Interesting story. Kind of fun and kind of sad at the same time. I recently acquired a DILE many years after selling 2 of my 3 machines. My wife thinks I’m crazy and stupid. I don’t openly talk about this passion and keep things pretty much between myself, my kids, and their friends.
So last night, we had two friends over for dinner. We’re drinking lots of wine, listening to music, sharing fun stories etc. Having a good time. Talking about Pinball or my Dialed In was the last thing on my mind, as I generally think people don’t get it. I would rather avoid the ridicule and or avoid having to rationalize my irrational behavior. This is where things get interesting.
Later in the evening at around 10:30, my wife to my surprise brings up this acquisition to which everyone gets immediately interested. I got kind of excited because everybody wanted to see it. My friend Steve sees the machine all lit up, and I think his jaw hit the floor a bit truly like a kid in a candy store. He asked me under breath as the girls were talking good questions like where I got it, how much it cost etc.
So we’re playing four players and people are laughing and having a good time. My wife however, as she’s playing is commenting how stupid it is, and how much she hates pinball, pinball machines, and how she sucks at pinball putting kind of this awkward grey cloud over everything. It was super weird. It started to suck the interest out of the room and I found myself having to defend. I explained it’s unfortunate that we don’t have enough time to explore more than 5% of the game because it really is special etc. etc. but the damage was done.
So at the end, this is kind of a sad story. And the funny thing this is the second time she’s done it. She did it like three or four weeks ago with another couple of friends. In that instance she had been actively complaining to her friend over dinner and of course when everyone came back to the house the friends wife wanted to see this stupid machine.
My question to the community is do I even bring this up or do I let it slide? My wife is amazing in every other dimension. Seriously, she is the most amazing person ever. She only has two flaws, the one I describe here and she doesn’t like the Beatles. If I bring it up, my wife will never ever mention my machines again to any other guests and a real risk she washes her hands of it entirely. If I let it slide, there is a small chance she might one day be captured by the charm and wonder of the challenge.
What would you do?