House Arrest

I’m generally a home body, so being confined to my apartment because of COVID19 isn’t much of an issue for me. On the surface. Staying home for days at a time is fine when it’s a choice. Not so fine when it’s a mandate.

I understand the mandate and mostly agree with it. But it is starting to ware on me and we’re only four weeks in.

I miss the option of people contact. Texting, emailing, phoning and FaceTiming are all methods of contact I am grateful we have, but I miss in person contact. Shaking hands and hugging. Seeing the facial nuances of conversation that are harder to see clearly in Zoom.

Working from home is an interesting phenomenon. I’ve been slowly preparing for eventually working partly from home. I never, however, pictured a mandatory work from home scenario. I quickly discovered I wasn’t as prepared as I thought. And I hadn’t envisioned two of us working from home, a 2-bedroom apartment. Things have been pretty smooth, so far, but my space in this place is cluttered and I have little motivation to declutter. I know myself well enough to know that is my ‘on again off again’ depression creeping back to the on position.

Weight gain is another aspect of stay-at-home life I did not anticipate. I snack too much already, but it’s worse now because I only have to walk a few steps to indulge in tasty unhealthy comfort food. And I weighed myself yesterday, for the first time in several months. The diet starts today. Wish me luck. I also purchased an apartment sized exercise bike.  Putting it together was my Sunday workout.  I started using is Monday.  It’ll do until the gym reopens.  It’s warm enough most days to take a walk, so I plan to add that to my fitness routine when possible.

Recently I saw a TV news story about what music has suddenly gained popularity on streaming services like Spotify and iHeart ... oldies. Basically, familiar music from the past can serve as comfort music. Much healthier than comfort food, right?  “Oldies” means different things for different generations, but this story pointed out examples from the 50s, 60s (Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”), 70s and 80s. I agree that plenty of emotional comfort comes from songs that anchor you in another time in your life.

I’ll wrap this up with a little positivity ... I see blue skies outside my window this morning. I’ll try to focus more on that than on confinement.