Confessions from my new normal
Sporting my first face mask. As of this week the CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings as an additional public health measure.
Isn’t it funny how time has a way of making the most unconscionable concepts ordinary?
Let me just start by saying it’s a real good thing that there’s no new Handmaid’s Tale episodes (yet) for me to binge watch in quarantine. I don’t emotionally handle living through that show on screen while living in this craziness in real life. I have long been impressed and enthralled with that show, watching captivated for years, thinking just how easily we could be denied our freedoms over time. Well here we are. Sure there’s differences and we’re not living in a totalitarian state just yet, but if the president has his way we won’t be too far off from it..
There’s a terrifyingly poignant quote in the first episode of Handmaid’s Tale from Aunt Lydia, the evil enforcer, that has always stuck with me. “This may not seem ordinary to you now, but after a time it will.” Meaning really anything can become normal when we’re exposed to them long enough and we forget what a different world looks like. Now we’re being urged to stay home and deny ourselves our normal lives because it is the right thing to do, to flatten the curve, reduce stress on the healthcare system and reduce transmission. We see that our efforts are working of course, but at the cost of so many things, including our normalcy and what it means to be ordinary.
The longer our new normal replaces our old normal, and the further away we get from it, the more familiar we become in this new state of being. There are so many ways our lives have already been impacted and overturned. Had you told me just six weeks ago about some of the things that are now becoming our everyday, I would’ve thought you were crazy, or reading straight from one of Stephen King’s movie scripts. But alas here we are.
That being said I’ve been thinking about some of the everyday elements of my new normal. They’re not necessarily bad, just different, and clearly exist within a much smaller footprint than before. Previously I lived life in a lot of different places, traveling regularly, working multiple jobs, living action packed days with new destinations. For me this is an especially dormant state.
I won’t lie, there’s some elements of this new life I’m really quite enjoying, but they’re all things that under normal circumstances were not part of my daily life. Many of them are a direct result of the virus, some simply a result of having more time, others a result of loosening my expectations of myself during these times.
It’s only been a month and I’m already getting settled in to some of these new norms, which makes me wonder what will next month’s list look like?
So here’s 20 observations from my recent days in quarantine
Most nights I don’t go to bed until 2 or 3am. Last night I stayed up on the phone with my friend Jess catching up until almost 2am, like it was high school or something.
It’s rare if I wake up before 10. Unless we’re having the kids over for a sleepover of course. In that case I try to get up before 9 in efforts to help relieve Gavin who has already been up with them for a couple hours. Back in the old days I’d be asleep by midnight and up around 6:45 to try to get to the gym before work.
Our temporary house is littered with piles of fabric and templates for Gavin’s mask making project, which he’s doing with the help of his grandmother’s badass sewing machine.
It’s not uncommon for. me to spend 2-3 hours a day on the phone or a Zoom call catching up with family and friends
I don’t change out of my PJs/work clothes until about 3:30/4pm. This is also when I realize I need to brush my teeth for the first time because I’ve been nursing my coffee for hours.
I exist in only one of four places - our house, the McFall’s house, the car (rarely), or outside (as often as possible).
When I’m outside I have a heightened awareness of my surroundings. I’m constantly looking in all directions to be sure there’s no one approaching my safe zone.
I’m appreciating nature more than ever before. I can’t get enough of all the flowers and I stop to smell as many as I can. I love to hear the birds chirping and the bees buzzing about, comforted by the sounds of the normalcy of their lives.
I rarely wear a bra, and if so it’s a sports bra.
My daily outfit consists of workout wear and my finest athleisure ensembles. I put on a pair of jeans last week just to make sure they still fit.
I’ve worn makeup maybe three times in the last month. This is absolutely unheard of in my adult life. I’ve been wearing daily makeup since I was 11.
I have no shame in sharing my natural state anymore, on social media and beyond. This morning I did an IG live with no bra, no makeup and some wild ass hair. Something that a month ago would’ve been unconscionable.
I have worn my wedding ring once in the last month because my hands are so affected by the handwashing and they’re easily irritated. I’ve put on a pair of earrings maybe once or twice. Before quarantine I felt naked without them.
I’m actually painting my nails again. I haven’t regularly painted my for years because hairdressing routinely destroys them, plus I never have idle hands long enough to take the time to paint them and let them dry. Another silver lining: at least my hands (back and shoulders) are appreciating a break from the stress of my hours behind the chair.
I haven’t been to a place of business since March 16. That was for a cup of coffee that I was served by a gloved man in a window.
I’ve placed countless online orders for everything from groceries, to a jump rope to enhance my workouts, to a female urination device I will use to pee in the woods during the 17 hour car ride home so I can avoid public restrooms.
I’ve been writing, creatively and openly. Up until quarantine I mostly wrote marketing copy for clients, but here I am, doing this thing.
I started reading books again. Making the time for them, getting lost in them, and smelling the pages of them.
I’ve committed to new television shows. In the old world I rarely had the time to devote to TV so it would take me a very long time to finish a show.I’m still not watching a ton but more than before.
I take a nightly bath in the big tub in our temporary house. I’m currently waiting for a chamomile bubble bath to arrive and I’m all fired up for it. Baths are probably my new favorite part of quarantine.
Today’s Headlines: US coronavirus cases top 500,000, Torn Over Reopening Economy, Trump Says He Faces ‘Biggest Decision I’ve Ever Had to Make’, Restarting America means people will die, so when do we do it?, Trump pushes false claims about mail-in vote fraud
Some feel good news: Painted rocks honor Martha’s Vineyard Nurses
Something that made me happy: I was able to share the new game of Klask that Lucia and Ryan sent us with Jack and Fiona. I also reminisced over Nora and Dave’s fabulous wedding and obsessed over the photos of Mason making bagels. Also my sister-in-law Erin told me that she got gas for $1.09/gallon thanks to gas points and I was practically jumping up and down. Even before COVID I had a visceral reaction to gas savings so not everything is changing.
Something that made me sad: Thinking about all of the families that won’t get to be together for holidays this weekend (including my own).
What I’m watching: Community in the bathtub. As a result I’m listening to a lot of Childish Gambino on my runs.