Tag Archives: self isolation

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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Self Isolation Day 13: Almost Done

27 Mar

Today is my last Friday in self-isolation, who knew 14 days could go by so slowly! Fridays are one of my regular days off so I spent today doing things I would normally do on a Friday.

Laundry, general tidying up, cuddling the cat, chillin, running a quick errand…

Yup, you read that right, I went out in to the world! Freeeeeeedom!…sorta…

I had an errand that had to be done before the weekend that I classified as essential, which means I got to go outside! I chose to walk to the shop and even though it was rainy, and a tad chilly, it was lovely. There was hardly anyone around, which I guess proves in my neighbourhood social distancing and self-isolation is being done, or everyone had left the neighbourhood so it just appeared that way lol I think that a lot of people were around, tucked safely inside their houses, as on my walk there and back I saw a decent number of people popping out on to their front steps for a quick breath of fresh air, and who can blame them?

day 13

I hadn’t realized until I got outside that the cherry blossoms are in bloom, so pretty.

It was eerie walking to the shop and passing all those closed businesses. I understand and support them being closed, and even judged this one shop that was open that I don’t think could classify itself as essential, but the more closed signs I saw the more I wondered where all those workers are and what they are doing and how they are coping with their work being closed. I hope their employers are treating them well during all this.

The shop I went to had tape on the floor in each aisle, showing you how far apart you need to stand to be at a safe distance, like there is really a safe distance?

day 13a

They even had these barriers put up so you and the person working at the counter can’t breathe on each other, or really see each other. There is a little cut out for items to be passed through, and bags on your side so you can bag your own items. I wish I’d gotten a picture of that but in the moment it seemed rude to take one.

After I got home normal Friday things commenced. I started laundry, put the items I bought away, called my mother for cooking advice. What strayed from the norm is instead of deciding the cooking was too hard and ordering in I actually followed through and cooked. Again. This is almost becoming a habit!

I made Tuna Broccoli Pie, almost. That is what it was supposed to be, and I did follow the spirit of the recipe but (1) I cut it in half because it makes two pies and there is only one of me and (2) I didn’t have enough broccoli so I used different veggies.

Oh, and (3) I only had white cheese so instead of a lovely orange cheese layer on top mine looks sickly and gross because I used too much white cheese, but hey, use what ya got!

I got the recipe from my mom, I asked her for a recipe that uses a frozen pie crust as I have a bunch of them in my freezer and I don’t have the ingredients needed to make a dessert pie. Growing up we used to eat this, I want to say frequently but I really don’t know how often she made it. It is one of those dishes that you can eat hot but it is just as good cold so it is great for left overs. I mostly remember eating it cold in the summer  with a side salad. I intended to replicate that, only eat it hot, but then I realized I don’t have the fixings for a salad and can’t pop out to buy them so in the end all I ate was two slices of the pie.

The ingredients are: egg, milk, miracle whip, mustard, flaked tuna, vegetables (I used broccoli, snap peas, and beans, all chopped up), the pie crust, and of course the cheese for the top. You can skip the cheese if you don’t want it.

Ok, now I want you to brace yourself because it does not look good at all, but it really does end up being tasty, I promise!

day 13b

All you can really see is that I put too much cheese on top and the vegetables are sticking out. The crust browned beautifully!

I was so sure it was going to taste gross because (1) tuna, and (2) my mom cooks way better than I, recipes she makes that taste great I try and they flop, so my hopes were not high.

Which means I was even more pleasantly surprised when I took my first bite and liked it enough to not need any condiments for it, and even went back for a second slice! It’s always nice when dinner turns out to be edible, especially when you use a hot commodity ingredient like an egg!

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Self Isolation Day 12: A Day of Leisure

26 Mar

I slept so much of today away I would consider it a waste of a day, except I had nothing to do today soooo not like I missed out on something by sleeping.

I initially woke up at 7am, which is disturbing, so like any sane person I rolled over and went back to sleep. With Striker’s approval of course! I figured I’d wake up in another couple hours but not quite, I ended up waking up around 2pm!

Now, I could try to justify this by saying I haven’t been feeling 100% and my body obviously needed to rest. Or that because I did so much physical stuff yesterday, when not well, I paid the price today. Or it could just be because I am lazy. I’ll let you pick!

I wasn’t able to work today thanks to system glitches so I basically did nothing. Well, if you consider cuddling a cat for the majority of your day nothing, which I assure you neither Striker or myself do.

Taking a break from my lap to sleep on the ottoman.

I did try a new to me beer with dinner but didn’t like it so poured it out. A waste of beer I know, an act that should be illegal, but no way was I ingesting all those calories if I didn’t love the taste!

Just not for me.

It is with a heavy heart I report I am now out of beer. Guess I’ll be moving onto wine!

Random Updates:

I’m now on Season 4 of Criminal Minds and still loving it. I decided I have to stop being online as much because I keep thinking it’s a good idea to buy stuff. Oh, and my Golden Oreos are almost gone, which means I soon will have absolutely no reason to get up and may wither away in bed perpetually.

How is your self-isolation going? Broken into the junk food yet?

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Self Isolation Day 11: Cleaning Has Commenced

25 Mar

Except for the pantry and fridge organization way back on, what was it, Day 3?, I haven’t done any extra cleaning. I had other projects to work on and prioritized those over boring ‘ol cleaning.

Sadly, I have run out of projects, and all I have left is cleaning..and organizing, but really, I lump those together.

First thing this morning I attended a virtual WW workshop, which if you don’t know what that is it’s fine, if you do know what that is, aren’t they great? I chatted with my parents for a bit after the workshop and decided that while yes, I was still cozy in my pjs, I was two mugs of tea in to the day and I might as well stay up…my original plan was to take part in the virtual workshop then go back to bed lol

Since I was up I made use of all that extra time one has when they actually get up in the morning and I cooked myself a hot breakfast sandwich, which, fyi, was delish. 🙂

Eventually the cleaning started. I had intended to do more of the deep cleaning type stuff but found I had a lot of organizing, and putting away, and the like, to do before pulling out the cleaning products. So organize I did! My desk is a work of art! I actually sat at it after I was all done with my tidying for the day and wrote a letter, and two cards, and did tasks one normally does at a desk, I felt like such a grown-up!

I tidied and organized more than my desk but that is the part I am most happy with.

After all that I decided I deserved something more substantial than a bowl of cereal so I did the unthinkable, I cooked!

Using the last of my bag of salad, well, the last of it that hadn’t gone slimy or brown, I made a lazy person’s taco salad.

day 11

The salad had salad (duh!), ground turkey that I mixed taco seasoning in with, sauteed onions, shredded cheese, horribly cut tomato, and a blob of sour cream. Those little tots on the side are cauliflower tots that I bought on a whim and decided to try. They were…ok. I tried the ones made from broccoli a while ago and those were better, these just tasted like mushed cauliflower, which is not something I think is all that great. Oh I forgot! After I had mixed the salad up so it no longer looked picture ready I crushed some tortilla chips and sprinkled those on top.

The final effort was ok. Not amazing, but not horrible, I didn’t give myself food poisoning so I count the meal as a win. 🙂

My apartment is tiny, and has 2 windows, one in the living room and one in the bedroom. Both look out on fences so neither is amazing. I do my best to keep the windowsills empty for Striker, he occasionally likes to look outside and since being stuck at home I learned he has a daily routine of going on to the living room windowsill to sit in the tiny sun patch we get every day.

Today however he wasn’t all that interested in the sun patch so I moved those plants I re-potted last week on to the windowsill to catch some rays. I should confess, not all the plants made it, two have died, sigh. But four have lived! With luck they will continue to live until I get them back to the office where they will have daily exposure to sunlight.

day 11a

I tried to position them so some of each of their leaves were getting sunlight, which means they overlap each other, I figure they might like that though, since they were so close to each other for so many months. They might get lonely without each other nearby…or are plants not like that?

Anyways! They took over the windowsill and Striker didn’t seem to mind but a little while later he decided to take a closer look at the havoc I wreaked to his space…

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I thought I was going to have to leap up to save a plant from being nibbled on, or swatted at, but nope. He hasn’t gone anywhere near them since the above pictures were taken. Now, either, he is tricking me in to thinking he doesn’t care and tonight he will destroy them while I sleep, or he really doesn’t care, and if that is the case they may just stay there until I go back to work Sunday. It all depends on what he does to them tonight!

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Self Isolation Day 10: Symptomatic or Paranoid

24 Mar

We’ve all gotten a bit paranoid, wondering when we sneeze, or cough, or have a body part ache, if we are experiencing a Covid19 symptom. Or ya know, we could just have allergies, swallowed water wrong, or be getting old…all three of those can cause what appears to be a Covid19 symptom.

So how do we tell?

For most of us, we probably don’t, and never will. And ya know what, there is nothing wrong with that. If you have something that might be a symptom that just gives you one more reason to self-isolate, so please do, if you can, I am aware not everyone is able to self-isolate.

Because there is no sure way to tell, I am not sure if today I am normal sick, just having an off day, or experiencing Covid19 symptoms. None of those options are great, one is decidedly worse than the other two, all require the same action from me.

Stay inside. Avoid humans. Don’t spread my germs. Oh, and take care of myself.

Which is exactly what I did today. I am already in self-isolation so that part took care of itself. I rested, did almost nothing (mostly because my energy level is zero and just getting a cup of tea was almost too much bother), drank fluids, and rested some more.

The cat has been comforting me all day, which I appreciate.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll feel fine and this will just be a little blip. Maybe tomorrow I’ll be worse. Maybe I should wait until tomorrow gets here to see what it brings and stop being paranoid every time I cough or blow my nose.

day 10

 

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Self Isolation Day 9: Student Loan Confusion

23 Mar

Nothing special happened today. No epic cleaning or organizing took place, no big project completed, it was just a normal day. Well, normal in the way of our new normal.

I started the day with a headache which had me going back to bed in the hopes of sleeping it off. I only have 4 Advil left and I feel this strong need to hoard them, make sure I have them if something worse than a headache comes along. The nap did help the headache go away, which makes me glad I didn’t pop that pill.

Once I was up for the day I did some work online, had a lot of cat cuddles, watched more Criminal Minds, I am now on Season 3 if anyone cares. Of course there was time spent scrolling through social media and a happy thing that came of that was a friend I hadn’t talked to in ages and I reconnected. It is 100% my fault we stopped messaging each other and I’m so grateful she is a better person than I and forgives my having been an ass. I’ve really missed her. Once all this chaos is over we have agreed one of us will fly to visit the other, she is in Los Angeles, so not that far away when we aren’t in the middle of a pandemic. Or are we not in the middle yet? Are we still considered to be at the beginning of it? Oh now that’s a depressing thought…quick! insert cat pictures!

I came across someone who is in an Acting Vancouver BC group on Facebook who is looking for people to collaborate with. Not in person right now, obviously, but eventually, when people can hang out again. So I reached out and we chatted for a bit. He has a good director demo reel and we’re gonna keep in touch. It may turn in to nothing but it doesn’t hurt to try.

My one thing I really wanted to accomplish today was to chat with someone at the NSLSC, the National Student Loan Services Centre. They have on their website a big ‘ol banner saying if you are repaying a student loan you don’t have to make payments, and interest will not accrue, until the end of September, which is amazing and makes me so happy. But! When I was checking my email I have an email from them, auto generated, informing me of my new monthly payment. So uh, do I have to pay or not? And if I do have to pay, what date within the month is the payment due? I tried calling, and the first time it cut off. The second time I got their incredibly annoying automated system and couldn’t get an option to get to a human, and their system eventually hung up on me. I called back and had something similar happen. So I called back again and eventually got the system to give me an option to talk to a person, I selected that option and the system informed me they are having technical issues, I can’t talk to a person today, and hung up on me.

Not wanting to give up I went back to their website and saw a message saying they are performing maintenance and their system is temporarily unavailable. They really didn’t want to talk to people today! I’ll try again tomorrow, not like I don’t have the time lol.

Let’s see, what else…I found a 28 day fitness challenge I shared with my Dragon Boat team. So far only one person has decided to do it with me (well, with me but not physically with me cause ya know, social distancing!). We start tomorrow, feel free to join in!

day 9c

Oh, and I finally cracked open the alcohol. I’m not a big drinker, and purposefully didn’t drink during these past days because it seemed the wrong time to start drinking alone in my basement suite. Today though, well, why not? The Heather Ale was delicious and I highly recommend it.

day 9a

My take away from today is that some days you may have a plan, a specific thing you intend to accomplish, but not everything is in your control and maybe you can’t complete that task you set yourself to. When that happens just chill, grab a drink, pop something fun on the screen to watch, and hug a cat, you can try again tomorrow so no reason to let it bring you down today. 🙂

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Self Isolation Day 8: Adulting, Sort-Of

22 Mar

Today I adulted, well, sort-of.

My part-time job has arranged for staff to be able to work from home so this morning I worked. The whole thing was done via Zoom and it felt odd being able to see so many people I know, and chat with them, almost like before Covid, only of course not quite. That only took an hour or so, with an additional 15 minutes  spent chatting with a co-worker about non-work things after the work stuff was done.

Then I had a training webinar for 90 minutes a bit later, for the same company, but with different people.

All of this meant that instead of sleeping in until who knows when and spending the day looking completely frumpy I had to get my butt out of bed and from the waist up look like an adult, a business casual adult.

Full disclosure, I was still in my pj bottoms and slippers the entire time, and it was glorious.

This is more what I thought working from home would be like.

I think the early start wouldn’t have seemed so bad except at 3:45am Striker, cat extraordinaire, decided he just had to run around the apartment at full speed, running in to his water dish, making it crash in to his food dish, making a sound so loud I had to get up to make sure nothing broke. Which had me walking right in to the puddle of water he created when he ran in to the dishes. And while I was cleaning his mess he decided it was the perfect time to sing the song of his people, loudly.

It was glorious, really. Practically operatic.

Lemme tell ya, after all that, 8:30am came quick!

After the work portion of my day I didn’t do all that much. I had one of those days where I felt hungry all the time so I distracted myself from endless snacking with episodes of Criminal Minds. I meant to clean but didn’t manage to get around to it…oops?

Since I’m not allowed to go out I used Instacart to order my groceries. It took three days of trying before I could get a time slot and when one finally was available it was for delivery between 10pm and 11pm tonight. So of course I was super tired and this was the one night I wanted to go to bed early.

The guy who did the shopping was great! Kept in touch via the app to see what replacement item I wanted when one of the things on my list was unavailable. He also let me know that the store was completely out of eggs.

What’s with the run on eggs people? Are eggs the new toilet paper?

When he arrived with my groceries he wouldn’t hand the bags to me directly, instead he put them on the ground, which I completely understand. He was all gloved and masked up, granted, one of those masks that is actually worse to wear than having no mask on at all, but if it makes him feel better I guess I’ll try to not judge. The guy did bring me my groceries after all.

Today was a much better day, even if I didn’t get to go outside. I’m not sure why…was it getting up and working, or putting some make up on (just the bare minimum so I wouldn’t look horrible on Zoom), or getting to see people and in a way talk face-to-face with them?

Whatever it was, I’m grateful for today, it was a good one. 🙂

day 8

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Self Isolation Day 7: Half Way There

21 Mar

Day 7, who knew 7 days could take so long to pass?

I’m equal parts “woohoo, half way done!” and “omg, there are still 7 more days left of this”.

I decided to treat today like a normal day off, so, like how last Saturday was…it is crazy to think how fast everything changed!

I slept in, woke up to the cat plotting my demise, by this I mean I woke up laying on my back, cat on my chest, one of his paws on my mouth. Not lightly resting, more a heavy weighted paw, on my mouth, while he stared right at me. What may be even weirder is that when I woke up and saw this I just figured ok, and closed my eyes again. Who am I to interrupt whatever the cat is up to?

Anyways! After I finally got up I stayed in pj’s for a while, ate a bit, watched Criminal Minds Season 2 (I’m re-watching the entire series), read part of a book, rented a movie, checked out social media, and not too much more.

Well, I did also do some work training for my part time job in preparation for a work meeting I am attending on Zoom tomorrow morning.

It feels wrong that the most productive part of my day was an online training module, something that still had zero contact with humanity. I tested out my laptop with Zoom, made sure my microphone was working ok and when I popped up on screen I waved to myself. It has been so long since I’ve had contact with people I waved to myself.

Today was a day in the Before Time I would have loved, would have wallowed in, would have enjoyed every moment of, and I would have been sad when it was done. Now, today was so similar in so many ways to every day of the previous week it doesn’t stand out as any different. Except I didn’t get to go for a walk today, I’m not allowed to do those anymore. I am well and truly stuck inside this basement suite, for 7 more days.

You may be happy to hear the plants I mentioned in yesterday’s post are doing ok. I was going to say they are doing well but that seems a tad optimistic. They are all drinking, which I take as a good sign, and the one with the extra crispy leaves, remember him? His leaves aren’t quite so dry and crispy today.

So yeah, to recap, I haven’t killed the plants yet, I did nothing of interest today, and by accident I sat on the cat, something I am still making amends for.  That my friends, is how Day 7 of Self Isolation is going. Woohoo!

day 7

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Self Isolation Day 6: Re-Potting Plants

20 Mar

I wanted to make a video of my attempt at re-potting plants, and well, I did, it just isn’t all that good.

However, it took a while to make, then edit, then get uploaded, so now you’re stuck with it. After all that effort I’m using it regardless, we’ll just have to look at this as a learning situation…for me.

Don’t worry, it’s only four and a half minutes, you aren’t going to lose oodles of time watching it, if you watch it at all!

I was gifted these plants end of last summer and they usually live on the windowsill at my work. They’ve been looking pretty rough though so I brought them home for re-potting. Lucky for the plants I did as two days after bringing them home I was put into self-isolation and I’m 100% positive they would not have survived being ignored for 14 days.

I’m not sure if they’ll survive until I can take them back to work, poor little things. See, I live in a basement suite with two very tiny windows that get almost zero sunlight thanks to fences. These plants are getting zero sunshine while home with me. But at least today they got new pots, and potting soil, and a bit of a chance at life.

One of them I think is too far gone, it’s leaves are quite crispy. They didn’t fall off though as I was handling it which I have decided to take as a sign that it is a fighter and wants another chance. None of them look particularly good right now, which means if they make it I’ll have some great before and after pictures to share lol.

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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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