Beating Shawn at Madden 99 (Part 3)

Gran Turismo Again

Getting back to my original Saturday night yarn, the hours quickly started to build with each game spent. My pissed-off state soon receded when we started playing Gran Turismo again and keen for some victory my eager will had me win almost all of them. Ralf lent his memory card to Shawn so he could play Gran Turismo properly if he wanted to and Shawn exploited his kindness. The suggestion of racing with souped up cars increased in conversation until I started building up my Celica. There was no problem when we saved it onto Shawn’s memory card but Shawn didn’t want to race Ralf’s obviously fast car.

Going against my thoughts he decided to save his newly built car onto Ralf’s save card wiping out his $350,000 and giving him almost no money to spend. Now there were no more possibilities of creating other souped up cars, the money had been depleted. When we finally raced it turned out that I would beat his car because he couldn’t control the sheer power. He tried selling both cars in the garage and fixing a new car but that didn’t create much money and soon he had no money and a second grade car.

Beating Shawn at Madden

With my winning streak we started to play Madden 99 again and I hoped that my streak would carry me into my first win since we began playing Gridiron. There isn’t a time that I can remember when I beat Shawn at Madden 99 in the past except for once and it is rather clouded. However, on the older versions I do think I beat him on most occasions but not with Madden 99 and it pissed me off when I would continually lose.

As usual Shawn uttered “I know I’m going to finally lose this time, I can feel it” and that doubt was the extra bit of assistance I needed. When there is doubt, pressure or stress it does affect your game planning and that is why I finally beat Shawn 15-25. The helping factor was that I finally started using the San Francisco 88 team, which led me to victories so many times in the past.

Shawn even told me that he was worried about me using that team so that’s why I reverted back to it. For the first time in a while I could stop all his quests up the field and those grueling fourth down attempts that were converted to yards. Finally I was in the competition and like the distant past the score was so very close.

Gloating Over Victories

Jumping around with joy when I had won my first game I was confident to jump into my second fray but I didn’t care whether I won or lost, I was already on a high. However, my confidence carried me by and as Shawn played a smarter game we ended up reaching a tie on the second game. Shawn won the coin toss and I thought I was a goner but luckily I caught one interception of many that night. Interceptions and Sacks are usually what happens against me but in one game I gave Shawn some of his own medicine by intercepting him six times.

Celebrating in his face wasn’t discretely celebrated as my victories were long due and the gloating was called for. Winning the interception I feel that I got close enough to try a field goal and I got it winning the game. The third game went to Shawn by a one point victory where we both only scored one touchdown.

Shawn never converted his two points where I did but his going for a three point field goal won him the game near the end. The fourth game we played for the night had seen me beaten 42-16 which looked as if it was the turning point for my luck but in the very next game I won, 35-8 or along them lines. There was another game we played after that which I won and then we began playing Gran Turismo again.

Past Midnight

As time rolled by I checked the time and we were both surprised that it had clicked past midnight and it was 1:30 a.m. Therefore, I had to wrap up the night by saying that we should only play one more game of Gridiron and then that was it. Shawn was alright with that but I sensed his displeasure in the fact that he had to walk home. Beating him in our last game of Gridiron the time was nearing 2:30 a.m. and it was time for Shawn to head home.

The thought of having him sleep over was playing on my mind but I wanted to write in my diary and if he was headed home then why stop him. However, Shawn gave the hint that it was cold outside and that it would be a long walk home so I threw up the idea of him crashing for the night and he jumped at the offer. Without further ado I tidied up the room, set a spot for him on the floor, gave him a blanket, a pillow and then I made myself comfortable in the waterbed.

Leaving the television and light on I allowed him to get to sleep when he wanted but he turned them both off within minutes. That night I had a small problem with breathing easy so I opened the window a little and then a little more as time passed. Having to head to the toilet to blow my nose and clear the passages I soon got myself to sleep as fresh air circulated in the room thanks to my open window.

Sunday in the Sun

It was on Saturday night that I broke my early nights of getting to sleep but I was glad that I had woken up at 10:00 a.m. The notion of my sleeping earlier has sunken into my subconscious and now I am able to sleep earlier without forcing myself to sleep. I should thank my efforts to miss one night of sleep to gain a better everyday sleeping pattern and it worked. For the next couple of hours I had myself a shower, walked upstairs to eat and then watched television while Shawn was still sound asleep, his eyes slightly open in his mental meditation.

In those hours I also made my way out to the backyard where I soaked in some sun, watched the bees fly around from flower to flower and wasps floating around near the veranda. Shawn finally opened his eyes long enough for him to wake up when I walked back into the room. For a couple of minutes we sat watching television but as I made my way outside for some sun he also came out for some gilding warmth.

Heading back inside after some rejuvenation Shawn had me show him my ability to skip in which he didn’t think I could skip for two minutes straight. Advising him that I could skip 250 reps in a row and have done so I began my consistent and rapid skipping, doing doubles in succession. Shawn looked impressed at my ability but I didn’t feel I had to prove myself any more than I had done already so we stepped back into my room.

The concept of playing the Playstation again was looming on our minds but neither of us wanted to make the open suggestion. Rather, we ran around the idea of it in a sarcastic sense, saying things like “What do you want to do now” and responding with “I don’t know what do you want to do now.” This was continuous as our smirks did assimilate the atmosphere but finally Shawn buckled after constrained fifteen minutes of pondering. For the rest of our day and half of the night we played the three games I noted and again, I had my fair share of wins in those games.

Even on Basketball where anyone would kick my ass by at least 30 points, I became the victor. The game was tight as we had all the rules except for fatigue on and keeping him at bay, I won by four points. When the time neared 7:30 p.m. Shawn decided to give Keith a call as he thought he would have been back from Gosford. That he was and as Shawn discussed a night at the movies with him it did sound appealing to Keith who uttered that he would be over in half an hour.

Keith Comes Calling

Continuing with our game of Gridiron I received another call from Keith within half an hour stating that he would be coming over in a short while but he would have Tamsen in his car. The exact course of his plans were uncertain but it sounded like he was headed to dinner with Tamsen and then he was going to head to the movies with her and invite both Shawn and I. All along I didn’t want to go out because I wanted to write in my diary and get an earlier night’s sleep.

Rather, when Keith came I thought it would be a great opportunity for Shawn to get a lift and that’s exactly what happened. When Keith popped over my house he made his way to the front door and it was around this time that I announced I was staying home. For a second I felt like Tatton but unlike Tatton, I had a viable reason to stay home, my diary and my consistent sleep. However, I feel that I will be known as the early sleeper who has been reformed from these days of seclusion.

Keith will get tired of inviting me out knowing that I will be staying home to get early sleep and soon our little trio will be no more in our heading out to ‘Subway’. Although that is no big sacrifice it is also no big loss when it comes to my commendable sleeping habits and the forsythe to now do more things of a day.

Shawn Heads Home

Shawn finally left my house at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday with Keith. The idea of heading out to the movies was no longer on the table but Keith gave Shawn a lift home regardless. When the both of them had left I sat back and relaxed for a couple of minutes to watch television. The thought of writing all the details in my diary was barreling in my mind but I didn’t feel the enthusiasm.

Rather, I felt tired and my mind wasn’t in the right place so I thought I would leave it until Monday morning and that’s exactly where I picked it up. Sunday night I got myself to sleep around 11:30 p.m. and I woke up this morning at 8:30 a.m. which is a fairly good hour for waking up.

Rethinking the Word Diary

There are still the actions of today that I have to account for but I do feel tired as the time is 10:50 p.m. now. However, before I get to sleep, just one more philosophical conjecture at this diary conundrum. The word ‘Diary’ in itself has no significant strengths as a potent word. When I think of a diary I think of young prepubescent girls speaking about their first kisses and how they fixed up their makeup for the day. Looking through a thesaurus I could not come up with a better definition for what these pages resemble apart from my daily chronicles or my memoirs.

Nonetheless, those words still don’t speak with authority to the whole of these documents and as I have already noted that this is a deliberation of chronology, philosophy and poetry, I need not define it in like terms. There have been many times where I have wanted to create a synonym for these chronicles or this diary that would stress the representative tone of these symbolic pages. As yet, I can see no one word that would describe with strong recognition my life’s works in these pages but one day, it will be created and recognized…