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Writing Pieces

Week two.

By March 27, 20202 Comments

Snowing outside.  Thirty-four degrees.

 

We just got a food delivery.  Gordon disinfected the exterior boxes.  The interior boxes.  Two heads of broccoli, a package of chicken breasts and a cauliflower.  While wearing latex gloves.

An abundance of caution.

If you go to the supermarket, the wisdom now is to call up your inner halloween.

Facemask or bandana….glasses….full body cover…and gloves.   Wipe down your cart and if anyone passes you in the canned pea aisle, don’t look at them.

We’re quarantining in a small town in Idaho.  Our county is quarantined.  We’re what’s now called a hotspot.

A hotspot cold on tests.  A hospital that’s closed except for the emergency room. If you’re sick, you have to be life flighted to another town in Idaho.

We need a Cuomo to fight for us.

Under quarantine you can go out to exercise.  And here, it’s easy to do.  A lot of wide open spaces.  You can forget the six foot apart rule, you’re typically miles from another living being.

Of course, you don’t have to go outside.  My daughter just sent me an article on ten exercises you can do in bed.  Which really rang true with me.  Bridges, leg lifts, planks.

Exercising in bed has always appealed to me. Started when I used to do kegels.  A bed is higher.  So you don’t have to attempt to get down on the floor. And worse, get back up. And the dog won’t splay on top of you.  And you can stay there for a very healthy and deserved twenty minute midday nap.

This quarantine is teaching me so much.

Since I shop once a week now, I don’t have to angst about dinner as I was doing when I shopped once a day.  You learn that it’s just a thawing issue.  The concept of what I want for dinner has to run across my mind, at least once during the day, so I can remember to thaw.

I never even used my freezer before.  Except for haagen-dazs and gluten free bread.

So I’m learning a lot.

I keep a glass by the sink so I can drink a sip of water every fifteen minutes.  I heard if you do that the flu won’t be able to go to your lungs.  Too much water.  Drowns it. I don’t know if it’s true, but I’m trying everything.

I make a schedule for myself every day.  Very important.  Makes me feel like I am accomplishing something.  My friend sent an article on the peace of mind you get from finishing something.  Which I don’t usually do.  I’m normally in flux.  But now I check off things on my schedule.  So I have a sense of closure.  And peace of mind.

Zoom.  I have an app for zoom.  No face time for me.  I zoom.  And it’s feeding my dance card.   We have two cocktail parties this weekend.  One Friday and one Saturday.

I wonder if this will change my social life forever.  I’ll never again have to think about which black pants to wear.  I don’t have to wear anything below the waist.

So I’m learning.

And I suspect all of this, in some way, will change me forever.

Which is probably a good thing.

Heck, if the news wasn’t so horrific, I might even enjoy this whole thing.

Life in quarantine.  Not so bad.

Quarantine

Join the discussion 2 Comments

  • pat says:

    Mary, I love this piece…especially exercising in bed! And i too only worry about what i am wearing on my upper body!! well captured sentiments all around…love you and miss you both. stay safe… xo p

  • Jackie Flanigan says:

    Thank you Mary for always making me laugh, I can only imagine you and Gordon exercising in bed.
    I am more inspired to finish my tasks, I am on it…….tomorrow!

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