BWW Blog: ...And Hold for Quarantine, Please!

Hello, dear readers, from university quarantine. My school is hunkering down for two weeks before classes start this Monday. I've been sleeping in, watching too much Netflix, and walking in aimless patterns around my apartment, which is exactly what I would do on a normal weekend anyway. It's nice, if you're a tortoise. If I start eating lettuce directly from the fridge, please call a doctor. So much time and so little to do has meant that I spend most of my day scrolling through various social media. #COVID actually stands for Completely Obsessed and Viewing Instagram Daily.

And readers, I am BORED. There are twenty four hours in a day and I spend all of them online. My Screen Time app told me so. I figured that was way too much time, so I did something about it! I turned the app off so I can't see how much time I'm spending online. Scrolling all day gets pretty darn boring. Don't tell my mom I said that because she'd probably tell me to clean the bathroom, practice math problems, and start a Fortune 500 company with all this freedom on my hands.

I've noticed recently that this weird in-between period feels very much like a tech week. Right now, in quarantine, we're in a hold. It looks like nothing much is happening on stage, but the technicians- our university staff- are working overtime to get ready for the next scene. Also, I'm eating instant ramen for every meal and wearing the same outfit every day. All black isn't just for theatre kids anymore!

I've come to two conclusions during this tech-esque quarantine. The first is that it's okay to be bored. Tech week is a hassle and it can move at a grindingly slow pace. You can run the same scene ten times and it still doesn't feel right. Similarly, I can watch the Les Miserables movie ten times and still be let down by whoever hired Russell Crowe for a musical. In tech, you may have to hold to fix lighting or sound. I get that. I spend hours trying to find good apartment lighting for selfies. On the other hand, the only sound I hear is the sound of my own chewing when I get my fifth pre-dinner snack. Sadly, there's no mute button for that.

My second discovery is that the only person who can beat boredom is you. If I just sit around on my couch wallowing in self-pity, it's not going to get me anywhere. In a tech hold or in quarantine, you're going to need to find ways to entertain yourself when there's not much you can do. So chat with friends! Do a dance or two! Try that new TikTok manifestation trend to get yourself a boyfriend or girlfriend! Combine all three and get your friends to join you in a bird mating dance for the cute guy across the hall! (But pick the right bird. We- I mean, a friend of mine tried the dance of the Laysan albatross and she is, surprisingly, still single.)

Hopefully this strange time period will move towards "previews"- the return to normalcy- soon. Until then, stay hydrated. Stay healthy. Try and step away from screens for a bit. Fail at doing that and go follow my Instagram and Twitter. Quarantine and tech week both have one thing going for them, though: during either one, you have a great excuse to cancel unwanted plans! Take care of yourselves, friends!

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