March was the tale of two halves. The first half of March felt like regular life. I went to restaurants, went shopping, even attended a painting event. Life felt normal. I had no idea how abnormal life was about to get. Shit got real in the second half of March: self-quarantining, reading coronavirus news like it was my job, and staying at home as much as possible. More than I ever thought possible. Let’s review this month.
Painting Dutch
I’m so glad my mom and I were able to go to the pet portrait event at a local art studio earlier in March. I was so worried it was going to get canceled because this was around the time that things started feeling really serious with COVID-19. But we were a small group (8 people) and we all were spaced out around the room. I just love the painting of Dutch that I brought home. Someone at the art studio had sketched out his portrait, leaving penciled-in sections for his tan markings. It made it so easy to paint! We started with watercolors and then used acrylic paint to add a bit more dimension. I can’t wait to go back to make paintings of the girls!
Chip’s Second Birthday
My sweet fur-brother, Chip, turned two in March! I still remember when he was a teeny tiny puppy, so smol that his whole body fit in the palm of my mom’s hand. And now he is a crazy, fun monster who never sits still and keeps all of us on our toes. He still can rip through toys—even the ones designed for “power chewers”—in five minutes flat and we still have to keep our shoes away from him because he will destroy them. (Ask me how I know.) He loves to bite my hair to remove my hair band, chase balls, and bark loudly at other people. The only time he’s calm is when he’s chewing on a bully stick or sleeping in his crate. We’re hoping he starts to calm down a bit now that he’s two—my mom just wants him to snuggle with her!—but I’ll believe it when I see it. 😉
He’s the best, though, even if he is a “spirited child,” as I like to call him. The perfect little man and I can’t believe my mom has almost had him for two years now!
Voting
I was able to vote in my state’s primary in March, which happened the Tuesday before everything really started shutting down here in Florida. I always get a mail-in ballot, but I didn’t mail it in time (like always, sigh). The truth was, I wasn’t even sure who I was going to vote for until a few days beforehand. Obviously, I wanted to vote for Warren but she dropped out (and I had a feeling she was going to, which is why I held onto my ballot). So I went in person and it was all very sanitary (the only thing I touched was my ballot and a pen). I’m glad I got to vote, though, and I’m also feeling better and better about Biden who will be our nominee. At the beginning of this primary, I was vehemently against him but things have shifted and he’s feeling more and more presidential lately. But now we’ll see if all those people who said, “No matter who the nominee is, I’ll vote blue,” were really being truthful. It’s time to rally behind Biden and do whatever it takes to make him our next president.
A Weekend with Friends
I still feel guilty about going out with friends for this kayaking weekend, but it also felt like a “one last hurrah” before we all truly started to quarantine ourselves from the world. We spent two days at a small Airbnb about 80 miles south of Jacksonville and spent time playing games, kayaking, and just trying to enjoy the beautiful views and weather. It was nice to be around people, but I also struggled a lot during this weekend—with anxiety, with guilt, with homesickness. Hopefully, it was all just a symptom of being concerned about COVID-19.
A Global Pandemic
Of course, no March recap is complete without mentioning COVID-19. I started working from home full-time on March 16th and that’s when things started to feel really serious around here. That’s when toilet paper started being out of stock (I was really happy to pick up a big pack earlier in March!) and restaurants closed for dine-in patrons. Schools were on Spring Break in mid-March and now have transitioned to digital learning, at least for the next month. It’s such a weird time to be alive, you know? It’s so eerie to walk outside on a weekday afternoon and see my apartment complex’s parking lot completely full. It’s weird to have to wait for a grocery cart that’s been sanitized and to stand on taped lines while waiting in line to pay. It’s apocalyptic to see people wearing masks while simply grocery shopping and signs telling customers to only take one or two boxes of food. I’m glad I’m blogging through this time, though, because I want to be able to look back and remember what this was like.
Favorites of March
- Favorite book: Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
- Favorite romance: Shacking Up by Helena Hunting
- Favorite purchase: Toilet paper? 🙂
- Favorite podcast episode: A Very Special Self-Quarantine Episode featuring Andy Daly from Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend (<– a good, light-hearted, hilarious listening experience!)
- Favorite post: My Coronavirus Diaries series
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
March was a weird month. The first week was normal but then things started to change here. The first weekend of the month we had my co-workers 50th birthday party and then the next night my brother and SIL came over and we went out to dinner while their boys watched Paul. Little did we know that would be the end of socialization for us. :/ That first weekend feels like a lifetime ago now, though.
I’m hoping April is a bit better but have low expectations at the same time. The weather is just not consistently nice here yet. It was beautiful yesterday (70 and sunny) but now the highs are going to be in the 40s for the next week or so. Le sigh. I think I would feel a bit better if the weather was nicer and we could spend more time outdoors. Hopefully better weather is ahead.
Kim
LOL at that favorite purchase!
I think it’s really cool that place sketched the animals out for you! They look really good. I have seen some where the people try to draw their animals themselves and… we’re not all artists 😉
Aww, Chip is two! That is crazy! Seems like just yesterday your mom adopted him. I love love love your use of smol. We use that word a lot in our house (Starbuck basically walks around saying “I’m cooooot and smoool.” Ha)
It’s nuts how this post is two drastic tales! I am glad you got out for all of those things before it was time to shut in! I think we have to look back and give ourselves grace on the things we did before it was advised NOT to. Things are still changing every day. It’s so hard to keep up!
And I am glad you are blogging through it all too <3
Tara
You are NOT kidding about March feeling like two halves. I definitely experienced some of that, too.
Those paintings turned out so good! What a cool idea, too, to have someone sketch it out. Would definitely make the whole concept more accessible for people who want to paint but worry they aren’t good at the drawing part (like uh me lol).
Re: *waves hands* all this. While I’m not blogging specifically about it, I have been trying to at least do some journaling about it because, like you said, I think it’s something I’ll want to be able to look back on someday. It’s seriously so hard to believe how much things have changed…and while it’s still weird, for sure, it is feeling more…normal? Or as normal as it can, anyway. A weird time, indeed.
San
I definitely felt the same way about March… It was my birthday in the first half and we still went out to dinner and then BAM, we were told to work from home and the stay at home order went into effect. Surreal.
P.S. Here I am, batch-commenting again… I have read some of your recent blog posts in Feedly, but am now catching up on commenting . Forgive me.