Sophisticated

I have gotten better at not being embarrassed about the things I like. I've more or less come to grips with the fact we like what we like, not what we want to like. I used to fight it a lot more than I do now. For the longest time, I really wanted to like plays. I thought they were sophisticated and if I wanted one word to describe me, it was sophisticated. The only thing that got in my way was my extremely low hanging brow. I tried going to a few plays but could never really get into them. I would spend the whole performance either daydreaming or distracted by how well the stage lights picked up the actors' spit when delivering lines. I had no choice but to give up on liking plays.

My failure to find more sophisticated interests left an awful lot of room for enjoying more embarrassing things like comic books and Rod Stewart. It's usually while visiting my friend Shawn when I feel I can truly embrace some of my guilty pleasures. On my most recent visit, we had to stop by his girlfriend's apartment to pick up a duffel bag full of board games, all of which involved plastic figurines in the shape of demons, ogres, and superheros of the Marvel Universe.

When we got to her apartment, she happened to be hosting a visitor of her own. Her sister was in town and not being accustomed to two grown men playing board games on a Saturday night, she politely asked Shawn what was in the bag he was carrying, and why he seemed so sheepish about it. In an attempt to save us from further embarrassment, I tried to think of something less nerdy than a game involving battles between superheroes and mythical creatures, I emphatically answered, "Chess!"