Step 96: Murder Somebody

Don't really kill anyone! That can send you to jail and leave people (including yourself!) irreparably damaged emotionally. If you like murder mysteries, though, you may consider hosting or attending a murder mystery party!

I participated in a virtual party that my friend found on Red Herring Games. Now, you do have to pay for these stories, but unless you are a crazy creative person with a sick mind, you should probably just cough up the $30 for one of their 80+ games. They have a wide variety of themes from their old western Death at Dodge City to the more sophisticated Bad Vintage. The latter was our game of choice, and boy, was it fun to drink wine during that game!

The idea behind each game is to have a specific character role for each guest at the party. (You can search the site to find which game will work best for your party size--they have stuff for groups of 6-20 people.) Everyone should know who they'll be playing before the date of the party so they can dress up appropriately! On the day of the party, everyone will receive a packet (or, in virtual cases, an e-mailed pdf) filled with their character's dialogue, questions they should be asking, and answers they should be giving. When playing the game, be sure you only read the information for the particular round you're in.

Each round you'll get a chance to talk to the other party-goers, hopefully finding some answers! The goal of the game is, obviously, to figure out who the murderer is. But be warned! You may not realize you were the culprit the whole time! That was my case, though I sort of wondered at the end of round 3. It's actually kind of fun to find out you were the murderer. You listen as they clear each guest one by one, noticing it's down to you and one other person, and you just know they didn't do it!

Whether you're the bad guy or a side character, you interrogate people in person or via Zoom, or you host or are a guest, these murder mystery parties are to die for. :)

Photo by Stephanie Simpson, Bad Vintage host.

Step 95: Go Back to Work

On March 15, my library closed it's doors to covid-19. Nearly two month's later, staff is starting to re-enter the building....

But that's all boring and depressing stuff (minus getting to see some of my co-workers)! So here are all of the pictures I took of my cat while I was trapped at home with him.

Step 94: Watch A Parks and Recreation Special

This step may require you to watch 126 other episodes of Parks and Recreation if you somehow missed that boat five years ago, but it's totally worth it. Not only did the cast manage to pull off an awesome episode without ever seeing their coworkers in person, but they did so to help raise money for Feeding America.

The special manages to bring back all of your favorite characters as well as all of your favorite memories. And if by some horror you don't like Parks and Recreation, it's still a fun to watch it with the normal people in your lives who will be cracking up. From Ron Swanson's prep for social distancing, to Johnny Karate's confusing message of hope for the kiddos, this is the reunion episode we all deserved.

Step 93: Finally Play the Game You've Waited 15 Years For!

 

I knew from the very first commercial I ever saw of Kingdom Hearts that I needed that game. Like, needed it so much that I asked my mom if we could trade in the PlayStation 1 console that she had just bought me for my birthday for a PlayStation 2. Like, needed it so much that when I did finally get the game, I literally tore it out of it's container. (Literally--it snapped in two because I was so excited to get it out, and I'd never played a PS2 game before, so I didn't know how to get the disks out without breaking them.) Like, needed it so much that I begged the game store clerk to replace it for free... and thank Ansem the Wise he did.

Kingdom Hearts was the first (and one of the few) video games I ever completed. With it's Disney characters drawing me in and it's lovable new characters keeping me there, I devoured the story line. It was simple and clean. (Insiders pun intended!) I eagerly awaited the sequel--an understandable 3 year wait. They came out with Chain of Memories to help you pass the time, and once again I added a Sony gaming console to my Christmas wish list. Just like with the first game, I tore into CoM... and I hated it. I couldn't finish it. But, no worries, right? It's a stand alone game... it won't have much bearing on KH2...

Wrong.

The problem with the Kingdom Hearts Franchise is that it's actually not so simple and clean. And each new addition seems to just make it worse. I did finish KH2 because it was on a console I was comfortable with and I still loved the characters... but I had trouble understanding the story because I hadn't finished CoM. And in the 14 years it took them to produce KH3, they threw more and more side-stories (that actually aren't side stories) out there--and each one required a DIFFERENT gaming console! I tried to play some of them, but in the end I had to watch an hour long video summing up everything that had led up to KH3.

I WILL finish Kingdom Hearts 3, though. I've been waiting for 15 years (I had to wait a year after it released because, even though I had the game, I didn't have a PS4). My friends and I had joked that the third game wouldn't come out until we had kids, and some of us do! It's personal now.

Plus, despite the story being horribly confusing and the characters getting cheesier and cheesier, I'm still dedicated to them. I've grown up with them, and I want to know what their fate is. My heart is connected to theirs, and together we are finally going to take down that son-of-a-bitch Mansex once and for all!

Step 92: Keep a Journal

Even if we weren't in a pandemic, I would recommend keeping some sort of record of yourself--a diary with a heart shaped lock on it, one of those new-fangled bullet journals, or even a high tech blog ( ;) ). You can get as simple as a day planner or a calendar with abbreviated lists of what happened that day. That's what my grandma did, and it was cool looking back and seeing what she had taken note of throughout her life.

I'm currently using a a Mood Journal that my friend Katie gave me at the beginning of the year. I didn't think I'd be able to keep it up--if you couldn't tell from my sporadic posts on this site, I'm not the greatest at journaling every day--and while I haven't always filled it out completely, I have enjoyed this form over any of the others I've tried. (I'm sorry Blogger!!!) I find it really helpful because it gives me a chance not only to write down what's happening in my life, but how I actually feel. It lets me set and monitor my goals for each month, and it asks reflective questions at the end of each week. One of the questions it always asks is what you're grateful for, and this week it's you, Katie! Thanks for sharing this unique form of journaling with me!

Step 91: Summarize the Past Year and a Half in One Sentence

The boyfriend mentioned in Step 90 now lives with me in our very own apartment, and we're trying not to go crazy during a pandemic by continuing to work (he actually goes and delivers pizza and I do what I can for the library from home), watching way too much tv (he got me addicted to Ash vs. the Evil Dead and I got him hooked on My Hero Academia), planning vacations, canceling vacations, breaking the self quarantine by getting groceries for my mom and dad, sticking to the self quarantine by playing video games (Stardew Valley and Kingdom Hearts are my faves), cleaning up pet pee, being said because pets passed away, sometimes exercising, and occasionally writing.

I know it sounds like I only described what we've been doing for the past month because of the COVID-19 scare, but I promise this isn't an April Fools Prank! That's pretty much what I've been doing for the past year and a half. Life continues to chug along whether the world gets sick and shuts down and it continues whether I write or not. But so far, social distancing has given me more of a chance to work on my writing, so I thought I'd try bringing back my blog. We'll see how long it lasts!