild and isn't a very honest guy.  "I guess that's what you get for only buying stolen goods," says Sam.  Hmmm...though I must point out here that Sam STOLE the baskets that he loaded in Ongar's bed.  And now Sam just admitted to me that he has also broken into houses to steal POTATOES (I guess he uses them to make magic potions).    But do not judge my brother too harshly... all of these evil deeds were done in a virtual, videogame world, a place where our nice Sam is a bad, bad man.  A basket-bomber.  A potato-stealer.  An Ongar-tormentor.  See what videogames will do to a person!!

I was here today, so I was able to witness the OT work with Rachel.  Very cool, though nerve wracking.  He was standing in front of the kitchen island, hands up and balancing on one foot.  Seriously.  I saw it with my own eyes.  He had his left leg lifted perpendicular to his body but hanging at the knee.  And he had his left arm up and cocked palm up, kind of like a ballerina.  But a very manly ballerina.  He would wear tights, not a tutu.  Do you know what I mean?  Maybe not.  He kind of looked like Captain Morgan from the rum bottle (Rachel pointed that out, not me).  Arggh, me mateys.  Maybe that is a better image than a ballerina.  Yes, I think so.  We'll stick with that.

He also was going to do some work with over sized rubber bands (which he hates) but somehow escaped that task.  So instead Rach made him do push ups and then stand while playing Quiddler (fun word game).  He did try to pull one over on Rachel--she tried to use the word "neo" and he nixed it, saying "It's Latin, so you can't use it" (from the Latin word neos).  So just then, hearing him say this, I had to interrupt.  I reminded him that when we played HE used the word "neo" and argued with me, claiming that foreign word usage was totally legitimate in this game.  Yes, okay for him BUT NOT FOR ANYONE ELSE.  This "right-for-me-but-not-okay-for-the-rest-of-humanity" behavior is definitely pre-morbid.  He did it all the time before the accident and continues to this day.  (I won't mention that he has two siblings and a mother and father  that exhibit the same personality trait--which makes game-playing in our family a very intense past time).

That is all for now.  The person who writes this blog is having a hard week and is thinking about running away to a tropical island with her children and living a quiet life as a writer/librarian.  And the kind of librarian who would only shelve books, never talk to people.  And the kind of writer who lives in a cave and the natives talk about but can never confirm her existence.  And maybe she'll have a pet monkey, too. But we'll see...if next week is better I (I mean "she")might just stick around for a while longer.

--Bec (overwhelmed soon to be monkey-owning-hermit-writer-librarian)