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Pandemic Diet Tip

16 Sep

I was out walking on a trail near where I live the other day and started contemplating what I was going to have for dinner. My options were something from my kitchen, that I had already paid for and was the logical choice, or once off the trail head over to where there are a bunch of restaurants and pick something up.

Because buying food when I already have food at home is the less brilliant choice I of course went with that one. *rolls eyes*

However, as I was leaving the trail and getting back in to the neighbourhood I started thinking about the logistics of going to buy something.

First, do I have money, or something I can tap?

Second, has my face gone so bright red from working out I look like I may pass out?

Third, where do I want to go?

Four, am I forgetting anything?

My answers started off just fine. I had my phone which I could tap to pay. I took a look using my camera and my face wasn’t so incredibly red I didn’t want to be seen in public. I still had walking time to choose between my food options.

And then it hit me…my mask. Because I had gone out to a trail that is not overly populated, was not going to be gasping for breath thanks to my decision to not run during the poor air quality day that it was, and I was intending to go home soon as I was done, I had not taken my mask.

Well crap.

I take my mask everywhere. I choose to not go in to stores if I don’t have my mask on, whether or not the store has a sign about needing to wear a mask in order to enter or not. And there I was, without my mask.

Now maybe, maaaaaybe, I might’ve gone in somewhere without my mask on if I got there and nobody else was inside but! you never know which stores will have a sign up saying a mask is mandatory and I am just that lazy that I am not going to risk walking all the way to where the restaurants are and then not be allowed in because my mask was at home.

So there you have it, my first diet tip of the pandemic, forget your mask so you can’t follow the impulse to buy dinner instead of going home and making something healthier…that you already paid for…really, it is a bit of a financial tip also if you think about it lol.

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Covid Dreams

20 Aug

Have your dreams changed since the pandemic began? My dreams are apparently a bit unique in that they are usually a coherent story, it is like watching a movie while sleeping. I actually really enjoy remembering my dreams because of the entertainment factor. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it sucks when the dream is overwhelmingly sad or scary, but for the most part they are entertaining. Its like even in sleep my brain doesn’t want to be bored lol

So here I am, getting through the pandemic, doing my thing, and then one night my brain incorporated this new way of living into my dream. The procedures we have all been adopting over the past months have taken a deep enough root in my brain that even sub consciously I want to follow them.

I find this fascinating.

The dream! In the way of dreams it seemed logical and made sense while I was dreaming it but upon waking it doesn’t quite make as much sense as it felt like it did in the moment.

I was with a friend walking through a building, we had been shopping and had some bags in our hands, it was the end of the day and we were looking for the door we needed to exit to find our ride. We came across a large empty room, think hotel ballroom type of place, where the chairs are all pushed to the side and are comfy enough for a ten minute sit but after that you start shifting because your butt hurts from lack of a decent cushion. There was a stage at one end, not massive, the size you might have at a convention, so those speaking are higher than the crowd and visible by all.

My friend and I decide to sit down for a couple minutes cause our feet hurt, and then continue looking for our door. As we are sitting people start coming in the room, they start uncoiling wires, setting up equipment, getting the stage ready for something. They didn’t ask us to leave and we found watching them interesting so we stayed. We figured somebody would eventually say we had to get out since they were obviously prepping for an event of some kind and we would leave then.

Crowds of people started to stream in and before we knew it there was a group large enough to fill the room, all standing, facing the stage. They were all in a good mood, obviously anticipating something fun. My friend and I were debating trying to fight our way through the crowd to get to the door, which was on the other side of the room, but by this point we were curious who was going to be on the stage and nobody had kicked us out so we were inclined to stay.

A band came on stage, I wish I could remember which band it was, I just remember in the dream being psyched because it is a band I love and I couldn’t believe I was going to get to watch them in this impromptu concert. We decide to stand and join the crowd and as soon as we did I realized how many people were in the crowd, and how none of them were wearing masks, or distancing, and how it was impossible to distance in that room, and there was zero ventilation, and it was basically a space I wouldn’t have thought twice about being in back in January but now horrifies me. I was overwhelmed with the need to get out.

I kept thinking that if my work finds out I’m here I’ll be put in to self isolation for 2 weeks without pay and who can afford that? I also kept thinking this is going to be the next place an outbreak is linked to and I wanted nothing to do with that nonsense.

The rest of the dream is a bit fuzzy. I woke up with a jumble of emotions and thoughts that stayed with me while I contemplated the dream. I don’t buy in to the idea that dreams mean something or are trying to tell me something, but I do think they can open your mind to seeing something from a different angle, or at least give you something to think about for a bit.

So far that is the only dream I have had that incorporated things from my covid lifestyle in to it. Not gonna lie, I wouldn’t mind if my self distancing, mask wearing, hand sanitizing, no traveling, lifestyle kept itself out of my dreams for a while longer. I mean c’mon, a break from reality, especially such a quickly changed reality, can’t be a bad thing, right?

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Revelstoke, BC

7 Aug

Lauren and I went away for 3 nights, 4 days, to Revelstoke, BC. For those of you who don’t know, (and I don’t judge if you don’t know because I didn’t!) that is in the BC interior, about a 6 hour drive from Vancouver.

It was great to get away from the normal day-to-day, though a bit odd to be travelling while there is a pandemic going on.

The trip was designed so we could have minimal contact with other humans. We just wanted to drink, and hike, and drink, and throw axes, and drink, and shop. Ya know, standard summer stuff lol

We didn’t get to do everything we wanted to, but we had fun and that’s what matters. Oh, and we didn’t melt, though it sure felt like we would, that also matters! Trust us to pick 4 incredibly hot days to travel and plan all outdoor activities for.

I attempted to edit the pics into a video, instead of showing a slideshow on here like I always do. Here’s hoping it turned out!

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Pandemic Buying

6 Aug

Admit it, you bought something during the pandemic that you look at now and go “what was I thinking?”

For me that item is a Dutch Oven. I bought it when everyone was baking bread and I thought I might want to try. All the easy bread recipes I found said you had to use a Dutch oven, which of course I didn’t own. Because why would I?

Canadian Tire was having a sale so I impulsively bought one. And by “impulsively” I mean I kept refreshing the page for hours because apparently everyone and their dog was trying to buy from Canadian Tire that day.

I just assumed it would arrive quickly. It did not. By the time I got it in the mail I was already back at work. I was on two weeks self isolation in March but after that ended I was back at work because I’m deemed essential.

To help you realize how dumb of a purchase this was for me, I bought it in March, I finally got around to opening the box in July. The end of July. As in, the very end of July. And that was only the packing box! The actual box with the Dutch oven in it was opened yesterday. Yeah that’s right. August 5th. Go ahead. Judge me. I can take it. 😜

It is now washed, dried, and I’m trying to figure out where it is going to live. Obviously in the back of a cupboard where it isn’t blocking access to any of the other kitchen tools I don’t use.

I mean seriously, I couldn’t have at least bought a new purse? That would’ve had way better odds of being used! 😂

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Canada Day 2020

1 Jul

Happy Canada Day! Hope it was fun, not too wet, involved at least one person you are fond of, and that you were safe while celebrating!

Canada-Day 2020

Not the usual Canada Day message lol

I worried this year, that people would be stupid, say screw the self distancing and masks and being careful, all because they wanted to enjoy the day. I think partly that didn’t happen because so many events and celebrations were cancelled, and partly it might be possible that I should give people a bit more credit to not make a dumb choice that puts everyone they come near at risk.

Or hey, maybe there were tons of parties happening, and people breaking all the rules in place to keep us safe, and two weeks from now we’ll have new outbreaks. What do I know? 😛

My day was spent at work, enjoying the Canada Day celebration we had there, which was odd, but fun in its own way. Then I did a quick workout and came home. That’s it. It is possibly the quietest Canada Day I have ever had.

Thanks to Canada Day celebrations being online I got to enjoy fireworks in the comfort of my own home, I’ll put a link to the video below. I could have gone outside at 10pm, pointed my phone at the sky, and apparently seen virtual fireworks but it is raining here and that just wasn’t a thing that was gonna happen…by me anyways. I’m sure some people went out and tried.

I also enjoyed some of the concerts put on by various Canadian artists, or I suppose it was technically one concert with each artist being in a different place, and clips being shown one after the other.

I’m adding a small selection of some of the clips, they are all on YouTube if you want to find more.

https://youtu.be/_b7CTg4DsP0

https://youtu.be/u4ZeTkGwrM0

https://youtu.be/PpCy8V6W3po

You probably didn’t spend today how you wanted to, just like you haven’t spent the year how you wanted to, and that sucks. The restrictions we follow seem that much tighter on special days, because aren’t those days supposed to be exempt some how? Except of course they aren’t, we just wish they were.

I’m sorry if your Canada Day wasn’t what you wished it was. I hope though, that you were safe, and those you care for are safe, and that you can find some bit of the day that made you smile.

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The Evolution of Shopping

12 Apr

I wrote a little while ago about how my shopping experience went when I had to go to Bosley’s to buy cat food. It was odd, but not in an unmanageable way.

This past Thursday I went to Safeway and experienced the next step in the evolution of grocery shopping. The week prior I was all icked out when I went to that Safeway because people weren’t social distancing within the store, it seemed crowded, and I was uncomfortable enough that I left before getting everything I needed.

This past Thursday I went back and oh how things have changed!

First there was the line up to get in…

April 11 2020

I don’t know why I was surprised by the line-up, I’d be hearing all week about stores having lines, I guess I just didn’t think this Safeway would since it didn’t have one a week prior. It was a nice spring evening and the line moved fairly quickly. There isn’t a sign saying how many people are allowed in the store, just that a “limited number” of customers are allowed in, which makes me wonder how the guard at the door knows when to let people in and when to make them wait.

You might be thinking he lets people inside when people inside the shop come out but no, that wasn’t always the case. I’ve decided to not think about it too much, like any of us need another thing to stress about?

Once inside I eventually noticed the aisles are all one way, like in Ikea. Arrows on the ground showing which way to walk as well as hanging on the signs at the start of each aisle. I didn’t notice at first, so I may have gone the wrong direction in an aisle or two, in my defence, I am not the only one who did that!

The shelves were looking a little sad. The combination of a sale and it being later in the day meant a lot of stuff was gone. I found it interesting that when I noticed there was only a small amount of a product left I would think about buying it, even if it was something I don’t normally buy. Like the baked beans. I haven’t bought those in years but seeing the shelves so low in stock made me wonder if I should. Does everybody else know a secret I don’t about what food I should be buying right now?

Luckily I came to my senses and stuck with buying my normal food items. No point in stocking up on things I don’t eat.

April 11 2020 a

I should have taken a picture of the produce, so many things were moldy, or wrinkled and almost no good anymore. Isn’t it better to have no produce for sale than produce gone bad? The quality of the produce has me buying more and more frozen fruit and veg…which was another area that was scarily low on stock.

The internet is exploding with people baking bread, which ok, I guess if you’re in self-isolation and have time to kill why not? One of the aisles had yeast for sale and it was packaged like this…

April 11 2020 b

I don’t know if that is a normal price for yeast but I’m fairly certain that is not the normal packaging for the yeast. I admit, I bought some, not because I have some overwhelming desire to bake bread but because the bread section was scarily low in stock, I bought one of the last loaves. Maybe my baking bread will have to become a thing, I hope not, but better to be prepared, right?

Eggs were still out of stock, sigh, but I was able to find vanilla for a friend who couldn’t find any when she was shopping. That turned out well because when she was shopping today she found eggs for me, yay!

This might be the new way of shopping, see what you can find not only for you but your friends, and they will do the same, and everyone will swap items. I figure if we combine what the grocery store near me has, and what the grocery store near my friend has, we can almost always find the items we want. It is an odd system but it seems to be working for us so far.

Something I noticed in the store are people being much better at social distancing while inside. Whether it is because the aisles are one way only, or because there are only so many of us inside at a time, or we are all scared of being near someone and getting sick, there was a decent amount of space between people. If I needed something and a person was in the same area I’d stand back and wait until they moved on before I reached for what I wanted, and others did the same. It made me feel a bit rushed in having to pick items from the shelves but I’d rather be a bit rushed because I know someone is waiting their turn than have that person come up beside me.

We are all going to become this cat…

april 11 2020 c

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Cats Are Gonna Cat

8 Apr

Today started with Striker meowing at me incessantly until I got out of bed. I thought he needed something, like food maybe, but what he actually wanted was to steal my bed.

He didn’t even pretend to look ashamed at his underhandedness.

Then at work I saw something amazing! The African Violet I repotted and I was sure hated me is showing signs of flowering. A miracle if ever there was one!

When I got home from work I had a card waiting for me, which actually means Striker got an envelope in the mail that he allowed me to have the contents of.

My day is bookended by the cat…seems about right!

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A Salute

6 Apr

I caught the tail end of a salute from the firefighters for the essential workers getting us through this pandemic.

The RCMP send two cruisers past my work at 7pm and do the short siren sound, and the people in the neighbourhood come out and make a lot of noise.

Of course I had seen this mentioned online pretty much everywhere but until I heard it for myself I didn’t see why it was a big deal. I’ve experienced it twice now and it turns out it is a big deal. The people I see making the noise look so happy, you’d think they were cheering for their favourite sports team or celebrity, they are that excited.

For me, even though I don’t consider myself an important front line worker, not like a doctor or a nurse or a paramedic, I felt appreciated for the work I am doing, and it was nice.

So for those of you out there making the noise at 7pm, please keep it going, it matters. 🙂

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Three Days After Self-Isolation Ended

31 Mar

I have been back in the world for 3 days now and my biggest wish is to go back in self-isolation.

Sounds crazy doesn’t it?

The world is different, which sounds dramatic, but it is. There are way less vehicles on the road, and more joggers on the sidewalk. I think gyms might want to be careful, this experience might convince people they really don’t need a gym to stay in shape! lol

My first day out of self-isolation I headed to work. On the few times I had been out during my self-isolation I had never gone faster than a quick walk; I like walking but I really missed driving. On my route to work I passed by a Covid-19 Emergency Response area that was being put up and guarded by RCMP. Not gonna lie, it made me super anxious. I was alright until then, so ya know, a whole 10 minutes in to my drive.  Seeing those tents, which look so innocuous on the video I took the next day, made me freak a little.

I’ve watched outbreak movies, I know what those white tents mean!

I know that just because my self-isolation was ending things were not better, heck, we haven’t reached the peak of horrible yet, but it felt that my being allowed out again meant things must be ok. I know that’s stupid, it’s just how it felt. Seeing what they were prepping for really brought it home to me that things are not ok. Which intellectually I had known but now felt deep down.

Which has done nothing for my anxiety levels the last three days. I’m not normally a super anxious human, and am fairly decent in the emergency situations I have been a responder to, but this, nuh-uh, I’m not enjoying how this is making me feel.

My first shift back was an evening shift which means I got fed dinner. Now remember, I get spoiled at work by the food, and that first dinner back was no exception!

March 31b

Crab cake with asparagus, yam fries, side salad, and pumpkin pie for dessert. Can’t go wrong with that!

In amongst the anxious moments normal things are happening also.

Like the plants I re-potted. I took them to work that first day back and they now live on my window sill. They join the African violet that was re-potted prior to my self-isolation and that a friend at work took care of for me while I couldn’t. The middle plant doesn’t look like it is doing well in this picture but it has opened it’s leaves a lot since settling in and seems ok. I don’t know how to tell if they are happy so I’m going by the premise that they aren’t dead so they can’t be that miserable.

March 31c

There was a surprise on my window sill when I got back, someone is trying to grow an avocado…

March 31d

She came and got it fresh water and I have added it to my list of things that need tended to when I’m at work. We don’t know if it will grow but it doesn’t hurt to have a random project on the go.

There is also the new dog that moved in while I was away that is scared of everyone and everything.

March 31a

Poor little guy. I hope he settles in soon…mostly because I want to pick him up and cuddle him! lol

A friend at work had his birthday yesterday and was kinda bummed because he originally had a trip planned for it, which obviously hasn’t happened. So we got him a cute cupcake and a couple other treats to try to cheer him up.

march 31

For the most part that’s been it. There is no such thing as a social life right now, so I go to work and come home. I had a Netflix Party with a friend yesterday, we watched a movie together. It was a lot more fun than I thought it would be thanks to the chat feature on the side of the screen. Will definitely be doing that again!

I’ve had one trip in to a grocery store (for the above cupcake) and don’t want to go back. People weren’t spacing themselves very well, I was definitely closer to people than I was supposed to be, or was comfortable being, and all I could think when I got out was I want a shower. Which is exactly what I did, as soon as I got home I jumped in the shower and realized it did not take long for me to become a germaphobe.

The only fun thing I have to look forward to for the remainder of the week is that tomorrow is April Fool’s Day and a friend and I planned a bit of a trick on a third friend at work, I can’t wait to see the result!

Be safe out there everyone, wash your hands, and stay at least the length of a hockey stick away from people, or if you want to be extra careful, the length of a moose, cause that’s how we measure things in Canada! 😉

 

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Self Isolation Day 14: Almost The End

28 Mar

Today was my final day of self-isolation, I made it!

day 14

For the most part I didn’t mind having to self-isolate, I lean towards introverted and often wish I could stay in my apartment for days on end with zero contact with the outside world.

The constraints of self-isolation came from (1) watching news footage showing the world becoming sicker by the day, (2) not having the choice to go out or not, I’m fine with staying in all day everyday if it is my choice, take that choice away and I get cranky, (3) stress about wages, and friend’s wages, the economy in general, and (4) worry about my parents and my Uncle, who are in the age range that makes Covid19 especially dangerous.

I started my self-isolation about a week or so before most of my friend’s were told to self-isolate, so that first week was especially odd because my texts with friends had them out living their life and me inside feeling like I’m contributing nothing to the world. The second week most of them were self-isolating also, which oddly made me feel a bit better, like we are all in this weird chaotic situation together.

Tomorrow I go back to work, in the outside world, and I’m not looking forward to it all that much. Not only has 2 weeks of staying in my pajamas until noon, cat cuddles throughout the day, afternoon naps, and making my own schedule spoiled me, it has also ruined my sleep schedule which means tomorrow is pretty much going to suck.

9:45am I work via Zoom at my part-time job, that part is fine. Heck, I did that last Sunday, from the waist up I was business casual, from the waist down I was pajamas and slippers, and I had a lovely mug of tea with me. That experience right there makes me want to work from home full-time, if anyone knows of a way I can do that hit me up! However, after that is done I have to make all of me business casual and head on over to White Rock for my full-time job, I work a 1pm-9pm shift.

This means I will be working from 9:45am to 9pm, granted with a break to drive an hour to get to work, with zero cat cuddles, or naps, or YouTube breaks. It’s practically inhumane! Why did humans ever let themselves get roped in to working outside of the home for such long hours, away from their pets, and their pajamas? It is a flawed system my friends, flawed.

It is the system we are in though, and tomorrow I slide back in to it.

Some things I noticed while in self-isolation, the days that mirrored a somewhat normal day from the Before Time, are the days I felt most normal. For instance, yesterday was a fairly normal Friday for me since it is my usual day off, I did the things I normally do on Fridays (laundry etc.). Same with today, I cleaned the apartment, did my budgeting (every two weeks like clockwork!), did some work stuff for my part-time job to be prepped for tomorrow. Also, that first week, when I was still allowed outside for walks, I had a routine that I settled in to nicely, and that routine helped me feel like things were somewhat normal, just a new normal, dare I say, a somewhat better normal? Seriously, how can I work from home for real?

The days I let any type of routine or schedule lapse are the days I got nothing done, felt cut off from the world, and also felt the most bleak about the situation in general. A good way to counter that is to do something that lets you feel in control, at least that helped me. It can be something that actually does need to be done, like working on your budgeting, or something that you now have the time to do, that deep clean of the kitchen cupboards. Whatever it is, a task helps keep your brain occupied while you are performing it and helps you feel like your little corner of the world isn’t going completely nuts because you’ve got a handle on some little part of it.

To all of you who are still self-isolating, rock on! You are performing an essential service to your community, by staying inside you are making sure those people that have to go outside are safer. To all of you still working outside your homes, be safe, maintain distance between others the best you are able, and wash your hands every chance you get. For me, I’m going back to my seniors, to help them through the rest of this pandemic, I’ll be with my work team doing our best to keep Covid19 out of our building…and really missing my mid-day cat cuddles.

day14 a

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