Well, it's Sunday my lovelies, which means you're stuck with another ghost from me. Sorry, typo! I will bestow my presence upon you! Oh, never mind, it's cringeworthy. But I haven't slept much and can't figure out how to open this thing.
So, how was (or is going, or will be) your Sunday? Are you eating? Are you exercising? Let's hear about it, gory details and all! Mine started off by reading some of your replies to yesterday's post at 3 am when I heard sirens. Hmm, those sound awfully close. Oh, the house at the end of the street is on fire! Interesting. Another nearby house caught fire late at night/early in the morning a couple of weeks ago. I assume people are leaving on heaters at night and maybe they are touching curtains or other flammable items. Remember to turn off your space heaters and ovens when you go to bed and leave the house guys! I guess most of you are in the middle of summer and turning the heater on is the last thing you want to think about. If that's the case, just tuck that little nugget of advice away and pull it back out in about 6 months.
Here's a photo of the hike I didn't go on today. This was taken from what is essentially my uncle's backyard, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. But of course coronavirus derailed that plan, and the current lockdown means there's no local hiking to be had either. Which admittedly is not The Worst Thing Ever. I'm bummed, and I'm homesick (is home even Seattle anymore? The last couple of times I went back I liked going home to Melbourne. Oh man I am existentially confused!), but I don't expect it to last much longer than 3 weeks. Because that is how long this workshop lasts. As soon as I stop having 8 hours of Zoom with Seattle every day, I'll quit caring so much.
So, anyway, after I spent yesterday feeling homesick (Seattle sick?), and the house at the end of the street went ablaze, I woke up this morning and did the first thing I do every morning: reach for my phone. I wasn't in a great mood, and I wasn't particularly awake. So when I saw the news (face masks now mandatory every time you leave the house), my first (or second, or third) reaction was not "that is a good, sensible law" or "this is the right thing to do given the current situation" or "this will save lives and we are all obligated to cooperate." Rather, it was "I can't run with a face mask on, are we required to wear a mask if we go for a run, I can't give up running, I can't do this, I have to go for a run, maybe I'll run late a night when no one sees me, sprained ankles be damned." Yep. Being half awake has revealed my true allegiance, and it isn't public health.
Some panicked internet searching later showed that exceptions will be given to runners. All will be fine. But it took a while for me to pick my mood back up. Really? Over running? Yes, and I'm not proud of it. Running does play a fairly strong role in keeping me sane - it has for years - although I'd hope it's not at the expense of society. I did try and get some perspective by thinking of all your responses yesterday about things that have been positive during the first half of 2020, in spite of everything. (In the end, the thing that really helped was caffeine. And knowing that I can go for a run.)
So, the sequel to super serious Saturday is somewhat sanguine Sunday. Looking towards the second half of 2020, do you have any goals or things you'd like to work on or improve? Like, maybe don't have a meltdown when you see the news. Or don't use your phone in bed. Or try and keep things in perspective. We'd probably all like to say our goal is go back to normal, but let's face it: that isn't going to happen and is out of our control anyway. One of my "goals" (if you can call them that) are to keep plodding along at work - things are going well and are the most stable they've ever been (the irony! 2020 brought me stability!), and I'd like to keep them that way. My other ones are to be more consistent and conscientious about sleep, food, and exercise. Exercise was the first to go in lockdown; I am pretty self-conscious about working out in front of others, so with my housemate home all the time now and being in a tiny house, I started skipping workouts left and right. You might expect lockdown boredom would inspire me to cook up some nice meals, but somehow, sitting on the couch staring at a screen just made me lazy. And I struggle with sleep anyway, and doing workshops on Seattle time finally threw me over the edge. I did not feel great this week, and it's become obvious that I need a better schedule. So the past few days I've been making sure to eat some vegetables, soak up some natural light and vitamin D, and get in some exercise most days. And my goodness, do I ever feel better. How about you? Or maybe you've got everything under control already, and have left no room for improvement :)
Daily Check-In: Sunday, 19 July 2020
Well, it's Sunday my lovelies, which means you're stuck with another ghost from me. Sorry, typo! I will bestow my presence upon you! Oh, never mind, it's cringeworthy. But I haven't slept much and can't figure out how to open this thing.
So, how was (or is going, or will be) your Sunday? Are you eating? Are you exercising? Let's hear about it, gory details and all! Mine started off by reading some of your replies to yesterday's post at 3 am when I heard sirens. Hmm, those sound awfully close. Oh, the house at the end of the street is on fire! Interesting. Another nearby house caught fire late at night/early in the morning a couple of weeks ago. I assume people are leaving on heaters at night and maybe they are touching curtains or other flammable items. Remember to turn off your space heaters and ovens when you go to bed and leave the house guys! I guess most of you are in the middle of summer and turning the heater on is the last thing you want to think about. If that's the case, just tuck that little nugget of advice away and pull it back out in about 6 months.
Here's a photo of the hike I didn't go on today. This was taken from what is essentially my uncle's backyard, on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. But of course coronavirus derailed that plan, and the current lockdown means there's no local hiking to be had either. Which admittedly is not The Worst Thing Ever. I'm bummed, and I'm homesick (is home even Seattle anymore? The last couple of times I went back I liked going home to Melbourne. Oh man I am existentially confused!), but I don't expect it to last much longer than 3 weeks. Because that is how long this workshop lasts. As soon as I stop having 8 hours of Zoom with Seattle every day, I'll quit caring so much.
So, anyway, after I spent yesterday feeling homesick (Seattle sick?), and the house at the end of the street went ablaze, I woke up this morning and did the first thing I do every morning: reach for my phone. I wasn't in a great mood, and I wasn't particularly awake. So when I saw the news (face masks now mandatory every time you leave the house), my first (or second, or third) reaction was not "that is a good, sensible law" or "this is the right thing to do given the current situation" or "this will save lives and we are all obligated to cooperate." Rather, it was "I can't run with a face mask on, are we required to wear a mask if we go for a run, I can't give up running, I can't do this, I have to go for a run, maybe I'll run late a night when no one sees me, sprained ankles be damned." Yep. Being half awake has revealed my true allegiance, and it isn't public health.
Some panicked internet searching later showed that exceptions will be given to runners. All will be fine. But it took a while for me to pick my mood back up. Really? Over running? Yes, and I'm not proud of it. Running does play a fairly strong role in keeping me sane - it has for years - although I'd hope it's not at the expense of society. I did try and get some perspective by thinking of all your responses yesterday about things that have been positive during the first half of 2020, in spite of everything. (In the end, the thing that really helped was caffeine. And knowing that I can go for a run.)
So, the sequel to super serious Saturday is somewhat sanguine Sunday. Looking towards the second half of 2020, do you have any goals or things you'd like to work on or improve? Like, maybe don't have a meltdown when you see the news. Or don't use your phone in bed. Or try and keep things in perspective. We'd probably all like to say our goal is go back to normal, but let's face it: that isn't going to happen and is out of our control anyway. One of my "goals" (if you can call them that) are to keep plodding along at work - things are going well and are the most stable they've ever been (the irony! 2020 brought me stability!), and I'd like to keep them that way. My other ones are to be more consistent and conscientious about sleep, food, and exercise. Exercise was the first to go in lockdown; I am pretty self-conscious about working out in front of others, so with my housemate home all the time now and being in a tiny house, I started skipping workouts left and right. You might expect lockdown boredom would inspire me to cook up some nice meals, but somehow, sitting on the couch staring at a screen just made me lazy. And I struggle with sleep anyway, and doing workshops on Seattle time finally threw me over the edge. I did not feel great this week, and it's become obvious that I need a better schedule. So the past few days I've been making sure to eat some vegetables, soak up some natural light and vitamin D, and get in some exercise most days. And my goodness, do I ever feel better. How about you? Or maybe you've got everything under control already, and have left no room for improvement :)