The new (ab)normal.
I keep hearing people talk about the “new normal” as we move into this weird dystopian world. Dear God(dess)! I hope that this never becomes any sort of “normal” existence. Clearly, we are in a strange and bizarre reality now, but I absolutely don’t want to live in a world where this becomes any kind of “normal” existence. I am dealing with it because I have no choice but to deal with it. But I don’t have to like it, do I?
If you read my first post, you know that my first day of solitary confinement/quarantine/sparkling isolation was a mixed bag of emotions. Today, I woke up and made a conscious choice to repattern the chaos of my first day.
I woke up, made my bed, shaved and showered, got dressed in my normal ‘work’ clothes, and then commuted the 30 seconds from my bedroom to my home office – just like a regular day heading to work. I managed to set up my home office so that it feels like a separate space from the rest of my apartment, so I can actually close the door and ‘leave work’ when I need to. Honestly, all of that really did help me to stay focused and get into a “work” mode.
Early in the day, a good friend called me via FaceTime. It was my first time using that app, and it was awesome! I love the idea of being able to talk in real time with friends. I actually had a fair amount of time-sensitive work to accomplish today because I had to cancel two final performances at my theater, and I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out how to reschedule them and not cancel outright. Luckily, I was able to reschedule both of the. That makes six total shows I had to cancel – but six that I rescheduled for August/September. I am sending out a huge prayer to the Universe that we are back to relative normal in the arts presenting world by then. Please!
I normally see a therapist every Thursday afternoon, and today I tried a video appointment for the first time. I actually felt like it worked well, so at least I can continue to talk to my therapist during this bizarre time.
At 5 p.m. I entered a Zoom video conference with a group of my fellow arts presenters in Illinois, for a happy hour meeting. Most of us were drinking (wine, boozy cocktails, etc.) and had a lovely conversation about what’s going on in our venues and how we are navigating this strange experience. It was amazing to be able to connect to the only group of people who truly understand what I do for a living. It’s so important to stay connected to my tribe during this weird time. I had two very boozy Aviation cocktails – and it was delightful to just sip and chat with some of my favorite people in the world.
So, overall, today was far more focused than yesterday. I am still not loving this, and for the next three days I am officially “off work” for a holiday weekend at my job, so it will be a whole new experience for me – three days without work, but also stuck at home alone with nothing “official” to take up my time. I know that I need to find ways to get more active, so tomorrow I am going to work on figuring out some virtual workouts.
I guess this post is rather rambling, but I guess the final point is that today was better than yesterday. One day at a time, as my mother used to say. I think that “sparkling isolation” doesn’t have to be dreadful. It can actually be positive when you focus on the positive.