Emerald City Quarantine Diary Week 1
DISCLAIMER: I am not a licensed medical professional. But I can do research just like anyone else and I have a super unhealthy fascination with Epidemiology.
So What the Heck Is Going On?
Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), or as it’s currently referred to “the Coronavirus”. Which sends me into fits of “well, actually” and yes, I did subject a dear friend to a “well, actually.” It wasn’t a good look, but I was so tired of hearing “the coronavirus” when that reference just isn’t accurate. Give me 10 seconds, I have my reasons.
Coronaviruses are the family of viruses whose protein structure looks like it’s wearing a “Corona” or a crown. It will be hilarious if Cells At Work decides to tackle the virus once this mess has peaked and it no longer qualifies as a pandemic. Coronaviruses are responsible for 20 to 30% of your average Winter/Spring colds and tend to go dormant in the summer. Turns out, the viruses do not do well with heat. Which is relatable, because I don’t either.
Novel Coronavirus is a new strain (hence the “novel”) that the collective doesn’t have immunity (herd or otherwise) to unless you suffer through it. I will refer to the virus through this entry as COVID-19, as it was discovered in December 2019. The United States (at least the general public) started hearing about it right around the beginning of January when it was ravaging through the Wuhan province.
Seattle is a port city, so we’re usually the first stop planes from Asia make once they head over here. We, the general public of Seattle thought we were okay until folks started getting seriously sick after PAX Unplugged 2020. But it wasn’t RSV or the flu. And those folks did get better, but it took about a month until they were baseline again.
Things got worse in February.
The Timeline + Some Salt
I had filed for two weeks off. Because my Day Job makes taking said time off damn near impossible and I had 45 days to burn. I did the same thing last year. Just 10 days surrounding and including Emerald City Comic Con, where I’d help a business owner sling tea for the convention. Two weeks prior to that, things got weird.
Real weird.
COVID-19 hit Washington State and was making headlines with its rapid spread, enough that Reed Pop decided to postpone ECCC due to Governor Inslee banning any groups over 1,000 people. The con tends to see around 40,000 people and last year’s Con Crud was this fun mix of Bronchitis and Pneumonia. I’d know, I got it and was miserable for three weeks following Con. This year, I prepared for it, hence the 10 days of PTO.
But after some pressure from said day job, which had told everyone to just work from home anyway and to avoid crowds of over 500 people, I shaved my PTO down to 4 days. And then shaved it again down to two days when things were really weird. Like overly weird to the point of concern and I needed a break from work because my brain was fried.
We were asked to socially distance ourselves and if all else failed - stay home around the beginning of March 2020.
Thus begins my series that I’m dubbing the Emerald City Quarantine Diaries. Where I make attempts to stay healthy even though I am a sucker for physical affection and love my friends.
Even if I haven’t seen 75% of them in weeks now.
This series will cover projects I’m doing to help stay sane in my solitude, why I’m all but staying home, the dangers of COVID-19, why it’s so contagious, and how I might as well take advantage of my studio space and the dance pole in the middle of my kitchen.
Week One started off odd because I had two days off to start off and just kickstarted the work on my latest project, a large-scale piece of Macrame Wall Art. Otherwise, it was very much an ebb and flow, especially when I learned that a majority of my daily routine didn’t change.
Turns out, I was living in half-quarantine anyway!
Introvert Life
I’m a homebody. There, I said it. One of my Seattle Bucket List items was to see my apartment featured on Apartment Therapy, so I pour a LOT of time into my 400 sq. feet. I go to the grocery store twice a week, usually on foot, and take walks around the neighborhood, but since a lot of my fitness classes are already streamed, I don’t really step foot in gyms. I usually spend one or two days a week at a tea shop nearby to see other humans, but for the most part, I tend to keep to myself unless there’s a social activity to which I’ve been invited.
Those ground to a halt. I miss them. But Social Distancing needed to happen.
Why Social Distancing Works
I’ll link the image I found that explained it pretty well for me, but generally speaking, imagine a line of matches. Light one and next thing you know, the rest of the matches are going up one after the other.
Now remove a match from the line and the flame now has nowhere to go. That’s how Social Distancing works, but it is so hard when humans are social creatures and they live by themselves. Seattle isn’t exactly the greatest at it, not because we don’t like staying home, we love to do that. But Seattle is not built for social distancing, especially our sidewalks, our roads, hell, even our grocery stores. So you are urged to stay home. Some are struggling with how to stay sane.
I am one of them. Sort of?
How I’m staying sane
I am a creature used to solitude. Since I live alone, I make it a point to lightly obsess over various projects, and up to this point, I was nursing a pretty hefty interest in some sort of wall art project for my kitchen.
I rediscovered Macrame. Week 1 at home was a mix of Day Job and working on my new wall art. Using this tutorial, I did half of it before I winged the rest. I also learned a valuable lesson when it comes to rope projects. You’ll want to order about twice as much rope as you expected to need. I knew if I kept busy, I wouldn’t feel quite so miserable about staying at home for longer than expected. Below is my tentative plan to keep myself steady.
Note how I didn’t say positive, I know better.
Crafting - If I keep my hands busy, I can flow along with the crafts and physical labor. My project list is tentative per the ability to get supplies.
Canadian Smocked Pillows
Large-Scale Macrame Wall Art
Replacing Flat Picture Ledges
Sewing a slipcover for the sofa.
Figuring out how to wash cotton velvet without dry-cleaning.
Create a website.
Social Media hangouts - I work from home, therefore video calls are not a new thing in my world. But dammit, I wanted a new background for said calls. Because that spot in my kitchen gets amazing natural light throughout the day.
Exercise - Sure, going for a walk is always a good thing, but when you need to stay six feet away from everyone else, it tends to fall to the wayside. Which is why I own booty bands, resistance bands, a yoga mat, a dance pole, and a coin scarf. By reembracing dance in the forms of Pole and Belly Dance, I can avoid the weight gain that tends to come with a traumatic experience like a global pandemic. It’s going about as well as expected. As of this entry - it wasn’t going at all.
Pretending - Yep, you read that correctly. When you have mental health issues, a global pandemic isn’t just a crisis - you are retraumatized every damn day. So some days, I pretend that the world hasn’t changed and that for me, it’s business as usual. Look, I didn’t say it was a good coping method, it’s just a method that’s working for me.
Routine - I created a very loose one and I’m trying to stick to it. Once I can establish that I am actually sticking to that routine, I’ll add something new and hopefully adapt to a routine that benefits both my physical and mental health. We’ll see how this goes!
So what’s the point, Nat?
This series is an experiment and honestly my way of documenting a global crisis. If anything I do here is something you can adopt to help yourself cope, then great! Because humans are indeed social creatures, social distancing is effective, but it is so hard. So I’m here if you need someone to vent or talk to, and since we’re all online now, let’s be internet besties! My comments are moderated but are indeed open to you. Because the only way we’ll get through this is together.
See you on the other side of the Stay-At-Home orders!
