Game On!

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Slackers Jackson (left) and Bird veg on the sofa enjoying a lazy afternoon. The crew decided to spend their day playing Blitz on the Nintendo 64 instead of hiking as planned.

The original plan was to leave from my apartment at 8 a.m., get to the Peak by 8:30, do the trick on the funny-looking peak, and get home by noon. I kept a log of the journey.

10:15 a.m. All of our equipment is ready to roll - water bottles, backpacks, and the like. Even the chronically late Bird has arrived only 15 minutes late. We're just waiting for Jenny to get here. Jackson challenges me to a friendly video game to pass the time. I accept. He beats me, but it's no big deal. It's just a video game.

10:36 a.m. Cracker barges in and tells us that we both suck. He has no right to talk that way. This calls for a tournament. The game of choice is NFL Blitz.

10:42 a.m. There's a knock on the door. Everyone is too lazy to get up and answer. Three more knocks. In unison, we all grunt "It's open." In comes Jenny, all perked up on a coffee fix. "Sorry I'm so late," Jenny says. "Are you guys ready to go?"

In a Nintendo-induced haze, we all ignore her. Jenny takes a seat.

12:15 p.m. I start to feel sorry for Jenny. She probably doesn't even know the rules of football, or even how to properly hold a controller. As a lark, I offer her a controller. I'll let her score a few touchdowns on me, make her feel a little better. In the end, of course, I'll beat her.

Jenny picks up the controller and I let her score a few touchdowns. She's up 21-0, and it's time for me to start really playing. Then a funny thing happens. She keeps on scoring. A fumble here and a trick play there, and now she's beating me 34-3 with two minutes left. A tear forms in my eye. She wins 40-10.

12:35-12:45 p.m. Jenny, Cracker, Jackson, and Bird all laugh hysterically at me.

12:46 p.m. Jenny systematically defeats every single one of us. Now she's getting cocky. "You guys all have nicknames - I want a nickname," she says. "I'm better than all of you anyway."

I jump around the apartment, yelling and pumping my fist. This is the greatest achievement in my entire life. We play more Blitz.

We take part in three more such tournaments.

5:58 p.m. Now fully aware that we might not even hike the mountain at all, we draft up a contract. We all swear that we will indeed put down the damn controllers and leave to hike the mountain within the next hour.

6:58 p.m. Bird, of all people, beats me in overtime. Then Cracker recalls the contract that we made an hour ago.

6:59 p.m. "Screw it," Vibracious says. "The Simpsons are coming on." The rest of us nod in a lazy agreement.