This has been the strangest week of my life, as I’m sure it has been for all of you. When it started, I never, ever would’ve guessed that this is how it would’ve ended—quarantined at home, with a far away, tentative end in sight. I like to write a little bit every day of the week, but when I post on my blog I don’t share every single passage, because that can get kind of long. This week I thought I’d make an exception, because I thought most of you would be able to relate to the way the week seemed to implode on itself, and enjoy the humor in how mine imploded on me.

Also, in case you stop reading before Friday’s passage (I don’t blame you), I wanted to take a second to tell you that the Center for Disaster Philanthropy has a COVID-19 Relief Fund to help support healthcare workers, quarantined and especially vulnerable peoples, and hygiene promotion activities. You can learn more about it here, and if you would like to, you can donate to this relief fund here.

MONDAY  Yesterday I went to my very first fitness class, and despite how much it really kicked my butt, I loved it. I went with my friends Sierra, Joe, Cristina, and Jenna. Originally we were looking for some inexpensive kick boxing classes but with our busy schedules we settled for a regular, Sunday morning class at a local gym. It was really tough, and a lot more cardio than I think I’m used to, but wow I really liked it. I feel like that’s the best way I could have possibly started my week.

Things have been BUSY lately. As I mentioned in my last post, I’ve been cast in this semester’s Blackbox musical at school. I don’t think I can publicaly discuss any specific things I’m working on, but the whole theme for the show is gender/genre flipping Broadway songs. Anything and everything is on the table— “Defying Gravity” as a jazz standard, “Giants in the Sky” with an ABBA, disco beat, or “Waving through a window” as a slow, sad ballad. (These are just some examples.)

I have rehearsal’s until 11 o’clock at night Tuesday’s and Fridays, and then all day rehearsal’s on Saturday’s. So, things are getting a little tight.

On top of blackbox, my friends Jenna, Sierra, and I are pitching our movie trailer “Skip Day” (which I uploaded to the videos page on this site!) to be made into a full, 15-minute video short through a school production called Project 15. We have an introductory interview to discuss our pitch with the them this week Thursday, but it’ll be awhile before we are fully accepted— I promise I’ll share updates. I anticipate things getting quite a lot busier, as I had to send in my full ‘availability schedule’ to the faculty in charge of the project.

I got an email that made me giggle today. In response to the coronavirus, my school put a new ‘physical interaction policy’ on students and staff— we can’t physically interact with each other. No hand to hand stage combat, no partner dancing, no kissing or touching in scenes for class or shows, nothing. To be clear—I completely understand why they had to implement this policy, I know this virus is getting pretty serious. I still had to laugh, though.

“I can’t believe I live in a world where I get emails from school saying I can’t touch people. ”

TUESDAY I feel like I dedicated all of my time today to genre flipping. Besides finding exciting ways to genre-flip popular Broadway songs for blackbox, I also have to genre-flip regular, not-Broadway songs for my musical theatre ‘Singing Styles’ class.

Today I sang “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac in the style of the jazz song “It Don’t Mean a Thing”. Normally in this class, when someone pitches their song, all the students gives their honest feedback-- what they liked, what they’d like to see more of, what could be improved upon, etc. After I sang my piece, I was given very sweet compliments by my peers about the quality of my voice in the song, and the very valuable note that I didn’t really ‘connect’ with it. So I was told to sing it again, but this time like I was the opening act at a small jazz club on half-priced margarita night— connect with the audience, and connect with the song.

So I did just that. I did the number one thing that makes me uncomfortable, and I looked people in the eyes. Lol. I grabbed the mic at the chorus “Thunder only happens when it’s raining”, and I walked around the room serenading my peers. I think I was making funny comments like “She gets it, you get it.” In between phrases but I can’t really remember because creative instincts completely took over. What I do remember was having a lot of fun. It’s so cool how much you can learn about yourself as a performer when you push yourself so much as an inch beyond what you feel is comfortable or expected of you. I’m going to remember this day, remember just how good it feels to try something new and have fun.

Also, at the start of this class, someone from administration came in to address “rumors” that the school would be closing or would be cancelled. I think people started talking about this because a couple of the schools in the area are closing their doors for a few weeks. He said that my school has doubled up on janitorial staff and cleaning supplies in order to keep the school as clean as possible throughout this pandemic. I personally have seen people walking around with disinfectant sprays all day long wiping down door handles and elevator buttons, so it makes me feel better knowing that the school is combating bacteria as much as possible. He also said that if the school has to close, which it won’t, that they’re looking into alternative measures for learning like online classes so we don’t have to fall behind, but all in all, they really don’t anticipate having to cancel school.

WEDNESDAY So, school is cancelled. It hasn’t even been 24 hours since I was told that this wasn’t going to happen! Another person from the education department came into my 10:30 stage combat class this morning and informed us that they will be canceling all classes and rehearsal’s starting Sunday, March 15th. Next Monday through Friday will be ‘spring break’, which is something my school has never had before, and then the following two weeks they’ll be implementing online classes.

As a theatre major, I have absolutely no idea how they’re going to put classes like ballet or stage combat online, but I will just have to see. When the person from administration was gathering questions from the students in my class, I pitched him the idea that we should simply double up on Gen-Ed course work during this two week online period, seeing as how those classes will be much easier to do online. Then we can spend our first week back catching up on all of our performance immersion classes, because those ones are best taught in person.

A lot of friends I spoke to seemed on board with the idea, and personally, I hope that’s what happens. I chose to go to the school I did for their exceptional and intense performance training. Although two weeks is a small period of time, I simply don’t want a B-grade learning experience, for any amount of time.

“On the other hand, I’m glad that my school is taking this outbreak so seriously.”

The school has a pretty strict attendance policy (in order to reflect and prepare us for industry standards), so it comes as a shock to me that things are actually getting cancelled, because it shows me just how serious this all is. I’m grateful that the school is showing concern for students, and doing what they can to keep us healthy by canceling classes and urging us to go home.

Seeing as I have rehearsal and classes through Saturday, I don’t think I’ll fly home until Sunday. Which reminds me, I need to call my mom and book a plane ticket.

THURSDAY I’ve had two classes so far today, and all anyone has talked about in any of them is COVID-19. A lot of my teachers aren’t 100% sure what they’re going to do for the two weeks of online courses. School closing is obviously a surprise to all of us, and something I don’t feel we were ‘ready’ for.

How could anyone be ready for anything that’s happening right now? I feel like the coronavirus went from something I was acutely aware of, to a slow-motion bomb I just watched blow up my everyday life along with everyone else, I’m sure. (Not to be too dramatic about it.)

My mom was pretty concerned about how WHO officially declaring COVID-19 as a pandemic might affect my ability to get home, so she called me and asked if I’d be alright coming home Saturday instead of Sunday. I told her I’d be fine with that, and she rebooked me, so I told my stage manager I’m missing Saturday’s rehearsal.

As far as I know, I’ll be writing a paper for psychology, and in creative writing I’ll be reading my textbook and answering questions given to me by the teacher. I don’t know what I’ll be doing for any other class, for the blackbox musical, or for Project 15. My ’Skip Day’ group and I still have our interview with the Project 15 leaders today, so I guess we’ll have to see what’s going to happen with that. Luckily, I still have two days here to get things squared away with all of my teachers.

2:30pm Never mind. I’m in my last class of the day, and I just got an email that effective tomorrow, school is cancelled, so I guess I don’t have rehearsals after all! I need to call my mom again, I want to re-re-book my flight for tomorrow.

7:30pm I just finished sanitizing all the countertops, handles, light switches, the stove, the microwave, the Keurig and the sink— twice. I also cleaned out my electric broom and I’m going to sweep up the floor as soon as it’s done charging. I also washed all my clothes before I packed them in my suitcase, because if God forbid I have anything on them, I don’t want it to travel all the way home with me. As of now, I still have my Project 15 interview tonight for the ‘Skip Day’ project. It’s so funny to think about what life was like three days ago when this interview was scheduled—I never, ever would have guessed that this would be the last thing I do on campus for the next three weeks. Life is crazy, man.

FRIDAY 7:30am. I’m safe and sound, and on my flight home. I’m sitting next to a very kind man who’s going to his cabin in Brainard. I think he chuckled a little when he saw me wiping down my tray table with the Clorox wipes from home that I had shoved in a plastic bag. Oh well.

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7:30pm. My mom and I went to Target and Byerly’s and filled our cart with food. We weren’t “stalking up for the apocalypse” like I’m sure some people must’ve thought, we were stalking up for my mom’s three, probably malnourished, college kids who were now coming home all at once. It was a little freaky to see how bare all the shelves were in Target. There was hardly any dried or frozen goods, no eggs, very little milk, and absolutely no hand sanitizer. We didn’t even bother looking for toilet paper.

Personally, I don’t like to worry about things that are out of my control. This pandemic is really freaky, but I’m doing everything I can to keep healthy, and I donated to the Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Relief fund here in order to help the people who are ultimately helping all of us.

I hate that there is a pandemic going on that’s so serious I had to leave school, but my fear and anxiety over it won’t make it go away, it’ll only make me feel worse. As an empath, I can’t spend much time online anymore because I’ll start internalizing everyones panic. It was for this exact reason that I posted on Facebook yesterday asking people to talk about good, positive things in the comments, so we could all give ourselves a small break.

Originally, I wanted to get up north and go back to work, but I’m beginning to seriously doubt my mom will let me out of the house anymore—not that I blame her. So, I’ve decided to make the most out of my newfound quarantine. I brought home my Rachel Hollis cookbook and my mom and I bookmarked new recipes we’re going to try (Crispy Brussels Sprouts here I come). Mom and I also picked up fun face mask’s, aromatherapy spray, and a couple bottles of rosé so that she, my sister, and I can have a “self-care” day. I feel inspired to make a list of things to do under quarantine.

SATURDAY I’m staying offline and staying inside, focusing on things that fuel my creativity and make me feel happy. I tried to buy the domain name coffeewithken.com but it was already taken. Since I have nothing better to do, I literally changed the name of my site from ‘Coffee with Ken’ to ‘Koffee with Ken’, because koffeewithken.com is available and for $20 a year it’s now mine. I also changed up the whole template of this site (again), so comment down below if you like the new changes.

I’ve also been killing time working on my French through Duolingo, and I mean I have been really killing the game. Je parle français très bien, baby. I might go color in a Paris-themed coloring book now, who even knows. I refuse to not make the most of the one thing all Gen-Z introverts have wanted more than anything else: mandatory alone-time at home.

Reading back on my week, it’s become apparent to me that unfortunately, a lot can change in seven days. The good news is: a lot can change in seven days.

Thank you for reading, friends. Wash your hands, eat healthy foods, get plenty of sleep, practice good hygiene and social-distancing until we all get through this.

Until the next cup of koffee,

-Ken.