Here we are, another week of stay-at-home orders, the first Wednesday in May. Welcome to my sixth cocktail hour, a virtual world where we STAY HOME and enjoy a beverage. I offer you Cheers! À votre santé! 乾杯/ Kanpai! Saúde! Salud! May we all remain healthy, safe, financially afloat, and hopeful despite the barrage of bad news.
Here’s my Covid-19 diary for the last week.
Wednesday, April 29: We finally heard from our son in Nicaragua, and after all our worrying, he said he was having a grand time having fruit parties. He has found a new place to live for $100 for the month. He apparently got his $1,200 stimulus check, so is set for funds, but he will need to find some income if he continues to stay in Nicaragua. Of course, I don’t always believe this happy picture he presents, and I imagine he is having his share of struggles.
I had the last of my 100 level Spanish class on Zoom. I hate taking classes by Zoom and I’m not crazy about our teacher, but I signed up to take the 200 level starting May 6 until the end of July, since I probably won’t be able to go to Ecuador as I’d planned. I don’t want to lose what little I’ve learned!
Thursday, April 30: It rained all day today. We have had one of our rainiest Aprils on record, which only has added to the gloom of being shut in. I felt so depressed and lethargic all day.
Friday, May 1: I decided to do a coronavirus project for May. I will walk somewhere close to home, but each day in May, I will do a different walking route. Some parts of the various routes may overlap. In my journal, I’ll draw a map and any random thoughts I have during my walk and my day, and any notable news or headlines. Here’s my journal for today.
May 1 Journal
Saturday, May 2:
May 2 walk in Franklin Farm
I found some questions to journal about on Journaling.com: An Exercise to Practice while Sheltering in Place, with Merle R. Safferstein.
10 Things that brought me joy prior to sheltering in place.
Sunday, May 3:
May 3 walk on the Lower Glade Trail in Reston
10 things that currently bring you joy while sheltering in place.
Monday, May 4: Finally, a sunny and warm day!
May 4 journal – walk on Miller Heights Road
Mike is proud of the yardwork he’s been doing:
Mike’s handiwork
Tuesday, May 5: Cinco de Mayo: Our eldest son, who has been miserable in his job in a butcher shop in Denver, gave two weeks notice at his job. He wants to work on an online personal training business, possibly go back to school, and in the meantime will work gig jobs such as doordash. I think it’s not the best idea to quit a job you have in the middle of a pandemic where 30 million people are unemployed, but it’s his life and he has been unhappy there for a long time. It must be hard for young people during this pandemic because choices are severely limited.
We tried to order Mexican food tonight at Anita’s for Cinco de Mayo. What a mistake that was. There were about 30 people wandering around in the parking lot waiting for orders they’d placed an hour or so earlier. No one from the restaurant was answering the phone, so it was impossible to cancel the order, which we’d already paid for online. Finally, the chaos and total lack of a system finally caused us to give up and lose our money. I was so grumpy over that incident because if a restaurant is going to offer take-out, they need to have a good system in place. And of course they’d be overwhelmed on Cinco de Mayo, so their computer system should have been set up to turn away orders if they couldn’t handle the capacity.
Cinco de Mayo
Wednesday, May 6: Have first Spanish 200 (next level up) on Zoom today. I really want to be in a real classroom but it’s not to be for a long while.
Here’s an old time favorite that is sure to bring a smile to your face:
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In the midst of all this, what can we do to make the most of our stay-at-home orders? I’ve created a page where I’ll share different ideas I’ve come across of ways to cope during the coronavirus. It is here: how to make the most of a staycation... or how to cope during the coronavirus #Stayathome orders. If you have any positive ways to get through this, I invite you to share: bits of humor, projects, what we can do to help others, how to keep our sanity, TV shows or movies to watch, books to read, exercises to do, etc. Please feel free to express your emotions during this trying time as well. I’m sure we can all relate to any and all emotions you are feeling.
I wish you all the best during this crisis. Stay at home, and stay safe, healthy and always hopeful.
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I’m going to write a cocktail hour/diary about this challenging time either weekly or bi-weekly on Wednesdays, depending on how much I have to share. I invite you to share your own experiences with what we’re going through right now, either in the comments below, or in your own blog post, which I invite you to link below. I’ll try to keep writing this as long as we are suffering through this together. I hope that we will get through it unscathed, sooner rather than later.
Peace and love be with you all!
~ wander.essence ~ 
Your May journal will be a keepsake of a different type once this is all over, but it will still have meaning for you Cathy.
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Yes, I think it will. I like the idea of doing a different project each month during this surreal time. 🙂
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Your surrounds look beautiful, Cathy, but I know that grey skies drag everything down, and then there’s always that urge to wander! Your journal is beautiful, and no-one could accuse you of wasting time. It’s going to be hard to feel comfortable and relaxed in our world, even when the boundaries loosen.
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I’ve been walking these neighborhoods for so many years, Jo, that they all seem commonplace to me by now. Most are neighborhoods and are not really out in nature, although there are trails in wooded areas (houses are not far off). It will be hard to feel comfortable even when boundaries are loosened, especially as I still have congestion and a cough, so people will not appreciate me being anywhere near them! 🙂
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What an interesting area you live in Cathy. I envy you all the walks in nature and opportunity for photography. I just have streets and houses. Of course there’s the beach but it does become “ same old same old” after a while. Love your daily journals, they will be a great thing to look back on in the future
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Thanks, Pauline, but I don’t really consider these walks in nature. They’re almost all in neighborhoods, and even when it’s a path through the woods, neighborhoods are not far off. Houses are almost always in sight. I would love to have a beach, but I guess even that must get old after a while. Isn’t it funny how we get so used to, and take for granted, the things we see everyday? 🙂
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Yes that is what is so good about travel, you look at things with new eyes and everything is interesting. But it is probably “same old same old” to the people that live there…
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That’s for sure!
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Cathy, how you are able to put so much beautiful, detailed, memory-laden artistry into each page of your journal always astonishes me! You don’t just write stuff down, you inhabit and illustrate it! Just amazing!! And, like your many followers, I am so very relieved you heard from your son in NIcaraugua and that he has a bit of a financial buffer for the time being!! Good news!! (or should I say, Muy buenas noticias!)
What continues to astonish me through all this COVID reality, above all else, is how, short of an alien invasion from outer space, no other event with such global ramifications would have a similar capacity to impact every single person on this planet, at the same time. Rich, poor, young, old, literate or not, no matter where on this earth we each have our feet planted as individuals, we are, all of us, and I mean all of us, experiencing for the first time in human history, a truly momentous, life-altering, 100% collective experience. This was brought home to me a few days ago especially, through a video I found on YouTube which presented a few seconds of video from every single country in the world, from roughly the same first few weeks in April. Almost without exception, every country was witness to barren streets and empty beaches and lonely highways, completely deserted crossroads where knots of humanity and traffic normally prevail. Formerly teeming yet familiar tourist strongholds, empty. Third world markets, too, no longer swarming with colourfully-clad shoppers and wildly diverse foods. All empty now, and silent (except for Haiti and the DRCongo pretty much), devoid of life, devoid of human imprint, apart from a few masked souls, if and when you saw anyone. Seeing all those iconic streets and plazas from Paris to New Delhi, from Sydney beaches to people socially distancing in front of tiny shops in Samoa, from the empty highway leading into Muscat to the still snowy slopes of a deserted Verbier… it was a truly humbling and so …. silent! Those 15 minutes of stark reality was extremely disconcerting, to see almost no people anywhere, every corner of the world, the same. No cars, no traffic, no throngs of people, nothing that represents what was “normal” life BC – Before Covid. I am running out of adjectives!
Personally, I spent nine hours on the couch yesterday binge-watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, which I have watched front to back about a million times in the past 20 years and never tire of. Star Trek has always been a welcome refuge whenever I was especially tired of my own life, with its mortal shuffling through the detritus of past decisions and what I thought was good judgment at the time. Reality does indeed suck sometimes and we all need an escape. In these COVID times, that need to escape can become chronic.
Normally I get up and get dressed and ready for “work” as usual, i.e., washed and dressed, to mitigate any tenancy towards becoming too slothful and unproductive while off work, but yesterday I was so fed up with all the bad news and worse, the insanity, in particular that which is coming from a certain White House resident, that I decided a moratorium was necessary to stave off further fear and anxiety especially for my dear American friends. In Canada, thank God, science and sanity and an empathetic Prime Minister prevail to keep us safe and informed and financially stable as best it can; again, thank God. But yesterday I had had enough, and so I watched no news, did no email, read none of the discouraging blogs or FB posts or anything. Surprisingly, I did not feel the need to reach for a drink during my Star Trek Day, as that novelty wore off weeks ago already, drinking during the week without guilt.
I continue to have a long, running list of chores and plans for myself and for my condo, from the most infinitesimal (doing the dishes) to the most ambitious (sewing face masks for myself and for individual friends, and painting my whole place by myself, room by room), merrily checking off at least one each day, no matter what. Some days I am incredibly productive, others, see above! I scratched nothing off the list yesterday for the first time. As psychologists are advising us to not feel guilty when this happens, when motivation during COVID to “make each day count” for something, slides once in a while, I am learning to be fine with that.
Today, it’s back to the sewing machine for me, and I do have to deal with some stress-inducing emails, but Season 6 of Deep Space Nine, rather than 24/7 news, remains my sound wall of choice for now. I still need to pretend that there is a space station out there that I can escape to and find refuge in, away from this sad, uncertain, sharp and spiky, COVID-covered Earth, for today at least. Tomorrow is another, albeit uncertain, story. I might come back to Earth.
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Thank you so much for all your thoughtful comments, Mona Lisa. I agree it is amazing that every one of us is in this together, and every part of our world is affected. It’s easy to be trapped in our little bubble and to feel isolated and all alone in the situation. I think it’s great to get cozy and binge watch a show you love. We have to take care of ourselves, and what better way to do it that to find some pleasure, anywhere. I’m glad you’re also being so productive. I think I need to learn to rest more, because even though I’m being “productive,” none of what I’m producing has much substance to it. None of it is really necessary, and I could use more rest and relaxation. I have to admit to feeling a lot of anxiety lately, especially as I continue to be sick, with nothing working to help my symptoms or to help me get better. Keep making those masks, and keep dreaming of that space station to escape to. 🙂
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Looks like wonderful weather! 🙂
So far, we’ve had great success with food, either delivered to our house, or taken through a drive through.
I’m doing the same routes for walking or bicycling, so that I can get a feeling on my progress after many months of inactivity.
Take care, and stay healthy,
Pit
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Our weather has been all over the place, Pit. Way too much rain and chill for my liking, especially for early May! I’m ready to be warm. I’m glad you’ve had success with take-out food; most of the time we have too, but that incident with Anita’s on Cinco de Mayo was quite a disappointment. Good for you doing your bicycling and walking on the same routes to look for progress. It sounds like the perfect thing to do. You take care, too, and stay healthy! 🙂
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Our weather hasn’t been too bad. Quite some up and down, but not yet too hot. And we did have some good rain earlier. All that will very likely change soon.
Take care, too, and stay healthy,
Pit
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I’m sorry the Cinco de Mayo food did not work out. It should have been organized to be successful. At least the canoes you photographed were Mexican-colorful. I hope the next round of Spanish goes well for you (buona fortuna). Your yard does look beautiful. The journaling is grand.
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I was so disappointed about the food, Christopher, as I love chili rellenos and my mouth was watering for them. Yes, those canoes are very Mexican-colorful, for sure. The journaling is fun, and I like having a little project to mark each month of this surreal period. Are you feeling good now? I’m still as sick as ever, and nothing seems to help to get me better. I’m getting very discouraged.
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Your neighbourhood looks lovely with so many wonderful homes and such varied routes – mine is just the same no matter where I walk, just the same old lanes with the same old hedgerow flowers, sigh… Those dogwood trees look lovely and your journals are such fun! You are so full of ideas Cathy, you will never be bored. And I am glad that you heard from your son and that he is well. Will Alex stay in Denver then? As you say not the best of times to walk out of a job. And your property and ‘yard’ (always makes me smile when I read that as a yard to us is completely different) look beautiful. Well done Mike.
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My neighborhood itself is very boring, Jude, so I’ve been venturing in my car to other neighborhoods, not far, maybe 10-15 minutes from my house. To be honest, I think they’re all boring, because the whole vicinity is all just suburbs. I need a horizon!! Lanes with hedgerow flowers sounds wonderful. I guess the grass is always greener…. I don’t get bored, but I am very sick of being sick; I’m starting to get very anxious about it and truly wonder if I will ever be healthy again. Alex will stay in Denver for a while; I’m not sure of his whole plan but he’s looking to go back to school. I wish that for him, with all my heart, but I also want him to be serious about it, and about succeeding. I’m tired of being taken advantage of by our adult children.
Now what is a “yard” in England? Mike’s proud of his handiwork, which has been basically weeding and spreading mulch. 🙂
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We are not supposed to drive anywhere for exercise. A shame because a 15 minute drive would get me to my favourite beach where it is usually quite easy to keep away from anyone else.
A yard here is usually something concreted or paved over, usually a small enclosed area – back yard. We would call what you have a garden!
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Luckily we can drive to exercise. I usually drive no more than 10-15 minutes, which gives me a lot more options. Oh, our yard is just the land around our house. It’s usually not paved over. But in our case, we couldn’t call it a garden, although we have a couple of spaces you could call a “garden,” with flowers, bushes, etc. 🙂
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I love your dedication to your journals, Cathy…future nostalgias
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Thanks Sue. I like that – “future nostalgia.” Although I’m not sure I’ll ever feel nostalgic about this period. 🙂
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Well, no, but you might be nostalgic about the places you saw,, and how you wrote
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That’s true. I guess that’s why I’m keeping a journal. When it all passes, I’m sure we’ll all happily move on, and try to put it all out of our minds!
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I do hope so
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I sincerely hope you walked past that school doing your very best silly walk! Everywhere looks beautiful and your journals are amazing.
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It’s beautiful because it’s spring, but they’re just my same old neighborhoods. They’ll be boring enough once the flowers stop blooming! I didn’t do the silly walk, but that sign did make me smile. 🙂
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I would be quite content walking along those paths. What a treat viewing those beautiful flowers, love the white ones, hydrangeas?
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We do have a lot of paths here, Suzanne, especially in Reston and along the Difficult Run Stream Valley, but nothing spectacular. No horizons! Are those white ones hydrangeas? Usually hydrangeas don’t bloom here until late July or August. I think we all get a little tired of our little perimeter of landscape. 🙂
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We all need to be loving and backing our own backyards as that’s going to be the reality for quite a while. Good thing I never get bored walking around here. A yearning for travel comes and goes, now it will mean more money and more hassle! Luckily for us, we did quite a bit of travel before it became a nightmare.
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I’ll never tire of travel, although I imagine it will be much limited and a lot different in the near future, maybe the next two or three years. Who knows what the future will hold, but I hope to keep dreaming. I’m glad you don’t get bored walking around your neighborhood. Keep safe and hopeful. 🙂
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You too 🙂
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You’ve really seized the chance to see the best in a bad situation. Inspiring as always, and beautiful spring photos.
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Thank you, Meg. I keep trying to think positive, but honestly, as long as I am sick, I’m feeling more and more depressed. 😦
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What an enjoyable read! Beautiful surroundings, love the artwork in the journal and very relatable.
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Thank you, Roxanne, and thank you for coming by. I’m not really an artist, but it’s fun to have a little project each month during this lockdown time. It seems to give some structure to a time where the days seem to blend endlessly together.
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Loved the perky journaling. Would try it out sometime…need patience for it. Meanwhile my dairy entry
http://travtrails.com/2020/05/13/pune-journal-may-is-here/
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Thank you so much for sharing this, Indra. I liked reading about your life in Pune during this lockdown time. You have some very interesting thoughts, indeed. I’ll link it to today’s cocktail hour. Thank you for sharing! 🙂
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