In which I learn to not worry so much and just enjoy the staycation
About halfway through the second week of isolation I did what I should have done sooner: stopped reading the news and googling. I currently have no idea what the current number of Coronavirus cases there are in NY, and I’d like to keep it that way. I have not been tuning in to the Governor’s updates every day, although I hear that people are very impressed with the way he is handling things. That being said, since my husband and I are already doing everything we can to maintain social distancing and be safe, knowing the exact breakdown of cases by county simply doesn’t serve a productive purpose at this point. It only adds to my state of apprehension if I’m constantly thinking about the numbers, so I’m just keeping myself busy with other things that I actually have some control over. The good news about this arguably immature approach to dealing with reality is that I do experience fewer panic attacks this way.
As a result, I have been far more productive this week than last. I made a list (its astonishing it took me even that long) of things to accomplish with my wealth of free time. About half of it is crossed off already. Polish cleaning finally happened; I dusted, reorganized the collection of APO glassware on display, put out my rock collection, and organized my t-shirts Marie-Kondo style.
One notable plus is that we’ve begun something of a movie marathon. I should preface this by stating we normally watch movies very rarely, its more often television serials or random YouTube-ing (a rewarding activity in its own right). I historically have had to plead with my husband to let me put on a movie at night; its often late by the time we eat dinner and he isn’t as into movies as I am. My dad is a big movie buff and he passed on the trait to my sister and I. Childhood was filled with all the classics as well as frequent watchings and re-watchings of the family favorites, which included a lot of John Wayne, Star Wars, Disney, musicals, and rom-coms. Since I am in dire need of cheer right now, my husband has been very accommodating about watching whatever I would like, which is (as always) camp and cheese. Song and Dance. So far, we’ve watched Annie, What’s Up Tiger Lilly, Better Off Dead, Singing in the Rain, The Producers, and My Favorite Year. For the time being at least, there is an embargo on Hello Dolly. It will eventually happen though. It must. I joked with him at one point that he needn’t worry when I say “Let’s put on a movie.” When I say “I want to watch a movie” it doesn’t ever mean we’re about to put on Chocolat or The English Patient…More often than not it means Newsies, Mamma Mia, Ghostbusters, or one of the old Road movies starring Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.
You’ve undoubtedly picked up on this, but I’m not very deep.
Another fantastic plus to the past week was that we got to conduct a few virtual hangouts with friends using Webex. Thankfully, the platform works well, and has some fun features like automatic toggling back and forth between view screens using speech recognition when there are multiple parties tuned in to the channel. Thus, we were able to polish off a few bottles of wine and tasty mixed drinks while catching up with old friends till the wee hours of the morning. And since time and days of the week have effectually ceased to exist, we can sleep in as late as necessary. Jackpot.
Last night, I got the news that the order to work from home was extended another 2 weeks. Thus, the quarantine will continue…
Until next week, That’s All Folks.
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