Gym Blues

I didn't think it would be this bad, but I am really missing Pokémon gym nights. The co-leader of the gym, Dan the high school chem teacher, told us he could no longer let the gym meet in his chem lab on Fridays. I think it's a function of the success of the swim teach; Dan's a coach, and I think they are traveling to meets a lot now.

While we look for a place to call our new home, we are without a place to hold our Friday night meetings. This turns out to be not just inconvenient and unhappy, but also a detriment to our seriously good players. Regionals and state competitions are powering up as we head toward World Championships. (Sarah and I are excited because the Worlds are in San Diego this year. We may go down to watch.) Anyhow, as Dan once told me, the gym is important for serious players because it lets them try out new decks and strategies, or tweak what they've got, or manage trades to get needed cards. Dan is always encouraging us less skilled players to improve so we can offer a stronger challenge to our gym mates and thus help them to improve as well.

The other down side to this lack of gym nights is the corresponding lack of communication. Turns out we've missed the Irvine prerelease for Emerald EX. It happened yesterday. We would have gone had we known. Now we'll have to wait for the card releases and we won't get all those lucious freebies. And we missed competing. And we missed our buddies. Wah! Yeah, yeah, I could have checked the official POP website, but the point is, I didn't think to do it. In fact, the only reason I finally did check today is that the POP folks sent me a letter with some freebies, POP packs with two cards each in them. Normally, on gym night, Kim tells us about upcoming events.

Because we have a fairly sizeable gym which, on a good night, can have as many as 18 people playing, we need a decent space. And of course, we're hoping to avoid fees. We don't collect dues. I told Kim, the gym master, that I'd be willing to underwrite a part of any low cost that a Parks & Rec Dept place might charge. It also turns out to be important that the place offer some protection from public view. Older kids, and even some of the younger ones, are sensitive to peer judgment about the coolness, or lack thereof, of any group activity in which they are found to be engaged. We all recognize that Pokémon card playing, especially in the proxmity of adults and little kids, is a bit of a geeky thing to be caught doing.

I can't believe I actually miss this stuff.