Trope Life, Trope Love

We met 2 and 1/3 years ago in Beijing. She was the head of a kindergarten and expat scene social butterfly. I was a bar owner, singer in a big awesome band, and, one fateful night, her Dungeon Master in a game of D&D. We soon discovered our mutual love of all things nerdy and quirky. We’d take turns reading chapters of sci fi and fantasy stories to each other. She made up songs about the weird characters from our inside jokes. She’d listen to me ramble on for hours about all my game ideas and tell me I was a genius. She still does! We still do.

Things like pandemics and positive pregnancy tests happen, and life changes quickly. I think our philosophy became to “lean in.” Take control of the situation, these circumstances, these moments, and turn them into the story we want to tell about ourselves. In a way that’s what TropeQuest is. Actually, that’s literally what TropeQuest started out as. For Hanna’s birthday last year I made the first ever edition of TropeQuest and filled the deck with the crazy characters and occurrences we’d encountered since meeting over a pile of dice that fateful night at my bar.

Living out of a suitcase for months on end? That’s a trope.
Walking out of the bathroom crying with a pregnancy test? That’s a trope.
Hiding in the basement during an active shooter situation? That’s a trope.
Eloping to Vegas and getting hitched while pregnant? That’s a trope.
Having the wedding presided over by a charismatic miniature Elvis? Yup, that’s a trope.

So why am I writing this post? Is it because I stayed up all night making a how to play video and didn’t write my wife a card? Is it because relevant hashtags get more followers? Is it because Hanna is the CEO and technically my boss? Yes, all of those things.

So tonight, for Valentine’s Day, we’re going to the last restaurant anyone would expect with some candles and our baby, we’re going to put some Elvis on the playlist, and we’re going to play a round of TropeQuest’s first edition, and we’ll add some new cards to the deck.