Quarantine. What's to Like?
I know that I’m not the only one who’s had a difficult time this week. I feel like many of us are hitting a bit of a wall. In light of that, I’m going to focus this entry on the positive aspects that have come out of this. Here’s what I appreciate about this quarantine:
My dianthus are blooming.
My friends and family are easier to get in touch with. Dean and I have been staying at home rather than going out for quite a while now and I would often try to organize phone calls or FaceTime chats with friends from back in Chicago, New Orleans, etc and it was an ordeal, I tell you. Now everyone’s in! I pretty much just have to make sure they’re not at a virtual happy hour or something. I’ve had calls with people that I’ve been dying to get in touch with for months! It’s been great to reconnect.
I get to spend time in my house. We had just moved into our first house when this happened. I’m so thankful that we’re here for many reasons, but it’s even better that we get to actually enjoy the space that we have created. Right before quarantine, in a fit of good timing, Dean’s family had come down one weekend to help us and my family had come down the following. We made sure that everyone was put together while we had help. The day after my parents left, quarantine started.
I noticed something was wrong with Jake. Not that I wouldn’t have eventually picked up on it, but because I am around Jake all day every day, I was able to notice some odd behaviors that made me contact his vet, which led to us finding out that he has some issues going on. And we’re now taking steps to make him feel better. We were able to find this early before there were more noticeable issues.
I’m getting creative. I have wanted to do some online classes for a very long time. I made a few half hearted attempts right when I moved, but then we had a fire, things didn’t work immediately, life started picking up, etc. I’ve finally been pushed to start creating virtual opportunities and it’s really exciting. I’ve connected with students from back in Chicago that I missed also, which had been wonderful.
I’m taking classes from teacher-friends that I miss! Because so many of us are going virtual in order to continue bringing content to our students, I’ve been able to take classes from instructors out of state that would have been impossible otherwise. I’ve done more yoga in the past few weeks than I’ve done since I moved and it’s a wonderful thing.
I’m getting to know my coworkers. Because I work in fitness, and because a few of the companies I work for are larger entities, there’s been a drive for online meetings and communications so that we can keep our members engaged. People who were just names on a schedule or email addresses with instructions before are now part of virtual happy hours, online instruction videos, video conference brainstorming sessions, etc. It’s really kind of cool.
Spending time with Dean. Pre-quarantine, Dean and I were both working pretty hard and we had very little time together during the week. Of course we spent time with each other on the weekends, but we were also trying to have our own ‘me time’ and work on our own projects. With the extra time that we have, not commuting, not having to wake up an hour early just to get out of the house on time, etc., we’ve been able to actually have quality conversations and communicate things that we’re thinking about in real time. We can SEE when one of us does the dishes and cleans up the kitchen and we can pitch in to help or say thank you right away. We can also see when one person is busy with work and can take care of things that need taking care of without having to decide who’s going to do it. We feel more like a team. I’ve enjoyed it.
Of course, there are going to be negatives to this, but for today, I’m going to leave this here. There are positives to just about every situation if you look for them. And I hope some of these aspects are here to stay and make a lasting effect. What are your favorite things about quarantine?