Hello, lovelies! I haven’t blogged much these past few months, and I wanted to give you a glimpse of what I’ve been up to during quarantine. In my head, I haven’t done anything, but I’ve actually been really good about keeping busy during this time. I know myself enough to know that I fall into a bit of a depression/anxiety hole when I don’t do anything for an extended period of time and have thankfully to avoid that. I haven’t been doing great this entire time, but I’m not feeling awful either if that makes sense. This month has been pretty good though.
Here’s what I’ve been up to these past four months.
//Reading
I have finished 22 books since quarantine started, which I realize is a lot, but I honestly could’ve read more if it weren’t for quarantine. I’ve had to force myself to pick up the book I’m reading because all I really want to do is lay around and watch YouTube videos. I also don’t drive as much anymore, so I needed to get a new routine going when it came to listening to audiobooks again.
I’m going to do a whole “Books I’ve Read In Quarantine” post reviewing the books I read from April to July at the end of the month, so I won’t list them all here. Prior to quarantine, I had gotten a lot of serious books from the library because I love reading diverse books that talk about difficult subjects and I had been having a pretty lukewarm reading year. My friend said it best when she said, “This was going to be such a good year, so I bought a bunch of depressing books.” Once quarantine hit, I just wanted to read either fluffy general fiction or nostalgic, light-hearted middle-grade books.
I’m really glad I did this. Even though some weren’t the best quality books, they gave me the escapism I needed. When people started recommending books by black authors to include diversity in their reading, I didn’t feel the need to. One, because I read books by black authors already anyway, and two, because I really wasn’t in the head space to read anything about racism. I just continued reading what I wanted to (I think I was reading the Hunger Games prequel at the time, which took me forever to finish)
But yeah, I’m getting back into reading books that are in my typical taste. I’m trying to make myself read an hour every day, but that hasn’t really been working. Hopefully, doing the Reading Rush next week will get me into the habit. I’m also planning on reading a historical fiction that takes place in Korea and Japan afterward, which should be good. I’m trying to finish all my library books because libraries are opening up again and I don’t want to get fined.
Related – My Reading Rush TBR | 2020
//Netflix Parties With My Friends
My friend Kat and I have been Netflix Partying shows since March. We watch an episode of a show almost every day (usually 4-5 days each week). We used to do them in the mornings at 10 or 11:00, which motivated me to get out bed. I’m very externally motivated, so I need an actual meeting or something to make sure I don’t fall back asleep. Now, we do them at 7 PM since she has started working, and I’m sure that’s a factor to my waking up at noon habit.
So far, we’ve watched Locke & Key, The Witcher, all three seasons of Anne With An E, Trinkets, and just started the BBC show Crashing this week. I’ve talked about Locke & Key already. The Witcher is a very popular high fantasy show. People were calling it the new Game of Thrones when it came out. I liked it, but I don’t think they did the time jumps well. Anne With An E is one of my favorite shows. It’s a darker and more modernized version of the Anne of Green Gables books. Trinkets is about three teenagers who are in Shoplifters Anonymous, and Crashing is a BBC show about people in their twenties living in a refurbished hospital to save on rent. We’ve just started it, but I like how dark and funny it is.
A group of my friends and I also watched the first three episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender when it came on Netflix, and watched Hamilton together on the 4th of July through a Disney Plus extension. It was really fun to do together, and I’ve rewatched Hamilton twice.
//Sleeping In
I’ve talked about my terrible quarantine sleep schedule many times. My problem definitely started after my classes ended because I stopped feeling tired by the end of the day. I never did anything during the day that tired me out enough at night, so I’d lay in bed for hour without being able to fall asleep. My entire family also stays up late, so that’s when we usually spend time together. Ramadan is what really messed it up for us because we’d stay up till 3 or 4 AM then. It’s significantly better now. I usually am asleep by 2 AM and wake up at 10 AM, but it was touch and go for awhile there. YouTube’s algorithm literally recommended me a “Waking Up AT 1 PM” productive routine, and I felt so heard. Productivity wasn’t really a problem for me. I’d still get enough sleep and cross things off my to-do list. I just missed daylight. I dunno. I have friends who have been waking up at 5 AM consistently throughout quarantine and I don’t know how they do it. I like my bed too much. When I think about it, waking up has never been the problem. I’d just wake up at 10 and snuggle in bed until noon because I had no reason to get up.
//Watching Movies
I’ve pretty much had the same approach to movies as I’ve had with books. Normally, I love real, depressing, and raw shows and movies like When They See Us, but all I’ve wanted to watch have been Rom-Coms and coming of age films. (And animated movies). I’ve watched Love, Rosie and About Time. I had a Harry Potter movie marathon. I watched Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. I started watching all the Disney animal movies and their sequels like The Aristocats an Bambi (I actually enjoyed the second one a lot more). I’ve watched some serious movies too, like Boy Erased, which is about the son of a pastor who was sent to a gay conversion camp, and The Theory of Everything, which is the movie about Stephen Hawking’s life. (I highly recommend it. It’s on Netflix). I watched Just Mercy because it was free in the month of June (another very good movie). I’ve honestly watched at least 40 movies since quarantine started. Some were rewatches, like I watched Knives Out again on Amazon Prime a few days ago and Rags, that Nick musical with Keke Palmer and Max Schneider.
I made a list of movies I want to watch during quarantine and am slowly crossing them off. That’s been my alternative to spending an entire day binge watching a show.
//Watching T.V. Shows
I actually haven’t watched that much T.V. outside of using Netflix Party with Kat. My main sources of entertainment have definitely been books, movies, and YouTube. I didn’t want to get sucked into a show and not do anything all day even though this is the perfect time to do it. My favorite show that I’ve watched in quarantine is This Is Us. I watched it in March and April. I slowly got through the first season in March, but got hooked after that. I would watch two or three episodes each day in between my online classes. You’ve probably heard of it by now since it’s critically acclaimed and has many Emmy awards. It’s about a family, and we watch them go through their lives: past, present, and future simultaneously in one episode. Each part reveals something else from another. It’s really good. All the actors are very talented.
The other show I got super invested in was Station 19. I had watched bits and pieces of its third season since it went along with Grey’s Anatomy, but never watched the first two seasons. Some of the clips piqued my interest and I ended up buying both seasons on YouTube (something I normally wouldn’t do) at the beginning of May. I have no regrets though because binge watching that show was the greatest distraction from feeling down about not having a graduation. I was so sad that weekend, but watching this show made me feel less sad. It’s definitely not as good as Grey’s Anatomy, but I think it’s a better spin-off than Private Practice, which I liked but didn’t finish. I became a lot more invested in the characters here than I did with Private Practice and enjoyed the fire-fighting aspect of it. It has killed off a lot of characters, though, which makes sense I guess. None of the ships last longer than eight episodes though, which is a choice. Okieriete Onaodowan is in it. He was in the original cast of Hamilton.
There were only two shows that I binged in a day. I finished the final season of Cable Girls, which is a historical fiction show set in Spain. The other show is Sweet Magnolias, which I can’t really describe. It’s about three middle-aged women and their kids living life in a small town in the South. I liked it. It was the light-hearted contentI needed a few months ago.
I can’t think of any show other than that. My brother and I haven’t finished rewatching Avatar. I came on Netflix in May, but we’ve regularly watched it over the years and have only been watching an episode together each day. We’re on Book 3 now and we’ll likely finish by the end of the month.
I’ve actually watched more shows this week than I have in the last month. I watched both seasons of Fleabag this week on Amazon Prime. I’ve been really liking the show Crashing but can’t binge watch it since I’m watching it with Kat. I decided to watc Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s other shows that had won multiple Emmys (Emmies?). It’s based on a one-woman-show she did years ago about a woman whose best friend died by getting hit by a bus. Each season is really short (6, 23-minute episodes each) and I preferred the second season to the first one. She’s a really great actress and writer.
I started watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel yesterday. I’ve been hearing about this show for years but had no idea what it was about. I just saw the promotional photo, thought it looked like Mary Poppins, and brushed it off. I started the show yesterday and finished the first season this morning. It’s so good! It’s about a woman whose husband leaves her and she becomes a comedian. The show is so funny and is set in New York in the 1950s. The entire aesthetic is perfect, as is the music they use. I want to finish all three seasons by tomorrow because I won’t be able to focus on the Reading Rush on Monday.
//Lots of Zoom Calls & Phone Calls
I’m grateful that I haven’t felt super socially isolated these past few months. My best friends and I have a weekly Zoom call, which has been really nice. I video chat and text my cousins all the time, and call and text all my friends individually. I don’t go a day without talking to someone outside my immediate family, which has been really great. Even though I miss seeing people in person, talking to them through a screen isn’t too bad.
I haven’t left the house very often, but I did see one of my cousins in May on her birthday and my best friends and I had a socially distanced picnic in June. I was anxious throughout it, but we all wore masks and practiced safety measures. I don’t know when we’ll do it again. We also saw our close family friends Deya and Akash the day before Eid to drop off food, and I hung out with my friend Stellah once. Those were the only times I saw other people in person. I’ve mainly just gone weeks at at time without leaving my house.
//Journaling
I’ve been journaling a lot these past few months. I specifically did it March and April because I was figuring out my life on paper. I wrote about what I wanted to do after college/after quarantine, how I want to feel, what I want my day-to-day life to look like, where do I want to travel, how do I want to handle finances, etc. I actually did this in my bullet journal instead of my actual journal, and I ended up filling up that entire notebook by the end of May because I wrote so much (along with filling it up with other things).
I’ve also been writing in my actual journal. I mostly use that to write about how I’m feeling and why. Recently, it’s been me complaining about stupid, sexist, or racist people. I also journal about the good things in my life, but it’s great to vent sometimes.
Also, fun fact: I’m a poster-girl Sagittarius in that I write in my journal as if someone is going find it and read it someday. That’s why I don’t write names or go off too much in it. My brain just automatically assumes someone will find it and read it.
//Water Coloring
This was a hobby I decided to try in quarantine. I haven’t taken an art class since middle school, so I’m not good at it but I’ve been having fun. I’ve been painting on actual water color paper and in my bullet journal.
Here are affiliate links to the supplies I’ve been using:
//Art Journaling
This is another thing I’ve been doing. Art journaling is kind of a mix of collaging and journaling. It’s like a visual representation of my thoughts or it’s just a way to make my random lists look prettier. Here’s a video explaining it.
//Sudoku Puzzles & Word Searches
I bought a book of Sudoku Puzzles and and a book of Word Searches to do in quarantine because I just find them fun. They keep my brain rolling. I’ve been using the Sudoku book more because I find them a lot more fun and can be difficult at times. I usually listen to music or an audiobook while I do them.
//Workout Videos
I’m going to write a whole quarantine workout routine blog post next month, so I won’t go into too much detail here. I haven’t done any of the ab challenges many people are doing, but I have used videos to add some variety into my workout routine. I love doing the dance workout videos, and have done ab and weightlifting ones as well. I would like to exercise at least a little bit each day, but it doesn’t always happen.
//Tik Tok
It took me so long to jump on the Tik Tok bandwagon, but I’m glad I did. I was very biased towards it because my really young cousins were on it and it used to mainly be dance videos. Apparently I was wrong. It’s more like YouTube than a social media platform in my opinion (probably because people I know don’t share on it). There are adult creators on it now, so the content is a lot more mature. There were times where going on TikTok was the only thing that made me laugh all day, and I’m super grateful for that. (It’s also surprisingly informative about current events and I’ve learned a lot about Native American culture).
I was worried about using it because my friends told me that they would be on it for multiple hours straight. I avoided it for the same reason I don’t start new shows: to not binge-watch/become obsessed. I’m happy to say that I don’t go on it every day, nor do I stay on it for more than 30-minutes, but I understand how people can. The videos are super entertaining.
//Animal Crossing
I started playing Animal Crossing a little under a month ago, and I’ve been having a lot of fun with it. My brother bought the game months ago to play with his girlfriend, and doesn’t really care about the decorative aspect of it, so he gives it to me to play. The first thing I did was pay off his house (which is the most Triasha thing I could do) and spent two weeks cleaning up his island. He dumped all his trees and houses everywhere randomly, so I had to make enough money to move them.
It took me forever to get on the Animal Crossing bandwagon, mainly because I didn’t know what it was. I kept hearing about it everywhere but wasn’t interested until a YouTuber I like posted her island tour. After that, I just didn’t feel interested in it enough to spend the money, but when I asked my brother if I could get it on his switch, he said he already had it. I don’t play it every day because my brother is an actual gamer, so he needs his Switch for scrims and tournaments, so I play it maybe every other day at most for a few hours. It’s honestly helped me get back into audiobooks. (I listen to them while I play)
I went from a zero to three-star island relatively quickly because Zidan had collected most of the necessary supplies and built some buildings, but I’m honestly still cleaning up the mess. Now that I full control of the island, I’m starting to figure out a layout. I’ve already created a park and a music area full of instruments. I’m trying to collect the supplies I need to build a little library.
//Being Annoyed With People
I feel like this is self-explanatory, so I won’t start ranting.
//Learned To Cook Bengali Food
I think anyone can cook once they learn how to use basic cooking tools. After that, it’s just reading and following a recipe. One of my big post-grad goals was to learn to cook Bangladeshi good without help, and I can do that now. I really had to push my mom into teaching me, but I finally bothered her into it. Cooking South-Asian food looks a lot more complicated than it is because there are so many spices, but it’s honestly just onions, garlic, ginger paste, and the same five spices over and over again in different ratios. It was a lot easier than I thought.
//Watching YouTube Videos
I’ve watched so much YouTube these past few months. I’m pretty sure this is where I’ve spent most of my time. I watch a mix of a lot of different things. I watch movie commentaries, vlogs, sketch comedies, bullet journaling videos, or just plain aesthetic videos of people having their lives together. Things like that.
//Hanging Out With My Family
I actually like my family, so I can only really think of three times where I thought “I gotta get out of here,” which is very low compared to what my friends and cousins have said. When I think about, we don’t actually spend that much time together throughout the day, That’s probably why we’re not that sick of each other yet. We all talk throughout the day, but I mostly just play with my brother Mysoon, who has autism. My mom and I go one walks, cook, or work out together. We all watch movies together on the projector downstairs sometimes. We have dinner together. Zidan and I have been working our way through Avatar. Normal stuff. We all mainly just do our own thing and exist in the same space. It’s nice.
//Taking Walks Or Taking Drives
I took walks a lot more often last month, but the mosquitoes have come back again and I haven’t felt like it. To be honest, I can go days without going outside without noticing. I just leave my windows open and take Vitamin D. I’ll probably get back to taking walks again in the fall. Taking drives has been really nice though. When I took walks, it was the same scenery over and over again, but driving gives me something different to look at.
//Cleaning & Decluttering
I unpacked all of my college stuff last month and have been slowly going through all the stuff in my room. It’s been going pretty great. I felt physical relief when I cleaned up my computer desktop and took all my textbooks out of my room. I thought about documenting it and writing a post like I did the summer before I started college, but that blog post has all the practical tips I could possibly give and I don’t want to write the same thing twice.
Related – The Complete Guide To Decluttering Before College
//Drinking Tea
I’ve drunk so much tea since quarantine started. I love waking up in the morning, drinking tea, and just easing into my day. It’s amazing.
//Getting My Life Somewhat Together
In my head, I haven’t done anything, but I straight up wrote a “Get your life together” list at the beginning of quarantine and have crossed most of them off. I haven’t been productive every single day (or every week even), but I’ve made progress. I started reshaping my post-grad plans in March because I didn’t know if it would be safe to start working when I graduated or if I would be able to get a job. I signed up for the GRE and had less than three weeks to study in the midst of online college classes. I wish I had more time to study, but I was still able to get a pretty good score.
Graduate school applications were due earlier this year, but some universities extended their deadlines because of the pandemic. I applied for an online program, filled out the application, and wrote my personal statement super last minute. This week, I found out that I got in! I’m glad because it’ll give me something productive to do in the next six months without having to leaving the house. I’ll probably have to go to get another master’s degree later based on where I want my career to go, but this will be a useful thing to have on my resume.
I’ve been doing a bunch of other resume-building certifications throughout quarantine, too. I’m not working right now, but I did tutor online in April and May and I plan on starting that again next month. I was pretty lax about the “getting my life together” bit once I graduated since I wanted a break, but it’s nice to have some purpose again.
//Honestly, nothing
This probably seems counter intuitive since I just talked about the productive things I’ve gotten done, but these past few months haven’t just been getting shit done and reading books and making arts and crafts. There were so many times where the end of the week would come and I couldn’t remember what happened. If you are in that boat right now, that’s okay. I am in such a privileged position being able to stay at home and do not take it for granted. Life has been pretty good considering the circumstances.
Well, that’s it for now. I hope you enjoyed.
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What have you been up to during quarantine?