Charmin Dreams

Well hello there, and welcome back to the Closet for another week of prompts! I hope you are all staying safe and hydrated and washing your hands and getting some quality time with yourself as everything shuts down around us. To be honest, I’m only familiar with the cancellations and closings in my state and surrounding states, though I generally assume that the same actions are being taken across the country as they are across the world.

Case in point, my state just closed all schools through the end of the month and shut down all restaurants and bars, only allowing those with take-out or delivery services to remain open with those options. Even the casinos are closing, which seems absolutely wild to me. My high school alma mater in the next state over is closed until mid-April. Grocers are shortening their hours. Everyone’s being asked to work from home if they can.

I keep hoping I can fall into that category of people working from home. Technically my company provided me a laptop for my work onsite, but our customer doesn’t like to give remote network access to outsourcing, nor does our company want us to have remote network access outside of our private offices. That has never bothered me but now it’s beginning to look like a necessity.

Unfortunately, the infrastructure is not really equipped to handle the influx in volume of remote users it would suddenly be subjected to. The network has always been extremely finicky on bad weather days solely due to the added stress from a spike in users remoting in. This would be that tenfold, probably more. Allegedly they’re working on it, but my little outsource laptop is gonna be bottom of the priority list.

As more cases are confirmed in my county, including suspected cases in one of our offices, I really wish I was being furloughed. It wouldn’t exactly be a vacation, but I could really use some time off. I have so many writing projects I want to explore. I want to get caught up on all the books I’ve been neglecting, and the new books I’ve bought despite having a TBR pile that could kill me in my sleep if it ever toppled over.

In times of heightened global anxiety such as this, I think creative outlets are needed more than ever. It’s ok to need a place to escape to. Fiction is one such place to turn. I won’t promise that each prompt I write will turn into a story, but I will do my best to provide some relief from the overall tensions we are all collectively experiencing. I will try to write fluffy pieces, soft and comforting like the toilet paper none of us can find.

Hopefully the prompts provide! Let’s see what I have this week.

385. If you were going to start a charity organization, what would be your cause? How would you get others to volunteer and raise awareness?
386. Do you feel watching TV is a waste of time or can it provide enrichment and relaxation that is beneficial to some degree?
387. What do you love most about Mother Nature? Describe her in a poem.

Oooh, three very different prompts. Another poem, huh? I hate poetry. But for Gaia? I can probably pull something out for her. If you missed it yesterday, I wrote up a handful of fun and light-hearted anecdotes about me as a toddler. Perhaps you could use some levity in this heavy time.

Since I am not yet furloughed and our customer has not yet shut down operations, I still have to work in the morning. Which means I must go to bed. Really, I should be sleeping more anyway, helping my immune system and all that. Ha! Sleep! I think I remember her.

Have a lovely evening/afternoon/day! Stay home if you feel unwell! Heck, even if you don’t, and your job is flexible enough to allow it, stay home anyway. There are enough asymptomatic people out there who could be carriers. Try not to stress too much! We’re all in this together and we’ll come through on the other side! Love to you and yours! Goodnight!

PS-Like these prompts? Like the short stories I write based on these prompts? Want to show your support? Give the blog a follow! Leave a comment! Buy me a coffee! I put a lot of time and effort into these posts and your support means the world to me! Ok, now go out there and write!