Five Things I Love to Distract Us All from COVID-19

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RE: Write

3 min readApr 7, 2020

This week, we learned that CU Boulder would move to remote learning and work for the remainder of the semester. Given the situation, I decided to revisit one thing that we did at the beginning of the program: making a list of things I love.

My Dog, Leo

Of course, there’s going to be at least one dog on a list like this. Leo is likely the one who’s enjoying this social distancing situation the most. He a creature that thrives off of attention and closeness and now he is my coworker and classmate. He is very vocal and interrupts a lot (which I probably deserve, to be honest), but he’s the most loving and cuddly thing in the world. Plus, we get to go on multiple walks a day together which is a great way to get out of the house during all of this.

This Lipsync

Sasha Velour vs. Shea Coulee, RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 Grand Finale. That’s it.

The Bon Appetit Test Kitchen

Being part of Condé Nast, I always thought that Bon Appétit was for fancy people. But Bon Appétit, and especially their YouTube channel, is 100% for everyone who eats. So…everyone. Some of my favorite series include Back to Back Chef, Gourment Makes, the Thanksgiving Series, and just the Test Kitchen Talks. But, to be honest, I could watch them talk about how to cut an onion for an hour and be entertained.

Wine

Maybe your wine is cookie dough. Or a new pair of shoes. Or coffee. Or all of those things! It’s something that I used to feel guilty spending money on but have told myself that sometimes it’s nice to buy things simply for fun or because I just want to. Wine has recently become something that I actually care to indulge in and take the time to find something I really like.

Puzzles

I used to do a lot of puzzles with my mom growing up. It a way for our family to actually put the ‘nice’ dining room to use. I always loved the ones that depicted the older, Americana style and still do them today. Living in a studio doesn’t provide a ton of space to spread out a puzzle for a week, but even doing them on our iPad is satisfying and helps me unwind.