Day 120, Monday
Balancing work stuff and life stuff in this weirdness that is the WFH life while providing elder care from a distance… Picked up mom’s kitty from the vet. He looks a lot better than the last time he had an abscess (then it took nearly a month to heal, multiple trips to the vet, and several tries to find the right antibiotic to get rid of the infection. We thought he was going to lose his tail, but he didn’t). I’m not yet ready for another cat, but the possibility is possible…
Time to prep the special, multi-category grocery list for this month’s trip to Publix… where I will freak out several times and possibly have a nervous breakdown if the cart gets too full to push (again).
Day 121, Tuesday
Grocery time… and an epic migraine that knocked me out for most of the afternoon into the evening. Was it the weather? Was it tension? Was it hormones? Who the F knows?! At least it was strong but quick to leave fade.
Day 122, Wednesday
Back to the cardiologist for my results… I have a slight valve defect! Which might account for some of the weirdness I’ve been feeling for the last year and a half (and maybe more?). Waiting to be approved for a 30 day monitor to try to capture the events I feel. Like a wonky car, I had no symptoms during any of the previous tests.
Day 123, Thursday
I can’t even remember what happened… meetings?
Day 124, Friday
Back to the vet, which is a whole experience in lockdown. Kitty needed to have his wound flushed again and a new round of antibiotics. It’s been an emotionally draining week.
Day 125, Saturday
Writing for the first time since Monday. Finished the chapter I was working on — a long one that required more focus than I had this week.
Worried because more people are testing positive in my parents’ buildings (yes, plural, 2 separate homes). Started noticing the frequency of sirens over the last few days as well. I live on the same street as the local Fire Rescue/Police station, and the number of emergency calls is definitely on the rise.
Also worried about the boy and his risk at work and home 😦
Day 126, Sunday
Another morning of writing… I’m in a mood and it’s left me drained.
Boy changed the oil in my car, so I’m all set for future grocery and vet runs (although, please, no more EMERGENCY vet runs).
I want to start running again. I stopped when COVID started because I was anxious about getting hurt and needing to go to Urgent Care (not an unlikely occurrence), but I’m going to try short jogs and see how it feels. I’m months out of practice, so it’ll be a fresh start.
Also, not gonna lie… the days are starting to blend into each other and this “diary” is one of the only tools I have to make them feel distinct. Since visiting the Dr.’s office, I’m committing to a 14 day quarantine and hoping for the best. I debated getting tested, but I’m going to wait it out this time. There are so many cases, it feels futile to get tested right now. (It took 10 days to get my results last time.)
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That’s the big reason I’m keeping my quarantine diaries too. It feels like a way to organize all this chaos into some sense of sense, I guess. I’m starting to really feel the strain of being up here and away from the rest of my family. It’s nice to be safer, but it’s also terrifying to be out in a place where 90% of people don’t bother with masks. (At least in SA, a good 70% of people wear masks. I’m rarely in a place where there isn’t at least one asshole, but at least it’s not most of them, right?) I don’t know how you’re managing to write. I can hardly bring my concentration level to books, and those are purely for escapism right now!
I used to drive in to work really early to get about an hour of writing before I had to get started, so I’ve modified that at home with a 50 minute session. I’ve been tracking my hours to get a better sense of my progress, and that has helped to motivate me to keep going. My first month of WFH was pretty demoralizing and I was getting up early to work the chat service at 7am… not doing that anymore has helped a lot. It took some time before I felt like I could keep up with any kind of sustained writing, but I finally found a good groove.