Runs with Geex

Some people run with the cool kids…I run with geeks. That’s right, I hang with the dorky crowd and I am mighty proud of it. I am a geek, my husband is a geek, and most of my favorite people are geeks.

Because the currents of nerdery run deep within our group, it should surprise no one to discover that some of us found ourselves at the Geex Expo, a gaming and electronics show, recently. Jacob, Jeremy Rowley, and my brother Drew were eager to check it out so we all headed up there for a Saturday of geekery.

The Geex Expo has videogame demos, DDR competitions, LAN gaming, and cosplay contests. It also has vendor booths for everything from anime societies to clubs that make their own armor. While we had a lot of fun staring at the geeks in their costumes, perusing the nerdy merchandise, and playing some old school StarCraft, our greatest source of entertainment turned out to be Jeremy.

A few weeks ago Jeremy tore his calve muscle playing soccer. This injury was mostly a result of him having weak unexercised muscles according to the doctor, which sounds about right. Jeremy was directed to take it easy on his leg for about a month but because he keeps getting too tempted to participate in activities he’s not supposed to do, like volleyball at Jason’s birthday party, his calve is not healing the way it should. Consequently, that boy’s been hobbling around slower than an 80 year old who just had hip replacement surgery. Jacob and I therefore insisted that he rent a wheelchair at the show for our sanity as well as his comfort. He protested at first but soon he was grateful he didn’t have to walk. I’m not entirely certain we did him a service though by making him get that chair. Having the wheelchair gave him the strength to play DDR at the expo more than a few times, which was definitely not something he was supposed to be doing. He felt more than a little putout that his injury would not allow him to participate in the show’s DDR competition and he consoled himself by getting his dance on before the contest began. He would dance a song and then hobble back to his wheelchair and complain about his throbbing calve but then a few minutes later we would find him drifting back to the DDR station like a moronic moth to the flame. I’m not sure why he felt so compelled to play DDR at this event given he has his own exquisite homemade DDR pads, which he himself claims are better than the ones they had at the show. Whatever the ill-devised reason, and despite mine and Jacob’s protests, Jeremy wound up playing DDR a number of times until his leg hurt so bad he could barely even stumble back to his wheelchair. While the thought of Jeremy’s idiocy makes me shake my head and roll my eyes even now, it did prove quite amusing and I’m sure it will continue to entertain as we make fun of him for it through the years.

There may have been many snicker-worthy nerds at the Geex Expo either parading around in their World of Warcraft costumes or skipping meals and showers to play LAN games nonstop until their eyes were ready to riot but, in my opinion, nothing quite compares to the nerdiness of one Mr. Jeremy Rowley who completely disregarded explicit doctor’s orders because he just couldn’t handle watching other people do DDR without doing it himself. Jeremy’s actions may seem only borderline eccentric until you once again remember that he owns a perfectly good DDR pad that he can play with at home at anytime. Yes, it is that last bit of information that reminds us that Jeremy is not just your run-of-the-mill mildly-unstable geek but an uber geek. Feel free to nod your head in disbelief or snicker right now-whatever you feel is necessary and befitting-I feel it necessary to do both.