Playing Video Games With Your BF Is Good for You

For the majority of our relationship, I have been less than supportive of my guy's mild obsession with video games. (Hey, when I come home from a long day at work, the last thing I want to see/deal with is my man screaming at the TV with his Halo headset on, gunfire, and people-dying-sounds blaring.)

But perhaps I was wrong (hopefully he's not reading this) because a new study shows that playing video games can actually be good for you: Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and University College London found that fast-paced video game play can help people perform cognitive tests quicker and with more accuracy. But get this, all of the participants in the study were women because they couldn't find enough dudes who played video games for less than two hours a week. LOL!

While researchers aren't sure if the positive effects of playing video games last for a long time they do know that, the more complex the game, the better the benefit for your brain.

Recently, my man and I actually started playing obsessing over Candy Crush. And while I was worried that it was totally rotting our brains, now I suppose we can both keep "crushing it" (what we like to call our nightly play sessions), without feeling like total, mind-killing losers.

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Playing the What If Game

When I woke up his morning, I had a mini-freakout when I realized that 1) I’m moving on Friday and still have so much left to do and 2) I’m getting married in seven months, and still have so much to do. Since I’m in a good place work-wise, I decided to take a mental health day. And I’m so glad that I did. While my to-do list for the wedding is at least a mile long, I was able to put a huge dent in the packing side of things.

Wedding planning and packing for a move aren’t really noteworthy things worth blogging about in and of themselves, but this is: I spent two hours this afternoon Googling all my ex-boyfriends. And I mean all of them. And feeling weirdly nostalgic about them. And then wondering just WTF I was doing. And then calling Jane, my married lady barometer.

“OMG, that totally happened to me before I got married,” she gushed. “I did it like every day.”

“Why?”

“It was the whole Sliding Doors theory.”

“Sliding doors?”

“That Gwyneth Paltrow movie?”

“The British one that came out in like 1996?”

“98, I think.”

“The one that no one saw except for you?”

Jane sighed. “People saw it, K. It was critically-acclaimed. Anyway, do you know the premise of the movie?”

“No. No one does. It didn’t even crack one million at the box office opening weekend.”

“Step away from the Google, K."

“I get what you’re saying, though. So you became obsessed with what your life could be if you weren't getting married?”

“Exactly.”

Around 6:00, Brad got home from work.

“What are you doing tonight?” I asked. “Wanna hang out?”

He did. We ordered pizza, he helped me tape boxes, and while we got ready to eat, we decided to watch a movie. And what do you know? Sliding Doors just happened to be on Netflix streaming. After convincing Brad that no, it wasn’t a chick flick, and yes, the critics loved it, we cracked open a couple of beers, left the pizza box on the table for easy access, and watched it.

When the movie was over, Brad seemed thoughtful. I assumed he was doing what I was, which is reviewing all of the insignificant-seeming decisions I’d made that had led to my meeting someone in my life. What if I hadn’t decided to take myself out to lunch the day Ben and I had officially met? Or what if I’d gone an hour earlier or later? One of us might have met someone else before we’d had the chance to meet each other. It’s fascinating to think about how different your life could be based on nothing more than chance.

“You know, I’ve never been a huge Gwyneth fan,” Brad said thoughtfully. “But she’s actually pretty hot. I never noticed before.”

Clearly I gave Brad too much credit in the deep-thinking department.

Posted at 10:41 PM

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Playing the What If Game

When I woke up his morning, I had a mini-freakout when I realized that 1) I’m moving on Friday and still have so much left to do and 2) I’m getting married in seven months, and still have so much to do. Since I’m in a good place work-wise, I decided to take a mental health day. And I’m so glad that I did. While my to-do list for the wedding is at least a mile long, I was able to put a huge dent in the packing side of things.

Wedding planning and packing for a move aren’t really noteworthy things worth blogging about in and of themselves, but this is: I spent two hours this afternoon Googling all my ex-boyfriends. And I mean all of them. And feeling weirdly nostalgic about them. And then wondering just WTF I was doing. And then calling Jane, my married lady barometer.

“OMG, that totally happened to me before I got married,” she gushed. “I did it like every day.”

“Why?”

“It was the whole Sliding Doors theory.”

“Sliding doors?”

“That Gwyneth Paltrow movie?”

“The British one that came out in like 1996?”

“98, I think.”

“The one that no one saw except for you?”

Jane sighed. “People saw it, K. It was critically-acclaimed. Anyway, do you know the premise of the movie?”

“No. No one does. It didn’t even crack one million at the box office opening weekend.”

“Step away from the Google, K."

“I get what you’re saying, though. So you became obsessed with what your life could be if you weren't getting married?”

“Exactly.”

Around 6:00, Brad got home from work.

“What are you doing tonight?” I asked. “Wanna hang out?”

He did. We ordered pizza, he helped me tape boxes, and while we got ready to eat, we decided to watch a movie. And what do you know? Sliding Doors just happened to be on Netflix streaming. After convincing Brad that no, it wasn’t a chick flick, and yes, the critics loved it, we cracked open a couple of beers, left the pizza box on the table for easy access, and watched it.

When the movie was over, Brad seemed thoughtful. I assumed he was doing what I was, which is reviewing all of the insignificant-seeming decisions I’d made that had led to my meeting someone in my life. What if I hadn’t decided to take myself out to lunch the day Ben and I had officially met? Or what if I’d gone an hour earlier or later? One of us might have met someone else before we’d had the chance to meet each other. It’s fascinating to think about how different your life could be based on nothing more than chance.

“You know, I’ve never been a huge Gwyneth fan,” Brad said thoughtfully. “But she’s actually pretty hot. I never noticed before.”

Clearly I gave Brad too much credit in the deep-thinking department.

Posted at 10:41 PM

From Cosmopolitan.com. Visit Amazon Beauty Center here