i just want this gosh dang quarantine to be over with already.
i admit at the beginning i loved the isolation. i mean, i still do. my day to day life hasn’t really changed all that much.
but some days i pine for a movie day or a concert, or hell, even a leisure trip to the grocery store.
sometimes i just wanna walk around heb at 6 in the morning deciding if i wanna buy goat cheese or nah.
i haven’t had flax milk in about a month and a half. foodarama is okay but they have half a dozen varieties of lactaid, as well as a selection of delicious oat milk, but no flax. and all a bunch of sweetened shit.
can’t i just go somewhere i can buy a couple of cans of butane in peace?
for a lot of people, this stay-at-home stuff has meant your idea of peace, your home, is now the basecamp for all education, discipline, nutrition, entertainment, luxury AND necessity, harmony and chaos.
all wrapped up in one little cute covid bow and tied too tightly for you to give a shit after the second month.
so how do we remain balanced in a world where our movements and group settings must be limited?
what can we do to avoid losing our minds and committing mass murder against the people who love and annoy us the most?
if you’re quarantining alone, this can be dangerous too.
being along with yourself might turn out to be detrimental to your mental state. you may realize that you actually kinda wouldn’t mind some human interaction, a normal conversation, someone to laugh at your jokes instead of just yourself.
or you may realize, fuck, i annoy the shit out of me.
and how do you get away from you?
my number one is and will always be
extend your meditation.
if you already do 5 minutes, do 10. if you already do 10, try 20.
if you’ve never done more than 3, have you tried sitting down for 30?
meditation allows you to train yourself to slow your monkey brain down, giving your mind a break from all the worrying you have to do all day, all the mentally exhausting shit like your 9-5, like how the kids are gonna be fed, about whether or not you can take care of them the way you feel they deserve, are you a failure? are the dishes dirty? should i wash them or do i think someone else will? fuck it, i’ll do it myself.
we are constantly thinking, fretting, worrying about something, and many times, these worries, these hypothetical problems are beyond our control. instead of letting them go, we dwell on them, we stress ourselves out. and stress is a killer, you know. my goal in life is to stress as little as possible. don’t worry, we all have a plethora of unavoidable problems coming. we don’t have to wish them upon ourselves.
books/audiobooks
once you learn to be mindful, more aware of yourself and your surroundings, audiobooks suddenly become easier to listen to.
a lot of people avoid audiobooks for a number of reasons, one being that listening to someone read to you can be difficult. another reason is that some people really enjoy the act of holding a paperback book in their hands, the smell, the ability to bookmark and take notes and all that jazz.
whatever your preference of medium is, introduce more books into your life.
i always recommend self-help books first. sometimes business and finance stuff. whatever your interests are, you can find something interesting to read or listen to.
don’t write off a good fiction book. sometimes becoming immersed in a good book is a nice escape from all the shit we can worry about irl.
hunkering down with a good book in a comfortable chair can be relaxing, especially if you decide to couple it with another relaxing activity. i’m not here to promote vices, but everyone can use their own imagination and fill in the blank. a good book and a… bottle of wine? a good book and a 3 gram blunt? a good book and half a double cheesy pizza?
whatever tickles your pickle, man.
longer walks/dog walks
how about taking the dog out for a longer than usual walk?
walking is like the passive meditation. you can definitely walk and worry, but you are usually more focused about your direction, your surroundings.
plus, if you’re prone to destructive behavior when left to your own devices, then getting out of the house and taking a few laps is probably a good way to keep yourself out of trouble.
obviously, there are tons of health benefits to getting outside with some fresh air, but the biggest one is that you’re still allowed to do it, even in a pandemic. just don’t forget about social distancing. don’t be an asshole.
as an added bonus, your dog gets to stretch his or her legs, catch a whiff of some freshly cut grass, chase a squirrel, and ask why you had to bring him on this god forsaken walk, it is 97 degrees in the shade. what are we thinking?
journaling
taking up writing can be therapeutic. even when you think you have nothing to write about, it’s good practice to reflect on what kind of day you had, what kind of actions and reactions made up your day.
writing can be an effective tool to combat depression and positively impact your mental health. it helps us become more aware, as well as self-aware, meaning our writing gives a chance to work through our difficult thoughts. instead of avoiding an issue or deflecting blame, journaling allows us to be honest with ourselves without judgment.
with that in mind, your journal is for you. not for your therapist or priest or partner. if you don’t feel like you can be honest through your writing, then the positive impact of journaling is practically void. now it’s just a fluff piece about your life.
create something
instead of consuming all the time, create something. everyone has an artistic itch they are dying to scratch, whether that be picking up a guitar or teaching yourself to cook. instead of mindlessly watching youtube videos or 90 day fiance like my ass has been stuck on the last month, finally record that video you’ve been wanting to make, sit down at your piano and finish that song, start working on that side business you’ve been thinking about the last year.
now is the time to make something tangible. do you remember how excited you were in 4th grade art class when your clay bowl didn’t fall apart on one side and you could finally show your mom she didn’t raise a complete failure? no? just me?
zoom happy hour
so i haven’t done it myself because i haven’t been THAT desperate for social interaction. that’s what work friends are for.
but i see a lot of people have been taking up this zoom happy hour crap so you can still interact with your friends and family during the pandemic. you basically all jump into a zoom meeting, bust out the cocktails and catch up with your girls.
i say girls because i imaging primarily women would think zoom happy hours are cute, but i see no issue with dudes all getting on a zoom call and calling it a cock party or something manly like that.
it’s not the same as actually hanging out. in fact, it seems like a vast disappointment when you compare your nights to how they USED to be, stuffing wings into your mouth at chulas, asking for your second tower of dos equis, regretting your financial choices and praying to god you don’t see anyone else you know in real life for the rest of the night.
and also where the fuck is my wallet.
look, a lot of hot garbage has been going on around us. first, we got this stupid pandemic that forced all of us to lock ourselves inside and away from others.
easter was cancelled. fuck y’all graduations, said the universe.
now that we’ve got all this pent up energy, everyone is angry and protesting.
AND to top it all off, we just started hurricane season, the earth’s period.
we need to know how to decompress in a healthy way. no self-destruction. no excessive drinking. get some fresh air every day. teach the kids to meditate.
remind yourself that this will eventually blow away, but we can’t contribute to making a situation worse.
it’s like the whole class is in trouble right now, and a couple of stupid bad kids keep ruining it for the rest of us.
and the longer they continue to disrupt the class, the longer we all gotta sit here at our desks with our heads down.
so let’s get it together. drop your egos. it hasn’t done us much good thus far.
all right so back in march i switched hosting and in the process, i didn’t switch some of the mx records which means that i haven’t properly received mail since march 2nd.
if you’ve emailed me since then, and i never responded, it’s because i fucked up.
if you emailed me before then and i still never responded, that’s just because i’m a real thoughtless jerk.
regardless, the issue has been resolved, so if you wanna shoot me an email, i’d be happy to read it and hopefully not ignore it.
ugh, i guess now i gotta do an episode on catholic guilt because now i just feel bad for no reason.
shoot me a message regardless. i know times are rrrruff right now, but we gon get through this together.
anyways, give peas a chance, they are the most slept on vegetable on the block.