A Funny Story

Please let me share with you this funny story. Last week my family and I went to an indoor water park. It was fun but exhausting. We climbed countless stairs and waited for what seemed like an eternity in line to thrill ourselves with an array of daring wet adventures. On the second day of our trip, we needed a little break. Mike (my husband) rested in the room while Ryan (my son) and I went to the large arcade in the basement of the resort. I don't know how many of you have been to an arcade recently but lets just say that things have changed. No longer are tokens or coins needed to play. Now you have to purchase a game card by loading your bills into an automated machine. The third machine we tried finally accepted our five dollar bill. We had our card and were ready to take on the arcade. Ryan wanted to play a nascar racing game so I swiped the card, put it in my pocket and watched him attempt to defeat Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordan. Two minutes later, we were in search of a new game to play. We found one and I swiped the card. "Card error. Reswipe opposite direction." flashed on the screen. I tried swiping several more times and got the same message. "Well, this game must be broken." I told Ryan. We tried two more games after that. We got the same message. I looked around the arcade. Several other people were playing games with no apparent difficulty. I was starting to feel a little out of my element. What did these people know that I didn't? I didn't have the nerve to ask one of them. I admit that I was getting a little frustrated at this point. I mean really, we paid five dollars for this card and it only worked on one game? I didn't understand. It worked on the first game, why wasn't it working on any of these other games? Well, I finally got up the nerve to go up to the counter where you redeem your tickets for a variety of amazing prizes. (Are you sensing my sarcasm?) "This card will not work on any of the games we swipe!" I said to the girl standing behind the counter. I described in detail what had happened every time we had swiped the card. I even told her that it had worked on the first game we played and that I didn't understand why it wasn't working now. She listened to me patiently as I described my frustrations. When I was finally finished she said, "Ma am, that's your room key."

Oh well, at least I can look back on that story and laugh. Trust me, I do things like this frequently. :)