The Good, The Bad, and the New and Interesting...

As we end week seven of quarantine, everything still seems very surreal and apocalyptic. More so than usual actually. People walking around with masks on as it is the norm, which it is now, is just very hard to comprehend. Like how did we got here? A strong pathogen combined with poor leadership and lots of lies? Yes. But it didn’t have to be this way, which is the saddest part.

This week, days 43-49 of stay-at-home, from April 27-May 4, I wanted to write this post a little differently than usual. Instead of a day by day round up, which to be honest, was getting a little tedious and boring to write (as I am sure it may have been to read). So for this post, I am going to give a little breakdown of the good, the bad, and the interesting.

At least another month...

When I started writing these posts, I honestly didn't think I'd be doing so many of them. But here we are, six weeks later. People are starting to get restless and our President continues to be horrible at his job and have zero empathy for anyone. Cool. He’s the fucking worst. And so are many of his republican counterparts who are reopening their states despite how dangerous it is.  And don't get me started on those people who are protesting the stay-at-home orders. Do you really need a haircut and a massage that bad Karen? C'mon, think of the big picture. Also, even if places do re-open, any intelligent person wouldn't go and risk exposing themselves like that, no matter how bad they may want a manicure. But hey, we are talking about intelligent people, and that doesn't seem to be much of Trump's base of supporters.

I am once again glad that we have a strong leader in JB Pritzker and happy with how he has handled everything. Sure, I wish we could go back to school and wish restaurants and bars AND the lakefront were open, but this is what is necessary and will benefit everyone moving forward. Again, I realize I am privileged to have a job right now that is continuing to pay me and provide me benefits, but for people who don't, I can't pretend to know how difficult it must be. But if you really want and/or need to go back to work and make money, plenty of essential businesses are hiring.

Thankful for the Last Dance

Here we are folks, just finishing week five of the shelter-at-home/quarantine/stay at home order. Some days are good days and go by quickly and productively (well, that's relative) and some days, the hours go so so slow.

I have mentioned I have a routine that I keep and I try to stick by that as much as possible to keep some normalcy. I don't like being trapped inside and feel as though fresh air and movement are keeping me as sane as possible in times like that. I am trying to do things that make me happy and keep me busy, but after a while, the reality of what's going on the world seeps in and is hard to swallow. I know none of this is permanent and eventually things will go back to normal, so if this keeps people healthy and safe, then it's what we have to do.

One month down...Who knows how many to go...

It has now been about a month of quarantine. Even though every day is the same, more or less, each day I’m keeping busy in one way or the other as best I as I can. I have to say, I’m not even that bored anymore because it’s almost like I’ve come to accept that this is our life right now and could be for another month or two. And after this is all over, will anything ever be the same? 

I really can't imagine things going back to normal any time soon. When we do start to "open back up" I think it will happen gradually and carefully. It will have to. But again, only time will tell when and how this will happen. It's all a waiting game.

Groundhog Day

I have now just finished week three of staying-at-home/shelter-in/quarantine and social distancing and we now still have at least another month to go. No one knows when things will return even to semi-normalcy so we just have to accept what it is right now and do our best to keep our heads up.

Everyday is Groundhog Day, more or less, and I find myself trying to stick to a routine of some sort, which if you know me, know that I love structure and rigidity, so having that helps me. When I wake up every morning, I only give myself twenty minutes or so max to lay in bed before getting up, making my bed, getting showered and changed, to then move to the couch. I’m still getting up pretty early and although I could easily lay in bed all day, I’ve done that so much these last three months from being post-surgery and always pre-new procedure, that I’m over it. I would love nothing more than for my old routine of having my alarm go off at five a.m., pop out of bed and get dressed for a run or bike ride. But I can’t, so in order to save some sort of normalcy, I don’t like to lay around in bed too much. The fact I’m even giving myself the 20-ish minutes is me being flexible with myself, but I’ll allow it. 

Quarantine: The New Normal

After writing what I deemed a pretty crappy post previous to this, I wanted to follow-up with something a little better and more unorganized and thoughtful. Hopefully I can achieve that in what is really an unprecedented time in our country’s (and world’s) history. What is currently happening here is something I thought only happened in the movies or hundreds or years ago before we had the technology and medical advancements that we have, but a microscopic organism like this novel Corona virus is unpredictable and made us living in a pretty scary movies. And I HATE scary movies. What's been going on with COVID-19 is definitely something I never thought I’d see or experience.  I also never thought I'd ever say this, but I am just happy that I am not currently living in NYC.

Real Life Outbreak

There has obviously been a lot going on (biggest understatement ever) regarding everything with the corona virus COVID-19 pandemic. I mean when all is said and done,  this will be in history book, so I'm having a hard time processing what we are all going through right now. It's just all too surreal, and not in a good way. I wanted to document some of this, more for myself in the future more than anything, but also writing it out is such a therapeutic thing for me. I haven’t written much at all in the last couple years excluding my trips, because no one wants to hear about my continued single life (sigh), because well, it’s just lonely and frustrating, with the occasional thoughts of "I’m glad I have all this freedom", but mostly the former. That loneliness has sure reached its peak lately as we are all quarantined for the foreseeable future and social-distancing pretty mandatory.