Day 2 - Isolation

It's Day 2 of my 14-day home quarantine. Although that may change soon but I'm thinking NEGATIVE NEGATIVE NEGATIVE swab results - my positive thought for the next few days. I'm thinking saying it thrice will be my good luck charm - not that I ever believed in luck. Pre-quarantine, I’ve been mourning  the death of a friend who died of Covid. Our last conversation in facebook was about sketches and drawings. I orgot his birthday because I was so busy and I felt guilty for that. I haven’t seen him for a long time. I was told he died by keeping himself isolated in his room because he was sick. He was protecting everyone around him. Even at death, he was selfless, as he had been most of his life. I felt lost when I heard of his demise and I grieve for him. He played a great role in my spirituality – I never had any pre-YE. I still have a questionable sense of religion but I do have a firm belief in God which makes all the difference -  to me anyway. He always told me that my relationship  will always be between me and my god so I don’t really care what others say. I have good memories though. The thing about memories is they tear you up or cheer you up depending on where you are in life. And right now, I just feel tired. But I know most of us in this pandemic feel the same, some much worse than others. But I do love him for all that he’s done for me. I lost a few good friends in the span of nine months, but this one though is … just … (weeps). I’ll remember him and I think that’s all we want in death.

On a lighter note, I spent the 1st day doing my 40 minute exercise (walking around the room with Leslie Sansone), got myself swabbed and returned home to help facilitate a General Assembly via zoom for a union that's got 1,902 members. At the end of the day, I had a splitting headache, an itchy throat, an aching back and cough that got me in trouble in the 1st place. I swore it was the ice cream, but you can never be sure about these things anymore. My barangay counts Day 1 as the day I was swabbed and not the day I was exposed to a Covid Positive. Despite the circumstances, I promised myself I will plow through, because really, I have no excuse not to. That, and watching Captain America again last night because all access to cable, netflix, hbo and amazon prime have been left in the our bedroom TV. Captain Rogers said, "I could do this all day" so now I have to for 14 days. I laugh ... on the inside.

So they placed me in the designated quarantine room in the house, the room where suitcases are left to die. Or in the spirit of my NEGATIVE NEGATIVE NEGATIVE thoughts, where suitcases take a vacation until they get used again when we are all allowed to travel in safety. I'd settle for a deserted beach or a quite mountain. so much. Finally had the time to look around my green quarantine room. It was painted green because it was Anang's old room whose favorite color is - guess? When it was painted, Weng and I called the color phlegm green but of course you can never convince her that it can even be that close.  The room, however, is surprisingly good for zoom meetings, instant green screen! I have yet to use that feature though.

So woke up today and decided to make the best of it. Moved the storage boxes (10 of them) and suitcases (6 of them, all with wheels) around so I can have more room to walk with Leslie (look her up in You Tube if you’re stuck in a quarantine room). I made space next to the window so I can look out at the fence dividing our lot and the neighbour’s, Anang's and Doray's plants and Bob’s fix-it shop. Discovered my nephew’s old guitar so maybe I can practice the two songs I know (hehe, that cracks me up). 

My sisters and I are hoarders. It’s not that we don’t want to throw things away. Our problem, which is probably true with the rest of the family, is that we get ideas. Ideas on how to make things better. We tinker with a good gadget and make it worse or in some rare cases, improve its functionality by making it look butt-ugly. And the things that we hoard are stuff that we’ve set aside for some future project. Found plenty of those in the green room. So maybe I can have a few ideas to play with in my 12 remaining quarantine days.

I did manage to bring my laptop, an extra monitor, all my external drives, my art supplies and work in the green room so I will be quite busy. And now that I started with Captain America, might as well watch all the Marvel movies in chronological order every night until the End Game. I’m writing this as I’m having breakfast, delivered at my door with a soft knock during mealtimes. I can request for coffee or anything I need through messenger but I’m not that demanding … not yet. I’m off to do some exercises and bath to keep the spirits up . Then I’ll be working to try to keep my sanity. That will not be so easy. Here’s to NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE, NEGATIVE results and positive thoughts . #quarantineblues