Apparently that surgeon is one of the best in several counties. What a stroke of luck!

Now THERE is a pun. My best wishes for your friend and his recovery. It can be a rough road and it's wonderful news that it is starting off so well.

My brother is finally getting medicated in jail! I hope the lack of access to meth and the medication will help.

I'll take heartbreaking statements for 800, Alex... You and your family have very much been in my thoughts. This is simply mindbending. It makes me think of Marvin Gaye and then I feel grateful that everyone survived. Hopefully the public attention has been dying down and you can all heal with some privacy.

In this corner of the world, television and film productions shut down one by one and now they all appear to have stopped. The law firm has a project I can work on at home if I get quarantined or our building gets shut down and, for now, I'm going into the office for my three days a week. I'm skipping morning rush hour (not that there is much of one anyway) and quiet midtown is a very spooky thing. Mom will be flying home on Sunday and it's not great, but it appears to be our best option.

At my house three are working from home and two of us are still going into empty offices on empty Metro North trains. Two of us have asthma and it's kicking in so we spend a lot of time saying "It's just asthma!" whenever we cough in public. One of my roommates picked up Scott tissue ("There was nothing else?" "It was cheaper!") and is being abused savagely for it.

askye and sj - can you both go color something?

I got more emails about Covid-19 at work yesterday than I did about my actual work. I have my laptop and can work from home. Again, still no cases here, but everything is shutting down. All the universities in town except for the art school are going to remote learning. A concert I was supposed to go to Thursday has been postponed.

I've managed to avoid most of the craziness at the grocery store. It turns out I might be a pasta hoarder? I have 7 or 8 different types in my cupboard. And I don't even eat that much pasta! The large farmer's market closed, but the one I go to was opened this morning, so hit there before 8 AM to get some potatoes and bacon.

I'm not sure where my coloring supplies are currently hiding. I really just need a quiet room for a bit, but I have to wait for TCG to get back.

We have spring break next week, and the position of the schools seems to be "we're not shutting down till there's a confirmed student or parent case." Which seems semi-reasonable until you realize they aren't forking testing anyone. It's amazing how many confirmed cases there aren't when you've only tested 30 people in the whole state.

I'm hoping someone gets their head out of their ass over the break.

My department head is totally freaking out, and keeps sending out emails about how we're now all soldiers in a war against an invisible enemy.

TCG said even the local bakery was picked over and packed with people. Not much bread left and no individual pizzas, which they always have a ton of.

One of my roommates picked up Scott tissue ("There was nothing else?" "It was cheaper!") and is being abused savagely for it.

He deserves abuse! That stuff is nasty.

I'm working and catching up on The Magicians. Then my sister texted and made me watch the news conference with Ben Carson coughing into his hand then holding on to the side of the podium that the rest of them are touching. With these idiots in charge we surely are doomed.

Seriously, just taking it a day at a time. Worrying doesn't help me so I don't bother. There seem to be a normal amount of kids going to and from the park across the street. People walking their dogs and such. I'll continue to limit the crazy making news and try and focus on my list of stuff I should be doing.

I am at work. It was slow so I checked my phone and got a series of Skype messages. I have been spending a lot of time in Second Life (which I highly recommend) sitting on the virtual beach and then also watching Harry Styles be adorable because it's very calming.

Matthew's mom has schizo affective disorder so this right now is not a good time. Plus she is super impulsive and wants things done now. And they don't have the best relationship so things tend to get tense just because.

I told Matthew we are all going to sit down and finally divide responsibilities up and also bills a bit more formally and then he and I are going to sit down and talk about budgets and steps to move out

And to make things more stressful for myself I am going to make it clear that these are steps we have to take if we want to keep our relationship. Because I am not doing this forever and I'm also not going to be with someone who just takes the path of least resistance and is miserable all the time because it's easier to play video games.

I know I've done that but I grew out of it. I also think Matthew needs therapy to work through some of this with his mom and help with his stress tolerance levels but I don't think during a pandemic is the best time to look for a therapist. But that is going on the Changes that Have to Be Made list.

Cash, these is great news!

And in good news of my own: I just sent the final version of my research proposal. I am gonna science! On a topic I care about! And my faculty (people outside of my head who are not my friends!) supports this!