I started doing these things called 'word sprints' with a lady I'm friends with in the Twitter world. A word sprint is when you set aside a specific amount of time and write as much as you can in said time. Ours are typically 30 minutes long which is just enough for me to keep my attention and brain active. Aside from blogging, which I'm still not good at, I'm really into keeping a daily journal. I stopped for a while but began to start it up again once the pandemic hit. I guess you could say I'm keeping some old school habits around by still writing on paper. Since I'm limited on time, I figured I'd just share an excerpt from one of my entries.
(This is an account from around 2/28/2020 into March)
It was a Friday. I think we both were still recuperating from returning home after vacationing in California for a week. I remember lying in our hotel room watching the morning local news and browsing my Google Now as I always do. I remember seeing a headline stating that the first reported cases of COVID-19 had hit Washington state as well as a cruise ship that was quarantined off the coast of Japan or something. At that moment, you just read the article, you say a little prayer for those affected, but you don’t think of the long term effects. In my generation, we’ve never had to prepare for anything like this. Really though, were we ever prepared? No. They tell you to be prepared for an emergency like a fire or a flood but not a pandemic. Either way, not to get ahead of the story, we cleaned up and headed off to Universal Studios. It was extremely crowded. The wait for rides was nearly 45 minutes to over an hour. My patience was tested that day but I was happy to have my husband with me and to celebrate his birthday in a new place we wanted to check out. Large groups of people from all different countries paraded in lines. If the pandemic had begun prior to our trip, would I have thought any different of them because our unforgiving lack of leaders in our White House keeps blaming China for this? Absolutely not. Everyone is so kind. I waved and they waved back. Still blows my mind how many people travel to our country to see its “wonders” and attractions. Maybe when you live here for so long you don’t see what’s so exciting about the specific places they flock to but, then again, they probably think the same about their home territory.
When we returned, my husband developed some respiratory issues later the following week. He worked from home that Friday, the 28th. He visited the doctor and got the usual steroid pack. No fever or other symptoms. Thinking back now, do I think it was some type of COVID? I don’t know. At this point, I think we’ve all been exposed to it in one way or another. During the weekend, news reports escalated. The virus had begun to spread pretty rapidly. It was like watching the Umbrella Corporation come to life except they weren’t helping anybody. He ended up making the decision to work from home that following week to get better from his cold. Little did we know, that week would turn into months."
To think that was February and here we are, almost 6 months later, still dealing with the same issues. Are you surprised? I've since done about 12 word sprints. I don't know what I'll do with any of this. I think I'd like to write a book one day. Maybe so I can share with the next generation about the year 2020 but then again, I know there are probably a million other people already talking to their agents about doing the same thing. Nothing wrong with a private collection!
That’s kind of how I write. Giant word vomit, then edit, edit, edit!
ReplyDeleteHere I am, responding late again *face palm*. Yes! It's crazy how much easier it is to write under pressure than not.
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