Vengeful cats. All day yesterday, I felt utterly exhausted. Not just slightly tired – completely out of gas. There’s really no specific reason for this. I got plenty of sleep and it seemed to be fairly restful sleep. The weather turned slightly cooler, at least for a day, so I wasn’t suffering from heat and …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 116
A third first date. Since this quarantine began I have actually gone to three restaurants for an in-person dining experience. Around week thirteen, outdoor dining became possible and I managed to get a reservation for one at a restaurant I have visited quite often in the past. It was a strange experience – mostly good, …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 115
The meaning of life. According to Dicionary.com, existentialism is “a philosophical theory or approach which emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will.” I realized today that the past few weeks have been like a bubbling cauldron for me. Slowly, bit …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 114
Groundhog Day. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – I feel like I am living in a dystopian remake of the movie “Groundhog Day.” Isolating alone in my apartment has some benefits, no doubt. I don’t have to deal with anyone else’s issues about noise, space usage, food, bathroom usage, etc. I …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 113
Back to work? During sixteen weeks of quarantine, I have returned to my office three times. The first two were brief visits specifically to pick up files and to move some things from my hard drive onto a virtual drive. Today was the first time I have actually planned a full day in my office. …
Diary of a Cockeyed Optimist: Why I Got Tested for COVID-19
What it’s like to get tested at a free Illinois COVID-19 Testing Site Since the seriousness of COVID-19 began to hit home mid-March, Mr. TLT and I have been cautious. We’ve limited our outings to grocery shopping, a couple of curbside pickups at Julie Ann’s Frozen Custard, walks on the Prairie Trail and an occasional …
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Sparkling Isolation – Day 112
Kindness. I wrote yesterday about the need to pay attention to my words – things that I pattern without really noticing. Repeated patterns create neural pathways and eventually those patterns become the easiest direction for thoughts. Those thoughts then lead to actions. Well – you get the idea. Today, I began to think about my …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 111
Angel numbers If you subscribe to a belief in numerology, the number “111” is often considered an “angel number,” or a message from your guardian angels or spirit guides. In general, the meaning of 111 is about manifestation. Most numerologists will tell you that the number is a message to be aware of your thoughts …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 110
Words, words, words. English is an utterly bizarre, yet fascinating language. As weird as it is, and as hard as it must be for a non-native speaker to master, English has tremendous facility to describe things in a multitude of ways. Why, then, do people keep using the same few tired phrases during this pandemic? …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 109
Hot and cold. It’s hot and humid today – like “don’t go outside unless you have to” kind of hot and humid. That has effectively curtailed any plans I had to do anything outdoors. It’s the last day of my eleven-day staycation, so I had hoped to find some way to get out of the …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 108
Yes or No? It’s hot and sticky outside. I have no desire to fight crowds (probably not wearing masks or paying any attention to social distancing) to go into the city on this holiday. So here I am again, alone with hours to spend, pondering the vicissitudes of life. That seems to be the primary …
Sparkling Isolation – Day 107
“To Do” or “Not To Do” I am a list-maker. At the beginning of this quarantine, I made a comprehensive list of everything I wanted to get done physically in my apartment, breaking each task down into smaller, achievable tasks. I tend to make lists every day – inventories of things in my freezer, grocery …