do androids dream of electric sheep?

I've been playing Pokemon Go mostly as a solo game, although I have met various people out and about.  It's felt unseemly to play at my age, so I don't talk about it much.  I'm not old enough where it's cute, and I'm certainly not young enough to be in the demographic.  Or so I thought.

Sunday was #PokemonGOCommunityDay, and I figured it would be a good excuse to go outside and enjoy some fresh air.  Community Day is a three hour long event where they release extra spawns of a certain type.  This one was sheep.  I decided the local park would be nice for exercise and beautiful scenery. 

I got there about twenty minutes early and was SHOCKED to see the parking lot overflowing onto the street.  I parked two blocks away.  As I walked up, people were losing their minds coordinating raid battles, which I usually ignore because I can't solo them.  I gave myself an attitude adjustment and became social.  I joined two different raids and chatted a little.  Apparently Pokemon is serious business because these people stayed on topic.

One other detail I noticed was the age demographic.  There were a few kids, but it looked like they were dragged along by their parents.  Mostly it was adults, and I fit squarely in the middle.  It was surreal to hear older people yelling across the park about which augmented reality fictional characters were spotted.  I also ran into my favorite Thai restaurant owners there.  They'd setup a whole spread under a pavilion and invited me over to join their family.  I politely declined because I was there to catch 'em all not eat.  Just goofing.  I declined because I felt awkward crashing a family party I didn't know that well.

shiny Mareep

After ninety minutes, I was exhausted and sweaty.  It was the hot humidity before a violent night of storms.  I left early, showered, and went to bed early to nurse a migraine.  WHICH I STILL FUCKING HAVE.  It's not a bad one, so gratitude??

I heard a study mentioned this morning that says the more I focus on the pain, the more my physical brain structure changes, causing more pain.  See??  Denial really is the best medicine.