Surviving In This Scary Time

Life right now is fucking scary. This coronavirus is no joke and life as we know it has changed. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and we are in what is called a Shelter in Place (SIP) order like many places around the country. We can only go out for essential trips like going to the store, go to get medicine, going to the doctor’s, going outside to walk (as long as you are alone or with a family member and six feet apart).

For me, it means not going to work at least until April 6th and not going out and doing my regular stuff. I am a huge Oakland A’s fan and always jazzed for the start of season as I am a season ticket holder but all sports are put on hold as are many other things.

I like going to local diners but they are closed right now. It is amazing that the small cool places that I love are closed and these businesses are the backbone of our economy but every fucking fast food place is fucking open. There are lines in drive-thrus at McDonald’s, Sonic, KFC and others. Even the Burger King up the street has a line at the drive-thru which surprises me because every time I have drvien by there, there has never been any one in the place. I always thought it was a front for some nefarious deeds becasue as I said I had never seen anybody in the joint but I guess they do sell what ever Burger King has on their menu.

I am missing the local street fairs and festivals that pop up this time of year but I realize that we have something bigger going on.

So as someone who likes to get out, it has been hard on me. I am starting to miss work and my students telling me to go fuck myself. I teach kids who are emotionally disturbed and come from trauma filled homes in a middle school setting. So, I miss the routine of getting up and going to work and I am a creature of structure. I am missing it.

Add to the general anxiety that everyone is feeling these days. It has been a stressful time in my life like everyone else in the world.

So for as for surviving this is an intersting process for me. I am learning things about myself and changing some of the things I do.

I have been doing some more cooking for myself and enjoying the process. Also, I have been taking pics of my cooking and going to post it on my other blog (Adventures in Weseland or www.csuhpat1.blogspot.com) for fun. Also, I have developed a routine that gets me out of the house. I have been driving over to this little strip mall in morning and going to Grocery Outlet and see what they have in stock in the store and I walk around the strip mall. By doing this it gets me up, showered and dressed before 10 am. If I don’t do this, I might lay on the couch in my favorite yoga position -the dead dog and watch bad TV or look at too much porn on the internet.

Anyway, I come home and do some things around the house and I have been able to keep the TV off and stay the computer for half the day. I still have to some work- putting assigments on my Google classroom and such but I am trying to stay away from the computer and TV as much as possible.

Also, I do some cooking for either lunch or dinner or both. It is something that I am enjoying during the day.

Then I might read. It has been nice to read during the day. It is so relaxing.

Then about 3:30 or so I am going somewhere to take a walk. I am going to trails near me that I haven’t walked for 20 years or so years. I went up to Garin Park which is near my house and walked the 5k cross country course that I ran back in high school. It was pretty cool. A lot of good memories came back to me.

During my walks I am having fun, this afternoon I went over to our scruffy little muni golf course and was walking around. No golfers in site. It was a couple of people walking their dogs on the course. As I was walking I found a golf ball and started to have fun. Every time I walked pass a green, I decided to throw a ball on it and since the holes were still there I tried to kick the golf ball in. I know it sounds immature but shit it was fun. I sucked at it but I found it so enjoyable. It was something a little kid would do and it brought me back to not having a care but kicking that little ball into a hole. Might be stupid but who cares.

Life is changing at rapid pace for everyone these days. We are living in crazy and scary times. Hopefully, we all survive and become better for this experience.