Tonight was one of those wonderfully chaotic “real life still counts” kinds of days where fitness, pinball, community, and absolute nonsense all blended together into one giant Arizona arcade adventure. 😂
The day technically started LONG before league night:
• coffee motivation,
• Jazzercise shoulder destruction,
• Waffles tournament adventures,
• sushi eaten in the car like exhausted goblins,
• walking missions, and enough movement that my Fitbit basically shrugged and logged the entire evening as “Golf.” ⛳😂
Incidental Exercise Still Counts
One of my favorite things about pinball nights is how much movement sneaks in without you really thinking about it.
Tonight alone included:
walking to Circle K because my drink cup was trapped in Andrew’s locked car,
pacing between machines,
wandering the arcade,
parking lot astronomy side quests,
carrying drinks,
standing for hours,
constant small movements and nudges,
and enough shoulder activity between Jazzercise and pinball that my arms may file a union complaint tomorrow.
Fitbit stats for league:
3 hours 45 minutes logged
534 calories burned
1,464 steps
average heart rate: 93 bpm
21 active zone minutes
And honestly? That’s exactly the kind of thing I’m always talking about with incidental exercise.
Not every movement session has to look like:
> “hardcore gym grind.”
Sometimes wellness looks like:
community,
standing instead of sitting,
walking for your soda,
carrying stuff,
laughing in parking lots,
and playing competitive pinball for almost four hours straight.
Still counts.
The actual pinball:
Round 1 – Black Jack
So sadly played by yours truly, I don’t want to talk about it, but I got 3rd place. Sorry to the guy who had it even rougher than me.
Round 2 — Batman 66
This one felt rough right out of the gate.
The scores looked respectable enough:
77M took first
56M took second
40M took third
my 15M took fourth
…but emotionally it felt like the machine was personally offended by my existence. 😂
A couple saves happened, one Catwoman ramp happened, some ball saves attempted emotional support, and then immediate chaos followed.
Sometimes league starts with:
> “I am a pinball wizard.”
Sometimes league starts with:
> “well THAT escalated quickly.”
Round 3 — Sorcerer
This became one of those rare games where all four players basically looked at each other afterward and agreed:
> “That was horrible for everyone.”
The winning score was only around 220K, which tells you everything you need to know.
Normally, our crowd expects:
500–800K as a respectable game,
1M+ as the really strong stuff.
Instead, we collectively suffered together as a group. 😂
Honestly though? Shared suffering is part of pinball culture too.
The Great Diet Dr Pepper Custody Crisis
At some point I realized:
my cup was locked in Andrew’s car,
I didn’t have the key,
I wanted soda,
and Tempe liquor laws meant I couldn’t bring a bottled drink inside.
So naturally:
• I walked to Circle K,
• acquired emergency Diet Dr Pepper,
• and then had to arrange temporary soda guardianship with a trusted non-pinballer friend while I played.
• This arrangement briefly failed when the soda custodian wandered off and forgot about the soda entirely.
• Thankfully, the Diet Dr Pepper was eventually recovered safely. Mostly. 😂
Round 4 – Joker Poker Redemption Arc
THIS was the turning point of the night.
Joker Poker is comfort-food pinball for me:
simple rules,
straightforward progression,
calm pacing,
visible objectives,
build your multipliers,
complete your banks,
breathe.
And suddenly everything started clicking again.
One particular ball was absolutely beautiful:
skill shot,
kings completed twice,
jacks completed again,
queens progressing,
aces started,
controlled nudges repeatedly feeding safely back to the left flipper.
That feeling when the nudges finally do exactly what you WANT them to do instead of random chaos? Pure magic.
I finished with 328K, barely behind first place’s 334K.
Honestly, it was one of the most satisfying games I played all night.
Parking Lot Astronomy Intermission
Because pinball people are wonderfully nerdy human beings, the night briefly transformed into:
people standing in the parking lot,
pointing phones at the sky,
identifying Venus and Jupiter with astronomy apps,
and collectively going:
> “LOOK AT SPACE.”
And honestly? That random peaceful little moment was kind of perfect after all the earlier chaos.
Round 5 – Charlie’s Angels
Another older game. Another moment where my brain finally settled down.
I took second place with 71K.
Highlights included:
clearing upper-left drops,
clearing right-side drops,
building multipliers,
and generally playing much calmer, more controlled pinball.
There were still tired-brain moments, including one hilariously bad plunge decision that immediately punished me for my lack of patience, but overall the game felt steady and fun.
At this point, the night had emotionally shifted from:
> “everything is terrible”
to:
> “okay, there’s the fun again.”
Final Thoughts
Tonight was:
exhausting,
hilarious,
physically active,
socially weird,
mentally chaotic,
and genuinely fun.
Not every score was amazing. Not every machine cooperated.
But somewhere between:
incidental exercise,
pinball recovery arcs,
parking lot astronomy,
shared laughter,
soda custody negotiations,
and older machines reminding me to slow down and breathe…
…I remembered why I love league nights in the first place.
Sometimes wellness isn’t perfect. Sometimes pinball isn’t perfect.
But movement, community, laughter, learning, and showing up anyway?
Still counts. 😂
Do you like my wellness, cats, and pinball shenanigans? Read more.