I started a pandemic journal on advice from WaPo. Although I do about 99% of my writing at a keyboard, I am doing this in longhand because it feels more natural somehow. If I am typing my words onto a screen I will be tempted to edit, and the purpose of the journal is to record my unedited life, emotions, and stuff.
I just surveyed the word cloud in the right-hand sidebar. Over the years the things I have written the most about are:
- Links.
- Silliness.
- Knitting. Duh.
- Links about knitting.
- Animals.
- YouTube.
Coronavirus is still after “Family “, “Books”, and “Food and Drink” and roughly equal to “Accounting”, “Hats”, and “Holidays”. Draw from that whatever conclusions you want.
My stoic Scandinavian self has always been prone to depression, but 30+ years on antidepressants keeps it nicely in check… until the past week or so. Besides pondering the existential doubt about the need to floss, I have been drinking more (Two manhattans before bed? Yikes!) and showering less**, not to mention a recent loss of energy. Every day during the lockdown I have looked back and given myself a little pat on the back for any productive thing I did that day — baked bread, closed out the county party’s books for the month, made labels for the new file cabinets’ drawers, organized some stuff in my office. (Some of these things required a lot more energy than others.) On Sunday, however, I came up zilch on productive things, although I did go along on the daily dog walk to the mailbox.
Therefore, on Monday, I showered, did laundry, had a Zoom meeting with the party steering committee, and baked bread. I have also decided to limit my intake of coronavirus news (and hard liquor!), plus getting outside every day. Depression, begone!
Message from Younger Son when I messaged him asking if he was okay. (We had not heard from him in over a week.)
“Went for a nice ride yesterday and am cleaning around the house today
Many young people grapple with these and similar ideas during their college years. YS did not go to college and so is thinking about them later, albeit with a good deal more maturity than the typical college student. Whatever his conclusion, and I think we all know there are no absolute answers, I respect his quest.
Over the weekend I got a message from Capital One/CreditWise that my email address had been compromised on the Dark Web; also, my credit score had dipped a few points because their data showed that I had applied for something with a $20,000 line of credit — which of course I had not done. I spent Sunday afternoon changing passwords on vulnerable accounts — my Gmail, financial, Facebook, etc. Somehow in the process I eliminated my personal Gmail from LastPass, the password manager I use. So I spent a fair bit of time Sunday night and Monday re-gaining access to it on my laptop, iPad, and phone. To top it all off, when I checked CreditWise today that new line of credit appears to have gone away. Was that initial message a phishing attempt? Who knows? But changing password periodically is a best practice, so the whole thing was not a waste.
Useful information concerning those mythical $1,200 checks we are waiting for. The article gives actual dates for different situations. I now know we haven’t gotten our checks because I applied last year’s refund to this year’s taxes, knowing we might have a balance due because of the Jeopardy winnings received in 2019.
Reading is liberating.
NYTimes piece by the judge who won our Supreme Court election.
Gentle humor from Liz Climo.
Comforting words about productivity. Pro tip: do not read the comments. They are downers.
More comforting words, this time about mental processing.
Sidewalk art done by an actual artist.
My quarantine name is Umami Soapy Washlord.
For the math nerds among us.
Fireworks at Mt Fuji.
Someone was moving the beer traps.
The trif*ckta.
Classic movie bloopers.
“What are they doing?” “Nothing. They’re just sitting there in their homes washing their hands.”
This music teacher wrote a song to share with her students during lockdown. From my SIL in Canada – thanks, Kathleen!
The photo in Clara Parkes’ email when I signed up to receiver her daily good news email. It is now my wallpaper and gives me a lift every time I minimize a window and see it. Feel free to right-click it and download for yourself.
* Thus endeth my attempt at a Jersey accent.
** Or showering at all. I shall not reveal how long it had been.
kmkat & her kneedles 
Showers… I am with you! Nor shall I share how long I go between taking one! And, I think Manhattan’s are the perfect drink for staying home!
I stand by my statement that we’ll all be completely feral by the time this is over. Good for you for figuring out what would help you feel better!
Productivity be damned! I choose to celebrate achieving new records in laziness. And with my history, it takes some work to avoid more work than I’ve ever avoided before!
Now see, you said you weren’t productive on Sunday, and then a paragraph or two later you wrote all about how productive you were on Sunday with the password security. 🙂 Sometimes it’s hard to remember the good things we do on a daily basis. I hope the journal helps with that. I’ve been keeping a “some lines a day” journal (like this one) for over a year now, and it has helped me to be more mindful and aware of my productivity and mental state.
Thank you for Liz, and the lizard, and Lucy, and for that Venn diagram (which might end up being MY wallpaper)
Oprah had her viewers start a gratitude journal to be done daily listing 3 things for which you are grateful that day. These can be repeated other days. What scientists have found is that doing this changes the synaptic brain connections and to look for the positive becomes a habit (that counteracts depression). OMG, I laughed until I cried listening to the music teacher’s song!
Such a great post. While I am basically an introvert and becoming more so every day I did find that the greatest help in this “difficult” time is having moved, trying to fit much into little, home schooling grandson without him ending up hating me, making meals in my new pretend kitchen and Facebook which provides me connection, disgust, and often huge laughs. Oh yes also vodka and and a Bota Box of Merlot. All of this has kept my depression at bay along with a bit of Prozac.
What fun again Kat. I don’t have an isolate at home name. Maybe it is MISSESHORSES. I love the cartoons and the wake me when it is over. Ive been pretty up beat. Fireman has been worried. Odd that we traded emotions….
Guacamoley Homebound Greatness.