Desperation, thy name is Angry Birds.
For the past three weeks, I’ve been breaking up my breakneck schedule with games of Angry Birds. I’ve never actually played the whole game through, but I find that it’s a nice distraction when I need give my brain a break. Well, sort of.
When I got a new phone, I went through the Google Play store looking for apps to download and when I found Angry Birds again, my enthusiasm for it was renewed. I had forgotten I even had it on my old phone. Now was my chance to get back into it and actually play the game through until the end.
I told myself, “Hey, it’s just a game. This’ll be fun.”
“You can just relax and play for a little while,” I said.
“It’s just birds, pigs, and physics – what could go wrong?”
What the what was I thinking?
For weeks, I’ve sacrificed sleep and sanity to play Angry Birds. I’m embarrassed to even say how many nights it was that I’ve squinted in the dark at my screen, trying like hell to get those damned TNT boxes to explode in just the right way so that I can knock out those little green demons and earn more points. Oh yeah, and when you’re actually done beating a level, it’s all like, “Nah, you weren’t that good. It took you 2 hours just to beat this one level – so you only get a star.”
Only. one. star.
You have to be kidding me.
Then, I reached my tipping point. It was a stressful day at work, I wasn’t feeling great, and I was sleep deprived already from working on a project. I needed a release. I needed some time with Angry Birds.
So I played. And I got stuck. I played this one level over and over and over again – FOR DAYS. Days, I tell you! I couldn’t do it. One little piggie was always left, grinning at me. My blood pressure rose. My face had to be twisted into some fierce grimace between pain and rage.
That’s it. I’m doing it.
So I did it. I caved and sprung for “The Mighty Eagle”.
Best damn 99 cents ever.
Now instead of killing myself to beat an unbeatable level, I use that sucker to just explode away my problems. It’s a nice feeling of pure destruction. But, there’s a part of me that feels guilty. Am I taking the easy way out? Am I giving up? Am I just another lazy American spending way too much time on her cell phone?
Probably, but sometimes, it just feels good when your screen looks like this:
