To say that recent events have been disruptive in my world is an understatement. I haven’t spent this much time at home in years. I remember being so busy and overwhelmed that I once wished that I would break my leg just so that I could have some down time.
I fantasized about being laid up on the couch with a good book and a whole bottle of pain pills just so that I would have a stress free moment to myself.
Those were the good old days. In one week’s time I had to cancel everything that took me months to plan. Even worse, all my personal plans went out the door as well. In one day, everything I had planned for months was cancelled.
There I was with nothing to do. I’ve learned that my body is addicted to stress. It yearns for it. So, off my mind went, thinking about all the worst-case scenarios. The what ifs started to get to me, so I paired them with nightly cocktails. You know just to make the evening news more palatable? I’d wake up in the morning feeling a little fuzzy and then my irrational brain would say “am I getting sick?” “Oh God this is it” and then the rational side would chime in and say, “No dummy that’s just the two double Jameson’s you had before bed.”
As I started to self-regulate, I began to steer myself away from the disaster thoughts and now the weird ones are taking over. Here are a few random thoughts and realizations during social distancing for your reading enjoyment.
After 24 years together I learned yesterday that Zach (my husband) thinks that “a couple” means three. Are there others? Secondly, he doesn’t have a favorite Beatles album. He said he “likes that one song that goes… duh, duh, duh she’s so heavy.” We discussed this in great depth and decided if he is ever asked, to just say he likes the White Album.
Nervous baking is a thing. I didn’t have much time pre-virus to bake. So, I’m baking now, every day. For no reason. The NY Times calls it Distractibaking. I call it the Pandemic 15. We will surely all gain weight over this. I feel fortunate that I didn’t hoard snacks because I would have already eaten them.
While making soup I had a thought. There is chicken broth, which is from chickens, beef broth that is from beef. So, if we made it from pork would it be pork broth? Zach says ‘No,’ it would be hot dog water.
I discovered just now that Zach has a secret stash of Play Dough, “just in case.”
Down time is a blessing. Something that we all need more of. I still do hope that by the time you all read this that life as we know it is back to normal. I hope to be thrust back into my busy schedule and away from home. Mostly because cleaning isn’t fun, the sound of the harmonica grinds my nerves and I can’t hide it from Zach forever.
Take care, Patagonia. I miss you