— पांच हजार एक सौ सत्तानवे —
Well . . .
what a week. As of now I start officially back to work again, but working from home this week, and I also sent out an update email this morning setting some boundaries when it comes to still kind of taking it easy, working at my own pace, and avoiding taking on anything overwhelming and stressful. Which means I may still need help on some things this week.
Dad texted me this morning that he tested again yesterday and he's still negative. Ivan returned this morning from his last-ever shift at Foss, now with less than a week before he heads out on his next adventure Saturday morning—he's booked for the early morning Victoria Clipper on his way to a couple of weeks on Vancouver Island. I know his plan is to pack up all his stuff and ship whatever he's not taking with him back to his parents in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Ivan has remained unaffected as well, and as far as I know has had to test before every shift since Monday.
And don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that neither Dad nor Ivan caught covid. I'm just so jealous! Why couldn't I be one of the randos who literally lives in spaces filled with covid breath and
still doesn't get infected? Life isn't fair and then you get covid. Probably.
I asked Dad if Sherri was feeling better and he said she is, but gets tired easily. I'm kind of the same. I feel much better today than I even did yesterday—and yesterday was the best day yet—but am still being quite conscientious about not overextending myself.
— पांच हजार एक सौ सत्तानवे —
I did do more besides sleep and watch TV yesterday than I had since symptoms started . . . except, of course, for the bits of work I still logged in to do here and there between Wednesday and Friday. I realized I still had one virtual SIFF movie to watch from the 6-pack of tickets I had bought, one of which I already had to cut my losses on as it was the second of only two in-person tickets I got and it was scheduled for Monday evening and I thus had to skip. SIFF's official dates ended yesterday, which meant it was my last chance to watch this fifth and now final movie from this year's festival.
For some reason I kept getting an error in my desktop browser when trying to click the link, telling me it was not a secure connection. For a few minutes I was afraid I wouldn't be able to watch this one either, but then I finally got it to work on my iPad. Which was just as well, because I also did laundry yesterday, and this allowed me to bring the movie into the walk-in closet with me while I was putting clothes away. I then lay on the bed watching the rest of the movie, after I was about 20 minutes in.
I found it hard to understand but still enjoyed it. It was an "Afro-futurist" musical called
Neptune Frost, and it actually would have been great in a movie theater. I purchased the virtual ticket well before I got sick, because I could not make either of its theater showtimes work with my schedule. I did find the hybrid version of SIFF, where most titles have both in-person or virtual available as options, to be very convenient.
— पांच हजार एक सौ सत्तानवे —
— पांच हजार एक सौ सत्तानवे —
Gabriel called me when I was less than five minutes from the end of the movie. I should have ignored the call and just called him back five minutes later. Not a reflection on Gabriel at all; it's just that after 23 minutes on the phone, when I returned to the iPad, the browser automatically refreshed, which is a huge pain in the ass with SIFF virtual screeners. Any time that happens, even though the movie picks up where you left off, it still replays
all of the introductory videos, about sponshorships and a couple movie trailers, etc. It drives me fucking crazy.
The call with Gabriel was illuminating in an unprecedented way, though. Due to a terrible experience at a previous job, his approach to socialization of virtually any kind has been changed far more radically than I realized. Evidently his friends Andy, Mandy and I are the only ones who still experience him in even remotely the same way as before. He made it sound like he's effectively become a shut-in, a hermit, even without his continued very strict covid restrictions. They really just create a personal life that now suits him just fine, evidently. I never even thought to imagine him living his life this way, not just due to covid but by choice. I must say, out of all the close people in my life, Gabriel is the only one who consistently surprises by doing things I once could never imagine him doing. Nothing ever seems to be truly permanent with him. Just wait enough decades and his worldview might be turned 180° around!
Anyway, Gabriel also has established several years now of virtually no online or social media presence, and he was kind of tooting his own horn about how well he stays in touch with his friends via other methods, like old-school phone calls. And rightly so; he's not wrong about that. When I first answered the phone yesterday he was like, "This is your daily covid checkup!" He had only called the day before, and we hadn't communicated even via text since Monday evening, when I first informed him (via text) that Shobhit had covid. He did not find out until Saturday that I had officially gotten it too; I know that he still sometimes lurks on Facebook so for some reason I just assumed he would have read it there. But, I think maybe he didn't see it until he perhaps looked at my blog on Saturday night.
And here I was wondering by Saturday, like an idiot, why he hadn't called. He was all over keeping in touch with me when Mom died, but getting covid I guess wasn't as big a deal. (Okay to be fair, getting covid is
not as big a deal as my mom dying.) I was still kind of surprised that he hadn't called between Tuesday and Friday, after I shared the news of my testing positive on Tuesday. Except . . . I never did tell him directly. Duh. Also, he's better at calling than I am. There was no reason I couldn't have been the one to call or text him. Well, except for the fact that I
was pretty sick. Ha! I do have an excuse!
— पांच हजार एक सौ सत्तानवे —
I just had a lunch break and then a meeting, all of which took a lot out of me. I finally succumbed to Cathryn insisting on buying Shobhit and me lunch to have delivered, and so I chose Honeyhole Sandwiches and sent her both Shobhit's and my orders; expected delivery time was to be between 12:40 and 12:50. Then I got a text from Karen asking if I was up for FaceTime lunch today; she texted right after noon, and I had forgotten I had told her my Birth Week was pushed back and if I was up for it I could do it on Monday the 25th after all. When we got on FaceTime, though, I told her that I had a lunch delivery coming and that I had a Zoom meeting at 1:00. So, she said we could just chat for a little bit and then hang up, and that's essentially what we did, getting off after about half an hour.
Then the delivery arrived at 12:37. Instead of buzzing the delivery guy in, I put on my mask and went downstairs to the front door to get it, hurrying down the stairs in a way I really should not have done. I should have a) not hurried at all; and b) just taken the elevator, which I did coming back upstairs.
The sandwich was delicious. I barely got it finished by 1:00, at which point I had to be on a Zoom call that necessitated a level of cognitive engagement I found surprisingly taxing. I'm probably going to go to bed early tonight, if not lay down for a while even before that. I still need to swing by the library (masked!) to pick up a hold that will expire if I don't get it today, and also go by the office (masked!—but this will be after it's been emptied anyway) to swap out receiving paperwork. I dread how thick the stack I'll have to pick up will be, as I'm now a full week behind.
But besides that I'm taking it easy!
— पांच हजार एक सौ सत्तानवे —
[posted 1:41 pm]
