If you have not noticed by the flurry of reviews I posted over the past month, I am still alive. Those reviews were my way of getting caught up with long-neglected items. I wrote the last outstanding review on Friday, which means I am feeling pretty good about myself. I think it has been at least three years since I had no outstanding reviews and am all caught up on review copies as well.

We are all handling this quarantine/safer-at-home edict fairly well. Jim works, exercises, and then works some more. He spends 95 percent of his workday on Zoom calls, which seems weird to me. I don’t know how he gets anything done, but he tells me that is the makeup of his job. Out of the three of us, he struggles the most with staying home and away from others. This is why I made him the family runner of errands. He is not always diligent about wearing his mask in public, and he does tend to socialize with the neighbors from less than six feet away. But I knew that this was going to be a difficult time for him. He craves interaction, and Zoom doesn’t quite cut it for him. It can be frustrating to see him at the neighbors or to see his mask hanging up at home when he is out, but we all have to manage the best we can, right?

Holly is doing surprisingly well. We might be struggling with appropriate bedtimes and then getting her out of bed each day, but I never have to tell her to do her school work. She might get up around noon, but she is online working within the hour and stops when she finishes for the day. While her dance competition season looks like it is shifting to this summer, her dance classes are now in Zoom format, so she gets at least an hour of dance each day to keep her relatively fresh. Between that and Snapping her friends, she is riding out the storm better than I expected. In fact, twice now she scolded school acquaintances for gathering in large groups outside without masks. Moreso than her father, she understands exactly what flattening the curve entails and accepts it. I am so proud of her and the maturity level she is displaying through all of this.

I am doing well too. After struggling with feelings of inadequacy and worry following my abrupt departure from work, I am now in a place where I am enjoying my time at home. I still have all these flashes of inspiration each night of all that I want to do around the house – wash windows, wash my cabinets, deep clean the baseboards, etc. – none of which gets done the next day. I learned to not feel guilty about it though and just pass each day doing what I want while trying to stay somewhat on top of basic house chores. I have no IRL friends, so I am not missing any sort of interaction with others. My job search stalled a few weeks ago, for obvious reasons. I keep looking and have alerts with four or five different websites, but at this point in time, I don’t relish the thought of going back to work to a physical location. I would still love to work from home as a freelance bookkeeper, but even that seems like a pipe dream these days. We should be okay financially for another month or two, and then my options start dwindling, but I am trying not to dwell on that and am enjoying the opportunity to do whatever with no deadlines, no conference calls, no company politics, no gossip, and no shitty bosses.

I have been trying to be more active on social media and have thoroughly enjoyed talking to you all through various mediums. Your support, especially on IG, has been amazing and very welcome. I hope you are all weathering this crazy period as well as possible and if you ever need a friendly ear, you know where to find me!

Have a wonderful Sunday and week, everyone!