Stress Recovery

The last couple of weeks of my work life have been rather stressful. We've been busy to the point of being nearly overwhelmed, and I came home from work last Friday feeling like I was going to drop dead on the spot. Luckily, I didn't. Still, recovering from stress is about more than just getting some extra sleep. It's about sitting for awhile and doing nothing, clearing your mind completely and just letting yourself be. Exercise is a quick fix for stress because it helps you get the frustration out immediately, but it also has a couple drawbacks. First, when you're really stressed it's often because you're really busy, so you don't have time for exercise. And second, sometimes you are so exhausted from stress that you feel physically exhausted as well. That was me last week.

After another crazy day of last minute client demands on Friday, I came home and knew what my remedy would be: video games. At first I had been thinking about playing a little Devil May Cry and bashing the hell out of some demonic nasties (while watching Dante show off his hot self), but then I decided I should play a little more Kingdom Hearts II since it had been over a week since I last played it. I knew I was going to have to replay a little because I hadn't saved my last bit of progress, but replaying it wasn't a problem since a lot of cool things happened all at once the last time I played.

I had been astounded by how many awesome plot points were revealed in quick succession, including some Final Fantasy characters' appearances and the Tron level (Bruce Boxleitner! YAY!). But I had no idea that the revelations had only just begun. I think my brain 'sploded before the night was over. I'm not sure how I feel about the story they're setting up with Cloud and Sephiroth (and their voices are disappointing to me...) but the scene with Cloud and Squall (Leon) standing back to back fighting (this isn't a spoiler really because part of it is in the intro, though I doubt neowolf will even read this so why am I worried about spoilers?) was so awesome! Then there was the battle with literally 1000 enemies (the body count was up in the corner), and the surprising deadly turn of events with one of the main characters. I was totally freaking out. (Yes, I was freaking out over a game. We know I'm a geek already). Can you picture it? It was midnight or so, I was the only one awake in the house and I'm sitting there in the dark getting gushy about a Disney character. Pretty pathetic, huh?

Though I was excited to play this game in the first place, I had no idea it would be this complex. It makes sense considering how long it took them to release the thing. Shivaindis was telling me that rumor has it the head of SquareEnix freaked when he saw the game in its final state because it has enough story for ten games. That is so true. I don't have a lot of hope that they will actually wrap up the intricate plot since Kingdom Hearts 1 didn't really make sense in the end, and makes even less sense now. Still, I love the fact that there are so many diffferent bad guys that the bad guys are fighting each other as much as the main characters. It gives the game a lot more depth. I love the Organization XIII guys too for mostly shallow reasons because most of them are really hot.

Then I worked on importing more of the video from KHII to send to lizalou on Sunday and relived the angst of Roxas' story in the beginning and realized all over again how much I like him. I want to know what happens to him already! Poor kid. I guess I'm now officially completely addicted to this game.

But for now it's back to work... and stress. Oh darn. That means I might have to relieve my stress all over again.