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March 20 - Day 21 of Coronacation
Mar. 20th, 2020 09:15 am So...as I mentioned in the previous post, I actually ended up home as a result of getting a regular cold starting basically Feb 29th, so while everyone else is entering their first weeks of self-quarantine/physical isolation, I'm actually on day 21 (with about one or two days in between where I was better but roomie was not yet sick).
I'm actually doing ok -- my natural inclination is to be a homebody, so it's helpful to frame this experience as something I might otherwise choose. But I also want to keep a journal here of what it's been like so far, and what it's like daily, so that hopefully when I look back on this experience I'll remember what I was thinking, feeling, and experiencing during this truly bizarre time.
I read a LOT during those first few weeks. Unusually, it was primarily actual written books and not fic, which for whatever reason I haven't been using as much. I think that's primarily because my work is now done remotely, by computer, and at a certain point in the day, I've just had enough of screen time. So here we go:
Books I've read so far/Am currently reading:
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears: this one was very well-written, and a pretty hefty book, coming in at around 700 pages. It's a mystery novel in four parts, each with a different narrator that circles back on the same series of events, which centers on the murder of an Oxford professor in the 1660s during the turmoil following years of civil war. The mystery definitely pays off and there's a lot of cool historical detail if you are interested in English history, so I absolutely would recommend it with one caveat: it was deeply frustrating to read as a woman, as all four narrators are men with generally shitty (though historically accurate) views on women. If you can stomach that, go for it. If not, probably best to avoid.
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon: This one I listened to. It was a really interesting description of how the New Horizons project, which gave us those really cool photos of Pluto in 2015, got off the ground, and the various challenges and successes of the project as it went. It was very interview-style, with the authors chiming in with their thoughts on what was going on at different times, along with the greater arc of the project as a whole. A cool one if you like space exploration.
Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge by Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp: I've read other books on alternative dispute resolution and negotiation from these authors when I was in law school taking classes on ADR and arbitration. This is a quick one that goes into the basics of leading from the bottom. More of a generalist approach. For those interested in the topic, Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury is probably the best starting point.
Blood Price by Tanya Huff: In the beginning days of my being home, I rewatched the two seasons of Blood Ties that originally aired on Lifetime, I think, back in 2007. It's a pretty cheesy series that for whatever reason was exactly what I needed in terms of content as this whole thing started to kick off (it's currently included on Amazon Prime). I went ahead and bought the book series and read the first one. The first book basically covers the first episode. I have the other four (as well as the sequel series that follows an LGBT street kid named Tony who shows up as an informant in the book series). It was pretty fun, and I plan to read the next ones.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport: this one was pretty much about how people can focus better by resolving/avoiding distraction (for example, not answering emails during certain hours, becoming "unreachable" for set time periods, etc). Nothing particularly groundbreaking, but still pretty good.
Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint: de Lint is one of my all-time favorite authors. He writes wonderful magical realist fiction with a folk and fairytale tinge, set mostly in Canada. This book is a sequel to Moonheart, about a group of people who live in a sprawling magical house called Tamson House in Ottawa, and their connections with other worlds. That book was one of my favorites. This one was also really good, though I didn't like it quite as much as the original. It's less a novel as two short stories and a novella that are all interconnected. Still highly recommended. I've also bought the second book in his Newport series, which starts with Dreams Underfoot (a collection of short stories with a similar folk magic theme). I've always read his short stories sporadically, but never read them all, along with the novels, in order, so I figured why not now? The second book is called Memory and Dream.
Anyhow, I plan to keep on going with the reading, while I continue to do my day-to-day job. Everything has moved to remote work, so right now we are really working on making sure our immigrant families in the city are getting what they need to survive (both in terms of finances and in terms of accurate, up-to-date information on what's happening on the ground here with Covid).
How I'm feeling today: A little tired, a little overwhelmed. Mostly in good spirits. Struggling a little to keep some of the work we're doing floating, and attempting to get a handle on how to stay involved in everything I'm supposed to be involved in.
How I slept last night: Not the best. First night the cats have been in my sister's place, and they were a little freaked out, so there was a fair amount of crying and jumping on my head. Also had a pretty late phone call with J, to talk about rent and the roommate situation in general (mixing good friends and landlords inevitably causes these kinds of awkward situations), which was productive but also not an easy conversation even in the best of times, so I was a little too wired to really pass out quickly. Didn't get to sleep until closer to 1ish.
What's different today than yesterday: Cases have been, as expected, shooting up exponentially. We're at about 4K now in NYC, and that is no doubt going to go up substantially as we people from the last few weeks start having symptoms. Most people are now staying home, and tons of places are completely shut down, with the exception of the necessaries. Cuomo is dragging his feet on a shelter-in-place order. Hospitals are already running out of supplies here. Mortgages are frozen, evictions are banned. Groceries, amazon and other deliveries, and restaurant delivery and takeout are still going strong. Most buildings here are now not allowing delivery folks past the front lobby, so everyone has to go down and do pickups themselves. I got stuck in an elevator in my regular building two weeks ago, and the ones in this building are sketchy, so I'm going to take the stairs from now on (only 6 floors here, and honestly, I could use the exercise).
What did I eat today: So far just some Pringles and half a tofu breakfast sandwich from Orchard Grocer. My appetite is still pretty much non-existent. All I ate yesterday was some beans and rice soup, some pringles, and a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch at around 4:30ish. Felt not great this morning until I realized I hadn't eaten anything since then. Slow and steady, but I'm going to keep trying! A weird thing for me, as generally I've always been a stress eater, but hey. I guess everything's different right now, even that.
Weird thought I had/realized: I was thinking about how women in WWII wore red lipstick in part as a way of keeping morale up, and realized when I packed to come here I didn't even think to bring my makeup. I wear makeup every single day, normally, and almost never go out without it. I haven't worn any at all since I started staying in. Just another small way things are different.
Until next time,
F
I'm actually doing ok -- my natural inclination is to be a homebody, so it's helpful to frame this experience as something I might otherwise choose. But I also want to keep a journal here of what it's been like so far, and what it's like daily, so that hopefully when I look back on this experience I'll remember what I was thinking, feeling, and experiencing during this truly bizarre time.
I read a LOT during those first few weeks. Unusually, it was primarily actual written books and not fic, which for whatever reason I haven't been using as much. I think that's primarily because my work is now done remotely, by computer, and at a certain point in the day, I've just had enough of screen time. So here we go:
Books I've read so far/Am currently reading:
An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears: this one was very well-written, and a pretty hefty book, coming in at around 700 pages. It's a mystery novel in four parts, each with a different narrator that circles back on the same series of events, which centers on the murder of an Oxford professor in the 1660s during the turmoil following years of civil war. The mystery definitely pays off and there's a lot of cool historical detail if you are interested in English history, so I absolutely would recommend it with one caveat: it was deeply frustrating to read as a woman, as all four narrators are men with generally shitty (though historically accurate) views on women. If you can stomach that, go for it. If not, probably best to avoid.
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon: This one I listened to. It was a really interesting description of how the New Horizons project, which gave us those really cool photos of Pluto in 2015, got off the ground, and the various challenges and successes of the project as it went. It was very interview-style, with the authors chiming in with their thoughts on what was going on at different times, along with the greater arc of the project as a whole. A cool one if you like space exploration.
Getting It Done: How to Lead When You're Not in Charge by Roger Fisher and Alan Sharp: I've read other books on alternative dispute resolution and negotiation from these authors when I was in law school taking classes on ADR and arbitration. This is a quick one that goes into the basics of leading from the bottom. More of a generalist approach. For those interested in the topic, Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher and William Ury is probably the best starting point.
Blood Price by Tanya Huff: In the beginning days of my being home, I rewatched the two seasons of Blood Ties that originally aired on Lifetime, I think, back in 2007. It's a pretty cheesy series that for whatever reason was exactly what I needed in terms of content as this whole thing started to kick off (it's currently included on Amazon Prime). I went ahead and bought the book series and read the first one. The first book basically covers the first episode. I have the other four (as well as the sequel series that follows an LGBT street kid named Tony who shows up as an informant in the book series). It was pretty fun, and I plan to read the next ones.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport: this one was pretty much about how people can focus better by resolving/avoiding distraction (for example, not answering emails during certain hours, becoming "unreachable" for set time periods, etc). Nothing particularly groundbreaking, but still pretty good.
Spiritwalk by Charles de Lint: de Lint is one of my all-time favorite authors. He writes wonderful magical realist fiction with a folk and fairytale tinge, set mostly in Canada. This book is a sequel to Moonheart, about a group of people who live in a sprawling magical house called Tamson House in Ottawa, and their connections with other worlds. That book was one of my favorites. This one was also really good, though I didn't like it quite as much as the original. It's less a novel as two short stories and a novella that are all interconnected. Still highly recommended. I've also bought the second book in his Newport series, which starts with Dreams Underfoot (a collection of short stories with a similar folk magic theme). I've always read his short stories sporadically, but never read them all, along with the novels, in order, so I figured why not now? The second book is called Memory and Dream.
Anyhow, I plan to keep on going with the reading, while I continue to do my day-to-day job. Everything has moved to remote work, so right now we are really working on making sure our immigrant families in the city are getting what they need to survive (both in terms of finances and in terms of accurate, up-to-date information on what's happening on the ground here with Covid).
How I'm feeling today: A little tired, a little overwhelmed. Mostly in good spirits. Struggling a little to keep some of the work we're doing floating, and attempting to get a handle on how to stay involved in everything I'm supposed to be involved in.
How I slept last night: Not the best. First night the cats have been in my sister's place, and they were a little freaked out, so there was a fair amount of crying and jumping on my head. Also had a pretty late phone call with J, to talk about rent and the roommate situation in general (mixing good friends and landlords inevitably causes these kinds of awkward situations), which was productive but also not an easy conversation even in the best of times, so I was a little too wired to really pass out quickly. Didn't get to sleep until closer to 1ish.
What's different today than yesterday: Cases have been, as expected, shooting up exponentially. We're at about 4K now in NYC, and that is no doubt going to go up substantially as we people from the last few weeks start having symptoms. Most people are now staying home, and tons of places are completely shut down, with the exception of the necessaries. Cuomo is dragging his feet on a shelter-in-place order. Hospitals are already running out of supplies here. Mortgages are frozen, evictions are banned. Groceries, amazon and other deliveries, and restaurant delivery and takeout are still going strong. Most buildings here are now not allowing delivery folks past the front lobby, so everyone has to go down and do pickups themselves. I got stuck in an elevator in my regular building two weeks ago, and the ones in this building are sketchy, so I'm going to take the stairs from now on (only 6 floors here, and honestly, I could use the exercise).
What did I eat today: So far just some Pringles and half a tofu breakfast sandwich from Orchard Grocer. My appetite is still pretty much non-existent. All I ate yesterday was some beans and rice soup, some pringles, and a bowl of cinnamon toast crunch at around 4:30ish. Felt not great this morning until I realized I hadn't eaten anything since then. Slow and steady, but I'm going to keep trying! A weird thing for me, as generally I've always been a stress eater, but hey. I guess everything's different right now, even that.
Weird thought I had/realized: I was thinking about how women in WWII wore red lipstick in part as a way of keeping morale up, and realized when I packed to come here I didn't even think to bring my makeup. I wear makeup every single day, normally, and almost never go out without it. I haven't worn any at all since I started staying in. Just another small way things are different.
Until next time,
F
