Twenty Something in Quarantine

A little over a month ago, I tried to paint a picture of what life is like in Orlando for theme park and hospitality employees right now. Now that I’ve officially joined the ranks of the furloughed, I thought I’d share what’s going on with us. 

Today was supposed to be another wedding series entry, but my brain has been too all over the place to finish it. Jay keeps saying, “It’s weird we’re not married on your blog yet.” 

“Hey, at least I’ve got content to post.” 

We’ve been home from our wedding and honeymoon for a little over two months now. We’ve barely left the house since then. I went to work for two days before the shutdown started, Jay never went back at all. Since then, we’ve gone to the grocery store exactly twice, and on a few fast food runs for curbside pickup. Other than that, we haven’t left the house. My husband falls under the high-risk category, and I’ve gone to using Instacart for basically everything, (if you use my link to sign up you get $10 and I get $10) and Jay’s friend Brian volunteered to bring us supplies. I also made an emergency call to our friend Scott when we ran out of dog food because our husky can only eat one specific brand and one specific flavor of that brand, and quite frankly I didn’t trust Instacart to get it right. (Back in January, Jay and I both got sick at the same time so I used Instacart to get us supplies. I ordered two pounds of Publix chicken tenders, and they brought me TWO individual chicken tenders. I really wish I was making this up.) 

We did venture out last Tuesday to Epic Theaters in Clermont, where they were running a drive-in theater on the side of the building. We saw Jurassic Park. While it was a blast, it’s not an experience I see us spending money on again anytime soon. 

I dropped off Facebook about three weeks ago, and I’ve been really bad about responding to text messages. It’s not on purpose.  

I’ve also discovered that I hate video conference calls almost more than I hate phone calls, and let me tell you, that is saying something. 

My friend Haden was supposed to be here this last weekend. He’s one of my best friends from college, and a member of what I affectionately call the “Merry Band of Misfits”. He’s never gotten to come visit me, and the only time he’s been to Disney was when he was studying abroad in Shanghai. I found out he wasn’t planning on going to Shanghai Disneyland while he was out there and I threw a fit until I talked him into going. 

HE DIDN’T RIDE ANYTHING! HE WALKED AROUND AND TOOK PICTURES FOR ME THE WHOLE DAY! He was in line for something and got out to go see the parade a second time because he wanted better pictures of Duffy for me. To this day, I don’t know if this is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard or the dumbest. 

I’m really bummed he had to cancel his trip. I’m hoping I can get him to reschedule for early December, but he also just relocated to another state for a new job, so who knows.  

So, what are we doing with all of our down time? 

I wish I could say I was being super productive. I wish I could say I was writing a bunch. Under normal circumstances, I do most of my writing either not at home or when Jay isn’t home because he’s too distracting. I wish I could say the house was clean, or that we were using this time to get projects done around the house. A couple have been started, but they’re not anywhere near done except completely blacking out our bedroom windows. Most people want to add natural light to their house, Jay and I are doing everything we can to kill it. I also finally got around to putting up a vinyl quote from Frozen II on the walls in the office, but I feel like that’s too small to really call a project. 

I’ve finished editing most of our wedding photos, and as much of the wedding video as I could do until we can get together with our friends to film the intro. Yay accomplishments! 

Early into the quarantine, I ordered two childhood PC video games off Amazon: Barbie Pet Rescue and Barbie Riding Club. Trying to get games from 1995 and 1998 to run on our computers was no easy feat, thank goodness Jay still has his laptop running on Windows 7, and I had such a good time with them. Sadly, neither one has a ton of content and it didn’t take me long to finish them. 

I’m really not a gamer person normally. I’ve played Zoo Tycoon for years, but that’s about it. Jay’s been trying to get me to play World of Warcraft for the better part of four years now. The one time he got me to try it, I made it to level seven, my character got turned into a frog, I had a panic attack, and I quit. 

(I have a horrific fear of frogs, which is a story I will share at some point if I haven’t already, but not today.) 

However, this led to me searching the internet for another horse game I could play, since I beat Barbie Riding Club in less than three hours.  

Yes, I was absolutely one of those horse girls everyone makes fun of when I was younger, and I still love horses. One of my greatest simple pleasures in life is a show on Netflix called Spirit Riding Free. I also got Jay hooked on it, and we introduced a bunch of our friends to it in a Netflix Watch Party. It’s all that ten-year-old Chelsea wanted in life. 

Turns out it is still something twenty-eight-year-old Chelsea wants in life, and I found it in a game called Star Stable. 

So, you start it, and there’s some mystical stuff in the intro, but you don’t think about it too much. It’s just you and your horse, and it’s like Barbie Riding Club but ten times better. You start doing races and doing quests to help people and taking care of your horse. You can buy pets, and different gear, and more horses. Now you’re going on adventures and meeting new people, and unlocking new areas, and you think it’s just horses, riding, smiles, and happiness. 

Then somebody opens the Hellmouth. 

(Hellmouth is a term from Buffy the Vampire Slayer if you’re not familiar.) 

Now, you’re helping this super-secret organization trying to stop the forces of darkness. Everyone else is playing Animal Crossing, and I’m trying to help a talking squirrel prevent the end of the world. 

I have to admit, it’s a little frightening how much time I’ve logged on this game. I’ve had entire days where I’ve done nothing else. Once I maxed out my free trial, I bought a month’s subscription, and then about a week later their LIFETIME membership went on sale and I went ahead and bought that. 

Chelsea! You just got married! You should be spending time with your husband! 

He’s sitting right behind me on his computer playing WoW or Sea of Thieves, I promise you. He’s actually really mad my game has a lifetime option. He’s been paying for WoW monthly for almost fourteen years.  

My only regret is that I didn’t choose my character’s name more carefully because I had no idea how much I was going to love this. So, until they make it an option to change your name, I’m stuck as Phoenix Seastorm. (I like Phoenix, I just wish I’d picked something besides Seastorm.) Unlike World of Warcraft, you can’t just type what you want your name to be. You have to choose from preset options to keep it safe for kids. 

This is also the reason I don’t talk to anyone on this game and I’ve ignored every friend request I’ve gotten. I’m sure there are as many adults as there are kids on this game, but I don’t want to take any chances. I got Jay to play the free trial and start us a riding club, just so I could join it in order to get people to stop sending me riding club invitations. 

We’re the Sea Explorers Society, because it was the closest we could get to the S.E.A.: the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. 

If you’re wondering, Jay’s name is Jayla Junglebook, because of course it is.  

The only real problem I’ve had is this game is not meant to be played for so many hours a day. I’ve blown through so many of the side-quests that I really only have the main quest now until I can unlock some more stuff. 

I even bought the first novel off Amazon, and I blew through that in one sitting too. When I like something, I tend to go all in. Jay’s already aware that when we eventually go back to work, there will be days he’s going to have to log in for me to feed my horses because I won’t have time after my fourteen-hour shift. 

I currently have three horses, a bunny, and a spider. I won the spider after rescuing a bunch of other spiders from a freaking Spidernado, like Sharknado, but with spiders. 

Now, I have to pause because spellcheck didn’t mark Sharknado as a misspelling… 

This game has lots of pop culture references, and all sorts of interesting side quests and activities. In addition to all the horse stuff, you can do archaeology, you can go fishing, you help with construction, you help with gardening, and so much more.  

I honestly wish I had found this game sooner. Not only because of how much fun I’m having, but because from May 2017 to May 2019, you could adopt Spirit from Spirit Riding Free in the game. Guess what you can’t do now. I’m still pouting. 

I’m desperately hoping they might bring him back when the Spirit Riding Free movie comes out next year. 

Right now, all the new content they’re releasing in game is based on Western riding because they just released this new area called Starshine Ranch. Which is awesome for a lot of people, but I grew up riding Western so it’s less exciting for me. Oh well, that means there’s more exciting things to come around the corner! 

I keep wanting to start a Star Stable blog separate from Twenty Something, but Jay keeps begging me not to. “You’re allowed to just have fun. You don’t need to turn it into work.” 

Jay also got me to play Sea of Thieves with him for an afternoon, by bribing me with a cat. This is also how he got me to try World of Warcraft in the first place. 

We’ve been watching a whole lot of TV and movies. I did a complete rewatch of Psych and finally watched the Psych movie. We’ve almost finished Burn Notice, I originally gave up somewhere in season six when it was still airing. I blew through Constantine in a day on CW Seed. We watched the final season of Clone Wars, the sequel trilogy, and we’ve started the Mandalorian documentary. Neither of us can get into the Disney+ Prop Culture show, but I already love “It’s a Dog’s Life” after the first episode. 

We’ve also started a Marvel Cinematic Universe rewatch, where we watch one movie a night. I stopped watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season six halfway through last year, but I finished it so I’ll be ready when season seven comes out on May 27th. The 100 season seven is coming on May 20th, and I’m so excited, but I’m also terrified they’re going to kill off my favorite character because he’s the male lead and he’s not on the freaking poster. 

This article has turned way more into a stream of consciousness than I meant for it to, but for once I don’t have to force myself to stay on topic! 

We watch Einstein Simplified every Tuesday night. They’re an improv troupe in Knoxville that I go see every time I’m home, and they’re finally putting their shows online due to the quarantine. I have literally laughed so hard I cried at some of their shows and I cannot say enough good things about them. I highly recommend checking it out if you need a good laugh. 

I wish I had more LEGO sets so I could do another time lapse build like I did with the Cinderella Castle, but with a better angle this time. However, that’s not something I will be able to spend money on anytime soon. 

I alternate between thinking everything is going to be fine financially, and panicking, because I know we’re okay now, but I worry about the future. April and July are the two months of the year where I typically make the most money, and even if things reopen fully by July, I know things will be vastly different. 

I’ve probably rambled on long enough now, so I’m going to wrap this up with telling you guys I’m trying to work up the courage to go Live on Instagram. There’s a specific story from a day at Universal I want to share because it’s one of my favorite stories, but it’s not something that would make a good article. So, hopefully, that’s coming soon. 

Stay safe everybody.