On changing seasons

When I played Animal Crossing today, the snow had finally melted to reveal grayish-green grass, a sign that spring is coming to my little video game island. In real life, too, the snow has mostly melted away. This week has been warmer and sunnier—I can go outside without having to shove my hands inside my pockets. I’m hungry for warm weather, for shorts and sweatshirt weather, for walks-in-the-park weather. I think we’re almost on the other side.

– Jillian

I’ve been GOING OUTSIDE lately. Since I live in Southern California, it has less to do with the temperature being bearable and more to do with how long it’s bright out. I have been trying to take meetings outside. Yesterday, after work, I painted in the sun at 5PM. I was so happy to still have some daylight after work. I forgot how much winter affects me, especially with a specific work schedule—I am not someone who prioritizes doing things like “getting Vitamin D,” but the season change is so, so welcome because it means I have more opportunities to do the basic, healthy thing.

– Summer

🍽️ Tony’s Chocolonely

I think this is my first memory of eating this chocolate: early in the pandemic, my partner put a giant chocolate bar into our grocery cart and said he had tried it before, and it was good. I was like, ok, I love chocolate, let’s go. And it was the best chocolate I’d ever had! We realized they carried it at the market near my apartment, too, it became a snacky staple. This is honestly my favorite chocolate, I will eat a whole bar throughout the course of the day and only feel a little gross. The mix-ins are absolutely spectacular. The chocolate is also ethically sourced! Highly recommend for something sweet to look forward to.

– Summer

🎮 Ikenfell

I bought this game last year and never finished playing it because I got distracted by other things—but I picked it back up a couple of weeks ago and I’ve really been loving it. It’s a cute, magical indie RPG with a great soundtrack and lots of queer characters, and there’s really nothing not to like about that as far as I’m concerned. It’s also really forgiving to players who want to make the battles a little easier (or just skip them altogether in favor of experiencing the story) which I always love to see.

– Jillian

🎮 Ace Attorney Trilogy

These games are old and thus have been on my radar for years. I have friends who love them dearly and because of an eShop sale at the beginning of this year, I have joined them! These games are so campy! The writing is so silly! I love to have fun. They fully engrossed me in the 40ish hours it takes to play through the games available for Switch—I finished everything maybe in the second week of January and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about them! I’m begging Capcom to put the rest of the games on Switch, but you can play literally any of them on your phone, your computer, your PlayStation, your 3ds. Anything!

– Summer

🎶 Lofi video game music

These days I’m pretty much incapable of getting any work done if I’m not listening to Genshin Impact Lofi ✨ 1 Hour Lofi Hip Hop on YouTube, or something similar. video game soundtracks are just good! I like to have them on in the background all the time! I also really like this Spotify playlist and this YouTube video.

– Jillian