We Can't Rewind, We've Gone Too Far

So.

My college is switching to online classes, except they haven't done this before in the middle of a semester and also half of my classes have really important lab components which can't be done from home. They're saying the semester will end when scheduled; I kind of doubt that. They're supposed to have figured out how this works by Monday, and until then I get to review and be anxious.

All of my work's clients are cancelling their inventory counts, obviously. I am not seriously financially affected by this.

My 79-year-old father decided to fly to Texas last weekend. He's back now where we have free healthcare and my stepmother is in an AirBnB so that's resolved, ish, but wow, Monday night was not fun.

Unfortunately being stuck at home with my mother all day is not ideal for my mental health, but ... there's nowhere else to go and if there was I'd have to go on public transit. And it's still too cold to spend much time writing in parks. But I'm generally doing okay. Lots of knitting.

The problem with saying "use the time to write!" is that this is a major disruption of routine, with bonus anxiety, which does not actually lend itself to increased creativity. I don't have that much focus for reading, either, including my DW list, which come to think of it is probably a warning sign (so, now I know). There has nevertheless been some writing. Kate Bornstein is a treasure.

I am sort of doing more on twitter, but I would not really recommend going on twitter if you don't want ALL CURRENT EVENTS ALL THE TIME.

Recommendations for podcasts accepted, no horror or true crime, without frequent interviews or changing guests every episode. Basically I want to listen to a small fixed group of people talking about things they are interested in that will not give me nightmares. Examples are Jay and Miles XPlain the XMen, Lingthusiasm, and usually Sawbones.

1. The Antique Pattern Library is a thing that exists! OMG!

2. My twitter rule still applies ... except in the case of theJagmeetSingh, which may be the only twitter that makes me feel better about humanity.

3. Most accurate AO3 tag yet: #idiots to lovers.

4. Titles and summaries are the most annoying parts of fic writing, so it's very weird to get that but literally nothing else about the fic - no prose, no plot, not even theme or mood. But:

It's Not That I'm Sentimental
Natasha Romanov is not a matchmaker. Maybe if she says that often enough eventually someone will believe it.

5. The latest in the continuing series of essays I won't write: Beautified With Our Feathers: An Optimistic View of the Future of Fanfiction.

So I saw this tweet*:

No one’s looking forward to work tomorrow, but at least you won’t be arriving by carriage for a new position at a manor house only to see the ghost of the previous governess glowering from a third floor window

— Mave (@MavenofHonor.twitter) June 24, 2019

And went "But that'd be great! Ghosts are neat and then you'd have someone to talk to other than the children!" And then of course I had half a gothick novel plotted.**

I assume that this and the harsh-satire-of-superheroes idea I had last week are evidence that my writing brain is coming back after the overexertion, but currently I am just remembering that all long form writing projects eventually end in exhaustion and hating everything you've written, so I'm not exactly in the mood to start either of them.

*I am not actually on twitter, I just look at other people's twitters.
**Yes, Harold, of course they're lesbians.