Pretending I'm Playing (Day 3752 - 3/3/20)

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Stephen is having a smoothie that Mallory made which consists of berries, juice, and Greek yogurt. He says that it's been a long time since he's had a smoothie. They did Breakfast Stream this morning. Today, Mal returned to playing Ring Fit Adventure after taking a break from it in early February and Stephen decided to play it with her. But, the game only supports single-player. Mal had the idea to order a normal Pilates band so that Stephen could play it with her. She would be the one playing with the actual Switch controller, but Stephen could pretend to play along with the Pilates band. Stephen says that he got a yellow Pilates band for $10. There were more expensive ones, but the only difference was that they came in different colors. Stephen says that he didn't care about the color, so he chose the cheapest one. He says that the Pilates band he got is basically the same thing as the one that comes with the Ring Fit Adventure game.

When Mal played Ring Fit today, Stephen played along with her with the normal Pilates band. Stephen says that it felt like they were actually playing the game together even though he was just pretending to play. He compared the experience to a child playing an arcade machine that has no quarter in it. Stephen was surprised how engaging it was despite knowing that he wasn't controlling anything on the screen. Stephen just did everything Mal was doing and it felt like he was playing the game. He recommends this method to anyone who wants to play Ring Fit with another person.

Stephen says that they are going to have lunch now. Their plans for today are to bring all the cardboard boxes to the Recycling Center because it has been piling up in the kitchen. They also plan on going grocery shopping. Stephen says that this is a big deal because they are getting back into cooking. He says that one of the hardest parts about grieving and mourning is the inability to cook for yourself. Stephen talks about how you lose a lot of motivation to do that sort of thing when grieving. Mal comments that when grieving you don't feel like cooking or eating. They appreciate all their friends who sent them gift cards for ordering food so that they didn't have to think about cooking. Stephen says that he's looking forward to cooking again. He says that getting food delivered is convenient, but delivery food will never be as healthy as making it at home yourself. Stephen mentions that Kepler had smelled his smoothie and didn't like it which was good because it's not good for them.

Afterwards, Stephen and Mal load up the trunk of the car with cardboard boxes and other recyclables. Then, they went to the Recycling Center to drop all the recyclable stuff off.

Back at home, Stephen says that they bought a lot of groceries since Mal had a lot of recipes in mind. Stephen says that his mom made them some chicken and gnocchi soup and put it in a potato salad container. They already have multiple meals planned out, but they will also include the soup in those meal plans. A bit later, they are having the chicken and gnocchi soup for dinner. Stephen says that the recipe for this soup is a copy-cat recipe for the chicken and gnocchi soup they have at Olive Garden. He says that you can just google it to find the recipe. Mal decided to put the rest of the soup in the freezer because they just got groceries and she didn't want the groceries to go bad.

Later, Stephen talks about how he can really tell that he worked out today due to his muscle aches. He says that he will probably feel it tomorrow as well. Stephen then talks about how Ring Fit is interesting. He says that there's a little stopwatch at the bottom of the screen that goes up as you exercise and it only increases when you're exercising. When he and Mal finished, the stopwatch said that they had done 20 minutes of exercise. Stephen felt like they had definitely exercised for longer since they had been playing the game for longer than 20 minutes. He felt like they played for at least 40 minutes. Stephen says that it might be because the game is a RPG and you spend time going through menus, choosing different levels in the overworld, and buying items in the shop. Therefore, you end up with a lot of downtime where you aren't actively doing any exercise. Stephen says that it was fun though and it made him move muscles in ways that he hasn't moved them in a while. He says that Mal's been having fun with the game and will keep up with it and he's going to try to keep up with it as well. Stephen suddenly hears the sound of rain and brings the vlog camera into the bathroom, so the he can better capture the sound of rain on the vlog. He says that he wasn't expecting it to rain today.