JessicaRulestheUniverse.com

Personal blog of Jessica Zafra, author of The Collected Stories and the Twisted series
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Archive for April, 2020

Journal of a Lockdown, 6 April 2020

April 07, 2020 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, Journal of a Lockdown 2 Comments →


Motel by Edward Hopper at the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. She knows how you feel.

I was almost out of milk and butter (I am basic and still consume dairy) so I stepped out of the building and went to the 7-11. First time in 13 days that I ventured farther than the parking space. Later I realized that I’d forgotten to bring my quarantine pass; lucky no one asked to see my papers. (Spy cosplay will keep us from despair.)
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Journal of a Lockdown, 5 April 2020

April 06, 2020 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, Journal of a Lockdown 2 Comments →


Adam Sandler! “Doctors and nurses will save us from this mess if we get them the supplies that they need / And I hope they save us soon cause I’m really, really sick of my family.”

It’s positively indecent when people are climbing the walls, but I am in a good mood. Of course I worry about Apocalypse, which now comes in four flavors (with more in product development)—Pestilence, Starvation, Recession, and Unrest—but I can escape into a bubble of cheerfulness by practicing my Olympic-level talent in sleeping, or by reading a book.
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Journal of a Lockdown, 4 April 2020

April 05, 2020 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, Journal of a Lockdown No Comments →


Jan van Grevenbroeck (1731-1807), Venetian doctor during the plague. Museo Correr, Venice

Things I found in my old and underused refrigerator while searching for something dessert-ish

1. Stalactites in the freezer

2. Rose-flavored Turkish delight from 2017. That’s definitely a dessert but I’m not sure it’s still edible and will only open the box if we’re 20 pages into the Book of Revelations.
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Journal of a Lockdown, 3 April 2020

April 04, 2020 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, Journal of a Lockdown No Comments →

The stray cats are in heat, their cries slicing the quiet of the neighborhood like scissors through tin foil. They’re at it in the middle of the night, and sometimes at mid-afternoon. My feline companions, all neutered, run to the windows for a glimpse of cat porn. If crime is down 56% as the police declare, will the population growth rate also show a decline in nine months? Or with everyone trapped at home, will there in fact be a population boom?
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Journal of a Lockdown, 2 April 2020

April 03, 2020 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, Journal of a Lockdown No Comments →

Ten-minute sunbath at noon cancelled as the UV Index is cranked up to 11 and I don’t want to inadvertently acquire superpowers (Advertently, yes). Oh great, now a theme from those primitive Marvel cartoons of my childhood is playing in my head:

Doc-tor Banner
Affected by gamma rays
Turns into The Hulk
Pretty and glamorous!

At least that’s what I thought the lyrics said, and I assumed it was irony. I just googled the actual lyrics and they turn out to be:
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Journal of a Lockdown, 1 April 2020

April 02, 2020 By: jessicazafra Category: Current Events, Journal of a Lockdown 6 Comments →

Although I have enough unread books to withstand a siege, I find that I cannot read contemporary fiction these days and must escape to the distant past. Way distant, like 1,000 years ago. I’ve been reading books and listening to online lectures and podcasts on ancient and medieval history. Maybe seeking comfort in the knowledge that if humans could survive their ignorance a millennium ago, we can survive our arrogant ignorance (arrgnorance?) now.
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