Archive | March, 2020

Self Isolation Day 5:Work An Stuff

19 Mar

Ok so while I’ve been working all this time, today I got more done than on the previous days. Glitches were fixed, I was able to access what I needed, it was good.

Still, the amount of work I can do from home only takes up so much of my day. When not working I did some projects around the apartment, personal paperwork type stuff so nothing to take a fun picture of.

I also took a quiz to see which Disney duo best matches my best friend and I, apparently we are Peter Pan and Tinkerbell…

Very scientific obviously. We aren’t sure which of us is supposed to be Peter Pan and which is supposed to be Tinkerbell but do sort of agree with the description.

There was The Look I kept getting when trying to work…

day 5b

Not. Impressed.

There was an unhappy cat for a while today as my laptop was right exactly where he wanted to be, on my lap. At one point I left him curled up on the chair with the cushion and heating pad, sound asleep, and moved myself and the laptop into the bedroom so I could work sitting at a desk and he followed me in just to glare at me. He also at one point jumped onto my lap and sprawled on my right arm drastically reducing the speed at which I could type but if you think I moved him out of the way you are obviously insane. He eventually moved to the bed and glared at me from a distance. Letting me know just how much of a disappointment I was being to him.

I went out for my daily stroll, today I took a trail that gets me to the ocean where I took this picture…

day 5c

A reminder for all those full on stuck inside that the outside is still there waiting for you.

Honestly, today I didn’t do much. I’m trying to actively not think too much about how many changes have happened and may still happen to how society runs, because the idea of walking into grocery stores and seeing empty shelves, or not being able to go see my parents, or being stuck inside for longer than 14 days, kinda freaks me out.

To combat the freaking out I have submerged myself in to cheesy 80s movies because I get distracted by the hair, and the clothes, and the makeup, and the lack of technology. I watched 3 Men and a Baby and have so many questions!

Was it really ok to have a baby in a car seat in the front of the car in the 80s?

Why do they keep showing off all the guy’s chest hair, do they think people find that attractive?

What’s with the super short running shorts the guys are wearing? And why are they all oiled up?

If the guys didn’t want to lose the kid why didn’t they just call social services on the mom?

Did nobody the mom knew notice she all of a sudden didn’t have a baby?

Was it common to have three guys, who I’m guessing were supposed to be in their mid 30s, be roommates? Is that a New York thing?

Did you not need a plane ticket to get past security in the 80’s? They got through just fine even though none of them were flying and were doing the classic trying to catch someone before they get on a flight thing. But in movies now when people try that they always have to buy a ticket to get through…or sneak through like the kid in Love Actually. Were airport rules different back then?

See? Oh so many questions!

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Self Isolation Day 4: Cooking Happened

18 Mar

Well, it’s always good to know for sure the smoke detector works, right? Mine, in case you were wondering, works perfectly, maybe even a little too perfectly.

I realized today, on day 4 of avoiding humanity, that I don’t need to have a quick bowl of cereal or oatmeal for breakfast but that I could take my time and make something. I intended to make egg on toast but somehow that changed to pancakes.

When I organized the pantry yesterday I pulled out an open box of Aunt Jemima pancake mix. I left it out because there was not much left in the box, so today when I saw the box on the counter it felt like pancakes were meant to be. The universe told me so!

However, according to the box you need 1 1/4 Cups of the mix and I only had 1/4 Cup. A tad short. Instead of doing math to figure out how much I had to cut the milk and egg down to I topped up the mix with Kodiak Cake Mix.

In total I used one cup of combined pancake and kodiak mix, one egg (because why not?) and almost one cup of water. In retrospect I should have either used less water or more kodiak mix, or even just cut the egg I suppose. But I didn’t, and the end result was the runniest pancake mix I’ve ever seen.

I am a fluffy thick pancake type of person and what I got was these…

Possibly the thinnest, most pathetic pancakes every created.

They were however edible and not being a person who likes to waste food, they were my breakfast.

I worked for a while, then went for what may become my routine mid day walk, only this time I went on a trail instead of to the library and grocery store. There’s this outdoor pool I pass that had some very happy birds in it.

The ocean is a very short distance away but some prefer the pool I guess.

After I got home and worked some more I had to start thinking about dinner. I’m used to being fed at work and this whole making all my own meals thing is not something I’m enjoying. I figured on making some mac ‘n cheese but logic dictates I hold out on that. If I cook that today, on day four, then what happens on day 12 when I’m out of all the quick stuff and am forced to ya know, cook for real? I won’t have a choice! And who knows, maybe by then places won’t be delivering, then I’ll really be screwed.

So, I dug in the freezer and came up with something to cook, like a grown-up!

I made a jalapeño cheddar burger, with all the toppings, and fries, because every good burger needs fries.

I thought the burger would be spicier than it turned out to be but that’s ok because it tasted good and I’d rather the spicy food be tasty than be so spicy there is no flavour, ya know?

I don’t take good food pics, deal with it.

So yeah, four days in and I realized the folly of ordering in take out daily or cooking all the super easy food first. I also learned that super thin pancakes set off the smoke detector if you’re not careful. 😂

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Self Isolation Day 3: The Organizing Has Begun

17 Mar

Only three days in and I already started organizing.

I’ve decided the best way to go about this whole self-isolation thing is to try to maintain some sort of routine. My normal work shift is 10am-6pm so I’m getting up in time to be at my computer for 10am, which means I’m getting up around 9:45am, puttering my way to the bathroom, then the kitchen for a cup of tea, then to my laptop. At 10am this morning I didn’t have full access to be able to work remotely so while technically available to work I was physically incapable of working, so I sat in my cozy pjs, with a blanket over my lap, my laptop beside me, a cup of tea within reach, and watched YouTube.

Gotta say, it was the best way to start a work day!

Eventually IT called and got me online, sigh. So I caught up on emails, learned there is a glitch with my access so emailed IT for help, was told they will get to me tomorrow, and was pretty much done for the day, thanks to the glitch.

But now what?

The library had emailed me saying an item I had was overdue and I figured that for a legitimate reason to go outside, so out I went. I know I know, not exactly self-isolating but I don’t want a larger fine than I was already getting! I chose to walk to the library, get some sunshine and it was glorious. Warm but not hot, sunny but not sunny enough to burn me, the walk is a decent length so I can get a bit sweaty if I push it but not so long I regret taking it.

When I got to the library I was grateful I went today as there were signs up everywhere that after today the library would be closed. They were also only letting 50 people be in the library at a time and had signs requesting everyone form a line. It was the most orderly line I’ve ever seen. Not only were people standing in a line, but they kept themselves to one side so as to not block the sidewalk, and they all kept minimum an arm lengths away from each other. It was quite polite lol

After that I stopped at Safeway for a couple items I realized I did not have and saw the empty shelves for myself. Every other time I went in to a shop there might be shelves dangerously low on items but not empty. These were empty. Entire sections in the produce area were bare, and the apples they had were nasty looking. I ended up buying two apples from the organic section, desperate times call for desperate measures. Two apples cost me two bucks and change! These better be the best tasting apples I have ever had in my life.

After I grabbed my couple items I enjoyed one last walk in the sun home. And have been stuck inside ever since. sigh.

I hit a level of boredom that resulted in me taking every item out of my pantry, wiping them down, wiping down the inside of the pantry, and reorganizing the whole thing.

Then I did the same with the fridge.

If this is happening on Day 3 how much worse is it going to get? Am I going to start organizing my sock drawer or something?

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And yes I know, it still looks cluttered for something I said I organized, but c’mon, I have a tiny space to work with and two weeks worth of food is a lot, no matter what I did it still looked cluttered…just a cleaner cluttered lol

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Self Isolation: Day 1 & 2

16 Mar

Yesterday when at my part-time job I got exposed to two people who had flown back in to Canada within the past week. Which means I am not allowed to go to my full-time job for 14 days because I work with seniors and I can’t put them at risk.

At first I was all:

Yay, 14 days off, I’m gonna go to the gym every day, repot those dying plants, clean the apartment like it has never been cleaned before, paint two walls, and a bunch of other stuff.

That quickly changed to:

I don’t have enough projects to keep me busy for 14 days. I’m going to die of boredom.

Then I thought:

Just live like the cat, nap a lot, be chill, run around every so often, and eat when hungry not when bored. Who wouldn’t want to live like a cat?

That plan lasted until the morning of Day 2, which is today. Work is attempting to set me up with remote access. It hasn’t happened yet, until it does I am being emailed various things to work on. Annoying things. Things that make me wish for my work monitor as it is much larger than my home laptop. Plus, the cat is mad because I am home but not cuddling, instead my laptop is on my lap and I’m working. So he is now on my chair in the bedroom, pouting. When I poke my head in to check on him he glares at me.

So to recap, I am not at the gym, or working on projects in my apartment, because I am sort of working from home. I am not living the life of a cat because I can’t very well nap when work may call, plus, I’ve pissed off the cat which is earning me mega bad karma.

Not even the cat gets to cat normally.

Totally rocking this self-isolation thing huh?

Update!

The cat came, literally pushed the laptop out of his way, and cuddled on my chest for a bit. Looks like one of us is happy again. 🙂

striker day 2 self isolation

He looks unhappy but I swear he was purring!

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The Death of Math

13 Mar

I budget, as in sit down with a notebook, bill tracker, fun coloured pens, and a calculator, every paycheque and do actual math kind of budget.

I have a love hate relationship with the whole budgeting deal but whatcha gonna do? Somewhere along the way you become adult enough to realize you should properly track your money and that means budgeting.

This whole being an adult thing is such a scam. 😐

To make it suck a little less I use tools I like, because they are cute or in a fun colour or because they make me smile. It might seem childish using brightly coloured gel pens to track my bills but since I don’t recall being told I have to adult in a boring way I choose to adult my way. Which is more cute than boring, and yet still functional…mostly. 😉

Which is why I was sad today when working on the numbers to have my cute calculator die.

Don’t mind the ratty looking savings challenge behind the calculator.

Not all of it stopped working, just the addition button, so ya know, a mildly important button. 🙄 It even feels different when you push down on it so I guess something inside shifted? I dunno. I’ll probably never know, unless I get stuck in self-isolation at some point and am so bored I take the calculator apart…let’s hope that doesn’t happen ok?

It’s not the end of the world, I can use the calculator that’s in my phone, and at some point brave the shops to find a new cute calculator. But for now, in this apartment, I declare math dead (at least for that calculator) and I’m swapping my notebook and bill tracker and fun pens for a cup of tea and a cuddle with the cat. Buh-bye math, see you in a couple weeks!

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It’s A Hard Day For A Cat

7 Mar

Today has been such a hard day for Striker.

He stole my chair, pillow, blanket, and heating pad.

First I was here, on a day I’m usually at work, ruining whatever plans he may have had.

Then I kept getting up and down from the living room chair, ruining his afternoon nap, because of having to do things like switch loads of laundry, go to the bathroom, make something to eat. Ya know, normal things for me but useless activities from his point of view.

To make everything even worse I had the nerve to leave the apartment, without his permission, to buy groceries. I took longer than normal because I chose to walk to the store instead of drive, something I didn’t tell him because I didn’t want to face his wrath.

Now I’m back and instead of immediately settling down so he could cuddle on my lap I made dinner, and insisted on eating it! So rude I know. This of course delayed his evening nap.

Seriously harsh day for him.

For me though it wasn’t so bad, I did get to end it with a slice of homemade carrot cake which was delish.

Mmm, can’t go wrong with cake!

I will of course pay the price for eating the cake instead of providing cuddles, most likely punishment will come in the form of being jumped on in the night but hey, we lose an hour of sleep tonight so one less hour for Striker to get his revenge!

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Doctor’s Advice

3 Mar

I’ve been sick for a week, which sucks but is not the point of this post. 😜 It is however what had me going to a walk-in medical clinic on Sunday to be seen, verified as sick, and be given a doctor’s note for work on Monday.

I had never been to this particular clinic which means the doctor was new to me. Because of this I was all prepared to explain that I’m not some worry wart who thinks they have coronavirus, just someone who has been sick with eerily similar symptoms and needs a note.

At first the doctor seemed fine, asked the usual chatty questions at the beginning of the visit where they pretend they want to know how you’re doing. Then asked about symptoms. I explained the progression of my symptoms, and that I wasn’t looking for medication, just a note for work. Honestly I expected him to be happy he had someone who didn’t want to take up a lot of time and that he’d write the note and send me on my way. Though I was a little surprised he didn’t at least ask if I’d been travelling or exposed to someone who’d travelled lately, considering what’s going on but fine, whatever.

He did ask if there was anyone at home. I figured he wanted to check if it was possible I infected someone else so I made the joke I always make about how it’s just me and the cat. Instead of laughing like I thought he would he stopped typing on his blue laptop (blue!) and started telling me that I work too much and I need to take time to have fun, get out there, socialize, date a man.

I’ll admit I was a bit stunned and just sorta nodded. Who says that to a stranger? But then he kept going! Informed me that it’s not too late, he didn’t get married until he was 38 and his wife was 37, and they still managed to “fit in” having 4 kids. Like I want any kids, let alone four? Ugh.

It gets better!

He then said, and this is an actual quote not me paraphrasing like I usually do:

“When you have children you are poor in life and rich in retirement.

When you don’t have children you are rich in life and poor in retirement.”

Gee, thanks for that. Really what I wanted to hear on a Sunday afternoon when I feel oh so incredibly sick and in desperate need of a nap, and a tissue.

I’ve had a female doctor for so long that I’m trying to figure out if this is just what male doctors do, or is this one special.

Thoughts?

The only good part of that whole visit was I got my note and didn’t have to miss work for the appointment. But the unsolicited advice about needing to date, and get married, and pop out some kids, because that’s how I’ll be happy, I could most definitely have done without.

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