My wife has always graciously accepted the fact that she married a geek.* It's simply a fact of who I am, and she loves me in spite of it.
I've been collecting comic books since junior high. If it has been turned into a 'comic book movie,' I likely have most every issue dating back to the late 1980s. Batman. Superman. X-Men. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I have hundreds of issues of each; enough to fill dozens of 'long boxes.'
Several of my closest friends and I would sneak away from our Boy Scout troop to find an empty room in which to play Marvel Super-Heroes or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Role-playing Game.
( And, it should be noted, that another friend I've recently reconnected with via Facebook remarked that the thing that he remembered most about me was that I could draw the Ninja Turtles better than anyone he'd ever seen. )
In high school, Star Trek: The Next Generation was at the peek of its popularity. We had a Star Trek club at my high school (populated by a surprisingly high number of Student Council and Honor Society members). We held a viewing party in the school cafeteria for the final episode, "All Good Things ..."
In college, my interests diversified some. I discovered collectible card games. No, not popular ones like Magic: The Gathering or Legend of the Five Rings. More obscure ones like Highlander: The Card Game and Star Trek: The Customizable Card Game and such; games that tied back into my other, more deeply rooted geeky fascinations.
Those were merely a gateway drug into other, more hardcore geeky gaming pursuits, and after a while I moved on to other collectible games. Like Games Workshop's Warhammer and Mordheim and Gorka Morka.
Then, after a few more years, WizKidsGames introduced the ultimate in collectible super-hero miniature gaming: HeroClix.
Over the years, I've no doubt sunk enough money into my geek hobbies that, had I saved it away instead, I could've paid cash for a new car (or, perhaps even a modest house). Though, that would've doubtlessly been far less fun.
And, we've managed to have bought a modest house anyway.
Within that house, in a small room tucked away in the basement (ie: the realm that houses all truly great lairs of geekdom), resides the tangible evidence of my years of geekishness. The boxes of comics. The super-hero action figures. The dozens of role-playing game books. The hundreds and hundreds of miniatures. The thousands of cards.
It is my domain. These are its chronicles.
* - Technically, based upon militantgeek.com's definitions, I am both a geek and a nerd. Though not a dork. Not since elementary school, at least.
