What Happened in March?
Hello everyone! The real title of this blog should be “What DIDN’T Happen in March”. I’m pretty sure this month has been the longest I’ve ever lived through. I’m not going to talk about COVID-19 because I know you all are sick of hearing about it (and nothing I can say is going to make it any less anxiety inducing!). Instead, I’m gonna try and lift y’all’s spirits by telling y’all what I’ve been up to lately.
The Isle of Garbanzo
That’s right y’all, you already know I’ve been playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons every day, all day! However, I don’t think I told you all what I’m up to on my island.
For people that don’t play Animal Crossing, you start off on a map with not a whole lot (in this game’s case, you start off on a deserted island) and with the help of the villagers, Tom Nook (a tanooki who loves building you various buildings at the cost of a few Bells, aka money), and your friends (if you like playing online, anyways), you turn the landscape into your perfect little town! I’ve seen people compare the game to the art of bonsai, and I’d agree that it’s very similar in the sense of accomplishment you feel when you complete all your little daily tasks and build the neighborhood up in the perfect way.
My island is called Garbanzo. Lots of people I know had planned exactly what they wanted to name their island and what they wanted it to look like, but I dived in headfirst with zero plan (as I usually do in life). The name Garbanzo came to mind strictly because I had had a chickpea-based salad for dinner that day!
I started with two villagers, Diva (a Sisterly purple frog) and Tank (a Jock rhino) and together, we pitched our tents and called Garbanzo home. Since the 20th of March, we’ve recruited four new villagers (Bertha, Moe, Annabelle, and Ed), built a general store (Nook’s Cranny, ran by Tom Nook’s nephews), built the resident service building (inviting Isabelle, my favorite character, to help around the island) and invited the porcupine tailor Able Sisters to permanently sell their clothing on our island! We even have a museum that’s starting to really shine. The fossils, bugs, and fish I’ve collected are displayed proudly within the museum walls.
As you guys can see, I’ve done a lot in only 10 days. I really, really, REALLY like Animal Crossing. Damian (my best friend/roommate) and Matt (the lovely husband) have been playing with me, as well as on their own islands, and I’m very happy that we’re all able to work together to make our islands shine the way we like! If you also have Animal Crossing, I’m always down to go to other people’s islands, as well as invite y’all to mine, so just let me know and we can make something happen!
For now, I’m going to try to find my favorite K.K. Slider song, “K.K. Bubblegum”, in the Nook Shopping app…
What Is There To Do Now?
Although I haven’t been 100% quarantined thanks to the nature of my job, I have been home as much as possible since we first saw how COVID-19 was affecting the world. As a self-declared ambivert (aka someone who’s both introverted and extroverted), the first couple of days were okay. I like being home! But as the days grew longer, I realized that I like the option of going to a store and walking around for fun, I like going to the park and sitting on the swings with my friends (as long as there’s no kids playing, because for some reason grown ass adults sitting on the playground is kind of weird to everyone else).
I like having the option of leaving my house and going to do anything besides, well, sitting in my house. It’s been rough, y’all. Knowing that I’m not only safe from the virus, but also keeping others safe, is what makes it all okay. I just hope that I’m able to have a good time with my friends out and about before it gets too hot!
Matt and I have been lazy this month, admittedly. Our house could be cleaner, and we could get around to all of the projects we want to get done during our quarantine. I will admit, I know I can speak for Matt when I say that we’ve been enjoying the Lazy Part of Quarantine. Now that I’m getting restless, however, I know that we are going to be facing a conundrum soon: What are we going to do when we get bored of our boredom-curing outlets? It’s bound to happen!
Eventually we’ll deep clean the house and move everything around to where we want it. Eventually we’ll find some more stuff to do as we wander around our house. We’ve been on a few walks and have ventured to the grocery (which is a nightmare within itself), so it’s not like we’ve been trapped in a comfortable prison. Home is still our sanctuary. I’m just restless, that’s all! I know that flattening the curve is important, so I’ll hang out at home as long as I have to.
Depressed? Bitch, Me Too, the Fuck
Along with feeling restless, I’ve been sleeping a shit-ton. I’ve also been feeling kind of, well, blah. I didn’t really put two and two together until the other day, when I was walking home from work and I felt the sun on my face and felt happy for the first time in a while.
I’m depressed as hell!
I figure my seasonal depression mixed with what’s going on in the world is why I’m feeling this way. I mean, it only makes sense. Unfortunately, physically I’ve been feeling blah too (I’ve been eating a lot of cheese while intolerant and I’m an ovulating woman, so you do the math there), so I’m sure that’s another layer of reason. I’m a Sad Ball of Sadness…
But that’s okay! I’m a big supporter of “feel the feelings and let them have space in your mind, but then let it go”, whatever that’s called. I figure if I’m feeling the feelings that I’m feeling, I should feel them and let them run their course. I’m happy that I’ve lived with me for 26 years, and I’m happy that I’ve got enough life experience to be able to acknowledge when I’m not 100%. Other people are not so lucky. I’ve known people that when they get depressed, they just shut down. Nothing they can do will help them get out of the hole they’re in, and nothing that others can do will help, either.
It’s totally okay when that happens. I’ve been in that hole too! It’s important to feel the emotions you feel and let them take space in your head and heart for a while.
Only for a while, though. It’s important to show them the door when you’re ready for them to leave.
It’s hard to describe how to personify your emotions in your brain to the point where you can “show them the door”, but I do it all the time. I learned that personifying my sadness and being able to kick ’em out when I’m sick of being depressed is what works for me (along with medication, exercise, and generally taking care of my body). Thanks to several therapists teaching mindfulness to me, I was able to create a system that didn’t feel, well, dumb.
To me, mindfulness is good. I do not like how it’s presented to me 99% of the time, however. It’s hard for me to concentrate on being mindful so instead, I turn acknowledging the problem into acknowledging the personified problem, if that makes sense. Compare it to the movie “Inside Out”, but real life, I guess! That’s my kind of mindfulness. It’s easier for me to attribute ideas and feelings into something semi-tangible. I do the same with numbers and music.
But anyways, I kind of went off on a tangent…What I’m trying to say is that depression is normal and natural, especially considering the state of the world today. Fortunately, we’re all in this together. The world has expanded thanks to technology, and luckily, I’m not too far away if you need someone to talk to. I hope that everyone has someone to safely bounce their emotions off of, whether it’s a therapist, a parent, a friend, whomever. It’s good to vent, and it’s very good to vent to someone you trust with your emotions.
So don’t worry, y’all! Feel the feelings that you’re feeling and let them roll off your back. If you can’t get them to go away, talk to someone. There’s always someone wanting to make you happy. Even if you think you don’t have anyone to talk to, there’s always me! We can laugh together and remember that we’re never truly alone.
Oh Yeah, Matt’s 26 Now And Also I Almost Killed Him
My lovely husband Matthew turned 26 on the 24th of March, and I made him my most coveted recipe, Butterfinger Cake. I only make it MAYBE twice a year, and usually it’s for a birthday. It’s so easy to make, I have to limit myself to making it only once or twice a year because I would make one every day and just…destroy it…every day…it would be delicious.
So, lucky Matty Boy got a big ol’ Butterfinger Cake for his birthday (along with a Switch and Animal Crossing). We ate dinner and had big ol’ slices of cake and it was great, but he had to go to work after, so we didn’t get too crazy.
For some unknown to us reason, Matt started to feel off. I could tell before he told me because he just looked pale and sweaty and generally awful. I wondered if he should even go to work because he was dizzy, but he assured me he was fine. So, I worriedly watched as he drove away and immediately realized that I fed the sugariest food I know how to make to someone who’s pre-diabetic.
I felt dumb as hell.
Trying to relax my beating heart, I walked into the living room and waited for Matt to text me that he got to work. Eventually, he did, right on time, and I felt a little better…Still, the worry I felt didn’t go away. By the time I was wrapping up my evening to go to sleep, I got a text from Matt that said, and I quote: “I think I’m having a seizure”.
This poor man was having a seizure! I caused it!! Oh no!!!!!!!! I called him as soon as I processed what was happening, already crying, and he didn’t answer. I considered calling his job in general, but I tried his cellphone again. He picked up this time and I could tell that he was at the tail-end of whatever was happening on the other line.
He’s very fortunate that his co-workers were around because if they weren’t, he probably would’ve rode the seizure out and continued to work like a complete idiot (I’m sorry, Babe, I know you’re reading this, and we both know you woulda pretended like you were fine…still love ya). When he eventually got home (because there was no way he was staying after his co-workers saw him), I could tell that physically he’d been through it. Poor buddy.
We went to the doctor the next morning and they told him that he had just had a severe dip in blood sugar. Since he had been very good about his diet after he learned that he was pre-diabetic, the cake was just too sugary, and after his blood sugar spiked like crazy, it dipped waaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy down to try to compensate.
After running a few tests, however, they found out that all that good work he had been doing proved to work; he’s no longer pre-diabetic and he’s lost over 20 pounds, which is awesome! I’d like to think I didn’t totally almost kill my husband with my twice-a-year Butterfinger Cake, but a little part of my dramatic brain knows that I probably almost did…
So that’s how Matt’s birthday went this year! Everyone needs a little life-threatening birthday every few years or so…that’s what I’ve been telling myself, anyways…
Music Obsessions
March has felt like a long month. Luckily, lots of new music has come out and will be coming out this spring, so maybe April will be less of a drag and more of a dance party. In the meantime, let’s see what’s on the playlist this month…
Active Child released an EP with a few of his new songs on it, and he will be releasing his new album April 10th. I absolutely cannot WAIT for new AC music. He took time off to start a family with his beautiful wife, and I’m excited to hear his new songs if only to hear how that kind of life-changing situation impacted his songwriting.
The Weeknd released his new album, “After Hours”, this month, and it’s really good, as expected. Every song sounds completely different from the other, but they all flow together well. All the producers on the album, and the Weeknd himself, knew what they were doing and they did the damn thing. If I were able to include every song on the album in my playlist, I would!! I could only pick one, though, so I picked “Too Late” because the dark, floaty feeling I love so much in music is front and center in this track.
Planet Booty released a new song because their tour got canceled, which is unfortunate, but yay new music! It’s a feel-good bop. Dua Lipa JUST released her album the week before this post went up, I believe, and I haven’t listened to it yet. If it sounds as good as “Don’t Start Now”, however, I think I’ll absolutely love it. Ellie Goulding and Blackbear collaborated on “Worry About Me” (a genius collab I never knew I needed) and Matt Watson released a short, COVID-19 inspired banger, so my playlist is full of greatness this month.
I watched Frozen 2 for the first time (I know, I’m late, I’m sorry) and LOVED it. “Into The Unknown” has been Mary-screeched in this house way more times than necessary. I figured the movie version and the Brendon Urie version, while 10/10, were a little overused in playlists, so I searched out AURORA’s version (she was the Voice of the Mountains that Elsa was hearing in the movie). While the movie version is very musical theater (obviously) and Brendon Urie’s is very Panic!At The Disco-y (again, obviously), AURORA’s is very haunting and eerie, which is very on-brand for her and I love it.
Of course, Animal Crossing has taken over my life, so I’ve included a song by Shawn Wasabi and Sophia Black (who kinda sounds like Ariana Grande tbh) that is Cute and Fun. I’ve also included a remix of “K.K. Bubblegum” because it is seriously my favorite song from the series. Seriously…if you guys have it in your game, buy an extra copy and send it to me. I’ve been anxiously waiting for it to pop up in my Nook Shopping app!
And last but not least, I’ve been watching Marc Rebillet’s “Quaranstreams” for his cancelled Australia tour and I couldn’t help but include my favorite song on his Spotify for y’all. He’s hilarious as well as very talented, so I recommend checking out his other stuff if you’d like.
If you want to check out the playlist for this month, click here! And consider checking out the other monthly playlists on my profile if you’d like! I’m not 100% sure how it works, but you may or may not see the other playlists I’ve liked on Spotify in general…I guess let me know if you can see all the goofy playlists I’ve liked, or only the goofy ones that I’ve made…! I’m curious because if you guys can’t see the Spotify-created playlists, I can share them with you all in a post somewhere down the line, if there’s interest.
So, not a lot happened during the month of March. Just a wild pandemic, a brilliant new game, lots of Sad Time, and the almost-murder of the man I love the most. No biggie.
Thanks as always for reading, everyone! I really hope that I was able to brighten your day a little bit with this post. I know it’s hard out there, but we’ll pull through. We just have to do what the experts say; flatten the curve by staying home and going out only when absolutely necessary, being clean and disinfect when needed, you get the drill. I don’t have to tell you what to do! But I will tell all of you that I expect to see you all on the other side of this. I want all of the hugs and hang out sessions and breakfast mimosas with all of you later this year!! So, let’s stay in and make it happen.
In the meantime, feel free to read old posts by yours truly, and follow me on Twitter for something new everyday! We’ll see what kind of post will pop up next week…stay healthy, y’all!
