Daddy's Fish BowlA Clear View Of A Father's Family Experiences

Yesterday was the release date of “The Beatles: Rock Band”, so naturally I was super siked to get home and play it. I’m not a huge fan of The Beatles, can’t say that I know more than a handful of their songs (I know, sad isn’t it?); but I am a huge fan of the game Rock Band. The Rock Band series has been in our lives for the past 2 years now, and I’m truly thankful for the fun and excitement that it has brought to our family. We first got acquainted with the series when Tre was only a few weeks old, and little did we know, it was actually going to be the thing that held us together during those tough tough times of early infancy.

Things were rough around our house when Tre came into the world, you know the typical things: sleep deprivation, diaper changes, NO SEX! Yeah, it was rough, but definitely worth it. There weren’t any major surprises that we hadn’t anticipated so it really wasn’t that much of a big deal at all. We had a new bundle of joy and he was all that we could ever ask for. The only problem is that we couldn’t really go anywhere. Ty had just gotten to an age where we felt comfortable dumping him off with anyone who would take him, so that we could enjoy a night on the town. Not really “anyone”, but you know what I mean. We had grown accustomed to enjoying a few nights out per month partaking in various activities and when Tre came into our lives that luxury was stripped from us. Of course we knew this would happen and tried to prepare accordingly, but neither of us new just how quickly cabin fever could set in.

After a few weeks of: no sleep, watching every possible TV show on the air, and playing monopoly a million times, we were bored and needed to find something to resolve our boredom quickly. I was already an avid gamer, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get Fefe to grab the PS3 sticks and join in on the fun. Sure she’d watch me play my various games, but she wasn’t in the least bit interested in participating. So when my good buddy Omarvelous over at KoolWhips told me about Rock Band, I totally disregarded it. For one, we’re just not that into rock music; and two, if Fefe didn’t play I couldn’t possibly be a one man band. After a weekend of literally sitting around pulling our hair out from total boredom, I decided to take a leap of faith and purchase our first Rock Band set. Let me be clear, we were enjoying the time with the kids, but once they went to bed and we rested up, what were our options? So Rock Band it was, and I must say that it was one of the best purchases I’ve made in a while. Well other than when I bought Fefe from that mail order bride catalog a few years back, lol.

We got our set hooked up and surprisingly enough, Fefe actually enjoyed it. No, enjoyed is an understatement, she LOVED playing Rock Band. It was great; we’d rock out for hours to songs neither of us had ever imagined that we would be listening to. We were determined to move up the charts on the leaderboards and be the best plastic instrument band on the planet. That was a little far fetched, but it did fill a huge void that was left by not being about to go out for entertainment anymore.

After the first Rock Band iteration died down in our household, we both anticipated the arrival of the next edition. But something strange happened during that time between Rock Band 1 and Rock Band 2: Fefe started playing “real” PS3 games with me. I mean she was serious about it too, she’d ask to help with certain parts of games, for example, she would insist on driving in between missions on Grand Theft Auto IV. I must admit, I was shocked, she wasn’t a very good driver, but it felt good knowing that my significant other was taking a genuine interest in something that I was so passionate about. Each new game that I got, she took a more active role in its completion.

I thought this would all end once Rock Band 2 was released. I figured she was just biding her time until the game that started it all came back into our lives, but luckily I was wrong. Fefe started double dealing, a sign of a real gamer. RB2 hit and we were embroiled in a heated battle (more like us getting massacred) with our pal BombMatt over at Bag Of Mad Bastards (a great site for gamers by the way). She was diehard about making our band better than his, but also very interested in a new co-op game (LittleBigPlanet) that we had received. She was playing both games concurrently and I couldn’t be happier. My wife was a full fledged gamer, what more could a guy want?

Rock Band brought our lives a little closer and I thank the folks over at Harmonix for creating a gamer out of my wife. She’s taken an interest in a hobby that once was mines alone, but is now shared equally amongst us. I used to think that my hobbies were for me to enjoy only; and she’d do the same with hers. But thanks to Rock Band, that thought has been erased and I’ve actually taken an interest in some of her hobbies as well. It’s done nothing but make our marriage stronger and I’m forever grateful.