Chuck E. Cheese

After 7 hours on the clock and a 2-hour nap I awake and my family and I travel to Chuck E. Cheese’s to have a blast.

Welcome to the surreal.

It’s a mixture of both invigorated and overwhelmed as we walked into the mayhem of a 100+ kiddies running around screaming, plus their parents.

The pizza actually was decent.

The mechanized pizza rat and the several screens with the rock star redneck dog, cheerleader duck, and pizza monster singing music videos about pizza, baseball and skydiving are no less than a TRIP. So is the TV monitor…ok, so I briefly jumped in with the kids and got to be on screen in the foreground of Chuck E. and his buds.

Then I got my tokens, helped my little sis out some…then got lost in the maze of games.

Skee-ball is classic, timeless, and extremely addictive.

Star Wars racer is very complex but loads of fun once you learn how to drive using two sticks that you must push forward and backward to accelerate, decel, and turn left and right.

The ATV off road virtual reality has beautiful computer graphics but jolted me around so much I really felt it in my left leg.

The Sega 18-wheeler truck thing is slightly sadistic…running other cars off the road.

The Alcatraz Escape racing is too realistic and I didn’t do it too well…kept blowing my car up.

Basketball is typical.

Getting tickets to win prizes is a ripoff, a farce, and an unsettling way to deceive little kids.

Overall Mr. Cheese provides a surreal world worth visiting. After all, it’s where a kid can be a kid.

Afterwards we continued the party atmosphere at Shoe Carnival…it was hilarious as my dad picked out a pair of blue Converse all-star shoes and my mom looked at him like, “No, Ben.” And on the ride home…wow. I never knew a woman would be so upset about her husband’s pair of shoes. It was funny. I almost got a pair of either orange or black with flames Converses…but I decided I wouldn’t wear them that often…so I settled on a pair of hip Vans…although I don’t skate…I once tried that and fell off nearly busting my behind. My dad surprised me and bought them for me. (The Vans.)

Anyhow I’ve had more than my fill of Cherry Coke and pizza, so I’m going to go run a sluggish mile so I don’t feel so bad about that…oh and the 2 cheeseburgers, fries, and root beer I had on my break at work today…

…which I ate too fast. They said I could either take a 30 minute unpaid lunch break or a 15 minute paid break…the thought of eating and staying on the clock was too much to resist so I chose the 15…I had to dash across the parking lot, use the restroom, order, wolf down a 2-burger combo, run back and punch back in in 15 minutes…doesn’t promote digestion.

Anyhow till next time, be a kid. It’s superb.