{"id":19325,"date":"2020-04-03T08:54:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T15:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=19325"},"modified":"2020-04-03T09:01:31","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T16:01:31","slug":"four-fun-ways-to-stave-off-quarantine-boredom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2020\/04\/03\/four-fun-ways-to-stave-off-quarantine-boredom\/","title":{"rendered":"Four fun ways to stave off quarantine boredom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Loneliness, boredom, cabin fever: social distancing is proving difficult for many of us. As we protect ourselves and others from COVID-19 by staying home, it\u2019s easy to feel like we\u2019re floating somewhere in the void, nocturnal, \u201creal life\u201d but a fogged memory. There are lots of lists out there talking about how to cope with being inside but let\u2019s get real: \u201cBinging on Netflix\u201d and \u201cSet up virtual hangs!\u201d is so late-March 2020. It\u2019s April now, so let\u2019s do this: here\u2019s are four ways to cope with your new way of life.<\/p>\n

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This is the latest in a series of pieces written by Camosun College students during the COVID-19 pandemic (file photo).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

1. Try to get into \u201ccooking\u201d<\/p>\n

Other lists have said this, but they seem to assume that we all have some interest in cooking. At this point, \u201ccooking\u201d is about survival. Since eating out is a no-go, and most grocery stores are ravaged warzones whose shoppers are forced to undertake the Hero\u2019s Journey, lots of people are getting creative with whatever\u2019s in the fridge. Go ahead, make a weird pasta dish with all your condiments mixed together! Finally get to cooking that oatmeal in your cupboard you\u2019ve been avoiding! Eat a cake mix cake for dinner! Look inside a cookbook for once!<\/p>\n

2. Practice talking to yourself<\/p>\n

Talking to yourself, out loud, is one of the most underrated pastimes there is. It\u2019s really easy to feel lonely nowadays, so when there\u2019s nobody around to talk to, talk to the person who\u2019s always there\u2014yourself! You might be surprised at the interesting things you have to say, and you may learn something about yourself. But, if for some reason you\u2019ve been avoiding a particularly difficult conversation with the reflection in the mirror, you can always talk to your pets. If they don\u2019t seem to understand, try communicating psychically. Houseplants could work, too.<\/p>\n

3. Do something drastic to your appearance<\/p>\n

Social isolation comes with a certain sigh of relief\u2014you\u2019re no longer subjected to the torture that is being observed! Although you\u2019re trapped in your home, you\u2019re more free than ever to make a change to your look. If you\u2019ve ever had the urge to shave or bleach your eyebrows, cut bangs, or experiment with makeup, now is the time to do it. If you hate it, you\u2019ll have plenty of time to reverse whatever mistake you made. Wear the outfits you\u2019re afraid to wear in public, and do it shamelessly. Screw it\u2014grow out your leg hair and shave a pentagram into it with an electric razor. Now\u2019s the time, baby. I know you want to.<\/p>\n

4. Build a toilet paper shrine<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure that some of you, if you\u2019re lucky, have accrued enough toilet paper to build a small fort on your porch, or even two across from each other, so you can hide inside of one and imagine that your friend is in the other one (that is, if you can remember what their face looks like). However, a great way to give thanks for your abundance is to craft a shrine out of the rolls you\u2019ve been blessed with. It\u2019s even more fun to build them in front of your window so you can compare your hoard with your neighbour\u2019s, like dragons on their respective piles of gold on opposing mountaintops. Decorate your shrine with canned beans and hand sanitizer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Loneliness, boredom, cabin fever: social distancing is proving difficult for many of us. As we protect ourselves and others from COVID-19 by staying home, it\u2019s easy to feel like we\u2019re floating somewhere in the void, nocturnal, \u201creal life\u201d but a fogged memory. There are lots of lists out there talking about how to cope with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19325","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humour","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19325"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19327,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19325\/revisions\/19327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}