Quarantine meme

[resonant]

via sara



1. Are you an Essential Worker?

I can't imagine that I would be. But since my work is exactly the same whether I do it from downtown or from my dining room table, I have the luxury of not needing to know.

2. How many drinks have you had since the quarantine started?

I haven't had a drink since ... hm, I had sangria at Lucia's ninth birthday party, and Lucia is a year younger than terminally_underwhelmed, who's 21, so. I don't exactly not drink, I just have the palate of a three-year-old and never bothered to acquire a taste for alcohol.

3. If you have kids... Are they driving you nuts?

terminally_underwhelmed is a college junior. They came home for a week-long spring break, and spring break just sort of never ended. Actually I'm delighted to have them here, and they're doing all the errand-running for the household, but I do wish the apartment were just a little bigger, or else that I had a desk in my bedroom.

4. What new hobby have you taken up during this?

I'm sticking with my old hobby of reading a metric shit-ton of fanfiction. terminally_underwhelmed has introduced me to the joy of listening to podcasts of The Magnus Archives, though.

5. How many grocery runs have you done?

As I said, kidlet's doing the errand-running for the household. Except that yesterday I went out to be at Walmart when it opened at 7 a.m. so I could grab a pack of toilet paper before it ran out and then went through the bank drive-through to get rolls of quarters for laundry -- kidlet has many fine qualities but won't get up that early and isn't terribly comfortable withdrawing money from my bank account without me being present. It was the first time I'd been in the car in two weeks.

I don't like to shop at Walmart, partly because I disapprove of it and partly because in this town Walmart's where you go if you want to see some child abuse in real time. I didn't see any of that at 7 a.m. -- what I saw was employees wearing masks of such motley variety that I feel sure they were being forced to provide their own, which sucks.

6. What are you spending your stimulus check on?

First, I'll believe in this alleged stimulus check when I see it.

Second: So far, my job is unchanged, and the spouse's job is unchanged, and our tenant's job is unchanged so they don't need a rent break. So I'm hoping that the spouse, through his contacts as a pastor, will be able to identify someone who's out of work and funnel the money to them.

7. Do you have any special occasions that you will miss during this quarantine?

Yeah -- I've already missed Easter (I mean we ate a ham, but we didn't get to go to church and sing the Hallelujah chorus) and the spouse's birthday. I expect we'll still be quarantined on my birthday too, but since the kidlet and I are quarantined together, we can at least make a cake. We didn't normally do anything for Mother's Day except send my mom a present, which we can still do. And WisCon got canceled.

8. Are you keeping your housework done?

I'm being a bit less of an arrant slob than normal, since I'm actually home on the weekends instead of in spouseland. So my floor is getting vacuumed on a regular basis.

9. What movie have you watched during this quarantine?

None. In talking to the kidlet about this yesterday, I discovered that reading, whether on paper or on screen, adds energy for me, but anything that involves listening seems to take energy out of the same energy basket that interacting with humans draws from. Which explains why I enjoy movies, TV, and podcasts, but not really enough to make me actually choose to consume them most of the time.

10. What are you streaming with?

I think we're listening to TMA right off the TMA website, but I don't really know for sure. My work meetings happen on WebEx.

11. 9 months from now is there any chance of you having a baby?

Nope. Even if I weren't well past menopause, my only partner is in Illinois.

12. What's your go-to quarantine meal?

Right now I have vegetables and fruit from Imperfect Foods, and starting in June I'll have them from the CSA, so I'm eating better than I have for a while. I'm roasting them as long as it's cool out; after that it will be salad town.

13. Is this whole situation making you paranoid?

Not exactly. To be honest, I am absolutely loving staying home, doing yoga at lunchtime, seeing no one but the kidlet, and being under very little time pressure, so in some ways I'm happier than normal. So my own life is not unpleasant in any way. But life outside my house is strange and unpredictable, and a lot of people are suffering even though I don't know any of them.

I'm a lucky person in many ways, and one of them is that my cheerful meter is naturally set at about 8 unless something is actively tormenting me. During this time I'm a little more aware of it and I'm putting a little more energy into not doing anything to disturb it -- there are websites that I've stopped visiting because I can feel that they're bad for me.

14. Has your internet gone out on you during this time?

Thank heaven, no. I only have enough paper books to last me for about 48 hours.

15. What month do you predict this all ends?

November 2021, if we're lucky.

16. First thing you’re gonna do when you get off quarantine?

Hugging, and then a massage, and then I want to go to Trader Joe's, and then I need to go see my mom.

17. Where do you wish you were right now?

I'm right where I want to be, but I wish the spouse were with me.

18. What free-from-quarantine activity are you missing the most?

Errand running -- I'm surprised at how much I miss that.

19. Have you run out of toilet paper and hand sanitizer?

I just bought more toilet paper. I don't normally use hand sanitizer, but if I had some, I'd be using it now.

20. Do you have enough food to last a month?

If I had to go a month without buying food, we could do it, but we'd be dissatisfied with our food. I'd run out of milk very quickly, and we'd be badly missing meat. The kidlet might even be protein-deprived enough to attempt to eat canned tuna

Comments

[lunabee34]

I also miss errand running. It's weird; I suppose I would have thought of them as time wasters before, but it's weird how things change.

[trobadora]

I discovered that reading, whether on paper or on screen, adds energy for me, but anything that involves listening seems to take energy out of the same energy basket that interacting with humans draws from

Yes! That's almost the same as it is for me, except that it's video too. Cool to see other people who are the same!

[adafrog]

I don't exactly not drink, I just have the palate of a three-year-old and never bothered to acquire a taste for alcohol.
lol ITA.