is there no end to facebook apps?

so today . . . i spent my lunch time in the school secretary's office.

no, i wasn't in trouble. no, i wasn't working. i was harvesting, planting, and baking.

yes, baking. i've recently started playing a couple of new facebook games, and one requires baking.

you may remember my farmtown addiction, the index finger exhaustion, and the heart-stopping horror of accidentally virtually buying a house. and then i added pet society, which finally resulted in my spending of real money for virtual stuff.

i like facebook games. there are hundreds of them, so i obviously can't play them all. but there is something satisfying about "inhabiting" a place over which you have almost total control. every day you can see progress. other people can't mess up your world. i find it very soothing . . . usually.

i recently tried fish world, which i didn't even bother to blog about because i was so terrible at it. my fish kept dying. i would just delete the game and be done with it, but my friends who play can get points for reviving my fish. so while i have to deal with conflicting emotions about purposefully letting my fish die, i figure that i am helping out my friends by ignoring my fish.

i tried owning a zoo, but quickly became disillusioned when i realized that i had no control over where anything was--it was all about accumulating points and buying stuff, but there was no creativity or interaction involved. just a lot of mindless mouse clicking . . .

my mother got me started on island paradise. it is pretty much like farmtown, except you are on an island instead of a farm. i really like this idea. there are coconut trees. i bought a lawn chair--just one, because did i mention that i am all alone on this island? sometimes jewels or pearls wash up on shore, and how can you not love that!!?! there is planting and harvesting to be done, but it is a small island, so it isn't very much work. and if i turn the sound on my computer, i hear ocean sounds. it is all very relaxing. it is my virtual "happy place."

and then, there is yoville. i "swore" (you see the quotation marks, because i would never swear--it is just a figure of speech) that i would never, ever play this game. first of all, the name annoys me. it is just too "trying to be cool." and the people's heads are too big for their tiny bodies. you can buy clothes (of course) for the tiny bodies, but you can barely see them. you can also buy hair styles for their big heads, which pretty much eliminates ever having a bad hair day--unless you buy bad hair. as you level up, you are awarded with dance moves and emotions. really. i have earned several now, but i have no idea what to do with them. and the way you earn money in this game is by baking. i think it is a nice change from growing things, and it does make me feel productive. but still, once you start the process, it is a commitment.

so, you may ask, then why do you play?

it's like this. i have a friend who asked me to play. at first, i just politely said no, and she said she admired my ability to resist. this friend is very, very nice. i think she must play dozens of these games, because i don't think she ever says no--she is too nice, and she wants to help everyone out. besides, you never know when a new game will be even more fun than the ones you already play. but i didn't think i had time for more games. so i said no. and i held firm. for a while.

which brings me to my time in the secretary's office. last night i foolishly baked 12 hour desserts. they needed to be taken out of the oven by my break time this morning, but i had no internet in my classroom today, so it required a trek down the hallway. i did not want to lose these desserts. yesterday i forgot about them, and they all burned up. it was kind of embarrassing--i can't even virtually cook?!? so there i sat, computer in my lap, clicking away . . .

i'm sure there are better things to do with my time, but sometimes when all you have is 15 minutes, it is nice to escape into a world where everything goes your way . . .

. . . especially when you spend your day surrounded by tiny people whose main goal seems to be to thwart you at every turn.