12/10/06: On Thursday I received my TamaSuku (Tamagotchi School) in the mail! I have had my mind very much on Tamagotchi since. Friday was my last day of work for this year (I believe, unless they decide to bring me in) so I have been thinking about how much time I'll finally get time to focus on this new Virtual Pet.

Well Thursday night when I went to bed I was thinking a lot about Tamagotchi... as a result I had a dream about Tamagotchi. I dreamt that I was at the Tamagotchi Convention. Only I was not quite myself. I was walking around this huge building with tons and tons of people and I was speaking Japanese! While everyone else seemed to know what I was saying, I personally, from a dreamer’s perspective, had no clue of what I was saying. But I guess in the dream I spoke and knew Japanese perfectly well (if only!). So I walked around and eventually found this computer kiosk and it was like a Tamagotchi Survey type thing. The women running the survey kiosk was having a hard time getting some of the computers to work. So magically I somehow fixed them for her. As it turned out she actually knew who I was and directed me to a group of people hanging out near some of the new Deka Tama exhibits. We walked up and she introduced me to the circle of people and it turned out to be about 20 people from TSS chat board. I specifically remember speaking to Ginjirotchi (Dennis), Elana, TigerLily and Kokuma. But I'm sure all of the regular chat group gang was there and a handful of other new folks from the boards. Funny enough, we were all speaking Japanese! So for a long time everyone talked and introduced their Tamagotchi and we all connected our connections. This part of the dream was pretty long, but not a single English word was spoken that I recall.

Around this time I lost track of things as a dreamer and the next thing I remember I was sitting in this white hallway outside of what I assume is the convention room. I'm lying on the floor next to my Tamagotchi. I pick up each one and take care of them one at a time. I have my current Tamagotchi: V3 Connection (had Memetchi), Ginji Tama (which actually had Ginji), TamaSuku (couldn't see who was on it - and it was blue in my dream) and oddly enough I had two Mimitchi Tamagotchi - both identical in everyway and both were Mimitchi's! It was very odd. I seemed to be waiting for someone or something as I lay in the hallway. Unfortunately I don't know what for because I woke up at that point and was disappointed that I didn't get to find out what was going on. ;)

So yeah that was interesting. It was more interesting to dream it than how I wrote it I think. If only dreams worked out like that IRL.

So anyways, I did get my Tamagotchi School and I'll be making a whole new section on the site about this new Tamagotchi. Look for that in the near future.

Even though my play time is not unpaused and not constant, I do get a chance to play with my little guys every day. Around mid week my fellows grew legs and I continued to pay very close attention to them. Most of the time, when I'm not going to work, I take my V3 out with me when I'm running errands and whatnot. Because I've felt paranoid I chose not to take my P1 and P2 out with me. I wanted to be so very careful. With adulthood coming soon, missing just a single discipline would mess up the entire plan. I've felt real low confidence this time around, having not raised a Mimitchi for several years and never having very good luck with Ginjirotchi in the past, even when I tried for him many times. Ginjirotchi has always been so elusive, I think he is a bit harder to get then Mimitchi in some ways.

This time around I decided to discipline Ginji full until teen stage and then discipline just once more till he's 75%. I took mostly good care of him, letting his hearts hit three empty occasionally but never letting him call for attention. The plan for Mimitchi of course is very simple... to give him the best possible care I can and never miss a discipline.

One thing I noticed when I started Mimitchi Tama after all these years is that his buttons have gotten insensitive. I found I've had to press them pretty hard to get a response from him. Fortunately I think the situation is clearing up a little. I really think that some dust got on the sensors or something, because after the attention and play he's gotten the buttons feel better at response now. The C button is still the worst; I have to press on it pretty hard to get poor Mimitchi Tama to recognize me pressing it. In the beginning I had to use a small tipped pen to press it in, but now I can use just my fingers and it responds better. So at least for that, Mimitchi Tama is doing okay - ten years old and still a strong little guy ^^

By Saturday evening the plan had gone exactly as I had hoped. When my fellows went to bed they had both gotten their last disciplines and they both had gotten sick. Their growth pattern is still really close in sync, Mimitchi Tama is just a minute or two ahead of Ginji Tama. So while they slept... I waited knowing that today would definitely be the day. And it was...

Last night I went to bed around 1:30am knowing my alarm was set for 4:45am for the morning TSS #Tamagotchi Chat scheduled at 5am. I almost wasn't able to get up. I remember the alarm going off and I just lay there for a few minutes trying to figure out why in the world my alarm was going off on a Sunday morning. My mind is not all there after very little sleep heheh =) I eventually coerce myself out of bed and stumble into the living room and open the laptop. I look over to the Tama's... sleeping, tossing out Z's in the dark. I pop into the chat and greeted by all my friends from the board and I realized that it was worth getting up for. ^^

I was going to take Kokuma's suggestion and lay in bed with the laptop and chat there, but the bright light might have woken up Brendan. Also there was a very strong chance I would just fall asleep in the middle of everything.

While I very much enjoyed chatting with everyone I am sitting here struggling to remember the entire conversation of the morning, somehow it seems to distant even though it was just today. I was soooo tired this morning. I think I'm getting old. It's always so good having time with friends and I always walk away from those chats feeling like it was time well spent. As someone who used to waste countless, and many times meaningless, hours on IRC, let me tell you that walking away with that feeling of time well spent is a very good feeling indeed.

Eventually I did end up back in bed and grabbed a few more hours of sleep. I got up and took care of some errands and ended up at Target to grab a few things with Brendan. We decided to look at the Tama stuff before leaving... just in case there was anything interesting. There were several new Tama designs, but not the one I wanted. I've been asking Brendan to grab me the Angelic Hearts V3 for Christmas. I saw it once and haven't seen it since. I so regret not grabbing it when I did see it.

So anyways, we eventually looked in the cards just in case the Tamagotchi Cards would be here and... what luck! Four packs of Tamagotchi Cards were here! We grabbed all four; they were pretty cheap at just 1.99 US Dollars each. With each pack you get 4 cards and 1 sheet of stickers. There are a total of 24 cards and 10 sticker sheets to collect. Brendan bought them all for me for Christmas.

When we got in the truck Brendan let me open one of the packs of cards. Life has an interesting way of speaking to me. With a 1 out of 24 chance of getting Mimitchi - I got a Mimitchi card! I am so happy! He's so very cute! I'll be scanning this card here in the near future and placing it on the site for ya'll to see.

I believe in luck and omens and somehow that Mimitchi card seemed like a good sign. I looked at my Mimitchi Tama... he still only had legs.

I continued to take care of my two little Tamagotchi as we shopped, ran more errands and went out to dinner. During dinner I kept checking on them, expecting a change at any moment, but it just didn't happen yet. However, Brendan did let me open a second pack of cards and again it felt like life was trying to say something to me - a Young Mimitchi card appeared in this pack!

When I got home Brendan and I pulled out some of the Christmas decorations for the tree. I decided it was time to take some final pictures of my large group of Tamagotchi before putting them back in the boxes for a while. I laid them out on the kitchen table and got a large picture there, but I wasn't happy. Next I transported them to the bedroom and laid them out on the bed with the quilt flipped so the white side was up. With much effort I took many pictures at different angles. This involved a lot of balancing on my part and holding the camera up to the ceiling! I gotta tell you... anyone looking in at that moment would have been entertained. I did manage to get some good picture and I'll be posting them in the Glimpse of Tamagotchi section here real soon.

Why do I tell you all of this? Well while I was organizing my group of Tamagotchi for the pictures on the kitchen table something happened. I started laying those Tamagotchi out, all of the ones out of package and then I was getting the ones in their packages organized. Let me tell you the kitchen table was just barely big enough for all of them.

While I was doing this mass organization my husband was on the couch and sitting next to my active Tamagotchi. He's always good about watching over them while I'm busy doing something. At this time my mind was quite focused on my task at hand. I had pretty much decided that my Tama's weren't going to change until tomorrow, having seen how it was getting to be late in the evening already.

And than it happened.

From across the room I heard the changing sound. I froze and waited. Brendan looked at my Tamagotchi and plucked Mimitchi Tama out of the bunch. He waited a moment to watch the screen.

And you think it's taking forever for me to tell you what I got! That moment felt like an eternity to me!

Brendan watched the checkered screen. I stood next to my piles of Tamagotchi across the room from him, just waiting for a signal from him.

"You got him!"

I ran over to take a look and there on the screen... even after all these years.. was little Mimitchi Tamagotchi; he returned to me at least!

My always loving and supportive husband gave me a huge hug and life was good. ^^

And wouldn't you know it, just a few minutes later I heard the changing tune once again. At that moment I was holding all of my Tamagotchi. The clear dark blue P1 was showing a checkered screen.

I held the Tama to Brendan and told him to kiss it and give me some good luck!

I'd say luck was indeed on my side...

Because Ginjirotchi decided it was time to come and visit too after all these years!