Losing Track

I have had a busy week for my first week of summer break.  I've spent most of it on all those chores that get put off to "when I have time."  Some of those chores are things that really need to be done in a more timely fashion- like balancing checkbooks, filing important papers, and actually dealing with other pesky chores like filing health benefit claims, renewing subscriptions, and going through the stack of "I'll deal with it later" mail.  It's good to clear out a basket and demolish a stack, and it's really good to discover you forgot to enter a big deposit and that's why you apparently ran short of money.  Oh, and it's good to discover that your ATM card expired yesterday while you were at the bank, and you hadn't received your new card . . . or you thought you hadn't received it, until you got home and went through that stack of unopened mail!

I've also discovered two new ways to while away chunks of time without noticing! First,  I started reading The Game of Thrones series.  I finished book 1 Game of Thrones, and then started watching the HBO series that I'd DVR'd.  I am so totally hooked on this fantasy world by George RR Martin.  It's reminiscent of Tolkien, Star Wars, medieval English history, Arthurian legend, but it's none of those exactly. He's created a huge cast of characters, some good, some evil, some still-to-be-determined.  There's love, hate, war, mystery, intrigue, adventure, humor, tragedy, you name it, it's in there.  I'm now eagerly reading Clash of Kings, book 2.

The second way I've been losing track of time is with a Facebook game called "Gardens of Time." If you're not familiar with it, you build fantasy gardens with plants, animals, museum artifacts, statuary, benches, etc that become little fantasy worlds. At the same time, you "time travel" to exotic places to search for hidden items.  I used to love the hidden picture feature in the children's magazine Highlights, and this is similar.  I just wish I could get this game as a stand-alone, and not have to give up privacy to play it on FB.  And I don't like the way FB makes you "invite" others to the game in order for you to progress.  But it IS addicting.

So, I guess I can say that my first week has been quite enjoyable!