Day 5

Friends, how are you doing today? I am sure, you are still hanging in there. I hope you are not having a bad day, starting to experience cabin fever or are feeling frustrated, but I would totally understand if any of these feelings paid a visit. It’s a very, very weird time. None of us has gone through something like it before. And I sure hope none of us will ever again.

So if you are feeling upset about it, don’t beat yourself up over that, too. If you are usually not cutting yourself a slack, you should reconsider. You are allowed to feel frustrated, annoyed, sad etc. even if you are not infected, you are not in a risk group, even when you are not under lock down yet. This is not a competition of “who has it worse”. It’s a difficult situation, no matter where you stand and what your living condition is right now. Because even if your life is still good (and I hope yours is too!), it is different. And that can be bothersome at the very least.

Try to apply self compassion. It does not mean you should get depressed or throw yourself a full blown pity party. But you should allow your self a negative thought or two once in a while – if you don’t let them out, they will pile up inside you and I do not want to be under lockdown with you, when you finally explode. And if you are bored, do this self compassion test, just for fun. You sure will learn something new about yourself! If you did it already previously, do it again and see how your self-compassion changes in times of crisis.

Test how self-compassionate you are

Things in casa Coerlin are still pretty much the same. I am starting to lose my weekdays though. And being off today, on a Friday, does not really help. I know for a fact that, I will spend tomorrow thinking it is Sunday and I have to go back “into” my couch office the next day. It also does not really matter as lines between working days and days off are blurring right now anyways. Additional lockdowns and the requirement for a servicing solutions do not wait for working days.

One thing was a little bit different yesterday – there was pizza. Yes. Pizza. Those of you, that read my “about me” page and my first blog posts know, that pizza is the exception and not the rule in our house. There is approx. 60 lbs of good reasons for that. But every rule has an exception and there are pizza exceptions in our house. They usually occur on speciall days or, when I am super tired and really, really do not want to cook dinner.

Yesterday it was the latter. And it was good. What it wasn’t is comfort in the current situation. Thankfully I learned over 2 years ago, that food is not the answer, if hunger is not the question. Living by that principle, literally changed my life (and my size, too). There is no such thing as comfort food (everyone in the South just got a heart attack, I guess).

Today I challenged myself to a little adventure – aka grocery shopping. The thrill, people! Sent chills down my spine (no, I do not have fever or respiratory issues, thanks for asking!). Seriously, guys – does anyone of you know what parkour is? No? Well you might be too young then, not sure it’s still a thing? Look it up here or search YouTube… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkour

It definitely would have been a helpful skill for todays grocery shopping adventure and I think I learned a few “moves” while trying to practice Social Distancing, with my shopping cart and amongst an army of covidiots. Care to share my experience? Here we go:

When I arrived, I was handed a shopping cart that had just been whiped down with sanitizer. I pulled out my 70% alcohol wipes, as I am not sure it has made it’s way to the US population yet, that common sanitizer kills 99% of germs and bacteria but NOT viruses. 70 plus % alcohol will (no, you can’t drink it instead, it would make you blind or worse, you are trying to kill a virus, not yourself, right?).

On the surface, the situation at the grocery store is back to normal. Henning shared the same sentiment yesterday when he took the early morning “shopping shift” right when the store opened. No long lines outside anymore, people have learned that stores actually are stocking up. Underneath the surface, the shopping experience is still quite different from what we have known as normal. For example, we do have to now go shop in shifts – we need a morning shopping run for meat & poultry, a chance of toilet paper, water and frozen vegetables. At this time you will not find any produce. Hence the second shift as our store seems to stock up their produce area around noon.

Previously you would have gone around noon and gotten your fresh produce and all other shelves would have also been filled too. Not anymore…hopefully a temporary situation.

So I tried to keep my distance. I waited at the fridge, while someone was taking out berries, with what I guestimated to be 6 feet distance. Comes this guy, wearing a mask (shame on you, taking a mask from a first responder that will now have to wear theirs twice!) and pushes right between me and the lady with the lady that was head in the berries fridge. So I told him, I was waiting in line myself. He turns to me and tells me, I was not even “in line” as I was standing so far away. “6 feet away, to be precise – you might want to check your mask, it seems it’s a tiny bit too tight on your brain”. Well, at least he moved out of the way. So a mask, huh? Good for you!

I then went on to the deli meat area. I am a little bit of a “lucky charm” when it comes to finding all the things, that were not available when Henning went. Today no different – I found low sodium oven roasted turkey breast. But it was not easy to get it. A lady was standing in front of the deli meat fridge, starring at a picture on her phone and back at the fride and so on and to forth. After what felt like 5 minutes of back and forth starring with no movement, I admittedly “lost” it. I remained as polite and calms as I possibly could and, from my 6 feet distance, asked her if she could please step aside so that people that knew what they wanted, could continue with their lives. Thankfully she complied as my politeness was definitely wearing thin.

On I went to the check-out and was positively surprised. There was a young girl directing everyone to the least crowded check-out and explaining, politely, even to the worst Covidiots, to please keep their 6 feet distance, while waiting. She even jumped in, whenever someone tried to squeeze in thinking there is soo much space. And the lady at the check-out was super polite and fast. She thanked me, for keeping my distance as well and I thanked her for still doing her job. Have you thanked your grocery store employees lately? You should!

Imagine the level of exposure they are going through each day? To the virus? Probably. But even worse – to all the Covidiots out there trying to buy excess quantities of things they do not need, wearing masks but then standing shoulder to shoulder, as if they were in a petting zoo. Ewwwwww.

I went home and felt the urge to take a long, hot shower and wash the clothes I was wearing. And that is exactly what I did. I also keeping thinking, hasmat suits should definitely be en vogue. They might not help against the virus (or maybe they would?) but will for sure scare off the Covidiots. Mission accomplished!

While I am writing this, sitting in my couch office, I am also texting with a friend in Germany, who sounds like he is in absolute panic mode (or just enjoying being negative which is a realistic option, too). Citing all the negative facts he has seen on TV or read in the internet. Do you have someone around you, that is in full blown panic mode or an apocalypse theorist? How are you dealing with that? I tried to be the positive part in that conversation, but I think, that was not really, what he was looking for.

I have learned a long time ago, I will not be able to turn things around with someone elses mindset. If you choose to be negative about this situation, it’s your choice. It is even understandable. Unfortunately, it’s not helpful. Check-out my “We are all going to die….eventually” post for more on this topic. In this case, we can even change the current situation. If we follow the rules (or if it is not a rule yet, where you are living, are pro-active) and practice social distancing, we might not be able to save everyone, but we WILL save some.

I was about to choose looking out for myself and ending the conversation, when FPL took over for me. FPL is our power provider and they thought this already super weird situation was the right time for a power outage. Sure, why not? This is the reason, that I am posting this Friday update on Saturday. It’s still my Friday update and I will share my Saturday update later – with all the fun a power outage has in store. Stay tuned! Just that much – it was no fun and this poor little monster had a tough and hot night with Mommy and Daddy.

So I hope you are as well as can be! I am thinking of all of you and am sending you positive vibes – there are negative ones enough out there already.

Be kind to yourself and then to others!

Stay positve & healthy. Take care!

Hugs,

Nannette