Saturday, April 11, 2020

Quarantine Coping

It's been a month since, other than grocery and pharmacy clerks, I have socialized in person with anyone other than my cat. He only talks when he's hungry or he wants me to sit on the couch so he can lie in my lap. Otherwise he ignores me. He's a cat, so he's doing his job.


How am I coping? As best as I can.
In every country and city in the world we're all living this surreal existence, yet there are some things to enjoy about it.

Luckily I love to read, and I'm catching up on books I forgot I had. I've also downloaded a few audio books to listen to while I take a daily walk. Luckily the weather in Seattle has been unseasonably pleasant and sunny this week.

Cooking. I'm not a great cook, but I'm trying to make more than omelettes and oatmeal.

Live TV is truly live. .
Because I'm home all day, like many people out there, I watch more daytime TV talk shows, many newscasters and hosts now broadcast from their homes.  I enjoy peeking inside celebrities houses. It makes them more real, more accessible.

Kelly and Ryan they're much less obnoxious.

 As a group onstage together the hosts of THE VIEW tend to talk over each other. But from home, the show is easier to watch. Whoopie and Sunny are still pleasant. Surprisingly, Meghan McCain is far less toxic, but Joy Behar, who I usually enjoy, is annoying.

The ladies of THE TALK. are still fun to watch, but oddly, ELLEN isn't as funny without an audience. She falls flat talking to just one guest at a time.

Live concerts from musicians' living rooms demonstrates who has true talent without the flashy special effects, costumes, and electronic enhancement. The music is unplugged. Recently, watching Keith Urban from his home felt as if he was playing a song just for me.

Zoom once you get past the learning curve of navigating the platform, zoom meetings make life feel connected less lonely and prevents me from spending all day wearing pajamas.
Last night I attended a Zoom happy hour.  On Tuesday I taught a writing workshop via Zoom, and I have several meetings coming up next week.

I've notice a spike in interaction on Facebook  Phone calls and Face Time are also nice. Hearing another's voice is less mechanical than a text.

My house is clean! (Except for my home office.)

I turn off the news. I limit myself to one hour a day: half hour of local, and a half hour of national, and press the mute button when the liar in Chief comes on to spew his incoherent nonsense. And now the government wants to de-fund the USPS? How can the world's most powerful nation not have postal service? Don't get me started...I plan to start writing a lot more letters.

Twitter and Instagram also keep me connected. Tonight I posted a video on how to trim your own bangs. https://twitter.com/LauraMoewriter/status/1249155608575643648?s=20

This week I've finally been able to focus enough to write. It's not good writing, but at least words are flowing.


Hope you're having a happy quarantine.