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I finished the miniature kit I bought at the start of lockdown, which was kind of bittersweet because I was so sure that by the time I’d assembled everything life would be back to normal. It almost seemed like a sort of talisman, you know? As nice as it was to finally clear the kitchen table from its permanent clutter of papers and plastic pieces and spilled glue it also felt a bit like a defeat.

I was also somewhat defeated by the project itself in that none of it looked exactly like the pristine example and somewhere along the line I managed to lose a piece or two so it’s not completely done to spec and also there was this one cactus plant that was just so impossibly hard I gave up on it, but overall I persevered through many squinty hours of painstaking work and that’s something, I suppose.

It IS cute, isn’t it? (PLEASE TELL ME IT’S CUTE.) There were many staggeringly difficult phases but I think the worst was hand-wiring the wee little lamp which required a level of hand-eye coordination I honestly didn’t think I was capable of.

If you are intrigued by this and want to give it a try, or perhaps gift it to some unwitting victim, I will tell you that it was, for me, pretty much equally frustrating and rewarding. I did enjoy having something engrossing to do that that lasted for actual weeks, but it was also maddening to be unable to create the “perfect” outcome over and over. So if you want something like a zen koan that teaches you the art of acceptance while also triggering eyestrain and moments of pure rage, this may be the ideal project for you!

Here are some Amazon links to what I purchased, if you’re interested:

• The kit itself, which technically comes with everything you need
Glue with a more precise applicator tip than what is included
• A very precise pair of scissors because your dull kitchen shears definitely won’t do. (You’ll also need an exacto blade for a couple things)
• A paper scoring tool because folding some of the items is INSANE
• A pair of magnifying goggles that also LIGHT UP which was great for my middle-aged eyesight (a magnifying glass on a holder would work just fine too)

Now that I’m done with it and the world did not magically CTRL-ALT-DEL itself back to pre-February mode, I guess it would be nice to have another hand-busying project to do, particularly since my default hobby is ferrying an endless assortment of empty carbohydrates into my face-hole.

Do you tinker or make things? What activities are you finding soothing or distracting right now?

I have decided I am over hearing this won’t last forever even though I myself have written that phrase in this very blog many times over the last weeks. At first it really somehow felt like we were all going to briefly do a collective thing (gooo team!) and then with the flip of a switch (quarantine set to OFF) everything’s magically back to normal, but that was obviously unrealistic and it sure doesn’t feel that way now. Now it feels more like we’re in some kind of endless free fall and yes, this exact state obviously can’t last forever, but we’ve lost too much ground. The path back to “normal” is going to be uncertain and arduous and normal isn’t going to look like it used to, maybe not for a long time, maybe never.

Maybe that’s going to be a good thing, in some ways. But in others, surely not. At any rate, I’m no longer cheered by being reminded this is temporary, because it’s hard not to worry that whatever is next will be worse.

ANYWAY. If you have not yet reached the Rice Krispy treat stage of pandemic coping, I recommend getting yourself some supplies on your next contagion-braving grocery run, and then upping your treat game by leaving the mixed-up goo sort of loosely glopped together in the pan to set rather than pressing it down. Instead of dense square bars you get these airy delightful pieces that can be more easily pulled apart, and if you had the forethought to add some M&Ms in there, all the better.

I also recommend adopting the sport of competitive bear spotting, if wherever you live is doing the thing where people put stuffed bears in windows for children to find. You take your kid, you both get on bikes, then you risk death by craning your head around to look for bears while going full speed and forgetting to watch for traffic. It is perhaps not the safest pastime, but it is great fun and when you get home there are, ideally, Rice Krispy treats to be relished.

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