MINIPROMPT! What Are Your Quarantine Goals?

Your friends here at The Prompt are working to #flattenthecurve by staying home. That mean’s a lot of extra time on our hands, so we got together and came up with our individual #QuarantineGoals.

What is something you’re going to do to make the most of your quarantine?

Josh Bard – Finally Reading The New Yorker

With so many more hours at home each day, I plan on reading The New Yorker. I know that doesn’t sound very aspirational or ambitious but let me explain. I have a subscription to The New Yorker because it makes me feel sophisticated and smart, and gives me the smug upper-hand because I support journalism. However, what I am really doing is killing trees, since I never get the chance to read it. I look at the cover, chuckle, and then cast it aside forever. The problem with The New Yorker is that it comes every damn week, and is so full of great writing. How do you even begin? By the time you are halfway through one article, a new issue arrives. Well, thanks to quarantine, I will finally become the sophistifunk aristocrat I always dreamed of being.

Erin Vail – Getting Swole

I’m gonna get ripped. And by that, I mean doing extra (modified) pushups, lifting (5 lb) weights, and doing various Nike workout videos. I have not made an attempt to eat healthier or cut out alcohol, I mean—in this economy? But I will attempt to make my body as strong as I can with the extra time spent inside. I’m also going to completely clean out my bedroom closet, but I’m saving that for maybe week two or three of this. It’s going to be a project.

Kelaine Conochan – Going the F*ck Outside

Until it is federally outlawed, I will be spending as much time outside as possible. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not going to be moving in a large, dangerous gang, running my hands over handrails with the intention of infecting at-risk senior citizens. I’m going to be outside, alone, like the feral animal I was born to be. Running, hiking, walking, tanning, exploring, and pretending. I’m Huck Finn, if he was in the practice of washing his hands obsessively.

Michael Maiello – Podcast SZN

It’s finally time for me to start a podcast. I mean, just like when I started a blog, I’m about 5 to 7 years behind the trend, so this podcast of mine is going to be huge. The only thing stopping the launch of my podcast is the thing that’s been stopping its launch for the last 5 to 7 years, which is that I don’t have a good idea for a podcast topic.  But now that I have no excuses and 5 to 7 years to make up for, I’m just going to forge ahead with a podcast about starting a podcast in a market over-saturated by people already podcasting.  I will call it “The Joe Rogan Experience” and hope for the best.

Sydney Mineer – Reading Some Freaking Books

I am going to hunker down and read the books on my bookshelf! Yes, Mr. Fitzgerald I am going to be a completist and read This Side of Paradise now. I hear you, Shakespeare biography that I started years ago and have not finished. Yes, Book of the Month club books I never got to, it’s your time now, too! What better way to escape the Apocalypse than by reading about other worlds with their own problems. And what’s great about reading is, it’s harder to drift off into your own thoughts because your brain is full of other people’s words and thoughts.

That’s right, kids. Reading is a defense against stress and anxiety!

Katie Novotny – News Your Own Adventure

As for me, I got so sick of the news and how overwhelming it has been and how it’s making my anxiety skyrocket, so I made my own Video News Update, and I will be doing this every day. I would like everyone to remember, I did all of this very alone in my one bed apartment and never have had this much fun. Is it the quarantine or am I hitting my artistic stride? (I realize this might seem like a shameless plug, but truly just want to spread something other than terror)

I decided I'm going to do a daily live news report about the most important things that happen to me every day. Here's the first installment. IT'S THE NEWS at 6PM!

ps don't worry, I went to journalism school. pic.twitter.com/UrzCEbutFq

— Katie Novotny (@KathNovotny) March 16, 2020

Jillian Conochan – Endless To-Do List

My self-quarantine regimen is pretty consistent with my quotidian life, in that it’s a to-do list that I’ll never fully accomplish. Also, I already work from home so that part was not an adjustment for me.

My daily goals are to complete 30 minutes of fitness, which, for any doubters out there, is only 3 times longer than the 10 minutes of daily abs I’ve been doing since February. I think I can do it. Especially since I’ve been challenged by a friend to rack up some miles before month’s end.

Beyond that, I intend to:

• clean/organize the porch, office, closet, garage, yard
• sell or donate any excess wares
• applaud the reduction in CO2 emissions & other toxic human hazards. Can we make this ~a thing~?
• hydrate my face, hair, inner being, and *new!* hands
• catch up on Curb Your Enthusiasm
• make friendship bracelets (or do you call it something different when they’re just for yourself?)
• mending and darning
• creative sewing
• learn how to hit to opposite field

Lastly I want to shout out the best damn lockup roommate on planet Earth. He can make bread appear using just… ingredients??! Keeping you guys posted if homeboy starts turning water into wine.

We’re all in this together, apart. Cheers to health, mental stability, and abundant entertainment options.