I keep thinking back to this week to figure out what I did to deserve the hell I am in this afternoon.

Two full hours at Chuck E. Cheese. With what seems like multiplying kids. And even more multiplying screaming, irritated adults. And they advertise this place as fun?! I guess it is to the kids who they advertise to but they really need a warning to parents that you need to take a relaxant before stepping foot inside or you may think about walking right out to the interstate.

My only memory of Chuck E. Cheese was as a seventh grader in Pleasant Ridge. We had a Chuck E. Cheese down the street and it hosted “Tween” night on Friday nights. My girlfriends and I would put on our sweet jeans with safety pins up the side hems (to make them tight) and our fancy shirts and head out to dance to the pop music blaring from the mices’ mouths. Creepy? Sure. But we knew nothing better.

Now I only know Chuck E. Cheese as an over-the-top, loud, raucous, mind-numbing, dizzying land where even some adults floor me with their intensity for playing more, More, MORE!

Maria is loving just being with her girlfriends. She has a group of gals she loves to play with at school and they are all here today to celebrate a birthday. They are playing Guitar Hero and random sweet, calm games (bowling and froggy jump).

Mario, on the other hand, is utterly overloaded. Too many games and videos, and stuff. He doesn’t know which way to go next. He loves the shooting games, especially zombie ones (he must know they are coming soon!). He adores skee ball just like I did as a kid. And he has taken to a pirate game. What am I saying? He’d pretty much play anything here and like it. And he is of course all into getting the most tickets.

After I settled into the noise and chaos and had a couple of slices of pizza, I found myself getting a tad more tolerant of it all. I put myself into the kids’ shoes and imagined the wonder and excitement they would obviously feel walking into this place. It’s like Vegas for kids. But the tolerance quickly faded after a 200 pound kid crushed into me as he chased after his friend to beat him to a video game.

Which way to the interstate?!