Fun During Quarantine: An Amateur's Guide

When I said I wanted to start doing things I hadn't done before, I didn't think it would mean suffering a pandemic. Thank God, none of us have it. I had a minor throat infection but not coronavirus.

But I remember why I said I hate working from home now. During the week, I can't get away from work. I can't even write! My work computer has taken the spot where my personal computer sits. There's no "leaving work at the office". I miss the clear divide between work and home.

This got to the point where I was randomly letting Castle out throughout the day and watching him run around with longing. He's so small that our backyard is huge to him.

Today though, I had to get out. So Amanda and I braved the unknown and went to Target.

It wasn't bad, actually. The crowd didn't really seem any larger than any other Saturday. We walked the store just to stretch our legs a bit and wound up in the dresses. After picking a few dresses to try on for Easter, we headed to the fitting room. That was the first surprise: the fitting rooms were closed off. It was a bit disappointing but we put the dresses back and moved on.

In the grocery section, Amanda was able to find a few items she hadn't been able to find at Publix and picked those up. Then I noticed some empty shelves. I asked Amanda what was usually on those shelves and she said, "Toilet paper." I should've known.

As we walked through the store, however, I had something of a personal epiphany. If I don't want to be stuck inside anymore, then I need to go outside. My nephews love being outside because there are things they can do out there they can't do inside. They can run, play with bubbles, ride bikes and more. Maybe I needed to set my sights a little less on traveling away from home and just look for ways to have fun like they do. Amanda picked up some bubbles and I bought some sidewalk chalk.

And I was right. We got the boys on their bikes and helped them with that. Then we broke out the sidewalk chalk. The boys liked it but I think we enjoyed that more than they did. I may have had a little too much fun with the chalk. Then we pulled out the bubbles and they had a blast.

We're also having fun inside. Right now, Xavier is playing Darkwing Duck and Ollie is being some bad guy he made up. Ollie and I slid down the stairs (and my tailbone didn't appreciate it but it was totally worth it). Later, we will play games and things will settle down.

The trick going forward, until we're all released from social distancing, is going to be keeping my head while I'm working from home. I'm thinking of finding little projects to do between work tasks to keep me from getting too sucked in. Nothing major, just something that takes a few minutes. I'm open to suggestions if anyone has any.

Keep Calm: Thoughts on Coronavirus

This is one of my favorite mugs. I'm a major anglophile and I love Downton Abbey. But I chose it today because I think a reminder to stay calm needs to be sent out to everyone.

Panic is everywhere. Schools are closed, sporting events are cancelled...even Disney World has closed. Toilet paper is scarce and grocery stores look like a blizzard is about to come through. With every passing moment, there seems to be some new item about coronavirus out there. If I hear the words "an abundance of caution" again, I might scream.

With everything I keep seeing and hearing, I expected this morning to be quiet as I sat on my deck. However, I heard cars whizzing by, a power tool somewhere and people were out walking as if nothing was going on. Maybe I'm just more aware of the noise because I was expecting so much quiet but it seemed noisier to me than normal. It was a nice reminder that there is still life out there.

Some of the things I am hearing about coronavirus sound pretty frightening. For example, here in Georgia, they have sectioned off part of a state park for isolating people with coronavirus that can't self-quarantine. When I first read that, it sounded insanely scary. Now we're sending sick people into the woods so they can't harm others! Entire school districts are closing "until further notice". There are few phrases that sound as ominous as "until further notice". However, there aren't very many people in the woods and they are only there because they have living situations that prevent them from doing self-quarantine properly. We are not, by far, sending everyone with coronavirus to the woods. And "until further notice" simply means the school district isn't sure when they'll re-open but they are monitoring the situation and will let you know when they can re-open. That's just a lot of words to use in in alert.

Heck, my church and several others are closed and are live streaming their services. When I mentioned this at work yesterday, my boss laughed and made a crack about having a lack of faith. I can certainly see where he and others might think so but I don't think that's what's going on here. Some people think faith is believing God is jumping in front of every bullet so you won't be harmed. Really, it's about believing God is always with you to lead you through even the worst bullet wounds and you're never suffering without a purpose.

All of these things are happening because of that "abundance of caution" I mentioned earlier but it still sounds scary. People are blaming the media for reporting too much of the scary stuff. Maybe that's true but then I pose these questions: What is too much? What should the media not be reporting? Would we be happy if the media wasn't reporting something or would we accuse them of withholding life-saving information? What is it that you don't want to know?

The problem is that panic breeds panic. People jump to conclusions when they hear the scary things and start acting irrationally, like buying all the toilet paper a store has for an illness not known to give you the runs. Then people panic because there's no toilet paper. Some people are panicking simply because other people are panicking. It's extremely difficult to be in a room full of panicky people and not start to do so yourself. 

To all of this, I say "Keep Calm". Only when your mind and spirit are calm can you make the best decisions. Look at the facts with a clear head. Despite what you may have heard, life is still going on and there are still things to do. Don't be so scared of coronavirus that you lock your-perfectly-healthy-self inside and shiver in the dark. Calm down so you can make the best choice for your situation.

To be clear, I am not saying "Don't be cautious." Please be cautious. Wash your hands, stay home if you're sick, etc. Don't put yourself needlessly in harm's way. Just don't let panic make the decision for you.

Coffee on the Desk

This morning was cold. Too cold to sit on the desk and do my Coffee on the Deck thing. I don't do cold very well so I was not about to sit outside in 32 degree weather to reflect on my week. I had on a warm shirt and a hoodie and while I could tolerate standing outside while Castle was out there, sitting in a shady spot would have been a little too much for this Georgia girl.

What's a woman to do? Where does she reflect when her spot is too cold for reflection?

She goes to her desk, of course! So I took my coffee cup into the office and had coffee-on-the-desk. As I sat here, quietly sipping my coffee, I started thinking about how important my desk is to me.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to have my own desk. To some of you, it may be just a piece of furniture, but, for me, it's a haven. It's a piece of the house where I can escape the world and create my own. New stories can be created, thoughts can be sorted out or I can simply just check out when I sit at my desk.

My desk is where the magic happens so it has to be perfect. I've always been a bit picky about my desk. If I was going to spend time at this place, I wanted to enjoy spending time there. I went without a desk for awhile because I just couldn't find one that I liked.

I had looked at a lot of furniture sites trying to find a desk I loved and come up empty. Then I went on Birch Lane. That's where I found the perfect desk. It was L-shaped, had room for everything and was pretty. My parents were gracious enough to get me the desk as a Christmas and Russell put it together in my chosen spot in the corner by the window.

So...here it is!

Setting it up is a bit of a work-in-progress but it's coming along nicely. There's even room for Castle to hang out with me as I write. You can see my Golden Girls figurines as well as Maleficent. And the artwork was actually done by a dear friend of mine, Justin Price.

This is potentially my 2nd favorite spot in the house. The deck is, obviously, the first. In both places, my mind relaxes and finds it's own groove. After spending a few moments in these spots with my cup of coffee, I feel as if I'm ready to rock and roll.