Peace, Love, &Pokemon Go

I've been hearing so much about Pokemon, lately. Usually, I ignore fads because more often they're pretty pointless wastes of money and time. However, my husband works in the gaming industry--specifically family-oriented games. He said he was going to break down and join up because he needed to see what it was about and how it worked. Ever since I learned I could tax-deduct books because I'm a professional fiction writer I have encouraged him to spend money on games. He's a professional. It's part of his job to be up to date with trends. This is great for him. He stopped feeling guilty and started exploring. Last night (after he assured me that the security issues around the user agreement were resolved) I signed up too. I try to do so when it's a game that's cheap and doesn't look like it's super difficult to play. I like gaming with Dane. It's one of the things that brought us together. So, we downloaded Pokemon Go and went for a walk.

It was wonderful. The game itself is no great shakes, at least for the level (1-4) where we're sitting. If I were playing by myself, I'd have quit, but I'm playing with Dane, and we're walking around the neighborhood together. Not only that, the game gives historical information about the old houses in the area. (Hello, ex-architecture major. I love that shit.) Add to this the fact that we kept running into strangers who were also playing. Everyone was smiling and laughing at themselves for doing something so silly. Everyone was friendly. Holy crap was that healing. After all the awful crap happening in the news (Nice, France. Baton Rouge, LA. Pulse nightclub.) and all the defensive screaming online from people behaving like bigots... it was fantastic to see people be nice to one another in the real world.

Y'all, I refuse to feel bad about something that has such a positive effect on people. I fucking refuse. So, have an article that demonstrates exactly how I feel right now: This is the Photo of the Summer. (Mind you, I can think of one that's better, but this is second.)