After traveling to Florida and back over the weekend, and my life schedule still being in flux, it is a small miracle that I am playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons at all each day.
Some days this past in-game week, all I’ve wanted to do is just sleep as soon as I get home. Despite that, I still push myself to do a few minutes in game. It reminds me that there is life outside of everything that is going on, and the island life truly is an escape from the mundane, daily, living. This is also the first time I’ve ever truly kept what amounts to a daily diary in my life.
This current struggle in my life is getting easier, I just need to find all the right balance for everything. And somehow, Animal Crossing: New Horizons continues to surprise me more often than not.
If you missed last week’s Tom Nook’s Snapshots, you can check it out here.
April 16
Today, I wished on stars! I logged into Animal Crossing: New Horizons fairly late in the evening. Everything was unfortunately closed for the night, but that didn’t deter me. I kept making wishes so I could scour the shorelines tomorrow and pick up all the pieces.
I also decided to take another boat ride with Cap’n! He sang a lot about castaways and how much they love that lifestyle. I’m…not sure about that. I’ve never known a castaway, granted, but I’ve seen enough movies with them that it doesn’t sound that pleasant.
While on the island, it was nice and breezy! I caught some fish, some eggs, some more fish…and then finally, I caught something called a zebra turkeyfish. When I took it to Blathers, he told me that it is full of venom! What a weird, scary fish.
April 17
Money sometimes flows incredibly easy in this game. Today, I started with less than 3,000 Bells after Timmy called and deposited some cold cash into my bank account. By the time I was done, I had over 80,000 Bells that I then promptly turned around and threw at the red zen bridge I am building. I need just shy of 100,000 more Bells in order to finish it and link the halves of my island together even more.
I also found Aries fragments today! I was really happy about that. I bought some new socks and a backpack from Kicks, donated some of the things I bought from Redd to the museum, got some fossils evaluated, and I even ordered some things from Nook Shopping! Finally, I buried some Gyroid fragments and watered them. I am really excited to see how they turn out!
How long does a Gyroid take to grow, anyway?
April 18
…I caught a Sea Bass today, and somehow, that inspired me to make Sea Bass Pie.
What. The. Heck. I write a cooking column, and I spent far more time than I like to admit thinking about how this could possibly work out as a dish. It just sounds…awful.
Other than that, I caught and sold bugs to Flick, hit some rocks for money, and I otherwise collected a bunch of eggs for the upcoming Bunny Day!
What I am supposed to do with them, I have no idea.
April 19
Today, I dug up a bunch of Gyroids! I set them up at the moment around the red zen bridge that I am building.
K.K. Slider was also in town! He played K.K. Polka for me, Tybalt, and Lulu. Hazel was hanging around too, but she ended up not participating in the concert.
It was an incredibly rainy today, and so I pulled out my panda umbrella too, and just enjoyed my day walking around, fishing, digging up fossils, and chatting up my fellow islanders!
April 20
Today is Bunny Day in Animal Crossing: New Horizons!
I ran into Zipper, the lucky yellow bunny (who is not wearing a costume), in the island plaza. Zipper told me to discover and make lots of Bunny Day-themed DIY recipes. I guess that is what all the eggs were to be used for!
I ended up with a ton of Leaf Eggs and Stone Eggs by this point, and I ended up trading some of them to Cephalobot and others to get as many Sky Eggs as possible. I also traded even more eggs to Zipper to get eggs that I needed. This was…honestly, a lot of fun, and I found myself playing for a couple hours today. I made several of the DIY recipes, but I did not complete the full set. I was just absolutely tired, honestly, and I ended up only making part of the set. I did love seeing everyone on the island dressed up in their EGGcellent outfits, though!
It just gives me more to try to achieve next year on Bunny Day!
April 21
I’ll be honest: I played today purely to just keep my daily streak alive. I was so darn exhausted that I could barely keep my eyes open.
I went to Nook’s Cranny, bought a mochi pestle, checked out Nook Shopping at the terminal inside the town hall, said hi to C.J. who was wondering around, and logged off of the game so I could just sleep.
April 22
A sad thing happened today: I capped out my home storage. I was trying to put away all of the Bunny Day things, and I ran out of storage space. I ended up pulling a bunch of furniture out of storage and selling it. When I was at Nook’s Cranny, I saw a blue corner! I already have the red one set up, so I had to buy it.
I set it up in my backroom gym, and I discovered that I could flop down onto it. Once I did, I was given an option to rest if I wanted. I figured “why not?” and did so.
It was then that I was sucked into some dream realm where a character named Luna told me that I was in the world between, “where electronic dreams and dreamers meet”. I discovered that I could dream of other islands or share my island’s dream. At this point, I had to see what this was all about.
And so…I visited someone else’s island, named Gardendale.
Gardendale was all decked out for Bunny’s Day, even though the holiday just passed. I ran into an islander who reminded me of Gonzo, saw a ton of Gyroids, and ran into Celmentine – presumably my equivalent- who talked about “Live, laugh, essential oils!”. The entire island was incredibly developed, and it really felt like a bustling, alive, town, compared to the somewhat wilderness that my island still is. There was even a baseball field!
It felt intimating, and it wasn’t long before I got lost. I knew that the only way off the island was to find the blue corner that I dreamed in on if I wanted to escape. However, I kept getting so turned around everywhere I went that I was absolutely useless.
Finally, I gave up and called the Rescue Service for the first time ever. They explained who they are, told me it was free (but to not get used to it!) and dropped me off at the plaza. At this point, I was just glad to get back to my own little island.
Once back home, I checked Nook’s Shopping, saw what villager had chosen to stay in my campsite (Groucho!), and I was officially done for today.
Have you ever dreamed your way onto another island?
How do you handle a sudden change in your life?
Let me know in the comments below!
