RL kicks Fi's tail...

This last weekend was a tail-kicker for me.  My dad ended up in the ER and then the ICU on Friday night.  We came close to losing him, but the great nurses and doctors at DeKalb General Hospital were brilliant.  See, my dad is 91 years-old and his ticker doesn't tick as well as it once did.

Several days later - and some uncomfortable sleeping in waiting room chairs - my dad has a pacemaker and looks and talks better than he has in a long, long time!  I'm so excited for him and for us.  I think this will make the world of difference.

How does this relate to my wow life?  I just want to say that many of us who play MMOs often take slack for having on-line friends that we care about and at times put at the same level as or even above our RL friends.  Maybe it isn't true for everyone, but those on-line friends mean so much to me.  When I needed a break from the stress and would log into the game, they were there - cheering me up and supporting me.

I wonder if at some point in the future we won't have this distinction between on-line and RL friends - that we will just have friends - some we are closer to than others, but without the line drawn in the sand about where and how we met and communicate.  Yesterday, I talked to a guildie about something that is going on in his life.  I imagined he needed a mom-figure to tell him things would be ok and that he was doing the right things - or maybe just a friend - but the thing is WoW allowed me to be there for him.  I care about him - he cares about me - who gives a Draenei tail where and how we connected.  I remember staying up several nights playing with an on-line friend/former guildmate when her sugar was through the roof.  The group who was talking and playing with her knew her real life address and to send the ambulance if she stopped responding.  We didn't care less for her because she was someone we met on-line.

My husband and I met in RL first - but it is because of Facebook that we are together - it is where he asked me out.  We also started to communicate about important issues in text and on-line before we did in person - it was easier for him to open up.  I'm happy to say that even though we get it wrong from time-to-time - we always try to communicate openly with each other.  Now, it is usually face-to-face, but txt and on-line chat (when we are apart) work too.

Communication is communication regardless of the form - and friends are friends regardless of where you discovered each other.

This is for Cub, Jes, Eg, Kush, Az... and all the others that have become a part of my world through a game we call WoW.