Post 16 - March 27, 2020
Day 16…
We are now in our third week and life is different from what it once was.
The big differences are obvious but there are countless smaller differences as well.
I haven’t woken up to an alarm in two weeks. At first, I was sleeping a crazy amount of hours, but now I have naturally settled in to about 8 ½ a night.
While I have showered every day, I haven’t used any hair product in days. Who’s looking at me?
I haven’t put in any contact lenses. I need them for seeing detail at a distance. I’m not looking at anything at a distance. No shows. I’m not driving.
Our spending is now a fraction of what it once was.
We aren’t buying theatre tickets.
We aren’t eating out.
We aren’t going out for drinks.
We aren’t buying clothes.
We aren’t buying snacks or coffee or any one of a hundred things that you pick up over the course of a day.
I’m not traveling anywhere.
I’m not going to museums.
I’m not renting cars.
I’m not buying ridiculous things in other countries that we have no room for back in the apartment.
We are basically just buying food and cleaning supplies.
Yesterday, Michael scored some more hand sanitizer and wipes. It was a great day!
Things around the apartment that were broken are getting fixed. Slowly, but it’s happening.
All of those little pieces that sit around in dishes - for years - are now glued back to the things they fell or broke off of.
The stacks of papers and miscellaneous nonsense everywhere are getting worked through.
It started slowly, but now that I am seeing results, its going faster.
Stuff is getting tossed.
Or filed.
Or just put away.
I would love to be able to drop stuff off at HousingWorks but they are closed. In the meantime, after about 9 days of trying to sort out issues on eBay, I finally figured out a work-around and I have been able to start listing some things in the hope of getting rid of them.
I have a 4’ stack of books next to the bed to be read and I’m back to reading a bit each day.
Michael and I finished watching Season 4 of HOMELAND (fantastic) and are now working our way through the HILLARY documentary (fascinating) and then we are going to hit THE TIGER KING (because why not?)
Michael is baking sourdough bread.
(Catherine Burns - all your fault.)
It is really good.
It takes forever.
There are seven living things currently residing in our apartment:
Michael
Me
Ziggy the cat
a thirty-year-old rubber plant
an orchid in the middle of its glorious third blooming
a new pot of daffodils
and the yeast starter for the bread that Michael has named Booboo.
The bread-making creates the structure for the day. It requires constant attention in timed gaps.
It is REALLY good.
The neighbors are getting some of it.
We watch the news of the world unfold on TV until we can’t stand it anymore.
Mark Blum who Michael spent a year with on Broadway in 12 ANGRY MEN passed away yesterday.
The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tested positive for the virus yesterday.
The government in Washington continues to fail us.
Badly.
Flying in the face of what every single health-professional in the country is saying, Trump wants to reopen everything by Easter.
There are actually Republicans who are now calling upon the older generation to sacrifice themselves for the good of our economy. These sick fucks are the same people who wailed that Obamacare would lead to Death-Panels deciding who would live and who would die. Now they are going there themselves.
Fuck them.
The White House says that it DOESN’T BELIEVE New York needs as many ventilators as it does.
The misinformation and out right lies that are streaming out of the president’s mouth minute by minute are going to be our undoing if we let them.
There is NO leadership coming from Washington. Trump has completely abdicated his responsibility and is now actively contributing to our problems.
Fuck him.
We are on our own.
Fine.
In New York, we are extremely fortunate to have a clear-headed experienced leader in Andrew Cuomo in charge. His 11am briefings are how we start each and every day and we look forward to them.
It’s hard to hear what’s going on but facing up to the reality of it and hearing what the plans are to move forward is extremely comforting.
As someone who has been through cancer, I can tell you that what gets you through it is a PLAN. When everything is unknown, it’s scary. When you know what’s against you and then know what’s FOR you and you have a clear picture, you can move forward.
There’s a plan in place and things for you to do.
And you do them and get on with it.
Cuomo is honest - clear spoken - balanced - hopeful.
He’s blunt.
He seems to be telling it like it is.
He has a plan.
It’s not always easy to hear, but he paints a clear picture.
He will help us all get through this in the face of the criminal neglect coming from the federal government.
And we will get through this.
We will.
In New York we are three weeks away from the projected apex. The rest of the country is probably going to peak sometime after that.
We need to keep living our weird new lives - cleaning, sorting, reading, watching, eating and baking and loving.
Being at home doesn’t mean that we aren’t living life.
We are - it’s just being lived in a different way.
Here is an amazing video from a bunch of Nashville studio singers who are stuck at home.
Living their lives.
Making art.