Right now I’m just taking things one day at a time. I’ve failed at Inktober… didn’t even get one drawing in. NaNoWriMo isn’t looking good, either. Oh well. I think 2020, for most of us, is about simply surviving. I think a lot of us have been knocked down at least a notch or two on Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs.
Thanks Trump.
In reality, I’m doing pretty well. I think I have all of those needs met with the exception of “Love/Belonging,” which is probably true for most of us single people during the pandemic. Where I might be a little lacking is “Esteem” because “respect by others” is hard to come by when you don’t interact with other people, and “achievement,” for us runners, is impossible when the air quality is above 100 and there are no races (virtual races just aren’t the same and can’t be run in poor air quality, anyway). Under “Self-actualization,” some of those can probably be achieved in isolation during a pandemic. I’m learning how to play the ukulele, for instance.
I do have a couple of friends I’ve been texting with more often lately. One is an old high school friend and the other lives here in Oregon. My mom has been calling me, too.
What I’ve been up to these days, is a lot of:
- Working from home – I have been since March 17th and there is no end in sight.
- Doomscrolling – I read a metric fuck-ton of news, but not on social media; I get my news on Feedly from the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, NPR, OPB, Science Daily, Scientific American, Wired, Portland Mercury, Willamette Weekly, and a slew of infosec blogs. And just so things don’t get too heavy– satire from Allan Ishac, The Onion, and The Beaverton.
- Playing the ukulele – This is what I spend most of my spare time on when I’m not working, reading the news, cooking, or cleaning.
- Learning Spanish – I have an app on my phone I use, though admittedly, I’ve been slacking on it lately.
- Reading books – I’m getting up extra early now so I can read for an hour before work; nights weren’t working for me (reading puts me to sleep when I’m tired).
- Running and/or stationary bike riding – I’ve been trying to work that in during my lunch hours. If not, I do it right after work. I tried going to the gym once, but it was pretty sketchy with gym-goers wearing their masks down under their noses and half the equipment I use was put away (yoga balls, bosu balls, mats, TRX… anything people touch). Drinking fountain, pool, showers, sauna, steam room– all closed. I might risk it if I didn’t have all of the equipment I do at home, but it’s not worth it, so there’s no point in going yet.
- Training – I’m not training for anything specific since there are no races, but despite the many setbacks this year, I am aimlessly training for some undefined number of miles for some undecided future race that may or may not occur. Basically I’m ever so slowly increasing mileage while throwing in a lot of cross-training. I just want to be in good shape. As far as my weight, well… we’re not going to talk about that. I’ve been drinking a lot lately.
- Cooking and cleaning – I’ve been doing a ton of deep cleaning since the fires because when that wind was blowing, I had all of my windows open. Everything was covered in dust and permeated with soot. So I’ve been deep cleaning everything, like picture frames, tops of appliances, cupboards, bookshevles… I’ve found dust on all of it. Even my closet doors which are mirrors, had a thin film on them from the smoke. Ugh.
I did finally get air purifiers, though the one for the living room took three weeks to get here. So there’s one in the living room and smaller ones in each of our bedrooms. The goal, at this point, is to be more prepared for next summer’s fire season. Now I’m wondering what the fuck could happen next and what we should do to prepare? De-icer and snow shovels? Sand bags? A generator? After all, 2020 isn’t over yet. /dumpsterfire.jpg
Oh and for the record, I never actually wanted the Trumpster Fire to die from Covid-19. I just wanted him to be on a ventilator awhile, then become a long-hauler. Death is too quick for him; he should have to suffer.
So! The ukulele! This is the one thing I’m the most engrossed in aside from fitness. In fact, I think I’ve already outgrown the cheap entry-level concert uke I bought. This week I ordered a tenor ukulele from Enya Music. It’s a cutaway, acoustic-electric and I asked them to string it with a low G string for me. I’m so excited! I should be getting it on Thursday. I don’t have an amp or anything, but someday I want to get an amp and a looper. Right now I can’t play any one song well because I’ve been going down YouTube rabbit holes, so I’m working on narrowing it down to a list of one song from each decade going back to the 1960s. Then I’ll print out the tabs and chords, turn off the computer, and put them on a music stand I bought so I’m not so distracted and can actually practice. I’ve been tracking my progress on YouTube. I record myself playing a song. It’s kind of silly and I’m terrible at it, but it’s fun. This week I did “Hurt,” the acoustic cover of the NIN song by Johnny Cash.
Well, time’s up (I’m trying to engage in all of my hobbies and self-care today without wasting too much time on reading the news). I gave myself from 11:00am to 12:00pm to write, so I’m done for now.