I have a small number of people I consider gurus–people whose advice I take with more seriousness than I would with others.  One of those people is Gretchen Rubin, author of such books as The Four Tendencies and The Happiness Project.  I was listening a bonus episode of her podcast, which she does with her sister Elizabeth Kraft, and they suggested doing a Covid diary.  Their reasoning is that this is a historic moment and journaling will help us process it.

That sounded legit to me and I started looking for a blank notebook to use.  Then I remembered that I have a blog!  So, lucky readers, I get to bring you along on this crazy unknown journey.  The best case scenario is that I complain for the next two and a half weeks and then life goes back to normal.  At this point, I don’t want to think about anything worse than that.

Anyway, today was day 1.  A week ago, our day looked like this:

1 – Go to WW and then coffee with friends
2 – The hubs and the kids go to my daughter’s basketball end of season party while I…
3 – Go to a fancy dinner in downtown Portland with dear friends before going to see the musical The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

Last night, our day looked like this:

1 – Go to weigh in at WW
2 – Hit up Target for kitty litter
3 -Do laundry
4 – Pick up my grocery order at 4pm
5 – Make homemade pizzas with the kids

Instead, our day looked like this:

1 – Wake up to snow, say “screw it” to WW and go back to bed
2 – Get the hubs to drive me to Target so I can stock up on kitty litter
3 – Do laundry

Even the grocery order got postponed! (Until tomorrow, but that killed our pizza plans for the night).

My original plan was to hit Target right when it opened.  I had heard horror stories about grocery stores around here, but things were quiet in Target.  I did notice that they had some essentials–toilet paper, sanitizing wipes, etc.  There was a limit of one per person and they were enforcing it, in a friendly way.  I, however, just went for the kitty litter.  Not only was there no restriction on how much to buy, it was on sale in a way that made it cheaper to buy 5 than 4!  Score!

As for home life, the kids are already at each other’s throats.  It didn’t snow enough to really distract them and the weather in general was not conducive to playing outside.  There was more screen time than I would have liked, but I made sure they took an active part in the continuing laundry operation–especially since this stage is all their clothes!

It’s been a long day and it is making me dread the next 2.5 weeks.  When the weather improves, which it should in a few days, I may take the kids hiking (providing we aren’t sick).  After all, social distancing doesn’t actually mean you can’t leave your house.  Walking and hiking are great activities–just don’t get too close to that person coming the other way on the trail!

And, finally, if this day weren’t frustrating enough, my washing machine just broke.  It looks like something the hubs can fix–we’ve ordered the part and he’s done an emergency fix with, I kid you not, duct tape…but it just seemed like a fitting end to the day.

How are you all dealing with this crisis?