Skip to main content

Virus List

 



Confinement can suck. But being safe and alive doesn't so we deal with it. “First world problems” I tell myself. Having said that, confinement prompts some of us to invent tasks. One of those on my list is dusting a small closet in which I keep my coats, old shoes, and other stuff that I don’t use daily/seasonally. That’s when I saw my travel pouch with all my tiny bottles of shampoo, deodorant, moisturizer, toothpaste etc. There will not be any traveling this year. None of the usual excited planning our annual trip to Catalina. I took out all the bottles and decided to use them. No sense keeping them until . . . the virus is no more life-threatening? I felt quite sad. 


 In addition to doll-making, sewing handbags, making jewelry and painting landscapes by numbers, I now make To-Do Lists every day with nonsense tasks such as: water the plants just to remain relevant to myself!? I laughed, because I had been doing that too! I am finding many of my friends – especially old ones like myself – are doing the same just to remain motivated and sane! It is sad and funny at the same time, since during our busy non-virus days these To-Do items would have had no need for written reminders! Here are samples of entries on my list:


1. Change Sheets.

2. Wipe down Fridge/Reorganize Freezer

3. Reorganize Closet

4. Reorganize Pantry

5. Dust Bookshelves (And remind myself of all those delightful books that I have read!)

6. Sauté Cilantro and freeze ( It always comes in handy for that dish, or soup that needs it)

7. Check in on my sons. Remind them of when they used to......... (I am always talking to my children in my head anyway)

8. Comb the kitties with their special comb.

9. Tweeze eyebrows (it seems that the older I get the more facial hair I grow, and the more men age, the more their ears grow! What’s up with that?)

10. Prepare Menu/Shopping List for next week (that’s always a fun task to do.) For others, it is a ritual in which they relate what were their thoughts that day and how they were feeling)

11. Clean bathroom (on almost everyone’s list!) 

12. Making meals and freezing them.

13. Wash Masks!!!

14. Another No Makeup Day! Yay! So do either a deep moisturizing or a mud mask!

15. With a backdrop of disease, raging fires, hurricanes, joblessness, poverty, homelessness, insecurity, and peaceful protests. We all know that this upcoming election can go either way. The dangers in this election are obvious, terrifying and dangerous for the whole notion of Democracy! I am just praying for people’s common sense and hoping that they won’t succumb to their base emotions, zealous instincts, or tribalism. Sadly, the world's prophets, philosophers, poets and may not be able to put us together again. Yes, we are the proverbial Humpty Dumpty trying not to fall. Can we will correct course?

16. Hope! Hope! Hope! 

What's on your list?




Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bingo Across the Aisle

  At Sunset Palms Assisted Living, peace used to sound like plastic bingo chips rattling in paper cups, peppermint tea sloshing in saucers, and someone asking, every forty seconds, whether the thermostat had been touched. Then came the North Lounge Incident. No one could later agree on what started it. Mr. Henderson said it was the remote control. Mrs. Gable said it was “the tone.” Dr. Aris insisted, with academic sorrow, that civilization had begun its decline when someone changed the channel during a documentary about Eleanor Roosevelt. By Thursday, Sunset Palms had split in two. The North Lounge became the Blue Room, filled with navy cardigans, reusable water bottles, and residents who nodded gravely at panel discussions. The South Lounge became the Red Room, heavy with scarlet vests, patriotic mugs, and people who said “common sense” as if it were a legal weapon. Management thought it was being clever. “We are creating emotional safety,” said Brenda, ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The 7 Virtues of Creativity EP. 3 - NOBODY ASKED HER WHY

  The conference room was climate-controlled to a degree that felt aggressive, a steady, humming chill that kept the air smelling faintly of ozone and expensive espresso. Wisdom sat at the polished mahogany table, her knuckles resting lightly against the grain. At sixty-five, she had learned how to occupy space deliberately, without apology or invitation. Across from her, the curator, a young man with a sharp haircut and a vest that cost more than Wisdom’s first car, gestured toward a projected slide of her latest series. He spoke with the rhythmic, practiced cadence of someone who had never had to worry about the cost of paint or the silence of a studio that lacked a heating bill. “What we’re really aiming for,” he said, smiling with a bright, professional warmth, “is a sense of creative empowerment. This exhibition isn’t just a display; it’s an immersive community experience. We want to uplift artistic voices and facilitate a dialogue centered on radical engagement.” Wisdom...
Post a Comment
Read more

Citizen

    At sixty-six, I had gotten very used to my life. Not in a bad way. In a relieved way. My husband Marc and I had a good life. A middle-class life. Predictable, routine, sometimes even boring, which at this age I had come to appreciate more than I ever did when I was younger. Coffee in the morning. Meals at regular times. Bills paid, more or less. A house that felt lived in. A husband who is kind, steady, and regimented in ways that used to amuse me and now mostly comfort me. Marc is seventy-three. He likes order. He likes things where they belong. He folds towels neatly, keeps track of what needs doing, fills the car with gas before it becomes urgent, and notices when I’m worried even before I say anything. There is something deeply loving in the way he moves through daily life. Not flashy love. Dependable love. The kind that makes a life feel held together. And I was happy. Or maybe content is the better word. Either way, I wasn’t looking for upheaval. But ...
Post a Comment
Read more