035 xxxii

Signing in, basking in the afterglow of my birthday celebration.

I spent the day before listening to and loving the new Ghostemane album titled Anti-Icon. The album consists of 36 minutes of rage, sadness, being fed up with reality, and very dark content. As somebody who anticipated the release for months prior, I felt the album justified my seemingly endless wait. All of the subsequent listens filled the rest of the details in. I've already got my favorite lyrics from the songs. I've been listening to it since it came out and it has done my spirit a world of good. 💀💜

At 4 P.M. I went to open the gate to my island. Guests arrived to my birthday party all dressed up in Halloween costumes. Loved it!! Everyone had great costumes. We didn't really end up playing the game and instead used the characters as placeholders to sit in the common area I set up. We went almost for three hours! It was such a joy to have people from 20, 10 years ago interacting with one another. Always interesting to watch different worlds collide. 

I was surprised with a bouquet of flowers. For me, a first. I've always discouraged people from doing it because I kill all my plants despite following instructions to care for them. I didn't inherit my grandmother or aunt's green thumb, unfortunately... but I still inherited their cooking skills, so that's a huge win.

In the evening I popped open a bottle of Moët Chandon that I had saved for the occasion. Later in the night I bought Crash Bandicoot 4. I loved that I could use Coco as an in-game character this time around. I also had control of Dingo, Neo Cortex, and Tawna. The game is very complete, with intricate levels, new masks, and a new bandicoot.

I wound down the night feeling grateful that all my beloved friends thought of me and messaged me.







Now featuring Dry Bones on my Macbook Pro, I also got a new cover to celebrate that this blog turns one year old today on Halloween. I'm really glad that its finally filling itself in, and I'm also happy that the people I know have started visiting it regularly. I invest a lot of effort into putting what I am doing online, and it makes me happy to know the people acquainted with and close to me care enough to read it. Many thanks for all your support in all of the facets of my life. I feel the presence of those supporting me and encouraging me to continue going in pursuit of my dreams.

Last week I attended the Hoodoo Heritage Festival, which was a delightful string of online courses. Thanks to the materials I have work to last me for days, but I'm actually going to get started by crafting corn husk dolls. I purchased food dye to tint the corn husks before I turn them into a doll. I love that I get to breathe life into it as I give it its name. My head is always buzzing with ideas. I wish it was as easy as touching the screen and having what I envision in my mind materialize.
















SKULL GARDEN
I ended up replacing the giant skull pond with a skull garden. While I really like it I know that as soon as I open the island back up to a flower hunt, the design will be lost. Now that there is much less for me to do in-game, I'm really going to have to push my creative boundaries to keep coming up with designs that amaze and inspire.It's a lot of fun to play with the community. I feel like I have a place to escape to if real life gets too crazy.

Right now the garden is so big that you have to walk around in all directions to take in the entire scope of the garden. It has several sets of all the flowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I spent two days buying flowers.






Small joys throughout the days are what keep the fire going. We're hoping the rest of the year goes more smoothly for everybody. Until then, the holidays are fast approaching. I'm looking forward to spend time with family and to enjoy many more cakes with my tea.