So, how's your quarantine going?

A post by Mary Fan

Greetings from the coronavirus capital of the world! I guess, to be precise, that would be New York City, and I'm just across the river in Jersey (everything is legal in New Jersey!). Still, I live (well, lived) half my life over there and see it every day from out my window, so close enough.

OH, WHAT TIMING, just as I was typing the above, a huge hospital boat thingy floated down the river outside my apartment. Behold!

The cavalry is here! 

This is super weird... usually when giant boats float by my window, they're cruise ships, but that hasn't been the case lately, for obvious reasons... NYC certainly knows how to strike a pose, doesn't she? With the moody clouds and everything? It reminds me weirdly of a scene from a war movie or something... like, we're grimly but hopefully watching the troops go off to war (spotted a couple of my neighbors also taking pics at their windows).

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, quarantine. Well, actually (as one of my guy friends so helpfully reminded me), it's stay-at-home orders (thanks, dude, I do know a thing or two about words). But everyone's calling it quarantine cuz, frankly, it feels like it fits better. "Stay at home" is what I do on the weekend when I'm lazy. "Quarantine" means there's a disease going around... which their is. Also, it sounds more dystopian, which is how the world feels right now.

I'm entering Week 3, and luckily, I have an office job where I can work from home. Not gonna lie, when it was first announced that a bunch of stuff was getting canceled and closed, I was a little relieved, since I'd overscheduled myself to the brink. The idea of not having to spent an hour-ish each way commuting (on overstuffed, always-breaking-down trains) was pretty appealing. But the novelty wore off real quick.

Can't get to my trapeze so this'll have to do

What's more, I thought I'd spend all that extra time catching up on the book projects I'm woefully behind on. While I do think I got more done than I would have otherwise, I've also spent way too much time obsessively reading the news (which, I know, I know, you shouldn't do) or turning off my brain with some mindless TV (by now, I'm sure y'all have watched the bizarre alternate reality that is Tiger King as well). There was one evening when I had my WIP up on my laptop and spent maybe 15 minutes staring at it uselessly before accepting that it just wasn't gonna happen. Turns out, it wasn't the lack of time that was impeding my progress. It was the lack of brainpower.

Between virtual happy hours and one-on-one video chats, I must say that loneliness hasn't really been an issue. The thing that's really been getting to me is the lack of physical activity. Ordinarily, I'm perpetually tired and will find any excuse to blow off the gym (oh no, it's raining and my shoes are wet, can't go). These days, I'm almost literally bouncing off the walls. Shadow boxing and conditioning exercises just aren't the same as hitting heavy bags and swinging from trapezes.

I guess this quarantine thing has been revealing about some things. I've worked in open office environments for the past several years, without the option to work from home, and I was always dead after work. Now, my workload hasn't changed that much, but that dead feeling is gone. Turns out, it wasn't the work. It was the people (hooray for being an introvert?).

I wasn't originally planning to do April NaNo, but I'm so behind on my WIP that I might use it as a motivator to power through the rest of this manuscript. Might as well. I have the time.

Anyway, how's your quarantine going?