Tag: Journaling

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.

Saturday, May 2:

I found some questions to journal about on Journaling.com: An Exercise to Practice while Sheltering in Place, with Merle R. Safferstein.

Sunday, May 3:

Monday, May 4: Finally, a sunny and warm day!

Mike is proud of the yardwork he’s been doing:

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.

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!