My room has become the haven for boys so intensely geeky, so not self aware of their own stereotypicalness that they make me laugh every day.

Right now this is what is happening:

Someone’s iPod is plugged into my speakers playing a mix of Yngwie Malmstein, Matchbox  Twenty, and the Mai ai Hee guy (O-zone) – loud.

Three young men are discussing how many rings your character can wear if they have more  than two arms.  As a part of this discussion they are talking game levels, strengths, damage points, and guild association.  Who knew you couldn’t just get your own armor?

Someone is reading.

This goes on for hours every day.  There are six of them that routinely use my room as their base of operations.  One young man keeps all his books, gym clothes, papers and stuff in a box in the corner.

Thursday is Dungeons and Dragons day.  They have brought in their game board, their boxes of figures, and their books about damage and strength and powers and they keep them tucked away so that no one else knows that they are there.

They usually take good care of the space.  I let them eat lunch in there as long as they clean up and recycle everything they can.  One young man is going to have to be reminded about manners and boundaries tomorrow, but he is the exception certainly to this group of polite young men who just need a place to hang out.  I let them use the LCD projector to watch films though I did insist that they go outside to enjoy the fabulous day that we were having earlier this week.

I know I’m not their mother.  I like their mothers.  I guess I’m their school mom.  They remind me of my little brother who played endless games of Monopoly in our basement when we were growing up.   I don’t feel like I’m enabling some anti-social group – on the contrary – this is the Robotics team and they really don’t have a place in school that is their own. I can share.

But as my cousin Al reminded me: Friends don’t let friends play dwarfs.

World of Warcraft miniatures photo by Jay Adan