Dear Oli,

Thank you for your letter. It was such a fun surprise to receive. And I like that we’ve decided, at least for now, to send responses back and forth on our blogs. A letter feels personal, but we are also publishing on the internet for anyone to stumble upon, and I think I agree with you, its beacuse we both like the idea of sharing our thoughts with other like minded people. I think what I’m really responding to in your letter is this idea of playing together again, not just the game itself, but what it means now that our lives look so different.

Its so funny that you mention the Smolweb. I actually stumbled upon the idea of the indieweb when I was making my zine. Originally I thought I would make an indieweb website (like neocities or something) but then decided on the zine format instead, which is working really well for me.

Anyway, it’s Christmas time. And Christmas always makes me want to just sit in front of the tv with all the snacks and all the games. I remember once we were living separately as adults, but both in the same country, I would often come over for the day on the 25th and thats what we would do. It was the best, and I miss that. I don’t know when we’ll have that again, hopefully soon?

And of course, I’m trying to balance what that is like with a kid. I mean, if it was just me I’d be sitting in front of the tv and just doing that but I also have to role model for my kid. Which makes me think about our growing up actually. Because I feel like I have really separated my life from my kid’s life, but I don’t know if I felt that when I was a kid. I feel like our parents just lived their lives and we were there. They wanted to watch tv during the day? They would watch tv. I basically do “my” things after my kid has gone to bed. And I don’t actually know yet what I think about that. I’m just noticing it more. Does that make sense?

via GIPHY

The Lego game you’re thinking of, by the way, is either Lego Star Wars: The Video Game or Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. Its one of those two, I’m sure of it. But yeah, we got into the zone and just collected everything. I remember that too. Its the only Lego game I ever completed.

Now we’ve both said YOLO and bought Monster Hunter Rise on sale. I’ve tried the demo so many times over the years (including on 3DS) and just could never get into it. But I really wanted to find something to play together. To have that sense of accomplishment and team work. To have something that you can both work on indivudally but then come together stronger. And it felt like Monster Hunter was the right choice for that. And oddly enough, I’m enjoying it so much. I really took a gamble there, but with the help of some really great video tutorials (which I’m going to link for posterity below) I have really gotten into it. I’m eating up so much Monster Hunter content when I’m not playing Monster Hunter. I really appreciate how Monster Hunter Rise makes it easy to jump into a hunt, and it doesn’t take like hours to play. We did a hunt last night and it was like 40 minutes total. Which as a mom, I feel like, worked really well.

I love that every time we have played this game together I have somehow surprised you with whatever it is I’m wearing in the game. Those are the kinds of little memories I like to make. The game itself is complex and there is so much more to discover and learn, but I think it’ll be really fun to go through it together and teach each other things we have learned. I’ll try not to put too much expectation on it though…I’ll try.

I feel like had a lot more to say but as per typical mom…I’m being distracted and called and need to make lunch. Which feels like a very fitting place to end this letter. Looking forward to more Monster Hunter with you soon!!

Love you!

Joey!