This weekend I’m still having to work because I’m still about two weeks behind on a ton of deadlines. But if we weren’t quarantined I’d have wanted to DO something, like go to the city or I dunno. Something to break things up. Weekends aren’t weekends when every day is like the one before. The past few weeks I’ve been too busy with getting everything changed over to online on top of all my service obligations to feel like I was missing anything but it’s been a long time and I see a future with these weekends that aren’t really weekends in front of me.
I’ve been reading novels (mostly rereading Jayne Ann Krentz… comfort stuff) and eating very well (DH is stress-baking). I’ve also been getting a little thrill from any online shopping that needs doing– I have a better understanding of why my grandma was on every mail order subscription service known to daytime television commercials. Problem is, after I’ve taken care of our food needs by ordering groceries, and bought some fun stuff from places like nuts.com or coffee for DH from southernseason.com and random things for other people (birthday presents and care packages)… there’s not really much else I want right now. What’s the point in buying clothes when I only wear pajamas and will likely be a completely different size at the end of this? (I also told DH to buy some hot sauce from heatonist.)
I can’t really go for walks in the neighborhood because with everyone home and everyone going on walks, it’s been impossible to do a 6 foot distance AND also people TALK to me even when I’m just trying to get the mail. Apparently I’m not starved for conversation yet (turns out a day of zoom meetings leaves me just as drained as a day of in person meetings!). I could go to a much richer neighborhood where there’s more space and fewer people but I’m afraid of getting shot for not belonging (unlikely since I’m a middle-aged white female, but what if I cough?). We’re also under a city-wide emergencies only rule and the uni sent an email saying that police were stopping people in cars (I wonder how social distancing works there…) and asking for proof that the person is essential personnel or going to get food or take-out. I can probably avoid that again by being a middle-aged female with a nice but not luxury car, but still… and I can’t really take the family either. I dunno.
DH is getting more socializing than usual. People from his former lives scattered across the country have been remembering that he does a lot of gaming so they’ve been contacting him for online table-top games and video games. So that’s pretty cool. He’s also used to working from home, though the children interrupt both of us. I’ve had a few texts from people checking in, but not really long conversations from people I don’t normally keep in contact with, probably because most people from my past are also dealing with online classes and children. I know folks who regularly do things like book clubs are doing them virtually instead of in person, which is cool. (I don’t want to do a bookclub, but I think it’s awesome that people who enjoy it are able to keep it up.)
So other than reading books and watching youtube videos, which I always do anyway, even on weeknights… I’m out of ideas for things to look forward to. How have you been handling the need for fun or breaking up the routine?
What have you been doing to break up the days? What do your weekends look like? What have your quarantine buddies been doing?
Grumpy Rumblings (of the formerly untenured) 
April 1, 2020 at 8:30 am
Baking (a little too much), singing, playing instruments, lots of board games, yard work, lots of dog walks, tv watching with kids (Great British Baking Show) and spouse (Picard). And lots of reading!
April 1, 2020 at 8:32 am
I’ve been doing the same rough amount of exercise, but my caloric intake is substantially down bcs no lavish restaurant mealz & cut booze intake way down. So I’m losing fat & getten RIPPED (for a geezer).
April 1, 2020 at 9:00 am
I don’t have so much trouble with weekends not being like weekends, but my week used to be a lot more structured (MWF phototherapy in the a.m., Tues work from home, Thurs breakfast out, Thurs night Spanish class) and that’s all gone now. So I’ve started doing Thursday Fancy Breakfast with different kinds of veggie scrambles, bacon, and/or pancakes.
For fun we take our cats out to the yard, listen to podcasts or music, read, go for walks. I’ve never been handy but now I try to identify things that need doing around the house or yard and look online to see how I can do them. Like last week I soaked some rusty tools in vinegar, scrubbed the rust off with steel wool, dried and oiled them. Fun!
April 1, 2020 at 9:59 am
I’m working way less on weekends to give a break. Our neighborhood is low enough density that we are able to walk, which is also essential because we have dog and not really a yard that is useful for a dog exercising or doing his business. Other than working less on weekends, we are playing with our toddler and every day is basically like the previous. Like the movie Groundhog Day.
Mostly we try to break up each day a bit, with a couple walks and FaceTime with the kid and her grandparents. That has been kind of nice – in normal life, a 15 minute chat on a weekday is significant enough portion of the evening free time that it can be a burden. Now, it is just a welcome distraction.
April 1, 2020 at 10:53 am
I’m definitely cooking more — the kid is home, and we cook together, so that’s fun. I’m also reading SO MUCH, and writing more than usual. And we can still go out for walks here. Also, the weather had been nice, which lets us keep the French doors out to the little porch open. The dog and cats are enjoying that, and we enjoy watching them.
April 1, 2020 at 12:44 pm
The usual: reading, playing video games and board [tabletop] games, watching movies. Plus today I re-balanced my index funds in my IRA. I do get to go for walks. I don’t yet have cabin fever, but I’m pretty introverted.
Apparently more introverted than I thought, because a friend did happy hour via Zoom, and there were so many voices and we couldn’t break up into smaller conversational groups and it felt unpleasant almost like a bad work meeting. Weird, eh?
April 1, 2020 at 5:34 pm
Reading and child wrangling and making endless kinds of fancy jello (really- I have decorative molds and everything). Gardening. And! I paid like $4 a month for the nyt online crossword sub which has been great.
I hope to eventually have enough attention span/ health back to do some sewing. It’s been over two whole weeks since I got probably -covid and I’m finally starting to feel okay again.
April 1, 2020 at 7:38 pm
Still not exercising enough, partly because I have a cough and fear I am contagious and partly because of juggling too much stuff. My mom has been taking up the most time. She’s starting to need a lot more help and we haven’t figured out a routine that worKs yet.
I have been cooking a lot more elaborate stuff like making kombucha and using sourdough starter again. Have been baking too much. Also pretty proud to report that we haven’t had a lot of food waste despite the fuller fridge. Done a bunch of puzzles. We usually do them at my MILs house but don’t want to expose her so got our own going too now.
Never played scrabble before last week either, which I consider somewhat educational and quality family time. How did I not discover this sooner?
It’s still a little early to garden here. We had days it snowed, rained and hailed last week.
April 1, 2020 at 7:57 pm
I thought we cooked a good amount but now it’s an endlesa cycle of cooking, cleaning, and doing dishes (by hand and dishwasher).
I feel like eveyday is the same. Groundhog day for sure.
For fun. i watch TV, read blogs, and drink alcohol.
April 1, 2020 at 8:05 pm
Man, life with small kids at home is not conducive to doing much for fun. We’ve done many things that have been *satisfying* — cleaning out drawers, sorting through papers, etc. I am working less, since we have to switch off caring for the kids. Too early to say whether or not I am roughly the same amount of productive. Not having to teach synchronously in person saves a lot of time. I already filmed a lot of my lectures/reviews/etc because our students typically travel frequently for sports.
I have read 1.5 books so far. Both are holds from the library I’d been waiting for. We’ll see if a new hold pops up or if I can tackle a book off my to be read shelf. Pretty good since I think I only read one or two books in the first 2.5 months of the year.
We are finding family time to play outdoors and go for walks. I don’t love homeschooling, but it is fun to do some of the things with our kindergartner, like math games. She really loves math! I think you recommended the app Dragonbox math years ago, and I preemptively downloaded it. She has blown through that app and is now doing their big numbers and algebra (it’s algebra for the K-4 set). Our almost 3 year old started the basic Dragonbox math today and had some fun with it, though he needs a little help/supervision. I know you like Singapore math — is that where I should start for our K kid? She definitely is ready for more advanced math. We did her week 1 math packet in the first two days, and that was with her dawdling. It was a packet of longer/shorter/taller — super easy for her. She is ready for some complexity, but I’m not sure what the next step should be.
April 1, 2020 at 8:09 pm
The site where we get our Singapore math books from has a test to figure out where to start. Singapore math is a great place to start, especially since it parallels but isn’t a complete repeat of what will be learned in school.
April 2, 2020 at 9:25 am
To paraphrase a friend’s response to an email I sent asking how she was doing, “We’re as fortunate as can be.” We absolutely are (so far…). Not to say that current events aren’t scary and trying, but all the same.
We are 3 generations — 3 adults and 1 middle-schooler in a 2-unit (house, linked apartment) home in a neighborhood comprised mostly of similar (all single-family or single-family + apartment) homes on ~acre lots adjacent to a relatively little-used (even now) nature preserve with trails. I’m the only one of the adults in the paid workforce and am working remotely per employer policy for now; school for the middle schooler just restarted (virtually and not, as far as I can tell, very effectively) after an extended spring break.
The other adults are driving me a bit nuts, as they are bored, though my mom is doing yardwork and my DH, home repair. My mom takes my kid for a walk (along with her dog) every day, so that’s good. I walk dog, jog (4 days/week), ride horse (2 days/week). DH and DK play disc golf (we are within walking distance of a course) pretty much daily. DH golfs but that is reduced (not stopped) at present. We have a bball hoop at home, so DK beats me at 21 four or more times/day. He’s also playing a lot of video games, some online with friends (which I approve of, considering). We are under mandatory stay-at-home but all these activities seem to be acceptable (also, from a non-regulatory perspective, safe — golf is a bit questionable as DH may ride in a golf cart with another person, I’m not totally clear on that. Some courses are moving to require solitary cart use). We have started to work our way into and through Star Trek: The Next Generation.
April 2, 2020 at 1:21 pm
Oh — I’ll note that I’ve been swamped, swamped with emails from an animal group I volunteer with. I send email replies to prospective volunteers which is usually a trivial time commitment (they are largely templates) but there have been SO MANY PEOPLE signing up to foster dogs. Which is great, of course, but has been overwhelming (not just for me, either — I’m just the first step in a chain of volunteers). And whereas I had been doing a fair amount of reading for pleasure that has now gone to … 0. Any time I have for reading for fun has been reassigned to educating myself about coronavirus, and trying to make sure things like wills, lists of credit card passwords, and so on are up to date and in places where those who might need them can access them.
April 2, 2020 at 9:49 am
I’m lucky that my neighborhood streets work well for walks as long as we stay aware and cross the street (or walk in the middle) when we see other walkers coming. We occasionally have to stop at a corner to wait for an open space before continuing but that doesn’t happen that often. I miss rollerblading and walking on the beach but oh well. I fell like the daily walks are maybe the only thing I’m doing well right now in terms of relaxing.
I am watching more TV than usual. I started Deep Space Nine at the beginning and am watching those as distraction. Stephen Colbert makes me laugh so I watch bits of his show on YouTube. I have also found Trevor Noah’s interviews really useful, even if they are about coronavirus so not really “fun”.
We’ve set up web calls with my parents and some family friends and that is fun. I’ve baked one fun thing with each kid, but given the struggle to get flour and the fact that I need it for non-fun things (the bread my kids eat, the scones my daughter eats for lunch, etc) I haven’t been doing a lot of fun baking.
What I want to be doing to relax: reading more (I’m struggling to concentrate but when I can get in the zone I really enjoy escaping into my book), working on my crafts (crochet or embroidery), playing more games with the kids, writing more. I am taking tomorrow off of work and maybe I can get some alone time to figure out how to move myself into more healthy habits to make this hunkering down sustainable.
April 2, 2020 at 11:18 am
PiC definitely feels like we’re living GroundHog Day.
I “should” be working weekends to catch up but I’m so fed up with the amount of feeling like I’m never going to catch up that I resolved to not work every weekend. I have to draw the line SOMEWHERE. I had to back off on stress baking because eggs are limited now.
I wish I could be digging up our backyard and ripping out weed root systems, and be putting together a backyard we can actually use, especially as we’re cooped up at home.
January 11, 2021 at 1:06 am
[…] Here’s an ask the grumpies from this summer about things to look forward to in the summer (also has a list of stuff we’ve been buying online). Here’s a “what are you doing for fun?” […]