#So my Quarantine Blogging was not reflective of my regular busy life but that's how most of my old friends got to know me | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ettawritesnstudies · 26 days

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IE your 'what would i pay for poll'. I would pay around $3 monthly feasiblhy but honestly I would be more invested in doing that if you were a bigger presenc3e on here again, over if you had anhy fun treats for subscribers. mostly i just miss seeing you alkl over my dash! i like to support the people who are big involved in the comunity or who post a bunch of fun snippets or moodboards or character rambles. and i dont see that from you very often!

Hey Anon!! That is SO FAIR and honestly I wish I were a bigger presence here too, and one of my concerns about offering memberships is that creating all the ~*exclusive*~ content will take away my time from shitposting and playing tag games and just generally hanging out. The more I'm splitting my energy between several platforms the more my "presence" on each platform will suffer if that makes sense and I miss the days when I only had tumblr and I could just ramble about whatever.

That being said there are a couple reasons why I've changed my approach so I hope you understand where I'm coming from

I'm on Draft 5 of the same book I've been working on for like 3ish years now and if I shared the same snippets for every "find the word" tag I think people would be sick to death of it by now

I'm on Draft 5 of the book I'm planning to publish and if I share too many excerpts of the in-between drafts, those things are both A) subject to change, B) probably spoilers and I want to be very very picky about the excerpts I choose to share from now on

Tumblr (and instagram, and tiktok, and other social media sites) regularly get nuked by the companies that own them so I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket which is why I've doubled down on my website.

I'll share more moodboards and fun snippets and stuff soon! But they'll be in the promotional/marketing vein probably because if I'm going to spend time making that stuff it's going to be multitasking

You raise a really good point. I'd love to be more involved here, and I'll try to set more reminders for things like WBW and STS. That being said, I've been trying to support the writing community through other ways like ARC reviews and interviews!!! I put so so so much work into these every month and they do fine in general, but for some reason they don't get any traction on tumblr. Not for my lack of trying, but I don't know? Nobody wants to reblog a link to a youtube video I guess? It's discouraging because just because it looks different than the old traditional games and things doesn't mean it's not still contributing something to the community - a way to find new authors and promote your newly published books - that's largely going unnoticed and unappreciated.

If you want me to reblog snippets and moodboards for the love of god please send me stuff my queue is empty! I love seeing what people have going on but I'm also following well over 1000 people so sometimes stuff gets lost.

#ask answered #I am sorry if this comes across as snarky but I've been burntout for like two months #and I'm going to continue being balls to the wall busy for the next year and a half #so I'm so so exhausted and tumblr games are low on my list of priorities unless they fit into the Grand Scheme of Productivity somehow #but also I just finished the runaways revisions so I should have more time this month hopefully #I've been slowly clearing out my drafts #sighhhhhhhh #I think part of this is that I started my blog in summer 2019 and so I really got my traction in the midst of Quarantine #So my Quarantine Blogging was not reflective of my regular busy life but that's how most of my old friends got to know me #and now I don't have the bandwith for that anymore because my real life is insane #So you're not seeing the other 85% of the craziness that's going on now that I'm not locked down at home #sitting in front of my computer doing zoom uni #etta rambles

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quarantingz · 4 years

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start again.

1 april, wednesday

10.57am

Today started a little different. Slower. Later (by 30mins past 8am this time). A little colder, which could be explained by the surprising fog I saw peeking through my blinds this morning. Not to be dramatic or anything, but it felt different, a change in the air. Something slightly off…not in a bad way at all, more so a sweetness like a light dusting of chocolate powder on a regular cappuccino with almond milk (because we’re all about that lacto-free lifestyle).

It is 1st April 2020, the first day of the month, day six of New Zealand’s quarantine lockdown. Maybe the shift in the air is partly because it is the first day of the month and I’ve always been a fan of “starting again”. And I guess for me, the start of the month stands for the start of a new leaf, a new chapter, a throwaway of the last month and all the baggage and work that comes with that. With this pandemic looming over every loaf of bread eaten and dinner table conversation, I can’t help but feel slightly excited about the rest of this month and maybe a little bit hopeful. Ok. Maybe a lot hopeful.

As I chew through my mum’s lovingly home-made, first-attempt, sourdough bread, a little chewy but no less yummy, I think about my life pre- and post-lockdown announcement…I was working part-time at the Gateau House, a cake shop with a very high standard of what it meant to make a DAMN GOOD coffee. Whilst only part-time, I was going in three to four days a week, I could tell you who our regular customers were for morning, day and night, AND their coffee orders and milk preferences. I was going in with my dad everyday, waking up at 5.30am so I could squeeze in a workout, shower and get ready for work. I hate feeling rushed, so an early early wake-up call is vital for me. It didn’t matter if I had a morning, day or night shift, I’d arrive at the Gateau House, to my boss Flo’s recurring surprise, at 8.30am. Before or after my shift, my routine involved making a mocha with exactly a pink and white marshmallow, which slowly turned into a cappuccino with zero marshmallows, because I felt guilty for going through a packet so fast haha. I’d sit down with my blue Muji pen in hand and my A6 black diary to write a to-do list. I’ll never get tired of writing lists, in fact, they provide necessary structure for my life.

Anyway, in between working long shifts starting at 8am or ending at 10pm, I was juggling multiple freelance work, passion projects and free work that I couldn’t say no to for my friends. To say the least, I was busy. And I loved it.

My life was so busy to the point where catchups with friends felt more like appointments booked two weeks in advance and my calendar couldn’t handle the excessive amount of highlighter signifying several meetings and deadlines for that week. But it wasn’t only me who was busy, but my friends, my family and even the whole world it seemed. This weird bubble I was living in challenged me and kept me moving and repeating everything all over again the next day. This rhythm made me feel like I was doing something with my life post-graduation. Side-note, this routine didn’t make me feel bored, which I guess my random shifts, diversity of projects and regular meet-ups kept things interesting.

Despite feeling overwhelmed, minus all the negative connotations to this word, the question of whether I had a full-time job yet didn’t waver. Aunties, parents, friends, acquaintances, strangers even, asked. It felt like the whole world was asking. And before corona, this was the only thing hanging over my head…But then lockdown happened.

Has things slowed down post-lockdown? Simply put, no.

Why is that? Because I’ve been blessed by the demand of my time for my other projects. In hindsight, I would not have had time to spend the hours and effort that my projects needed and deserved whilst working at the Gateau House. So in that way I’ve been blessed to have things to do that I had suppress and ignored prior. There is also an innate rejection towards boredom and the idea of halting. Halting because of this virus and what it means for not only our nation, but the world. During this time, I think deep down, I believe I owe it to others and the world to keep living. Living in terms of waking up and continuing to create, to work hard, to do something with my skills and the life that He has given me. Because someone out there needs that too.

Although some may think our life has been taken away from us because of this isolation, I think it has done quite the opposite. I was living before, but I also think I’m living right now, maybe even more so. It’s all about mindset - what we choose to do and who we choose to interact with. I’ve come to realise that covid-19 has forced us to live a life different than before because we have to be more intentional. More intentional because home-life can be distracting, boring, bleak and routine. But intentionality is called to be activated more than ever. We have more control over our own life. That’s a human right. Control over how we think, act and live is the only thing we have now, our only advantage over corona.

So today I put on my “work” pants and a decent top I wouldn’t mind being seen in at a dinner party, and sat down to write my daily to-do list and reflection as part of my morning “quarantine routine”. As the sun streamed in through the blinds and illuminated my blue written thoughts in my journal, I wasn’t thinking about the vitamin D I was getting or the maintenance of my iso tan. I thought about this crazy, but also very simple idea…a blog. I wrote that exact thought down followed by my immediate response to message Paulz about writing daily personal essays. To keep a long story short, stars aligned and Pauz too had the same idea. And here we are right now, a few hours after our epiphanies, the start of something extremely exciting and hopeful. A chance to live life, properly, and share our experiences with one another amidst such a time in world history. A chance to slow down, collect our thoughts and questions. A chance to encourage and a chance to pay some hope forward.

Because who doesn’t need a little bit of hope right now?

Let’s start again. Together.

- a

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theseadagiodays · 4 years

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March 24, 2020

Adagio - an exquisitely slow musical tempo.

IE. Barber, Adagio; Albinoni, Adagio; Mozart, Clarinet Concerto in A - 2ndmovement; Rodrigo, Concierto de Aranjuez - 2ndmovement; Beethoven, Pathetique Sonata - 2ndmovement.

As we adjust to different rhythms of being, and to this socially distant space that we now occupy, art seems to be a vital thread that continues to tether people to one another, through meaning-making and story. Countless times, in these past days, I have been moved by instances of art bringing joy and solace as we navigate this unfamiliar territory together. So, I want to use this space to share music, poetry, dance and more, offered virtually by artists all over the world in an effort to connect and soothe us through this experience.

I recognize that many of us, at this moment, are currently facing real loss, challenge and fear. But I also believe this can be a time for great healing if we let it. Our busy lives have been yearning for slowness. A new rhythm that can bring the fresh perspective that only space can provide. A tempo perhaps best reflected by the exquisitely slow pace of an Adagio.

Since being dramatically forced to alter my own rhythms, six years ago, when a chronic injury caused me to surrender my lifelong flute performance career, I began a relentless pursuit to find another expressive voice. Subsequently, creative writing eventually enabled me to transform my pain into art. And consequently, my now completed novel, What Lies Between, was born.

Here, I explore the “what ifs”of a character with a similar experience to mine, but who lacks some of the resiliencies that allowed me to eventually thrive again. The cellist protagonist Adele suffers a neurological disease that, too, makes her unable to play any longer, and her razor-sharp mind becomes fractured. Subsequently, she develops early-onset memory-loss and finds herself in a care home at just 67. However, when Curtis, a charming but wounded child prodigy, comes to play for her weekly, his intuitive gift causes her memories to flood back in startling waves, while her deep listening helps him deal with school bullies, and gives him keys to unlock his mother’s deep sorrows.

Only recently have I finally mustered the courage to begin seeking publication for this work. And early responses have been surprisingly encouraging. This is why I finally feel brave enough to share even the briefest passage publicly. Before now, not even my husband has read a word. However, I now feel that Adele’s story is more resonant than ever, with all of us relating to the experience of having to live without certain passions, and of being confined to a limited space. So, here is the excerpt I’d like to share.

Adagios soar with sadness. Samuel Barber knew this when he set the middle movement of his String Quartet to this most melancholy of tempos. Humans yearn for melancholy, for recollected heartbreak. But sometimes the edges of what has been lost are fuzzy. A reminiscence of something essential that is missing yet not precisely identifiable. A state so profoundly understood by the Portugese they created a word for it. Saudade.

There had been more than a year, before she gave up listening to music altogether, when she could bear no other music but Barber’s Adagio. Its soulful longing, its unhurried, aspirant rising tones. Anything else seemed too cognitively dissonant with her very being.

On her darkest days, there is a way in which Sudbury Willows serves her, an environment so closed and tuneless its power is too innocuous to invoke her pain. But the boy has reminded her she is now stuck in a suspension of a different nature. Since he left, Adele has laid her head to rest each night and wished for soothing Adagio dreams. But somehow, every morning, she still wakes to the Largo monotony of her new reality.

And now I will leave you with a musical postcard recorded by Yo-yo Ma, just last week, (#songsofcomfort), and a poem that, for me, captures the essence of this unique time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrBOkHfvNSY

My life is not this steeply sloping hour, in which you see me hurrying. Much stands behind me; I stand before it like a tree; I am only one of my many mouths, and at that, the one that will be still the soonest. I am the rest between two notes, which are somehow always in discord because (Fate’s) note wants to climb over— but in the dark interval, reconciled, they stay there trembling. And the song goes on, beautiful.

- Rainer Maria Rilke, Selected Poetry

March 25, 2020

Today I collaborated on an art project with a friend in Colombia.

Last night I read bedtime stories to my friend’s children (virtually).

Sunday I watched a duck catch a wave, and an ant move dirt for what felt like hours.

Saturday night we enjoyed the BC Ballet’s Romeo & Juliet, with a friend on FaceTime, complete with prosecco and ballgowns.

Friday I led 1000+ professionals through a guided mediation online.

So many opportunities to connect in new ways...

How might we fill this space?

Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Victor Frankl wrote, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

So, do you wanna dance? DNice has been spinning tunes for hours-long virtual dance parties. Even Michelle Obama and Bernie Sanders have joined in. Stay posted on his Instagram page for future LIVE parties: https://www.instagram.com/dnice/

March 26, 2020

When I started this blog, I originally marked each date with a count of our days in self-isolation. However, I’ve since deleted those markers, inspired by my childhood friend Nancy’s daughter, Maya, who sent me this wise reminder this morning.

As I attempt to infuse these adagio days with similar small moments of inspiration for those willing to follow this page, I do not want to discount the very real struggles that so many people face at this time. I realize that I tend towards a need to uplift in difficult times. (Perhaps I cannot help myself as the daughter of a former high school cheerleading and football captain). But in doing so, I also never mean to seem tone deaf to genuine pain. And I want to acknowledge that I also experience daily lows as I navigate our current reality. However, I have become aware of how useful these injections of positivity can be for me (whether from a friend’s text, Facebook post, or phone call). So, I am hopeful the same is true for you.

I am continually struck by humans’ need for connection. And in my musical community, there have been so many beautiful efforts (if not also technologically sophisticated) to do this. Janna Sailor is a Vancouver conductor with whom I’ve had the pleasure to collaborate. In a nimble move, during only our first week of physical distancing, she managed to lead a group of Calgary Philharmonic and Edmonton Symphony musicians to collectively record this touching Zoom performance of Elgar’s Nimrod Variation #9.

https://www.facebook.com/donovan.seidle/videos/10103852773248345/UzpfSTUwMzA0NjgyMTozMDYwNjExMjk0OTk0MTQ6MTA6MDoxNTg1NzI0Mzk5OjY4Mjc2MTYxNjAwNTMyMzQwODU/

I must add, though, that not all efforts to foster remote musical collaborations have gone so elegantly. And, because I could not possibly say it better, I’ll leave it to New York Times reviewer, Jon Caramanica, to best describe what went so terribly wrong when several celebrities tried to record their version of John Lennon’s Imagine, last week.

“In this clusterclump of hyperfamous people with five seconds’ too much time on their hands, “Imagine” may have met its match. By the end, it has been pummeled and stabbed, disaggregated, stripped for parts and left for trash collection by the side of the highway. It is proof that even if no one meets up in person, horribleness can spread.”

For a good laugh, and at the risk of sounding like a classical music snob, here’s their eternally key-changing version of the song. I dare you to sing along!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQK32bwvRuI

March 27, 2020

Apparently, when people have more time on their hands, a preponderance of puns emerge. I have come across no shortage of quarantine-related word play, these days. And here are just a few that have cropped up in my community.

For those looking to meld their voices with others, tune in every Sunday, at 3 pm EST, for Choir Choir Toronto’s new virtual Sing-a-Long: Choirintine: https://www.facebook.com/events/2798475520243342/

But, if you’re more of a sit back and listen kind of person, Vancouver’s Locals Lounge will be hosting regular live-streamed concerts through their new series, Quarantunes: https://sidedooraccess.com/shows/TgDGz6rA6SKtjj4dbE86?fbclid=IwAR1Fih0oYqsOrhR-AlCygFBX6FBeIX3XXXiYxpxwzJzxnjJGP0-UI0C7Z-s

And finally, if all this screen time has you as exhausted like most of us, it’s probably time to turn off all your devices and help yourself to a good, stiff Quarantini, using any of one these new recipes: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/drinks/g31900654/quarantini-cocktail-recipes/

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