Listen to the Rain

My phone calendar is full of "coronavirus shelter-in-place" and "work from home" events. I've gone on a couple walks outside because of the nicer weather, wearing a mask and constantly ducking out into the street to avoid people walking their dogs. But today's the end of that for a few days, at least--it's going to be colder starting tomorrow, though the rain will stop. I'm kind of sad about that, to be honest, since the storms rolling in is part of Chicago spring that I really love. I went between rainshowers yesterday and the earth smelled of petrichor, and then I got back with my ice cream and my salmon just as it started to rain again, took the alleyway and found my necklace that had fallen off as I was walking to the grocery store, and had some flourless choco cake with ice cream. I've been sitting in my sun nook as the storms roll in from the west, drinking tea by candlelight with the rain pounding at my windows and the thunder crashing overhead. At those moments, I don't mind being stuck inside so much.

A few days ago, a friend posted a D&D 5e adventure someone wrote for Pesach that also acts as a Haggadah because it tells the story. Heroes breaking into an ancient pyramid to retrieve at least four sacred cups, a group of evil rabbit-people as the enemies (based on all those medieval manuscripts with rabbits killing people), matzah golems named "Gebrochts," the Four Children as an animal people miniboss fight, Hebrew palindrome riddles, a cameo by Serach bat Asher (the only woman mentioned in Moses's census lists)...it's great.

Why is this night different from all other nights? On all other nights, not even half of our D&D group can meet, but on this night, our D&D group can meet.

My Japanese tutor texted me today and said that she was almost done with her personal project and suggesting that we meet up for FaceTime lessons. It'll be good to get more Japanese practice in again.

Speaking of Japanese, I've been watching more anime now that I'm stuck inside all the time, and while I was previously watching 3月のライオン / March Comes in Like a Lion, I was looking for something much lighter and fluffier to help distract me from all the terrors of the Plague Year. I remembered people talking about この素晴らしい世界に祝福を! / KonoSuba! a while ago and after I looked up a quick summary, I watched a few episodes and let me tell you, I played World of Warcraft for six years, I have met all of these people. In Vanilla WoW terms:

• Kazuma: The Combat Rogue who never bothered training stealth.


• Aqua: The Holy Priest who opens every battle by casting Smite.


• Megumin: The PoM/Pyro Mage doing PVE.


• Darkness: The split-talent Prot/Ret Paladin who never, ever dies while leveling but can't do anything in a party.

It actually made me really want to break out some kind of grid-based dungeon-crawler even though they haven't yet gone into a single dungeon (and would probably fail miserably if they tried to). Though honestly, the only thing that can really match that same feeling are either MMORPGs, which I no longer want to find the time to play; or tabletop RPGs, which I really should get a group back together.

As I described it multiple times to other people, I always run my worlds as 100% serious because the players will bring all the comedy the game needs.

I'm not feeling particularly well, and while I don't think it's coronavirus because I don't have any respiratory symptoms or, I think, a fever, my pounding headache and general tiredness are still making it hard to get anything accomplished. I'm glad I did a ton of cooking yesterday, because today and for the next few days, it'll be leftovers for every meal. Right now, it's back to grinding in the Sky Castle in Final Fantasy I as preparation for beating the game and probably more watching KonoSuba! later. I'm currently listening to livestreamed recording of Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven's Ninth, so I even have my ominous chanting in the background as I fight WarMech!