Ways to Stay Connected During the Second Pandemic Winter | brokeGIRLrich
I know we’re all more than a little Zoomed out these days, but a part of me misses that first month or two of quarantine when it seemed like I was constantly chatting with friends in the evening or finding digital things we could all do together.
Is that still a thing for some folks?
I mean, I guess it is for some, since the digital murder mystery/escape room I work for is booming.
Well as it gets cold again up north in the U.S., I thought I’d make a small list of things you can do digitally with your friends online without breaking the bank.
Game Night
This incredible open source game list document has a wealth of free games you can play. There are all sorts of games and if you find a new one, you can add it to the list. Some favorites among my group of friends are Codewords and Telestrations (Telestrations definitely goes a little better on a phone or tablet). We usually use Zoom to share a screen and chat away for the evening.
Night Clubs
I can’t rave enough about Eschaton and how much fun it is for an evening. Tickets start at $10 for a one hour immersive night club-esque experience. If you’ve ever been to Sleep No More, it was created by several alumni and has a similar, though entirely unique and Shakespeare free (as far as I managed to explore anyway) vibe. Hands down still my favorite digital experience.
Movie Night
A Zoom account and a streaming platform can be a watch party with friends. I even have a friend across the pond and we do the occasional movie night by calling each other, counting down and starting a movie at the same time. Then we hang up and just text each other reactions to what we’re watching. Free. And fun. I can’t say I recommend that Borat sequel, though it was the right amount of nonsense for “what have you even picked? Why are we watching this?” texts.
Jackbox Games
If you’ve run out of free games to play online, I’d recommend Jackbox game packs. Only one person in the group needs to purchase the game pack for everyone to play. There are a few standalone titles for less than $10 but several friends took turns each buying a Party Pack over a few months. Each party pack ranges from $13-24 and has several games in the pack. My personal favorites are Drawful and Trivia Murder Party.
Experimental Theater
No Proscenium is an experimental theater website that lists, among other thing, interactive livestream experiences, and several that I have attended are pretty cool. If nothing else, it’s something new to do. There are a wide variety of price options and types of experiences. I’ve gone on voyages through the mind as a first mate, experienced Performance for One, sat in the dark and listened to a story – you definitely want to be a little open minded, but it will probably be a different evening.
Online Concert
Very similar to watching a movie, you can also hunt down a digital concert. There are a few ways to do this and might I start the list with saying if you have a friend in the performing arts who is doing like week 45 now of their streaming set, and the rest of your friends haven’t gotten together to watch it yet – start there and put some cash in their Venmo/PayPal/cashapp tip jar. If you don’t have musically inclined friends, then check out any number of free concerts happening these days, one of my favorite bands that has done several during the pandemic are Here Come the Mummies.
Take a Dialect Class and Play Utter Nonsense
Ok, this might be stretching it a bit, but here’s the idea, sign up for a single dialect class here. Tell the teacher you’re all amateurs but you like to play this silly accent game, and so you want to actually practice them with the teacher for the next 30 minutes. After your lesson, download Utter Nonsense and see how well you can apply what you’ve just learned.
Murder Mystery/Escape Rooms
So the No Proscenium link above also has a bunch of these options, if you scroll to the bottom of that page, but in an effort to keep funneling business to the company I work part-time for, I’m going to direct ya’ll to Swamp Motel, which has two great experiences available currently and a third on the way soon. I’m totally biased but I think they’re really well done and a good time. It’s $90 per game for U.S. evening timeslots and £55 if you book a U.K. timeslot (and that is my budget friendly hint for ya’ll with free time on Saturday or Sunday afternoons). Less biased, I do get to hear people’s reactions after each game and so far the groups have universally considered it money well spent. / soap box.
