The Marshmallow Ranch Gazette

Volume 5, Issue 11 - Wednesday, April 1st, 2020

Howdy, patrons!

It turns out, unsurprisingly, that I may have misjudged my emotional resilience against this kind of change. As an introvert I thought it would be relatively easy to adopt a shelter-in-place policy for a month or two. I could finally catch up on my reading! I could break down those outlines I had been planning since the beginning of the year! I could finally declutter my burrow and give this whole minimalism thing a try! But it turns out after a whole day of sitting at my dining room table for eight hours answering tickets, the only thing I really have energy for is...anything that allows me not to think about other people for a little while. 

The day job has gotten interesting over the last few weeks, besides. My company is offering a promotion driving a LOT of traffic to Customer Support right now, and changing the way a fundamental part of our product works at the same time. On top of that, a lot of our customers are asking for extensions to their subscriptions due to the lifestyle changes brought about by COVID-19. It's strange to me that folks don't ask for a refund if they don't watch Netflix for a month, but if they can't take an online course they expect their money back. I mean, our service is a lot more expensive than a month of Netflix, so I get it -- but you also wouldn't expect a university to refund your tuition if you had to drop out mid-semester, right?

I really do care about my customers, even when it sounds like I don't! But after eight hours of being told you're horrible because you can't help bankrupt your company tempers that with a healthy bit of snark.

Honestly, I still feel really lucky to have the job I do, and to work with the people I do. I know there are a lot of others who are unable to work from home, who risk their health providing the rest of us with groceries, take-out, medical care, and essential services. There are so many others who face uncertain employment, and others still who've lost their jobs due to the quarantine. It's really brutal out there, and I really want to count my blessings here.

That being said, I also understand what a strange and difficult time this is. I've read a few articles that say we're all basically sharing a collective trauma, and one of the reasons we're so frustratingly low-energy is that we're "playing dead". Since we can't flee the pandemic or fight it to death, the only thing we can do is go as still as possible and hope whatever this is passes on without noticing us. 

But it's more than that, isn't it? There's an ever-present stress weighing us down, and there's no telling when we'll get some relief. We have no idea how bad this pandemic will get, how long it will last, and functionally no central leadership to guide us through this crisis. We're on our own, and we're doing the best we can. 

I'm trying to keep that in mind as I move through the days and weeks. At the very least we'll be sheltering in place until the end of April, so I can expect this way of life to continue for another month. I'm starting to get used to the strangeness of it all, and putting a routine in place, so I'm hoping I can get back on the ball with writing. We could all use a little escapism right now, don't you think?

Episode 8 of "Crushing The Competition" will be posted by Friday, and I'm hoping to have a new episode every week in April. Older episodes will go up on SoFurry three weeks after premiering here; they'll hit FurAffinity six weeks after premiering here. My stretch goal for the month is to have stories up for the "gourmet" patrons out there, as a heartfelt thank you for all this support. 

That's if for this week, friends. I hope you're safe and healthy and as happy as possible under the circumstances. How are all of you coping with this?

-Jakebe