I texted a friend this morning,
“Kicking off the apocalypse today with sleeping in (only made it to 7:30 am and then woke up…gonna have to work on that…the alarm was for 9 am) blogging, and then some pancakes for breakfast. Judging on traffic, I’m wishing I owned a motorcycle now. I think I’m getting this apocalypse stuff down. 😉
And then I got this surreal realization; I never thought I’d be risking my life at the thought of simply wanting to go to the store to get potting soil. Wow. That’s a new low.
Stepped on the scale; lost 5 pounds already…like in two days. Honestly (and strangely), it’s because my stress eating vanished this week. I’m an introvert; I do much better working from home in every sense. I’m not caffeinating nearly as much anymore to keep my body moving through my usual schedule. Nibbling on fruits, and making better meals because there is time to. Eating a lot of salad and fresh fruits while it is still fresh in the fridge.
A friend had handed off a handful of pomegranate Tootsie pops yesterday as I headed out of one of the studios I work at. This is one of my favorite candies, and he knows it. He broke open a brand new bag and searched through it to find 4 lollipops for me. That’s definitely philios.
As to why it’s my favorite; it’s like the company figured out how to make a lollipop for adults, and then just snuck it into the bag. This is, IMHO, THE best flavor they have ever produced. If they put a shot of a pomegranate liquor in the center, it would be perfection (at least to this ginger bassist).
I unwrapped one of the coveted pops, and then put the other three away. Decided I’d better make these last awhile. Or start searching Amazon again. Or both.
Since the last of the foot traffic to my studio was not coming for awhile, I started unpacking instruments and setting them up in the waiting room so I could practice and use them for online lessons. Instruments that get carried around all week for lessons and classes came out of cases for the first time in awhile in my own home. The NS electric cello came out, my archtop guitar came out and the case stashed away, the NS EUB was assembled since it was not traveling all over the area all week. It was nice seeing the arsenal assembled, ready to go under my own roof. It was an embarrassment of riches, but one I rarely get to enjoy at the pace of my usual life.
The cats seem to be getting more needy, and possibly depressed. They know something is definitely wrong. Lieu came and crashed on my desk behind my laptop during lessons for a few hours. Ananda has been sleeping in the master bedroom, almost sheltering herself. I’ll go in on breaks and pet her, but she knows something’s up. I need to put on a movie to make some noise, and spend some time interacting. The cats are either unusually quiet, sleeping more, or getting into trouble because they can’t vent the energy in play with students.
I’ve noted that the houses on my street are going dark earlier in the evening. Previously, people would leave their front lights on to keep things better lit and secure on the street. Only my house and my neighbors on either side are maintaining the pattern of leaving porchlights on.
The home studio Skype situation “escalated” quickly, as per my post earlier today. A par can 38 was clamped to a mic stand to add additional lighting to my setup. I threw a Fender combo amp on an amp stand, and then elevated it into an office chair…pointing it at my headphone mic so students could hear my instrument better. We got through day two of the studio being completely online. The majority of the lessons went off without a hitch, save for one family that isn’t communcating at all for whatever reason. Makeups even started getting done. 9 lessons total. Tomorrow things should move up to 13 lessons. There is a sense that the online lessons are very welcome right now; a distraction, a lifeline back to what was a “normal” world just a week ago.
Here’s a brief transcript from a conversation today. You can clearly tell my part in this dialogue from the f-bomb.
