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My social-distancing birthday in Animal Crossing

It didn't *exactly* go according to plan.

Ashley Esqueda Senior Video Producer
Ashley Esqueda is an award-winning video producer and on-air talent based in Los Angeles. She has been playing video games since she was 3 years old, and loves the history of television. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband Jimi, son Wolfgang, and two very squirrely Italian Greyhounds.
Ashley Esqueda
Ashley Esqueda

Confession: Ireally, really like celebrating my birthday. I'm not a person who demands my social circles celebrate all month, or even a week, but I deeply enjoy getting my family together and having some cake and ice cream and hugs. 

That's not an option in the midst of a pandemic. And truth be told, this is the first birthday in all my 37 (!) years on this Earth I wouldn't be celebrating in-person with my friends and family. But I have been enjoying more Animal Crossing: New Horizons than you can shake a tree branch at, so I thought I'd throw a fabulous party on my virtual island. 

Everything went great -- until it didn't. 

In the end, I still had a wonderful time (even accounting for the dramatic Thursday evening I spent sobbing in my office), and I plan on throwing more parties in ACNH as a way to get away from the anxiety of what's happening in the real world. 

Except for crippling debt. That I can experience in Animal Crossing, too. Gotta go pay Tom Nook his bells!