Guilty Pleasures

I did something last night that I'm not proud of.  But it was fun and made me feel good, so that makes it okay, right?  I don't know if I'll do it again; I haven't thought that far in advance.  I try to be a good person, but sometimes temptations get the best of me.  So what if people judge me for it?  I know who I am, right?  I know I'm generally a good person, but this is really eating at me, and I just need to tell someone.  I hope that you won't judge me too harshly when I tell you what I did.

I went here last night on my way home from work:

I went there for a birthday party.  For my sister-in-law.  She's 27.  Yep.  I think it's been about 25 years since I've been to Chuck-E-Cheese's.  I really didn't know what I was missing.  Okay, I definitely knew what I was missing, and I was okay with that.

Anyway, my SIL (as I notice people write nowadays) went to Chuck-E-Cheese's many years ago, and she had really fond memories of it, so she told her husband that she wanted to go there for her birthday.  My brother-in-law can be a good sport with his wife, so he agreed.  Then he and one of his wife's co-workers arranged a small surprise party there.

She loved it!

By the time I got there at about 9:15, the place was pretty empty.  Other than our little group, there was a family who was finishing up their party (their kids looked exhausted from so much fun) and there was a couple who came with their little baby (I guess they love the over-priced pizza and the chance to trade tickets for trinkets?).

Like I said earlier, it was actually pretty fun.  For one thing, the band was awesome!

And I did get to play skee-ball, which is my favorite ticket-dispensing game of all time.  I remember playing that at the 49th Street Galleria whenever I went there as a kid.  I'm realizing I need more skee-ball in my life.

Chuck-E and the gang even sang happy birthday and did the whole song and dance number for her.  I really felt sorry for those workers, but hey... it's what they're paid for, right?

I neglected to mention that my BIL and SIL don't have kids.  My wife and I were joking with her brother that when they do have kids, the kids are going to outgrow Chuck-E-Cheese's a lot sooner than their mom will.  We imagine my SIL's 40th birthday will go something like this:

The kids will be saying, "Dad, we're tired of going to Chuck-E-Cheese's..."

And he'll reply, "Shut up and humor your mother!  You WILL go to Chuck-E-Cheese's tonight and you WILL pretend to have fun!  When the guy in the suit says 'Happy' you WILL say 'Birthday' and clap your hands."

Then the kids will say, "Do we have to hug Chuck-E?"

"No, don't be ridiculous."

And we we went on and on.  Because we're hilarious like that.

Anyway, the whole experience was... um... what's the word?  Oh, maybe I'm at a loss for words... or there just might be too many words to describe it right now.  Whatever.


So, yeah.  We closed down Chuck-E-Cheese's last night.  We are a bunch of wild and crazy people!