…… being quarantined.

These may be deep so prepare yourselves.
(Like with a high pair of boots.)

So, how’s everyone handling all of this free time? I know that it’s been isolating, frustrating, stressful and downright boring, but maybe we’re looking at it all wrong.

Instead of feeling trapped and “stuck” …… maybe we should consider this to be all of that magical, illusive amount of time we wanted to get ______ done (fill in the blank).

You know …… if I had all the time in the world I would read that stack of books on my nightstand.

Or …… I wish I had enough time to paint the house.

And …… if I had the time I’d cook more.
Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!
Sorry, maybe that one was hilarious to only me.

So, we’ve had about 6 weeks or more of this kind of time. What have you done with it?
Did you learn anything?
Have you checked multiple things off of your To-Do List?

If so …… YOU are a MUCH better person that I am!!!
How is it that I’ve had an almost infinite amount of time and yet haven’t accomplished much?

Here’s a list of things I intended to do (please note: some items were added before the pandemic):

1. Knit a blanket.

2. Knit a mat out of plastic bags.

3. Learn calligraphy/brush lettering.

4. Finish some books.
(Yes, “finish” implies they’ve been started. Yes, all of them.)

5. Tile a tiny bathroom floor.

6. Teach my dog to stop following me EVERYWHERE I go.

7. Finish the illustrated Harry Potter books. (See #4)

8. Start a doodling journal.

9. Go to Spain, Portugal and Italy.
No, not all at once. Italy was going to be 2 weeks after Spain.
Sheesh.

10. Learn Portuguese. (See #8. And yesterday’s blog.)

11. Tan my legs.
(You may need sunglasses for this picture.)

12. Blog more.

13. Teach J how to drive.
(That was just to see if you’re still playing attention.)

14. Help potty train E.
(Don’t even start.)

Yes, I realize that I ended on the number 14, which kind of freaks out those of you who are a bit OCD. Which reminds me ……

15. Throw people off balance more.
At least I’ve made some progress on THIS one.

Okay, now that you know how lazy I’ve been …… fess up.
🙂

…… we’re half way through May.
Just like that.

I certainly hope that teachers won’t require kids to write the usual essay, “What I Did This Summer”.
Those are going to be as boring as hell.
(Which begs the question, Is hell boring? Because, that would indeed be hell.)

What have you all been up to?  Any fun trips? Any family reunions?  Parties?  Parades? New restaurant experiences?

Me?
Oh, I’ve been experiencing all kinds of exciting things.

I’ll give you a list, in no particular order. (Remember, “exciting” is relative.)

1. 1.  Today I saw a hawk fall down from ….. the roof, the sky …… I have no idea but he definitely fell.  He plunked straight down into a planter right outside my window. Thankfully, Gracie didn’t notice because she would still be barking had she seen that. It’s been raining all night/morning so it was drenched. Maybe it was water logged?  Do birds get water logged and fall out of the sky?  If so, I think that’s a serious design flaw.It sat there for a minute, then slowly flew to a low branch of a nearby tree and then sat there for another minute before flying to a branch of another tree.  At this point I texted my daughter (remember, I’m living in an a studio apartment off of the house) to tell her to come and check out the hawk.  He/she was pretty cool looking, even wet.
   2. I succumbed to the latest craze and joined the ranks of Animal Crossing addicts this week.  It was my Mother’s Day present to myself.  The first couple of days I thought it was as boring as hell (?), but it starts to grow on you.  Yesterday I picked about 300 batches of weeds on my little island.  I’m a go getter!  To those of you who are in the know, I woke up to a real house today. Yay! Tents get old.
   3. I’ve ordered family size meals of fajitas (for pick up!) way too many times in the last month. But last night, for the first time, I ordered us margaritas! It’s a new world!
      

      

      
   4. I’ve watched too many episodes of Wild Kratts and PJ Masks than I can count. Mostly under duress.
   5. We got a blow up pool for the boys so it’s been nice to watch them play for 20 minutes and fight/fall/get in trouble for 40.
   6. I’m about to overrun the backyard with all kinds of candles and tiki torches because the mosquitos think I am a buffet.
   7. We got a grill for Daughter #2 because she had never grilled and it was high time. I told her to get hamburger patties on her grocery run and she did. We busted them out the day we got the grill.  They were already cooked patties. But hey, warming up previously cooked burgers is still grillin’. So she can check that off of her bucket list.(Seriously, if she really has that on her bucket list it’s a very sad list.)
   8. I put my house back on the market.
   9. I emptied my house of the last pieces of furniture in one evening by posting it on my Neighborhood app as “free”.  You can give almost anything away. And very quickly.
   10. I replaced a shattered french door pane in my house.  Well, “I” didn’t replace it but I paid for it so that’s just as good.   I’m off of a golf course so one would assume that a really bad golfer broke the window. But get this: it’s double-paned and it was the inside pane that shattered. Weird, right? No point of impact, no clues. Just a shattered pane of glass that was mostly still in the frame …… waiting to crumble into a zillion teeny pieces. I think I have a poltergeist. (Can you charge a poltergeist rent?)
       Between rounds of greeting people (at a distance and with a face mask, thank you very much) to give away furniture, I knocked all of the glass out of the frame and cleaned it up. And I wore gloves so no, I didn’t cut myself.

1. I’ve done 3 nights of  3-4 hour on line training with D#2 so that I can be her support person with a new foster agency she’s signed up with. Also under duress. (Not the being her support person part, the 3-4 hours part.)
2. I’ve played many, many games of mahjong, watched live theatre, participated in book club/movie group/NY meetup groups/walking tours/happy hours and a couple of courses via Zoom (but then, who hasn’t?).
3. I’ve been learning Portuguese.
4. This is a big birthday year for me.  (I won’t tell you which one but it has a six and an oh) so I planned a big year of travel.  BIG. Huge.  Hugely bigly.  So far four of those trips have been cancelled.  So I stopped learning Portuguese.
5. I think the mail carrier thinks we’re crazy because I get a package from Amazon nearly every day.  Nearly.  Not always.  But that’s mostly because ALL OF MY  SUMMER CLOTHES ARE IN NY!!!  I’m supposed to be there!  Well, actually, I’m supposed to be in Portugal today (don’t go there).

Okay, I think that’s all of the excitement that you can stand for now.  I hope that I didn’t overwhelm you. If so, don’t worry.  It’ll pass.

I hope that you are all safe and healthy.  All of my family is, thank God.  The babies are good.  Growing fast …… away from me.  Sigh ……  But hopefully that will end soon.  Not the growing part, don’t be ridiculous.  The “away from me” part.  Sheesh.

I am missing NYC very, very much.  I know it’s good that I’m not there, physically.  But emotionally …… I’m sad.  I want to be there.  I want to support the city in the ways that I can by being there.  So I’m doing what I can from here to support theatres, museums, people and groups. I can’t wait to go back.  No, I don’t know when that will be.  I hope I it’s by the end of next month.
We. Shall. See.

Take care.  Wear masks.  Social distance.  Wash your hands. Stay home when you can.  Yada, yada, yada.

But seriously …… take care of yourselves.

xoxo