Literally Just Things To Do That Aren’t Worrying about Covid-19

By: Talia Walters ‘20

I’m the kind of person who can spend all 16 of my waking hours lying in bed and scrolling through news articles of the impending doom du jour. In fact, you can refer back to my previous social media detox post for proof – the whole thing with Iran almost drove me mad. This whole coronavirus thing is also driving me mad. But that kind of worrying and anxiety isn’t good for anyone especially not when you’re trapped in your house, so I’ve spent some of my quarantine time curating just a list of things to do and talk about that aren’t the coronavirus.

Make a Totwaffle

I saw this tweet the other day, and I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. I don’t own a waffle maker, so if someone else out there could try this to give me catharsis, that would be just dandy. You’re supposed to put tater tots in a waffle maker to make what are quite literally tater tot waffles (or totwaffles for short). The actual twitter thread is quite funny, so I’d recommend reading it for yourself as a nice dose of daily humor whether or not you actually make your own totwaffle. It’s sprinkled in with helpful tips like microwaving or defrosting your bag of tots instead of baking them because they need to be soft and a little wet in order to adhere together properly in the waffle maker. He also includes a recipe for syrup-chup to put on your totwaffles that’s just a 1:1 ratio of maple syrup and ketchup. Honestly, that’s most of the recipe, so it’s fairly self-explanatory. Just do it and let me know if it tastes any better than normal tater tots.

Ask Your Family Members About Their Lives

I’m trying to weave sweet and sappy things in between the general humorous chaos that is my life and thus also this list. If you’re stuck at home with your family, then this a great time to have those moments of generational bonding every great movie makes us yearn for. I’m still in my house in LA right now, so I didn’t get to go home to my family, but the last time I was home, I spent a lot more time with my mom than I usually do. She ended up telling me the story of how my father followed her all the way across the country with no job prospects after they had only been dating for THREE MONTHS. Three months?! That’s dedication. So go through old picture albums, ask your parents about stories they’ve forgotten, even ask your siblings what they’ve been up to since you’ve been gone. You might realize they’re cooler people than you thought.

Make Fluffy Coffee

You cannot tell me you haven’t seen a video of someone painstakingly whipping together instant coffee and making a beautiful mousse-like foam that they dollop on top of some iced milk to make cheap, at-home coffee. I saw so many of them that I finally caved and ordered instant coffee on Amazon, which took two weeks to get here, but I got it this past Monday and immediately went and tried. I’ve attempted fluffy coffee twice now, and I just can’t get it to fluff up, so let me know if you have any suggestions (seriously, like comment or something!). The general recipe for those who don’t know is just 1 tbsp of instant coffee, 1 tbsp sugar, and 1 tbsp of water that you whip in a bowl for a few minutes to make all fluffy, then you add it to either hot or cold milk depending on your mood. I’ve seen it made with hot water and cold water, but most recipes say you need really, really hot water to make the fluffiness work. Regardless, even if I don’t get it fluffy, I can say for sure it’s some of the best coffee I’ve had.

Watch TV Series All the Way Through

I know, I know, you’re sick of staring at your streaming platforms because it’s literally the only thing everyone is doing so why is this on this list. Really, I’ve just got some hot takes as what shows you could spend your time watching instead of just watching Tiger King again (I swear, it’s a good docuseries but all the memes are almost as overwhelming as the news). Personally, I’ve been rapidly binge-watching Grey’s Anatomy on Netflix because it’s trashy and hilarious and just a lovely show. However, I know the reference to hospitals and medicine may be a bit unnerving given the current situation, so Netflix also has all of Glee – it feels the same as Grey’s Anatomy in tone and trashiness, but it’s high school singing instead of high stakes medical cases. On Hulu, I’ve been binging all of Catfish: The TV Show because, again, I love trashy TV, and Catfish is just a lot of greatness wrapped into an hour-long show. I don’t have Disney+, but if that’s your streaming service of choice, I’d say rewatch all of Kim Possible or Lizzie McGuire because we love an early-2000s, vaguely feminist moment. And if you only have HBO Go (free for USC students!), then I’d say watch The Sopranos. I’ve heard great things about the ending, but why not experience it for yourself.

Order a Rubik’s Cube and Get Good at It

I recently watched the classic 90s movie Dude, Where’s My Car for a class (yes, a class). If you’ve never seen the movie (which you totally should, it’s so weird), there’s a whole alien subplot based around a Rubik’s cube, and I got to thinking. How in the world do people learn how to solve Rubik’s cubes in less than 5 seconds? There are videos on Youtube explaining patterns and memorizing different moves to get really fast at solving them which I don’t understand and haven’t tried, but I know it’s possible. This would be a great time to learn a cool party trick, so when we’re finally allowed to meet up again, you can pull out your moves at a party and show off to your friends. Or, if that’s too lame, you could show off to your mom, who would probably be very impressed with you.

Re-Listen to Your Favorite Album From Your Childhood

It turns out that past us had really great taste in music; at least, younger Talia had really great taste in music. I get sick of playing the same songs over and over, but I’m bad at finding new music for myself, so I decided to go back and listen to albums that used to be staples of my childhood. This includes but is not limited to the …Baby One More Time album from Britney Spears, the Flood album from They Might Be Giants, and unironically the Aaron’s Party (Come Get It) album by Aaron Carter. I had an eclectic music taste when I was a kid. Regardless, upon listening to these albums now, you realize a lot of things about them. Aaron’s voice was so incredibly high in 2000. There are more songs off of Flood that I really like than I even remember. The titular song of …Baby One More Time is not the best song on that album. And most importantly, all of these albums actually slap. So, revisit some of your own favorites – you might realize they’re better than you remember too!

Learn a Tik Tok Dance

Hey, don’t judge me, okay? This is a safe space, and I’m not judging other people for their stuck-at-home activities. I, like many others, have fallen victim to the Tik Tok trend. I spend ungodly amounts of time on that app, so this is my conversion post. If you haven’t downloaded Tik Tok yet because you think it’s dumb or you’re too old, forget that. Do it. Do it right now. I promise you won’t regret it, just do it. Sure, there are some dumb and cringey things on there, but also there are some really creative and really funny people, and they make up for every incredibly strange POV you have to scroll through. I promise, just do it, you won’t regret it. And when you do download it, learn one of the dances. Everyone makes fun of people for dancing videos, but you try to get Savage by Megan Thee Stallion out of your head without knowing the dance. It’s literally impossible. I tried, and then I had to lock myself in the bathroom and learn it over the course of multiple days. I swear it’s addictive, but it’s also fun, lighthearted, and a form of social interaction. So just give in and do it already!

Ask Your Roommate/Best Friends Things You Never Have

This is a similar idea to asking your family about stories you’ve never heard before, but it’s a little different because you can be a bit more candid with your friends than you can your family. Sometimes you don’t realize there are things you don’t know about the people you keep closest to you, but everyone has stories and thoughts that they don’t just share without good reason. My roommate has a “game” called Table Topics, which are just questions and prompts to have conversations you wouldn’t have thought about otherwise, and those are good when we’re bored and don’t know what to do. You could also use ice breakers, would you rather questions, and maybe even journal prompts if you’re close enough to trust your roommates or friends with information you’d usually only relinquish to your journal. Or, sometimes the best option is to just ask them what they’re thinking about right now or their biggest emotional trouble in that moment or the happiest they’ve ever been in their life. It brings you closer to the people you care about the most, and it’s easy social interaction to have over Zoom to break up the monotony of being stuck in your own home.

Take A Shower

This sounds super obvious, I know, but sometimes it’s really not that obvious. It’s easy to take this time to fall into a bout of just generally not being okay. And honestly, not being okay is totally okay given the state of the world right now. However, it’s not good for you if you spend your time being not okay in bed, not getting up, not eating, not showering, not living a normal life. It may seem insurmountable but doing just a few little things every day to make yourself feel better will help in the long run. So shower if you can, but if you can’t, at least make sure you’re brushing your teeth and hair. Go out for a walk if you can, but if you can’t, at least get out of bed and walk around your house for a little bit. Make yourself a nice meal if you can, but if you can’t, at least warm up some instant meals to make sure you’re still eating. It’s the little things that make life feel normal, and if we give those up, then we’ll be consumed by this horrible situation. It’s important and healthy to take care of yourself.

Stay safe and stay sane!

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