TODAY IN INTELLIGENT CONVERSATIONS

The other night I was riding the train home and playing Dragon Quest IX  on my blue Nintendo DSi system. A Father and his 8 year old boy walked on the train after me. Innocently, the Dad teased  his son: "Sit next to the lady and see what game she's playing, ya Nintendo DS nut."

The poor man did not know the pandora's box he was opening. His son and I launched into an intense conversation about what games he was playing (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time), games he had recently played (Mario Vs. Donkey Kong: Mini-land Mayhem), games he wasn't so interested in (Pokémon- which was disappointing), and games we were both looking forward to (Mario Sports Mix), and places that were awesome (Nintendo World Store ).

At mention of Mario Sports Mix the poor dad tried to enter the conversation by prompting the boy to tell me where they were coming from.  "Why?" asked the boy, truly confused. "From the Knicks game at Madison Square Garden!" To adults real sports and sports video games are some how related. The kid and I didn't get it.

We talked about Sonic Colors and the things we liked about it. Me: The switching from 3D to 2D. Him: A cut scene where a bad guy kept calling Sonic a rat. Because I am an adult I talk about games like an adult and because he was 8 he talked about games like he was 8, but some how what we were both saying made a conversation. A very long conversation that was going into it's 15th minute when the train pulled up my stop.

And unfortunately for the Dad, his stop too. He could barely hide his growing discomfort as I tagged along after them and his son engaged me on the topics of  New Super Mario Bros.,  Super Mario Bros. Wii, and a cut scene from I think Partners in Time where Mario dropped something on Luigi's head, which was hilarious.

Above ground the exhausted Dad finally dragged my new best friend away. He was quick to tell me that they did NOT live in my neighborhood, they had just parked their car there, probably fearing that I would try to follow him home and camp in the living room helping his son collect all the star coins in SMBW for the next week.

If I ever have a child I hope he's just like that kid.