Sunday, June 05, 2022

COVID-19: You Don't Want What Everyone's Got | Pride Month | Election Day June 7!! | More Shootings | 100 Days Of Russian Invasion on Ukraine |

 

Two-Toed Sloth at Sea World San Diego (Taken 6.5.22)

Being sick totally sucks.

You think you can just lay in bed and catch up on work or reading, but your eyes are hot and glazed over and your brain processes nothing. You're hungry but you can't really properly cook for yourself without contaminating your whole house. You want to do the things that bring you joy and fresh air but it would be super careless to be out in public like that. 

So I'll tell you what I did do: I slept. A lot. For the first two days, I was in bed and pajamas were my uniform. Darren was off work, doing his best to nurse both me and Nova while not getting himself sick. He brought me caldo de res and tortillas from Super Cocina and from Pancho Villa. We COVID tested daily but it was quickly obvious this wasn't that, so we still distanced in the house as best we could, ventilated with doors and windows open, and used the air purifier and fans and air conditioners. We loaded ourselves up with vitamins and loads of fluids. And I'm partial to a certain cold medicine by Target's Up&Up that I took as label-instructed every four hours. By Thursday I was so much better and functioning but also overwhelmed trying to catch up on work and email and I'm not gonna lie, I cleared my head with some Zoo time, wearing a secure fitted mask the duration of my visit and avoiding people as best I could. By Friday I was even better and felt mostly caught up with work and went to Safari Park with Darren since he was only working a partial shift. I had my laptop with me for any emergencies, but again, kept my mask on and distanced from people and I think the hot, dry air definitely helped. 

By Saturday it was back to normal life. I'm still snotty and keeping Kleenex on hand, but not sneezing or coughing or wheezing like Monday and Tuesday. I had to take Nova to piano in the morning so I did a quick shopping trip downtown, we came home and she made us brunch, and we started watching the amazing Barack Obama produced Our Great National Parks on Netflix. While we were learning that over 80 invertebrates live in SLOTH FUR, my mom called in a panic because the medical aid had called in sick. That means my dad was still in bed and wouldn't be transferred, so we jumped into action and spent some time in Chula Vista, moving my dad and hanging out with my mom who, no doubt, goes stir crazy spending 24/7 caring for him and his every whim and ache and itch and need. After awhile we left, picking up some Jochi Filipino food on the way. We dropped the dog off at home and had a quick bite of lumpia and pansit, then went to Sea World. Our passes expire on June 7, and either I'm only renewing my own and letting Nova's and Darren's expire, or letting all three expire. I haven't quite decided. I love the animals enough to go frequently by myself, but with summer approaching, I'm not sure how much I want to go in the full thrust of tourism season in a world where everyone is acting like the pandemic is over when it is so far from being so.  

Which brings me to this moment, where I'm writing at 3am because I actually got through all my emails, updated all the stats for the week and just wanted to say while I'm not 100% -- I definitely have lingering sinus congestion -- you don't want to get sick. Whether it's what I had or the flu or COVID-19, the life disruption is intense. I'm masked up everywhere outside of my house and still got knocked down, probably catching from Nova at home, but any illness is disruptive. And even though I technically work from home, it still costs me money when I had to turn down some sweet paying gigs and crushes my soul when I miss shows that I would've loved to attend or shoot. Thankfully it wasn't COVID because isolating five full days + more days until symptoms resolve or testing negative would be excruciating. And the reality is that it IS excruciating, which is why employers are back to making employees work even when they're sick, which is why our cases are again through the roof, and why nobody is really talking about just how bad it is, because if we don't talk about it we can pretend it doesn't exist. The American Way. With COVID. With Guns. With White Supremacy. With destructive politics and economic systems that allowed 583 new billionaires to be made during the pandemic, leaving inflation and fraud and homelessness and out-of-control investors and unaffordable housing and unsustainable corporatism and "C"apitalism to destroy lives on top of the deaths of over 1 million Americans. Believe me, sitting alone in my room for hours on end with just my phone in my hand gave me way too much time to be mad about a lot of shit. But being that it's 3am, I'll just say, make sure you vote on or before Tuesday. It fucking matters.  

Happy Pride. Stay safe out there.   



Posted by Rosemary Bystrak at Sunday, June 05, 2022
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