quarantine itinerary
keep your body, mind, and heart hydrated
Alright everybody, hold your horses and listen up (and in that order)!
This is a friar haircut. Keep it in mind. It will be useful to know later.
After having shared the above punkish Japanese poetry rap track that I love, I’d like to start by acknowledging that it’s been a long, long, lonnnngggg month. While my last post looked at the future of the coronavirus pandemic, I’d like to take some time now to review the past.
Being unemployed during a quarantine isn’t the farthest of steps from growing up an only child of immigrant parents with few neighbors his age. You’ve gotta get creative to keep busy. As a kid, I’d run down to the basement and pretend I was a Jedi fighting evil enemies, sometimes replaying exact fight scenes from the movie, other times creating my own heroic scenarios in my head.
My weapon of choice was a $6 green plastic lightsaber from Target. If I were in a Clone War type of mood, I’d holster a Nerf gun too. Sometimes, I’d make things interesting by intentionally “losing” against the imaginary villains that were hiding under the basement stairs, but then the next night, my comeuppance would be all the sweeter.
I’m not saying you need to jump into a fantasy world to avoid the dark reality—escapism never works. Rather, I want to share the simple, inexpensive ways I spend my time in the hopes it’ll help you manage this scary reality. In addition to staying safe and dealing with fear, it’s important to keep our minds and hearts occupied and growing. These are ripe times to connect!
Before I dive into a list of activities that I have carefully groomed and systematized, I’d like to disclaim that I ended my employment with Amazon, Inc. last Friday (4/3), so much of my ensuing time has been split between interviewing with prospective companies and lollygagging (usually involves some combination of soft surface and digital device).
This circumstance has allowed me to bask in the glow of parental warmth (as I’ve been in San Jose with them for the last 3 weeks) and refine ways of passing time, which has surprisingly worked much better than anticipated. So, without further ado, here are some of my quarantine activities:
Reading for a book club. Currently, we’re reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I always thought of it as the book whose quotes nerds would loudly drop during game nights and/or tattoo in their elbow pits. But I recently read some of it, and the flood of wisdom present onscreen (I’m reading an online PDF) makes me laugh and then creeps into my mind during that moment of tickled weakness. It’s like mind control. In fact, the playfully ridiculous attitude of that book’s first 50 pages has definitely leaked into my own writing.
I’ll admit that reading during quarantine has been a real uphill climb for me. It’s hugely ironic because I love reading! I quit my job, can’t leave home, and have 20+ books that I brought back from Seattle, yet I still have no motivation to read. I think it’s been tough because I usually read to relax after a long day of activity, but nowadays, that activity to relaxation ratio is skewed the other way. Luckily, setting up a book club with friends creates that structure where reading can be fun and in service of something else.Writing character sketches. I like to write, and not just personal essays on this newsletter, but also fiction. That shop’s been closed for some time, but I’ve had ideas brewing. A fantasy series idea has accumulated in the corners of my brain like uncharted territory, so I’ve started exploring that terrain and inventing characters to occupy it.
In fact, I truly encourage anyone to try this. It is not as crazy or difficult as it may sound. Just invent some circumstance, constraint, or idiosyncrasy (a ballplayer that only takes public transit, a child who believes the friar haircut is most attractive, a man who wishes his hands were as large as his feet, etc.) and flesh out that character’s details. Why do they believe what they believe? Who do they remind you of? What would they do in an emergency situation? Who would be upset if they were late or disappeared? Jot these down as bullet points, as paragraphs, as dialogue, as a drawing, etc. It’s a fun exercise in imagination that requires very few materials and is super fun to share with friends.Polling hypothetical scenarios. On my Instagram story, I’ve been posting questions sourced from a social card game called Hypertheticals and taking polls/rationales from my followers to see what they think and share results after 1 day. It’s been super fun—I’ll bring that energy to this newsletter within the next week!
Bodyweight exercises. To me, jumping jacks, squat jumps, mountain climbers, etc. in the corner of my bedroom. To my parents, ominous thumping sounds from above. Mostly just a way to make sure my blood doesn’t stop flowing out of boredom.
Drinking coffee. I submit that this is a fantastic way to spend twenty-four minutes. How it goes is, I roll out of bed, do a soulless set of pushups on the floor, amble over to the bathroom, shuffle downstairs, make a splendid parfait, and microwave my parents’ Instant Coffee. Then, I sit at the dining table and sip and sip and sip. I don’t like to brag, but I’ve perfected the art of sipping. Usually, I listen to my own inane morning thoughts as the caffeine turbos them into each other like bumper cars on aviation gasoline, but sometimes, I just listen to folk music.
Video conferencing with friends. Surprisingly a great way to catch up with people you don’t typically see. Most of the time, we play online card or drawing games, which is also way more fun than I thought. This is a serious silver lining to the quarantine. I used to think that group video calls were a silly and excessive way to get away with intentionally interrupting your friends, but now that it’s become necessity, I’ve been all I look forward to. I’ve done pretty much all of the above 5 suggestions both on my own and while on a call with friends.
In fact, two friends and I video conferenced recently just to complete a tournament bracket for business ideas featured on the hilarious Comedy Central show Nathan For You (and if you’re also a fan, I’d love to see your completed bracket):
So that’s my list. And before you say anything or smirk at your computer screen, lemme tell ya something. I know that it feels real silly to try a new way of spending time. It feels ridiculous. It’s like trying on a funny hat at a thrift shop. You enjoy the thrill of the new look for a moment but then imagine the almost-certain reality of making it your aesthetic fixture: the hat will lose its novelty and charm, it’ll gather dust, it won’t match all of your clothing, you won’t be able to wear your other hats because this one has ruined hats as a concept, you’ll become known as the “hat guy” or “hat gal” (or if you’re lucky, “hatman”), etc.
But if the hat’s only $3 and it’s relatively clean, then you might as well try it! Forget what other people will think and do something that you enjoy.
Anyways, I hope this inspires you to keep having fun at home during this quarantine. Boredom sucks. Inhibition sucks worse. Do something a little crazy with those people that you love and are stuck with right now. Lose your mind a little bit. It’s good for you. You’ll come out of all this a little bit happier, sillier, and more grateful.
If you’re having a hard time coming up with activities to do, drop a comment below!
My friends do cool things too!
Nikil has given us yet another delivery, and this one doesn’t need to be wiped with hand sanitizer before bringing into your home. Check out his weekly music reviews!
My friend Dani has been delivering food and supplies to people who need help during this crisis for weeks and I wanted to acknowledge her heroism.
Other Newsletters:
Harnek’s Newsletter, a newsletter examining trends in the film industry from a young filmmaker’s perspective. Also, it’s written by my old friend Harnek :) give it a read!
Maybe Baby, a wonderful newsletter I stumbled across one day whose most recent post involved, among other things, living in quarantine in New York.
Nicole Knows—I don’t know much about it because I’ve only recently discovered it, but the top thread invites you to share any accomplishment or complaint that you have.
i always admired your writing skills in high school english, glad to see you are writing this and fiction!