I went for a walk early this morning and joyfully avoided all people. It was just as the sun was rising – I was awake earlier but I don’t like to walk in the dark. Correction: walking in the dark is fine, however it’s a better idea to wait for the sun to come up. I have planned my walks a couple of times now so that I’ll be walking with my back to the glorious sunrise (so the sun doesn’t get in my eyes). Twice now it’s been overcast in the morning so no gloriousness.

My habit in the morning in usual times to to listen to a podcast or two on my way to work – a nice accompaniment to my bus ride or walk. Lately I haven’t wanted to listen to podcasts: the news podcasts I usually listen to have been all about COVID-19, and the rest of my hoard is mostly true crime, which I’m just not in the mood for.

So I was listening to music on my walk this morning, and pondering COVID-19. Trying not to think about it in a big-picture way, which freaks me out a bit, but on a wholly personal level. I have the staying at home thing figured out, and have ideas for how to control things for the two days I will be spending at my workplace starting next week. But once I’m comfortable(ish) with that, what’s next? What to do with myself with extra time at home? No matter how long it might be (1 week? 2 months?) What if there’s no dance classes, which usually occupy a lot of my spare time and provides a solid social outlet, but also basically keeps my mental health in check? is there anything else that will keep me sane? What things make me feel happy and like i’m accomplishing something?… And/But will fit into current circumstances?

Lots of things.

I continued with my walk, making a pledge to think about this at a later time before drifting off to other subjects (e.g. keeping distance around a pair of construction workers on the way to a site and taking up the whole sidewalk.

So, here.

• Dance (still an option – doing lots of online workouts- yoga too.) Note: not really a creative outlet in this form, but an easy way to do some exercise. (“Easy”… I think I pulled all the muscles in my hips this morning…)
• Writing. Here we go.
• Preparing and consuming food for myself
• Colouring/Knitting/Crocheting – mostly not too much brain involved, mostly don in front of TV shows
• Drawing. OK “Drawing.” Whatever. Filling paper with markings.
• Texting friends/Phoning Mum. (In real life this reads having dinner/lupper/breakfast for lunch with friends, and visiting Mum and Dad.) More of this. One friend has suggested snail mail, which I haven’t done in a while.
• I keep looking at the scissors sitting on the desk beside me and I keep wanting to put “scissors”. But at one point I did lots of scissor crafts: sewing, collage-ing, trimming, ransom notes. Good fun.
• Keeping a journal, sometimes. Usually there’s nothing to share– I or say there’s nothing to share but I don’t have the time/energy to keep it. Proof that there’s never nothing to share: this week’s entries.
• Socks. I really like wearing socks. Preferably more than one pair at a time. Not a creative outlet, but I find I function better with warm feet.

I want to expand on a few of these. That will be later because I’m tired now.