Last November, I purchased my favorite game store with a friend of mine. Now we are dealing with all the joys and miseries of being small business owners, and I am loving every minute of it.

Anyone who knew me back in our college days knows that I am a game addict. I am not talking about those things you play while looking at a screen for hours on end and usually alone in a dark room. I am talking about board games, role-playing games, war games, and anything else we could dream up in between classes. I played Wiz-War more times that I can guess in South Dorm lounge. And, I still tell people about the law game we played during one break. Someone found the rules online from a law school, I think. The rules were essentially a constitution about how to take turns and write rules. The object of the game was to legally declare yourself the winner. I think the game went on for more than 24 hours.

Games have been a major hobby of mine all my life, but my time at Mudd was a golden age of gaming for me. Never before or since had I experienced such a concentration of creative, intelligent people who shared my interest in games. That is, never until now.

Now I read game rules and learn new games as a valid part of my work! I organize tournaments and host game nights. Of course, I also deal with taxes, employees, distributors, grumpy customers and, of course, bills. Despite the latter, I am still having more fun than should be allowed.

Of course, none of this would be possible without my business partner. He and I were managing the store before we bought it--sort of a trial run to make sure we could work together. Now it is ours. The most ironic part of the story is that we purchased the store from the man who was the owner of the first real gaming store I ever went into as a kid. I used to spend hours in his store wanting everything I saw. I didn’t find out that he was the owner of that store from my childhood until the day we signed the purchase documents. His old store is a big part of the reason I am hooked on games. Now I am carrying on part of his legacy.

In the intervening years since college, I have worked as a biochemist at Parke-Davis, managed an aquarium maintenance business, and taught high school physics. Nothing has felt as right as this. I also got married, and I am living in Cotati, Calif. My store is called Gamescape and is located in San Rafael (not the one in San Francisco). I would love to see any Mudders who might live close enough to stop by and visit.