It’s been two weeks now since I last left the house, with the exception of working in the back garden and a brief walk around the nearby park. Such is the nature of these coronavirus times in which we live.
Have I wasted this time? For the most part, yes. Will I emerge with a polished magnum opus? Almost definitely not. But that’s not to say I haven’t been busy. I’ve got a to-do list that is literally four full pages long, which I’ve been working my way through. Slowly but surely.
I left my ‘day job’, my teaching job has essentially been put on indefinite hold, and that leaves just my writing gigs…after I caught up on laundry and worked through my waiting pile of paperwork I’d been neglecting.
Like a lot of people during this time I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and tried my hand at making bread. I haven’t made many loaves, but I’m already improving, so that’s cool. Maybe I can switch to making my own bread full time, instead of just during existential crises.
I’ve also forsaken makeup and hair products, preferring to give my hair and skin a chance to breathe and recover.
Like a lot of people during this time I’ve been doing a lot of cooking and tried my hand at making bread. I’ve also forsaken makeup and hair products, preferring to give my hair and skin a chance to breathe and recover.
Mentally, I’ve been doing well, which I attribute to being an only child growing up deep in rural West Virginia. I’m sort of used to being alone.
Here’s a look at the more important and interesting things I’ve been up to:
Writing: #CoronaWriMo
I completed and submitted my first series of short stories to be published on Scribd! Once that’s a bit more underway I’ll likely link to it, but suffice to say I’m writing romance under a pen name there. I’m super excited to see where this project leads and to do more work for them. There’s a list a mile long of fluffier story ideas that don’t fit with my current body of work, and this is the perfect outlet for those ideas.
Medium
I’m still writing on Medium. Be sure to check out my current stories, and follow me on there to keep up with my future output. I’ve also started a couple publications on there to help organise my work. They’re very much works in progress at the moment, but please do check them out:
- Nothing 2 Wear: a fashion humor blog written with a friend
- Roll 4 Charisma: Marketing for creatives, written with my best friend.
- Flashion Week: Flash fiction, updates on Fridays.
You can also find my work on Sonnetry and The Writing Cooperative!
NaPoWriMo
April is National Poetry Writing Month! The premise is simple: Write a poem a day, every day for the month of April. So far, I have five under my belt, disregarding a slew of over twenty haiku I’ve written. I feel pretty confident that this will help jump start my lagging poetry projects at the moment. You can find my poems on Medium and Twitter!
Arts & Crafts: The Corona Collection
I’ve had a few felting kits that were given to me for Christmas for awhile. It always felt like I just didn’t have time to sit and stab an egg for hours and hope it turned into a cactus or a llama. And yet, here we are. I have the time now, and I have stabbed three eggs into beautiful little frizzy cacti.
As previously mentioned, another felting kit I had was for a pair of llamas. I finished one, and I think they look more like alpacas. That’s fine by me, as alpacas are much nicer than llamas. I’ve had two people say they look like cats, though. Either way, I’m thinking I might use them and the cacti to make a generic sort of Latin America bunting:
Even more embarrassing, I’ve had a birdhouse kit for well over five years, again waiting for the planets and stars to align so I could have a blissfully free weekend to build this birdhouse. Well the celestial bodies did just that (albeit with 2m or more between each, of course) and now I have this beautiful little birdhouse, ready to put out on my allotment:
COVIDeo Games
This has also felt like the perfect time to start working my way through my Steam catalog. And our Xbox Game Pass games. Like most people, I’ve had the itch to try Twitch. Not sure if I can be bothered, but maybe with the Steam games I could as they’re less complicated to record. Here’s what I’ve been playing:
Banjo-Kazooie
100% in under 12 hours. A childhood favourite which I feel like I probably never actually beat in its entirety.
I’ve always loved this game for its irreverence and fun characters. But it definitely reminded me that the N64 was just getting the hang of camera angles that didn’t kill the player.
Goat Simulator
Great for just seeing what the fuss was about. It was fun for awhile, but can’t see it holding my attention for too long. Definitely good for a quick, mindless laugh though.
Minecraft. So much Minecraft.
I switched over to Bedrock from Java, but only so I can play with my friends. So far it’s pretty good, and I haven’t noticed anything lacking. Will I keep playing Java edition too? Possibly. It’s not as though it’s a huge hassle to keep both version sitting around on my PC.
Banjo-Tooie
Haven’t played much, but so far I’m mostly just really confused about the change in Banjo’s voice.
But it’s still Banjo and Kazooie, so I have faith it’ll hold up under scrutiny! Maybe there’ll be an update when I’m further into the story.
Dragon Quest Builders 2
I’ve always had indescribeable issues with the art style of Dragon Quest, and my first encounter with DQ was Boom Town on the Wii. This has all the appeal of Minecraft, plus some added direction and purpose. So far a very solid game that is happily devouring my evenings.
I’m just wrapping up Furrowfield Island (I think).
Well, I think that’s it from me for now. I’m hoping to do a couple more of these types of updates, though maybe not too many as it would be nice to not be in lockdown for much longer. I’d love to know what you’ve been doing to stave off cabin fever, let me know in the comments! And if you haven’t been doing much, that’s okay too. These are extraordinary times in which we find ourselves, and it’s most important to take care of your mental health.
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