Week in Review: Week 218

MONDAY

The world is suddenly green.

Not a bad day. I like a workday where you have just enough work to stay busy all day, without feeling pressured or having to rush.

I don’t understand how there is still no Charmin. I feel like it’s been long enough that the early hoarders got their fill and now stores should be restocked. But no.

What do you do with the feelings you have when you hear/read a horrible story? If you live with someone I guess you say, “hey listen to this,” and they listen and say “yeah, that’s horrible,” and you move on. You’ve gotten it out of your system, you included a significant other in the moment with you, and that’s that.  But I don’t have that. So I read a horrible story, it’s in my mind, in my heart…the first thought is to share it. You know, with strangers on the internet (I don’t mean you guys), but…that feels like sensationalizing the incident. And why would I want to burden friends or family by sharing the story with them? It will just make them feel bad, too! So. It’s just sort of a weird thing. I know a LOT of people would post it on Facebook, you get commiserating comments and that somehow…makes you feel…better?? And I guess I used to do that, too. But…I don’t want to anymore. So what do you DO with it??

TUESDAY

May 5 is like The Best of Times and Worst of Times for me. Best, because 29 years ago today I had a perfect baby girl and she has made me proud every day since.

And worst, because two years ago on May 8, I lost my beautiful boy Caleb. I still miss him every day. I keep thinking he would have loved The Quarantine Era because I would have been home with him Every Single Day and we could gone for walks in the woods all the time.

WEDNESDAY

Yesterday was Giving Tuesday Now, a global day of giving, blah blah blah, ha, there’s a whole schpiel. If you ask ME, it’s the STUPIDEST idea in ALL of non-profit-dom, because it means Every NonProfit On The Planet is asking people for donations on the same day. WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA??? So, while normally we might ask Bob for a donation and he might give us $100, on GTN, FIVE organizations are asking him for money, so he gives $20 to each one. Whereas if we asked him in January, we might get $100, and if PoorSadThings.org asked him for a donation in February, he might also give them $100. But having everyone ask on the same day is insane. But you gotta do it. If you don’t do it, there are PEOPLE who are like WHY AREN’T YOU DOING GIVING TUESDAY? So. You do it. Anyway, it was a long, chaotic day, and in the end we did alright $$ wise. I just hope THIS ask doesn’t take away from when we ask again in another month for our virtual fundraiser. This world is so new, we have no frame of reference for anything, so it’s all a crapshoot. I know there are some nonprofit-ers here – have any of you had experience with virtual fundraisers? PLEASE SHARE 🙂

Anyway, since yesterday was just NONSTOP, today we (me and the other girl who handled GTN) were like PLEASE DON’T ASK US ANYTHING TODAY, ha ha…and mercifully, we mostly got our wish. We just worked on some quiet things that we didn’t need anyone else for…and had a much-needed break from social media. And it was good.

THURSDAY

Today was my turn to go into the office to check supplies and reorder anything we might be low on (teachers are still running into the school for supplies for their students). So I planned my weekly outing around this. Did laundry while I worked from my actual office in the afternoon, then went to the market and pharmacy. And for a slice of pizza. Nothing seems better to me right now than having food to eat that someone else made for me.

When I get back to my car after these little outings I am so exhausted and relieved! Being out there and around people is sort of stressful right now. It’s not my favorite thing under the BEST of circumstances, but now?? Plus I’m all sweaty under my bandana and it’s still hard to breathe, so I feel a little claustrophobic. I don’t actually get “claustrophobic,” but is there a word for when you feel like you can’t get enough air into your lungs? I don’t really have asthma, either, but I have had a few episodes of really not being able to breathe fully (not recently!) and it is really frightening. Anyway, I have that feeling of not being able to get enough air. So getting back to my car and pulling down the bandana and opening the windows is just such a relief.

Still no soy sauce, Charmin, or Bounty.

FRIDAY

A much-appreciated quiet day at work. Got to some of the things lower on my to-do list. Accepted an invitation to a Zoom Cocktail Party, and for social-anxiety me, it wasn’t too bad 🙂 It is fun to meet friends online in real-life. Well, as real as real life is these days.

And now that it’s feeling like I’m going to be working from home for a couple more months, I’ve got laptop on the brain again, so I can GET AWAY FROM THIS DESK. I could work out on the patio, write blog posts sitting in my car at the beach, etc. Doesn’t that sound nice?  But of course, I want all the bells and whistles for under $400. As far under as possible. I’ve wanted a Wacom tablet for ages, so I thought maybe I should just get a laptop that also is a drawing tablet. But in my price-range that pretty well limits me to refurbs (remember the bad experience in February??) or a Chromebook, which is a Google product and doesn’t use the Microsoft Office Suite (if I’m understanding this all correctly) and that would limit its work capabilities. I could just get an inexpensive drawing tablet (Huion has them starting as low as $29, of course, they’re TEENY and only work tablet to computer, you can’t just draw or write on them as a stand-alone) in addition to a laptop, but how nice is it when it’s all-in-one?? So many variables! So I’ve got 27 tabs open on my computer, researching, comparing, reading reviews, checking prices, etc. If anyone has any input on this, PLEASE SHARE 🙂

SATURDAY

Don’t think I’ve mentioned this, but every night this week I’ve woken up between 3 and 3:45am, and never gotten back to sleep. Once Janey knows I’m awake she decides it’s time for DANCE PARTY IN BED and there is much dashing to-and-fro across my body, getting up in my face, patting my cheek…MIAOW MIAOW MIAOW. In the beginning of all this stay-at-home, I was grateful for her little bit of kitty company. Now I’m like GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME AND LET ME SLEEP (and Zoom) IN PEACE!!!

Okay, bringing it back…so, I have been exhausted and just LIMP all week…but LAST NIGHT I finally slept through the night and what a joy it was. I jumped right up at 8am, straightened up the apartment, got dressed, texted my landlords that my heat was not working (it got pretty chilly last night), and got out to do my errands – UPS Store, post office, grocery store…I even ventured into 7/11 for COFFEE (and the angels sang from on high). This was a quick secondary shop for the week as I’d already done my main shop Thursday, but I was hoping to find taco shells so I didn’t need to fry tortillas. There were no taco shells…but there was SOY SAUCE!!! And CHARMIN! Oh, be still my heart. It’s almost like The Old Normal.

I had a quick visit from The Brownie Fairy, who has been driving around doing homemade brownie drop-offs to friends as a way of keeping active and seeing friends at a time when you can’t really see friends. I swapped a bottle of wine for the brownies…I think I got the better deal!

SUNDAY

Happy Mother’s Day to Me. And all of you. I went through McDonalds drive-thru for breakfast. As usual, they only gave me two sausage patties when we had a whole DISCUSSION about me wanting THREE. Now that I’m home I see they CHARGED me for three. They understand THAT part. But never about actually PUTTING three in my bag. Sigh. Anyway. I had some Bailey’s in my coffee so I’m calmer now.

But now there’s no more Bailey’s 🙁

WHAT I’M READING

Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang. Uhm…meh? I generally like reading stories set in this timeframe – early 20th century China or Japan…and this came highly recommended to me, so I tried to really like it, but. There was a significant element of fantasy, and that rarely sits well with me. The book is 300ish pages long…I went the first 200 thinking where is this GOING?? when is something going to HAPPEN already?? And then it was like everythinghappenedveryfast and then it was over. It was not an unpleasant read, so it was easy enough to keep going, it just…fell flat for me. 3.25/5

WHAT I’M WATCHING

A new Hulu series called “Council of Dads.” Uh, it’s not that good (a little cheesy) and I don’t particularly like any of the characters (#GlowingReview), BUT…it made me cry within the first five minutes, and if you can make me cry, you’ve got me 🙂 I’m up to episode three and haven’t given up yet. I’ve been looking for an hour-long drama to fill in the Grey’s Anatomy gap since its season ended so early. So. Yeah.

This is what’s ahead for the coming week (I figure if I say it, I’ll have to do it):

Monday:          Week in Review. Obviously.
Wednesday:   Styling Session: Button-Down Shirts
Friday:             Wardrobe Cleanout: Part 1
Saturday:        Work from Home Wardrobe (I promise it’ll be better than last week’s)