Nice post. Especially the 'what do you do' bit. I've been wrestling with that and have recently taken to telling people that I'm a musician. But I often get asked at gigs by visitors -- I live on a Scottish island -- if that's my main job. I was asked this last month and I found myself saying that it wasn't, which naturally led to 'so what do you do'. I couldn't very well say that I was a musician, so I panicked and told them what my day job was, then felt awful about it. So it won't be happening again. No sirree. I think I'll be an editor, or no, a linguist. That's what I used to do and I didn't hate that. But, really, I'm a musician. That kind of does define me, at least a big part of me anyway.
D&D, huh? I played in my teens and bought it off Amazon a few years ago to play with my kids (14 and 11 now). We had one game and that was that. Dochka doesn't enjoy the music I keep making her listen to either. Funny that.
Thanks for the comment camuel! :). I honestly do hate the "What do you do?" question. I reckon if being a musician is the best thing that defines who you are then you most definitely have the right to say that's what you "do". That's the funny thing about that question, it's defined to pigeonhole you and to put all the sum of your parts onto one thing! Which really can't be done because we, as people, are so multifaceted that we can't be defined by a single thing, a unifying one.
I don't play the official D&D, I play a couple of friends version of it. They have been designing a game for a good few years now and we play-test their rules. I like the fact that you get to be a character in a story and that you can influence the way the story will turn out. Plus our version isn't meant for children, that might make a difference to your view of it! ;)
I assume Dochka is one of your children?? Our kids aint meant to like the stuff we like, especially when they're teenagers! ;)